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Cleric Quintet Collector's Edition (Forgotten Realms)

R. A. Salvatore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 62 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Painful 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The first book was intriguing if only acceptable and the second book proved to be a marginally acceptable follow-up. I'm now approaching the end of the third book and I find I can't wait for it to end. Usually characters become more developed and dimensional as the story progresses but the opposite is true here. The dialog gets more and more stilted and repetitive just as the situations the characters become involved in become more absurd.

A mentally challenged dwarf that wears a cooking pot for a helmet and dreams of becoming a druid is one of hour heroes? The dwarven druid angle would have been interesting but the only words ever uttered by the character ranges from "Oooo" to "hee hee hee". Literally, that is the characters only words. I am at the point where anytime the dwarves are mentioned that I mentally cringe at the inane dialog sure to follow between Ivan and his 'brudder' Pikel. Everything they're involved in is like a bad Jackie Chan movie. These two characters are certainly in the running for worst characters ever in a fantasy novel.

The main character, Cadderly, is a frustrating and simpering type who agonizes over every time he's forced to kill someone to defend his own life or the lives of others. At first I thought this would be an interesting exploration of the morality in killing even evil people to save others but it pretty much stops at the whining stage. Cadderly uses a yo-yo for his weapon - I think that pretty much covers what is wrong with the action scenes of this story. He fights off some of the most deadly armed assassins in the world with a yo-yo? Had someone told me this was part of the story I would have refused to believe it.

The romantic interest, Danica, starts off best of all for an interesting character but by book 3 works her way into being little more than a 'tank' for Cadderly in between professing her love. She is apparently unbeatable regardless of the odds and never even slowed down despite the rare wounding. Of course, any wounds are always healed fully by Cadderly (who has no idea how he does it) and never cause any complication.

The first book is decent but the following are numbingly bad. His books about Drizzt and the Drow were so good at exploring the morality of choices made with vibrant and realistic dialog that I have trouble believing these were written by Salvatore. Maybe a ghost writer was involved? This collection is a long way from his best efforts. I don't know if I can bear the thought of slogging through the final two books but I have a very long flight coming up so I may have nothing better to do ...

Editorial Review:

New York Times bestselling author R. A. Salvatores' Cleric Quintet novels, now in a trade paperback collector's edition

R.A. Salvatore's The Cleric Quintet Collector's Edition tells the tale of the scholar-priest Cadderly, who is plucked from the halls of the Edificant Library to fulfill a heroic quest across the land of Faerûn. This one-volume collection includes all five of the original novels, complete and unabridged, with a new introduction by the author.

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (Year's Best Science Fiction)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The twenty-eight stories in this collection imaginatively take us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now.  Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including:
* Cory Doctorow * Robert Charles Wilson * Michael Swanwick * Ian McDonald * Benjamin Rosenbaum * Kage Baker * Bruce McAllister * Alastair Reynolds * Jay Lake * Ruth Nestvold * Gregory Benford * Justin Stanchfield * Walter Jon Williams * Greg Van Eekhout * Robert Reed * David D. Levine * Paul J. McAuley * Mary Rosenblum * Daryl Gregory * Jack Skillingstead * Paolo Bacigalupi * Greg Egan * Elizabeth Bear * Sarah Monette * Ken MacLeod * Stephen Baxter * Carolyn Ives Gilman * John Barnes * A.M. Dellamonica
Supplementing the stories are the editor’s insightful summation of the year’s events and a list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.

WarCraft Archive (Warcraft)

Blizzard Entertainment, Richard A. Knaak

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the mist-shrouded haze of past, the world of Azeroth teemed with wonders of every kind. Magical races and ancient beasts strode alongside the tribes of man -- until the arrival of the demonic Burning Legion and its baneful lord, Sargeras. Now dragons, elves, orcs, and dwarves all vie for supremacy across their scarred, war-torn kingdoms -- all part of a grand, malevolent scheme to determine the fate of the world of...

WARCRAFT

DAY OF THE DRAGON: A terrifying upheaval among the highest ranks of the world's Wizards sends the maverick Mage, Rhonin, on a perilous journey into the Orc-controlled lands of Khaz Modan. What Rhonin uncovers is a vast, far-reaching conspiracy, darker than anything he ever imagined -- a threat that will force him into a dangerous alliance with ancient creatures of air and fire if the world of Azeroth is to see another dawn.

