Science Fiction Fantasy Books

The first book of this series is one of the best cyberpunk books i've ever read. This second in the series is not as good,but still a good read.

I was eager to get around to reading Broken Angels immediately after finishing Altered Carbon. While it's hard to top an original, Broken Angels comes very close to successfully doing that.

Our anti-hero Takeshi Kovacs is back once again. This time resleeved as a warrior for hire on Sanction IV to help their government in putting down one of the bloodier revolutions in planet history. However, this doesn't mean that Kovacs can't still be bought for the right price as indicated in Altered Carbon with Bancroft and again in Broken Angels.

In Broken Angels, Kovacs joins a mercenary platoon known as Carrera's Wedge in the fight against the rebellion vs the Sanction IV government. After a particularly disastorous campaign against the rebels (led by Commander Kemp), a newly resleeved Kovacs is approached by a rogue Kempist pilot (Schneider) and a corporate fat cat (Matthias Hand) about possibly going on a treasure hunt for one of the biggest finds in humanity's history. A find that could turn the tide of the war itself in a Martian spaceship. All Kovacs needs now is a team to help him get through a interplanetary gate.

In typical noir fashion, Kovacs goes with Schneider and Hand to a "soul graveyard" where you can literally buy handfuls of cortical stacks fresh after being harvested from dead flesh. Armed with a handful of cortical stacks, Kovacs interrogates and questions then in a virtual reality before determining which are worthy to be resleeved as part of his treasure hunting team.

If only it were as easy as going straight to the treasure and recovering it. Alas that is not the case as Kovacs is in a race against time to find the gate which is located in a newly nuked city. The odds are stacked against Kovacs and his team as they begin a race against radiation poisoning, rival companies with nanotechnology robots located at the gate site, and whatever surprises the Martian race has left on their inactive warship.

Another enjoyable read from Morgan. I can only hope Woken Furies is as good as the first two books!

-Travis

I can still remember the first time I saw Blade Runner. At the time, I didn't have a single clue that the movie derived from a novel. I'll admit I was a novice with Philip Dick's work, and it was only after I'd read the credits at the beginning of my seventh time seeing Blade Runner did I realize my error.

As it was, because I hadn't read the book first, I took Blade Runner at face value. Watching Harrison Ford fall for an android and witnessing the one thing he was sent to slay, save him, and thus redeeming and arguing (at least to me), the desire to be allowed to "exist."

So, when I came across Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan, I felt those same shivers of joy and a strong wave of nostalgia crash into me. For those not familiar with Altered Carbon, let me just say that this novel sank in its hook and hung me out to dry. Left dangling and unable to free myself from its clutches, I read Altered Carbon in a matter of hours--not days, hours.

Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs was a man I wanted to give my entire being, but for only one night. I couldn't quite trust him, and that made me want to watch everything he did...

Which kept me reading. It was Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex, Morgan style. Cyberpunk with a mystery twist--as a lover of both genres, this was heaven on earth.

The story was fast paced and action packed. This cyberpunk/mystery hybrid fed all of my favorite genres' mouths with one thick serving of superb writing, sharp dialogue (eat your heart out Robert B. Parker) and a mystery with so many freakin' turns, my neck hurt from the whiplash.

And it was with a happiness and glee that I purchased, Broken Angels, the second Takeshi Kovacs title. This time, Morgan had transplanted Kovacs to a war in another part of the solar system. Kovacs is in a different sleeve (body) and is still up to his usual ways.

Sort of.

Like its predecessor, Broken Angels contains sharp dialogue, action sequences to die for and a charismatic lead character with sex appeal to subtle and potent it's a weapon in and of itself. Kovacs remains a man to watch--closely. He's untrustworthy and switches sides as he seems fit and it solely looking out for number one (in most cases). He's got his own moral code to which he follows rigidly. The fact that he has a code at all endures him to this reader.

I love a good mystery, and Morgan sets up a very good one in Broken Angels. I kept reading, and hoping with devoted longings the story would make good on the superb Martian artifact and Kovac's wiliness.

Unfortunately, without the on-going mystery noir element of Altered Carbon, Broken Angels falls a bit flat.Though the very mention of Kovacs was hook enough for me, the complete shift from Kovacs the hired private investigator to Kovacs the hired soldier shouldn't have been too difficult a transition, Morgan somehow loses the thread of the tale right around the middle of the book.

Alas, when the novel finally arrives at its climax, I'm a bit let down. The story transitions from its cyberpunk roots to a true/blue alien science fiction story, one straight out of Star Trek.

Don't get me wrong. I love Star Trek and consider myself a Trekkie at heart.

However, I wasn't reading Broken Angels for this reason, but for the cyberpunk/mystery twist. As I mentioned earlier, the mystery is there, but not the private investigator angle.

The ending probably should've ended about 25 pages before it actually did, but the ending was strong. Morgan could've cut those 25 pages and retained the ending.

Despite these misgivings, I enjoyed the novel. I recommend it as a solid read. The strength of Kovac's character and the detailed futuristic vision of sleeving and the well crafted worlds are Morgan's strengths.

Those strengths are more than enough to overcome the weakness of the storyline.

In fact, I've already purchased the next Kovacs' novel.

