( M ) Books - Page 3

The Bell at Sealey Head

Patricia A. McKillip

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Bell at Sealy Head 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Sealey Head is no ordinary town. Every evening most of the townsfolk hear the tolling of a bell, no one knows why it rings or where it's at. It's been going on so long that many of the townspeople don't hear it anymore.

Aislinn House on the edge of town harbors a mystery. It's a place where two worlds coexist, with few privy to its secret. On one side lies the quiet manor with its aging servants and ailing mistress, while on the other a princess and her subjects must perform strange rites.

The links between two worlds are the princess, a maid and her mother who've been running into each other for years throughout the house. No one else in town knows their secret, but the arrival of a stranger in town sets off events that will change life in the house forever.

I've been a fan of Patricia McKillip's for years. This is a wonderful book bordering on high fantasy. Its charming fairy tale like character entertained me and held my interest to the very end. I highly recommend it.

Editorial Review:

Brand new from the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Solstice Wood.

Sealey Head is a small town on the edge of the ocean, a sleepy place where everyone hears the ringing of a bell no one can see. On the outskirts of town is an impressive estate, Aislinn House, where the aged Lady Eglantyne lies dying, and where the doors sometimes open not to its own dusty rooms, but to the wild majesty of a castle full of knights and princesses…

Cauldron

Jack McDevitt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Jack -- HOW COULD YOU? 1 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

As the finale of the "Engines of God" series, this book is the anti-climax to end all anti-climaxes. "The Engines of God" was just about perfect: excitingly paced, with a wonderful, complex mystery at its heart. Huge, brilliant ideas were presented in an extremely readable way. It was so good, I read the entire thing out loud to my spouse.

Warning: spoilers ahead... not that it really matters.

As the series continued in later books, we got a few side trips and red herrings, but the galaxy-spanning mystery was still magnificent and seemed to only grow deeper and richer the more we learned. When at last, Hutch offers her theory for the mystery's origin -- objects d'art from a hyper-advanced race -- I was blown away. I loved this idea and it had my imagination buzzing for weeks. THE SERIES SHOULD HAVE ENDED HERE.

But... then we got an utterly pointless rip-off of Rendezvous With Rama ("Chindi") and an equally pointless detour to visit the Moonriders, which went nowhere.

And now... Cauldron. What a turkey, and what a massively bungled way to end the series.

Where to even begin?
* The first two-thirds of the book are excruciatingly boring. Hutch is old, and space travel is on the ropes. Got it. Why wasn't this dealt with in a single chapter, instead of hundreds of pages?
* Despite all this time for character drawing, by the end of the book, I realized all of the non-Hutch characters shared roughly the same face in my mind's eye. The only thing that distinguishes one character from another is their name. Also, it's 500 years in the future and everybody is still named Jon and Rudy and so on?
* The serial mysteries that are described in the final third of the book are just silly. There's a race of cartoon creatures who act like Keystone Cops and live forever. There's an abandoned planet that has the remains of a civilization -- normally fertile ground for Mr. McDevitt's tales -- that turns out to be pointless and one of the characters dies there. Whatever. The "lighthouse" near a black hole is interesting, but takes up only a few pages. What's up with throwing a great idea away like that?
* The mystery of the omega clouds is revealed to be... drumroll please... THE MONSTER FROM STAR TREK V???? What???? Let me get this straight: this thing can breathe vacuum, it can generate hyper-advanced nanotech at will, it can instantly communicate with an alien species, it has lived for millions of years, but it can't pull itself out of a ditch? Why not? If it's simply the gravity of the galactic center holding it in place, why can the human ships navigate it so easily?
* Why does the animal have eyes? If it can build the clouds and a replica of a human ship in an instant, what use would it have with the visual spectrum?
* Why is it so stupid?
* It already had its hands on their ship -- what more did it need to copy their design?
* At first, they can only communicate with it through sign language, which sets up all sorts of interesting challenges, but then it speaks to them in English. Cop-out! And what's up with these alien races being able to speak perfect English, like the Moonriders? This is lazy!
* How is it possible the monster is unaware of other life forms in the galaxy? From this series alone, we've learned of about a dozen or so in a relatively small volume of space.
* Most important of all: what happened to the sense of awe and wonder? I got the sense that Mr. McDevitt just couldn't care less about this book, and that is devastating to me. Why put love into a pointless knock-off like "Chindi" and leave just a handful of pages here for resolving one of the great mysteries in the last few decades of speculative fiction?