LORD OF THE CLANS: Slave and Gladiator. Shaman and Warchief. The enigmatic Orc known as Thrall has been all of these. Raised from infancy by cruel human masters who sought to mold him into their perfect pawn, Thrall was driven by both the savagery in his heart and the cunning of his upbringing to pursue a destiny he was only beginning to understand -- to break his bondage and rediscover the ancient traditions of his people. Now the tumultuous tale of his life's journey -- a saga of honor, hatred, and hope -- can at last be told.

THE LAST GUARDIAN: The Guardians of Tirisfal were a line of champions imbued with godlike powers, each one through the ages charged with fighting a lonely secret war against the Burning Legion. Medivh was fated from birth to become the greatest and most powerful of this noble order. But from the beginning a darkness tainted him, corrupting his soul and turning to evil the powers that should have fought for good. Medivh's struggle against the malice within him became one with the fate of Azeroth itself...and changed the world forever.

OF BLOOD AND HONOR: The paladin Tirion Fordring had always believed the Orcs were vile and corrupt, but an unexpected act of honor and compassion sets in motion a chain of events that will challenge his most fundamental beliefs and force him to decide, once and for all, who are the men...and who are the monsters.

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The definitive collection of the best in science fiction stories between 1929-1964.

This book contains twenty-six of the greatest science fiction stories ever written. They represent the considered verdict of the Science Fiction Writers of America, those who have shaped the genre and who know, more intimately than anyone else, what the criteria for excellence in the field should be. The authors chosen for The Science Fiction Hall Fame are the men and women who have shaped the body and heart of modern science fiction; their brilliantly imaginative creations continue to inspire and astound new generations of writers and fans.

Robert Heinlein in "The Roads Must Roll" describes an industrial civilization of the future caught up in the deadly flaws of its own complexity. "Country of the Kind," by Damon Knight, is a frightening portrayal of biological mutation. "Nightfall," by Isaac Asimov, one of the greatest stories in the science fiction field, is the story of a planet where the sun sets only once every millennium and is a chilling study in mass psychology.

Originally published in 1970 to honor those writers and their stories that had come before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, Volume One, was the book that introduced tens of thousands of young readers to the wonders of science fiction. Too long unavailable, this new edition will treasured by all science fiction fans everywhere.

The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame, Volume One, includes the following stories:

Introduction by Robert Silverberg
"A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum
"Twilight" by John W. Campbell
"Helen O'Loy" by Lester del Rey
"The Roads Must Roll" by Robert A. Heinlein
"Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon
"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov
"The Weapon Shop" by A. E. van Vogt
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett
"Huddling Place" by Clifford D. Simak
"Arena" by Frederic Brown
"First Contact" by Murray Leinster
"That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril
"Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith
"Mars is Heaven!" by Ray Bradbury
"The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth
"Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson
"Coming Attraction" by Fritz Leiber
"The Quest for Saint Aquin" by Anthony Boucher
"Surface Tension" by James Blish
"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
"It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby
"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin
"Fondly Fahrenheit" by Alfred Bester
"The Country of the Kind," Damon Knight
"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" by Roger Zelazny

Galactic North

Alastair Reynolds

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Future in Smaller Doses 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Galactic North (2006) is a collection of SF stories set in the Revelation Space universe. It contains eight stories and an Afterword by the author.

Great Wall of Mars is a Conjoiner story about Nevil Clavain and Galiana in the home nest. Glacial relates another Clavain and Galiana tale about a failed outsystem colony. A Spy in Europa recounts a Demarchist tale about an enemy agent who gives his all. Weather describes the rescue of a Conjoiner from a pirate ship and how she returns the favor.

Dilation Sleep tells of a refugee from Yellowstone who operates on a crewmember with the Melding Plague. Grafenwalder's Bestiary features a collector of rare beasts in the Yellowstone Rust Belt. Nightingale is about a mission to retrieve a Sky Edge war criminal from a lost hospital ship. Galactic North takes a ramliner captain on a millennia long pursuit of a pirate ship.

These stories convey various short subjects within the RS milieu. It covers all the several technological/political groups found within the novels, but develops their characteristics in greater detail. Since the novels are packed with strange technologies and politics, this collection makes a great introduction to the longer works. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Reynolds fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of lightspeed ships, exotic technology and outsystem colonies.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Editorial Review:

The first short story collection by “ONE OF SCIENCE FICTION’S BEST AND MOST AMBITIOUS NOVELISTS”(SFX).

With eight short stories and novellas, Galactic North imparts the centuriesspanning events that have produced this dark and turbulent world.

