Re: The Dreaming Wind

There’s lots of charming, weird, and frightful inventiveness in “The Dreaming Wind,” by Jeffrey Ford. A small town is haunted by a wind that makes dreams real, in all their uncontrolled power. You get to watch how the people deal (or fail to deal) with it, but I didn’t find it as immediate or affecting […]

Re: Don’t Stop

So far the only short story (and therefore my favorite) I’ve read from the Nebula nominees is “Don’t Stop”, by James Patrick Kelly. Well, actually I’ve listened to the excellent reading and discussion of the story available at Free Reads. (The text is now available at Asimov’s.)

Embarking on another Nebula voyage

I see I won’t be lacking for stories to read. The Nebula ballot is out and it looks like a long list. Of the novels, I’ve read Brasyl, which felt long enough for at least two novels. I remember thinking that it seemed more like a Nebula novel than a Hugo novel. As for the […]

Re: The Last Light of the Sun

The Last Light of the Sun, by Guy Gavriel Kay returns to type. Various sympathetic characters’ lives weave together toward an unexpected climax. And there’s a battle at the end.

Re: Lord of Emperors

Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay is probably the fattest book I’ve ever read in one sitting. (It helped that I started reading early, about 9 pm.) I immediately warmed to the physician, Rustem. As he entered Sarantium, we re-entered the the story from the previous book. About halfway through, when realized what danger […]

Re: Sailing to Sarantium

Sailing to Sarantium, by Guy Gavriel Kay breaks the pattern of the previous books. It focuses on one character, Crispin, a skilled but flawed mosaic artist. He travels to Byzantium, I mean Sarantium, apparently in the same world as Al-Rassan, but centuries earlier, there’s no war at the end, and not a word about Fionavar.

Re: The Lions of Al Rassan

Perhaps because I wasn’t drawn strongly to any particular character in The Lions of al-Rassan, I found myself checking off tropes from previous Guy Gavriel Kay books. Leisurely beginning introducing us to the characters, check. Cast of extraordinary people, check. Historical setting (Spain when it was Al-Andalus, just before the Reconquista) with the serial numbers […]

Re: A Song for Arbonne

Set in a world based on the times of troubadour in Provence, A Song for Arbonne stars a group of extraordinary characters who do extraordinary things. As in Tigana, much of the story is driven by men who cannot give up their fixations. Also, Fionavar is mentioned, and there’s a big battle at the end. […]

He vants to trink your…tomato juice?

I think my fluffy white cat who is our evil overlord wants to pretend he’s a vampire. He’s got the teeth for it. He’s got the sneakiness. And evidently, he’s been reading those vampire novels where the up-to-date modern nosferatu avoids detection by making do with tomato juice.

Re: The Grand Cheat

“The Grand Cheat,” by Hilary Moon Murphy is a charming deal with the deva story, where not only do we find a loophole, the god is forced to enforce it. If there’s a contract, that’s even better. As the narrator observes in the first line: A contract is only two people, each doing his damnedest […]