Why? Why?

Editorial Review:

The year is 2255. The academy that trained the starfarers is long gone and veteran star pilot Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins spends her retirement supporting fund-raising efforts for The Prometheus Foundation, a privately funded organization devoted to deep space exploration.

But when a young physicist unveils an efficient star drive capable of reaching the core of the galaxy, Hutch finds herself back in the deepest reaches of space, and on the verge of discovering the origins of the deadly Omega clouds that continue to haunt her.

The Princess and the Goblin (Puffin Classics - the Essential Collection)

George Macdonald

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Few Pro's and Con's to the Puffin Classics Edition 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

The Princess and the Goblin is a truly delightful tale that is beautifully told by George MacDonald and deserves five stars. But, I will not attempt to review the story itself, for there are such wonderful descriptions and testimonies from other reviewers on this page concerning the content of MacDonald's work. However, I would like to describe the Puffin Classics edition in a little more detail. Please be aware that the Puffin's paperback cover is very soft and not as durable as other paperback covers. As well, the paper quality is rather grainy, which may not hold up well in the years to come. Thus, I have allotted this product four stars. On a positive note, I am pleased that the publishers kept the nostalgic illustrations by Arthur Hughes. Also, this copy has been edited well for typos and simple mistakes. With these particular points in mind, I would like to encourage the potential buyer to consider other editions of the text as well. Everyman's Childrens Library (The Princess and the Goblin (Everyman's Library Children's Classics Series)) has produced a hardback copy, which may be a better choice if the copy is to be given to a child. Also, for the MacDonald researcher or literary student, I would highly recommend the Johannesen edition(The Princess and the Goblin (George Macdonald Original Works)) since it is an authoritative edition. However, when it comes to the price, the Puffin Classics edition can not help but to be rather tempting. I hope these few notes have been helpful - Happy shopping.

Editorial Review:

A little princess is protected by her friend Curdie from the goblin miners who live beneath the castle.

Dragon's Fire (The Dragonriders of Pern)

Anne Mccaffrey, Todd J. Mccaffrey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bringing fresh wonders and dangers to light in the skies of Pern, Anne McCaffrey and her son, Todd, who demonstrated his writing talents in the bestselling novels Dragon’s Kin and Dragonsblood, return with their second collaboration: a thrilling adventure of discovery and fate.

Pellar is an orphan taken in by Masterharper Zist. Though born mute, Pellar is a gifted tracker, and when Zist sets off to take over as harper for Natalon’s coal-mining camp, Pellar–along with his fire-lizard, Chitter–joins him on a secret mission of his own: to find out if reported thefts of coal are the work of the Shunned, criminals condemned to a life of wandering and hardship.

Halla is one of the children of the Shunned. Though innocent of their parents’ crimes, these children have inherited their cruel punishment. Lack of food, shelter, and clothes is their lot; hope is unknown to them. And what future would they hope for? Without a hold to call their own, there will be no protection for them when the lethal Thread inevitably falls again. Life is even tougher for Halla. Her family gone, she must fend for herself. Yet despite the brutality of her surroundings, Halla is kind and gentle, devoted to those more helpless than she.

As depraved as Halla is good, Tenim is in league with Tarik, a crooked miner from Camp Natalon, who helps him steal coal in exchange for a cut of the profit. But Tenim soon realizes there is a lot more to be made from firestone, the volatile mineral that enables the dragons of Pern to burn Thread out of the sky. Tenim doesn’t care what he has to do, or whom he has to kill, in order to corner the market.

Cristov is Tarik’s son. Dishonored by his father’s greed and treachery, the boy must make amends somehow, even if it means risking his life by mining the volatile firestone, which detonates on contact with the slightest drop of moisture.