Centuries from now, solidarity stretches thin as humanity spreads past the solar system and to the nearest stars. Technology has produced powerful new tools, but lethal risk accompanies each new advancement.

Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1

Isaac Asimov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Heck yeah! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This is a GREAT collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov, one of the best science-fiction short-story writer ever. It contains over forty of his best works, including Nightfall and the Ugly Little Boy. The book itself is pretty big, with nice-sized font. Overall, a nice, sturdy copy of awesome short-stories. A must for an Isaac Asimov fan.

Old, but still very good 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 12 people found this review helpful.

The worst part: Some of the stories in this volume are old, and you can tell that without looking at the published date. There are a significant number of them about the "future" where large companies have an entire computer of their own, or use jargon that is outdated.

Saying that, they are unlikely to seem any older in another 50 years and only a few of the stories are harmed due to the oldness (and those that are can just be ignored -- there are a LOT of stories here).

On the very positive side, there are a lot of stories that could have been written yesterday and are VERY GOOD (5 out of 5) ... and probably 90% are at least GOOD (4-5 out of 5).

Editorial Review:

The first book of the definitive three-volume collection of short stories by the prolific Isaac Asimov, whose tales have delighted countless fans for over half a century--a must for every science fiction bookshelf.

Steampunk

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Not Free SF Reader 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Another interesting retrospective anthology from the VanderMeer marital team, from the same publisher in Tachyon, too. This one I think with a cooler and more appropriate cover.

The difference here is that neither of the editors are as heavily invested in the subject from a personal writing point of view as with The New Weird. So, there is a Team VanderMeer intro, but then they hand over the non-fictional reins to others more knowledgeable.

For early genre fiction of this ilk, if there is anyone more knowledgeable than Jess Nevins it would be surprising - and they certainly haven't written all the cool stuff on the internet that he has - go and check out his website, it is a marvel. So, pretty much anything he writes on this sort of topic will be worth looking at - and here he gives the early history of work that leads to 'Steampunk'. From before Verne and Wells, to the American explorer-scientist 'Edisonades' as he points out these have been termed, right up to the first 'story 'included here, Michael Moorcock's Oswald Bastable excerpt.

He does talk about the 'punk' element here, and even first and second wave steampunk, and who the first wave authors were - Blaylock, Jeter, etc. Nevins concentrates on prose.

Rick Klaw talks about Steampunk in popular culture in a wide variety of media, film, anime, etc.

Bill Baker gives an overview of Steampunk in graphic format - and there are lots, and gives a reasonable looking bibliography as such, including the awesome Warren Ellis and John Cassaday Planetary and Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen that are must reads, for those that like this sort of thing.

On the whole, reasonably well done, although a couple more lists from Nevins and Klaw wouldn't have gone astray, even though work is mentioned. Such things are good for asking librarians 'here, check these out on Interlibrary Loan for me would you please'?

There is a wide range of stories from the very fluffy-light Molly Brown story through madcap Blaylock, to the, to quote my spousal unit, who read this before me 'the really twisted' Joe Lansdale. The final story is a bit different, nanopunk if you like - from Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age setting. A nice score to get a story from him though, and it, too, is cool.

There are no bad stories here, although the footnote ending of Pollack's is weak, and Chabon's is annoying to read with all the em-dash line beginnings that make it like your eyes are trying to herd ants to follow it.

The publisher shouldn't be shy about making use of spare pages to advertise other anthologies they have done or possible books of interest to those of us that buy these things. I don't think many of us mind that, within reason, if you have the space.

Overall, I'd put it a bit under 4.5, but certainly good enough to round up to there.

Steampunk : Benediction: Warlord of the Air - Michael Moorcock
Steampunk : Lord Kelvins Machine - James Blaylock
Steampunk : The Giving Mouth - Ian MacLeod
Steampunk : A Sun in the Attic - Mary Gentle
Steampunk : The God-Clown Is Near - Jay Lake
Steampunk : The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down - Joe Lansdale
Steampunk : The Selene Gardening Society - Molly Brown
Steampunk : Seventy-Two Letters - Ted Chiang
Steampunk : The Martian Agent: An Interplanetary Romance - Michael Chabon
Steampunk : Victoria - Paul Di Filippo
Steampunk : Reflected Light - Rachel E. Pollack
Steampunk : Minutes of the Last Meeting - Stepan Chapman
Steampunk : Excerpt from the Third and Last Volume of the Tribes of the Pacific Coast - Neal Stephenson


Fleet going down.