When the last remaining firestone mine explodes in flames, a desperate race begins to find a new deposit of the deadly but essential mineral, for without it there can be no defense against Thread. But Tenim has a murderous plan to turn tragedy to his own advantage, and only Pellar, Halla, and Cristov can stop him–and ensure that there will be a future for all on the world of the Dragonriders.


From the Hardcover edition.

Dragonsblood

Anne McCaffrey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 86 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Pern AL 50: the geneticist Wind Blossom is nearing the end of her long life and is painfully aware that the colonists are running out of the modern technology the settlers brought with them to Pern and that they are forgetting how to use what they do have. Society is beginning to revert to a feudal system and Wind Blossom is concerned that future generations may be hit by an illness they have no tools to fight and that mankind may subsequently be wiped off the face of Pern AL 507: Lorana is training to be an animal healer but when she arrives at Benden Weyr she impresses a golden dragon and becomes a dragonrider. However, a deadly and mysterious plague begins to wipe out the dragons, leaving mankind no defence against the deadly Thread which has just begun to fall. Lorana has two firelizards who manage to travel Back in time to Wind Blossom's era. Wind Blossom discovers what is wrong with the dragons and comes up with a cure. She also devises a way to leave clues for Lorana so that she can discover the cure in her time and save the dragons, and thus the future of mankind on Pern

Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing

Alan Moore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

the beginning of a horror masterwork 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

"No death, no doom, no anguish can arouse the surpassing dispair which flows from a loss of identity. Merging with nothingness is peaceful oblivion; but to be aware of existence and yet to know that one is no longer a definite being distinguished from other beings - that one no longer has a self - that is the nameless summit of agony and dread." - H.P. Lovecraft

The ability to communicate this concept, sudden and total loss of identity, is a high achivement. -That- is psychological horror, and Swamp Thing delivers with gusto. The elemental forces of horror, combined with the most efficent form of story-telling, all under the direction of masters of the craft. If you know how to read, read this.

Where the comics revolution REALLY began 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Many would say that the comic industry was redefined by works such as Watchmen and The Dark Knight returns, but for me (and there are countless people who would agree with me on this one) it all started with the first issue of Swamp Thing included in this collection. "The Anatomy Lesson" heralded a new narrative structure and a literary voice that still rings in the ears of most comic book fantatics to this day: Alan Moore. After clearing up some unfinished storylines before starting his revamp of the character Moore started to cut loose, and Saga of the Swamp Thing moved from an obscure horror comic book into legend. Not only is "The Anatomy Lesson" brilliant, but there are other stories in here that would rank as some of my favorites of all time. Though some people might claim that Moore was still trying out panel transitions and experimental narrative structures that did not always work, I disagree. They worked perfectly, and make reading the comic so much more enjoyable. If the narrative seems long-winded to some, well then, they can just go ahead and feast their eyes on the gorgeous art (courtesy of John Totleben and Steve Bissette). I also have to mention the very last issue in this collection as a counterpoint to the first, entitled "By Demons Driven." This story gives us a taste of things to come in future collections, and just when events just can't seem to get any darker the last panel of this issue proves us wrong. Even if you're not a comic fan, you should get this. See where it all really began. Buy it. Read it. Let the words penetrate the root systems of your mind. Smell the moss. Taste the fear...hold it in your hands. Saga of the Swamp Thing.

Mage-Guard of Hamor (Saga of Recluce)

L. E. Modesitt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The tale of Rahl matures.. excellent continuation of the story. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Another well-written and entertaining novel set in Modesitt's world of Recluce, this one picks up where Natural Ordermage leaves off, following Rahl as he continues to make a life for himself in Hamor. This book tracks along a very similar pattern to many of the other books in the series, both in content and in writing style. We once again have the privilege of following a young and inexperienced mage through trials and difficulties that force him to grow, learn, and reflect on his role in life. Once again, he becomes incredibly powerful and finds himself in a position to shape history. Modesitt's writing style is very distinct, being almost overly detailed and leaving much of the emotion to the reader's imagination. Very enjoyable and certainly having improved over the course of his writings, Modesitt's writing style is a major reason his books continue to be successful.