3.5 out of 5


Magnetic field massacre mouse save snakes into mad scientist volcano shootout showdown.

4 out of 5


Eater machined.

3 out of 5


Archival barbarian reports.

3.5 out of 5


Really getting their goat.

4 out of 5


The Time Traveler vampire show is a rip of a ride.

4.5 out of 5


The Moon? What a load of rubbish.

3.5 out of 5


Foetal experiment orders named.

3.5 out of 5


Airship hopes.

3 out of 5


Newt but a Queen.

4 out of 5


Less handy rebels.

3 out of 5


Tsar Nukeallofus.

3.5 out of 5


Nano Protoctol crossbow source defense samurai chainsword rescue.

3.5 out of 5




4.5 out of 5

Editorial Review:

Replete with whimsical mechanical wonders and charmingly anachronistic settings, this pioneering anthology gathers a brilliant blend of fantastical stories. Steampunk originates in the romantic elegance of the Victorian era and blends in modern scientific advances—synthesizing imaginative technologies such as steam-driven robots, analog supercomputers, and ultramodern dirigibles. The elegant allure of this popular new genre is represented in this rich collection by distinctively talented authors, including Neal Stephenson, Michael Chabon, James Blaylock, Michael Moorcock, and Joe R. Lansdale.

The Illustrated Man

Ray Bradbury

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 208 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could bear the voiced murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.

The Illustrated Man

Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury --a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.

The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness ... the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere ... the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets.

Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could hear the voices murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.

Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

THE ILLUSTRATED MAN is classic Bradbury--a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body.

The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness...the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere...the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Ray Bradbury's THE ILLUSTRATEDMAN is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology

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Editorial Review:

 

 

Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology assembles original stories by some of the genre's foremost writers. Edited by Nick Gevers, this collection includes brand new stories by Stephen Baxter, Eric Brown, Paul Di Filippo, Hal Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Jay Lake, Ian R. MacLeod, Michael Moorcock, Robert Reed, Lucius Shepard, Brian Stableford, Jeff VanderMeer and more.

 

 

Tales By The Masters: War of the Worlds

H. G. Wells, Winifred Phillips

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 236 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A must read even if you hate "Sci-Fi" 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have been planning on reading this book for over 10 years. I remember watching the movie when I was little (and then the remake a few years ago). First of all, this was far better than either of the movies.

Written in first person from the account of a survivor of the attack (who is never named) and then recounting the tale of his brother, this is a very immediate and unsettling tale. What I did not expect was the time frame the book was written in. I assumed (for some idiotic reason) that it would take place in the twentieth century. Instead, for those of you who like myself, forgot the timeframe that Wells lived in, this book takes place in the nineteenth century. The Martian attack occurs prior to the weapons of warfare that we are so used to thinking about; there are no tanks, no planes with bombs. Hussars and artillery are their greatest defense. People couldn't hop in their cars and drive from the invaders; they were instead in horse drawn carriages, communicating the disaster via telegraph and daily papers. This put a whole new twist on the tale from what I was expecting.

Our narrator lives only a few miles from where the first "ship" lands and we follow the town's initial curiosity and complete lack of fear as they peek into the hole in the ground created by the wreak. Even after the first "heat rays" are fired and people are killed, there is still no sense of fear. When the action comes, it comes quickly. Separated from his wife and family our unnamed narrator survives mainly through luck and the fact that he never stops moving. The entire story takes place in less than a month, from initial landing to total devastation. There is a lot of science involved, discussing the physiology of the aliens, speculation on their planet, and how they evolved. For the casual reader it's not too bad and doesn't bog down the story. For the rabid science hound, please remember when this book was written before you blast the scientific inconstancies and flat out scientific errors.

I highly recommend reading this book, to just about anyone. It is a fast read, which manages to keep your attention from beginning to end. The political and social commentary though written for another time still holds value today. The religious implication is not jammed down your throat. This is a fun yet chilling read, which you will find yourself pondering over long after you have put the book away.

Editorial Review:

In The War of the Worlds (1898) H.G. Wells invented the myth of invasion from outer space. Martians land near London, conquering all before them and destroying the metropolis: the fate of civilization remains in doubt until the final pages. Disturbingly realistic and peopled with believable characters, the novel exemplifies the mixture of scientific scepticism and vivid imagination that made Wells the father of modern science fiction.

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