Parts of this book felt a bit repetitious to me, with Rahl and company fighting battle after battle with similar results, and the characters struggling with the same issues throughout most of the 600-something pages. One good aspect of the book is the expansion of the world Modesitt has created. We finally learn all about Hamor in this book and the previous, something that has been a long time in coming. The character of Rahl remains imperfect, generally acting rather melancholy, but growing in confidence and bearing during the course of the book. Taryl may be my favorite supporting character in the whole series. Both mysterious and undeniably likable, Taryl plays a big part in making this book enjoyable. I'm not sure if this wraps up the story of Rahl, but this book ended with a solid conclusion that doesn't demand a sequel. Modesitt did leave the option viable, however, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Very good addition to the series. Recommended. You can read these books as stand-alones, but to get the full enjoyment, start at the beginning with The Magic of Recluce (Recluce series, Book 1).

Editorial Review:

Acclaimed author L. E. Modesitt, Jr. continues his new Recluce story in Mage-Guard of Hamor, the second of two volumes set mostly on the continent of Hamor, far across the sea from Recluce, where the story began.  

Rahl was a young apprentice on the island of Recluce sent to the mages training school for testing, then banished to Hamor.  His education now continues under dangerous circumstances.  In Hamor, his powers have increased, but so has the amount of trouble he attracts. 

The whole society of Hamor is a new culture for Modesitt—and Rahl—to explore, one in which magic is a monopoly of the state.  Rahl is a mage now, powerful and still just as dangerous to himself and to others. This is the story of how he gains both more knowledge and power, and more self-control.

The Time Machine (The Everyman Library)

H. G. Wells

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 325 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Excellent!! 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

As I stated in my other reviews, I normally don't enjoy science fiction novels; this book I had to read for school. As I read what I expected to be a boring and unentertaining novel, my opinion changed, and I became more open to enjoying the story. I found that it was an enchanting novel that no one should pass up. H. G. Wells made the story come alive and he made the setting, set in the future, somewhere you feel could possibly exist as his descriptions are so vivid and his wording fanominal. Read this story and your beliefs on time travel and the way earth will turn out in the future will change. H.G. Wells gives you somthing to ponder while you enjoy the sentences that flow together like the river he describes. H.G. Wells makes an unknown world seem familiar and is an expert in his proffesion. I guaranty this book will send powerful astonishment and awe up and through your mind.

Editorial Review:

The Time Machine (1895) and The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896) brought H.G. Wells instant fame and established him as one of the pre-eminent founders of modern science fiction. Even at their most bleakly pessimistic and ironic, these stories testify to the resources of human courage and ingenuity. This edition offers authoritative texts of both novels, explanatory notes, an Introduction setting them in the context of Wells's life and thought, and the age in which they were written.

The Blue Sword

Robin McKinley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 232 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the best in YA fantasy 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This Newbery Honor Book chronicles the adventures of Harry, a young girl who has just moved to Damar following the demise of both of her parents. Unexpectedly, Harry loves the desert land, but she dislikes her position as a ward. Little does she know what lies in store when the Hillfolk King, Corlath, comes for her in the night, but it is more than she ever dreamed.

Just like The Hero and the Crown, I loved this book. I was a bit worried when starting it, as it didn't seem to be close to the same and I'd got my hopes up. As soon as Corlath kidnapped Harry, though, I was hooked. McKinley has a style of writing that makes her books feel like fairy tales, completely enchanting and absorbing. It's so easy to feel Harry's emotions and get caught up in her story, just like I could feel for Aerin in the last book. These are also great books for young girls. The heroines are empowering and can take control of their own destinies. Harry is no exception; when she knows that she has to do something, she doesn't bow to the men in her life, and she accepts her possible fate.

Again, I wish I'd discovered these when I was younger! They were even written at the right time for my age group. Oh well. I'm definitely on the lookout for more YA McKinley novels. I'll be recommending this one to everyone who is open to young adult fantasy.

Editorial Review:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sunshine and The Outlaws of Sherwood-now in trade paperback.

This is the story of Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl who became Harimad-sol, King's Rider, and heir to the Blue Sword, Gonturan, that no woman had wielded since the Lady Aerin herself bore it into battle.