Gideon's Fall: When You Dont Have a Prayer, Only a Miracle Will Do The second book in the Kovacs saga it is my favorite and arguably the best. The sleeve concept is explored to the fullest as well as the military bio tech. The story is lean and fast moving with tight dialogue and crisp story lines. Where Altered carbon left me wanting more and Woken furies tied up loose ends. Broken Angels seemed during the reading, limitless..... think of that

In the second Takeshi Kovacs novel, we have some cover military fun and games and mayhem, especially of the one man variety.

Add in some drugs that are really, really useful for infiltration, and some rather nasty class conflict to spice things up.

Another excellent book, even though a different setting.

Even though I enjoyed this book, I didn't think it was as good as the other books in this series. I think it's because I found Cinnia and Dillon to be very boring characters. Lara and the other characters (Jonah and his wife) were a lot more interesting. I'm looking forward to the next book. I think the books in the Hetar series are some of Ms. Small's best books.

The Sorceress of Belmair is the best book in the series for me. I enjoyed getting to know Lara, but this story touched a place in me the others did not. The relationship between Dillon and Cinnia really worked for me. They gradually got to know each other after being forced together, and came to love and respect each other. I loved the other characters popping in and out. In the guise of Fantasy, the plot was believeable and plausable. Nidhug and Cirillo's intertwined story was an added bonus.
I am not so much into the "sex" anymore as I am into the storyline and this book delivered (and for those into the sex...it's there too).
I give this book 5 stars and Bertrice Small **Kudos** for a phenomenal book!

I am a huge fan of Bertrice Small and the World of Hetar. The first 3 books of the series are well-written, and you don't want to put the book down until you finish the whole thing! However, I am really disappointed with the newest addition to the Hetar series. It's definitely not the best out of the 4.

Dillon and Cinnia's "love" was undeveloped and seemed unbelievable. An entire world was introduced without having much development. I couldn't have cared less about any of the characters or why the women were disappearing. The 2 things I found fascinating were the Yafir and the relationship between Nidhug and Cirillo.

I'm sure this book will be relevant to the next addition, but it didn't seem like much progressed. We find out a surprising bit of news that doesn't really faze the characters other than Lara. Things that would have made for great reading are swept neatly under the rug. And the ending just dropped off. I actually reread the last chapter twice just to make sure it was in fact the ending.

Being the offspring of two extremely powerful parents especially his mother Lara, the Domina of Hetar, Dillon is not surprisingly a very potent magic practitioner. He also understands his duty when the dragon of Belmair directs him to marry headstrong but beautiful mage Princess Cinnia; after that he is to rule Belmair.

Dillon and Cinnia prove much attuned to one another especially in the bedroom and even when they work royal dealings. Dillon uncovers a strange but powerful connection between Belmair and Hetar that concerns him, but not as much as the sudden serial disappearance of young women. The newlyweds diligently investigate in order to prevent any more vanishings, hopefully rescue the ladies, and stop the unknown culprit before further harm comes to the kingdom.

The latest World of Hetar tale (see THE DISTANT LORD, A DISTANT TOMORROW and LARA) is a fantastic romantic fantasy mystery as Bertrice Small shows her skills by effortlessly combining the genres. The amateur sleuth investigation into a world filled with magic strengthens the already robust passionate ties between the lead couple. Fans of the series will especially appreciate this excellent entry as murder, love, and magic mix perfectly together by master sorceress Ms. Small. Harriet Klausner

I've been a big fan of Bertrice Small since her first book and continue to be amazed at her wonderful stories! This one follows the Hetar series and I just loved it. Read it in a day because the story was compelling. She definitely is the best historical/fantasy/romance writer of our generation!
BRAVA!!!

I found that movie to be very good. My wife and I enjoyed it very much. lot of action and it keeps moving along for the length of the movie.

Don't get me wrong, this music is beautiful, Horneresque, but sadly its the same Horner we have heard many times rehashing his old stuff trying to give it a new sound. He really didnt even try on this one. I was hoping for something new and inspired but didn't get it. Loved the movie anyway though.

There's been nothing but trouble for the Grace children (Jared, Simon, and Mallory) since they found the book "Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You". More than one monster wants the Guide and Simon and Mallory are eager to destroy it, but Jared isn't so sure that's a good idea, so they go to their Great Aunt Lucinda to see what she can tell them about the Guide. Lucinda will tell them some of her secrets and they will discover even more as they try to solve the mystery of the Field Guide.

"Lucinda's Secret" is the third book (of five) in "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and picks up where the first two The Field Guide (The Spiderwick Chronicles) and The Seeing Stone (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 2) left off. Authors Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black have already filled the books with magical creatures such as goblins, griffins, trolls, and boggarts and add even more in this book - fairies, elves, ogres, a unicorn, and more. Not all of these characters are benevolent and there is a delicious underlying sense of danger throughout the book and series. Some of the best creatures in this book include the unicorn, the shape shifting and cryptic speaking Phooka, the fairies, and the elves. The three children continue to grow as characters throughout the series, especially Jared who is maturing as the adventures continue. The addition of Lucinda in the book adds much to the story as she can explain at least some of what is going on, although her character isn't in the book nearly enough.

Since "Lucinda's Secret" is the third book in the series, it sometimes feels a bit like filler with only a little plot development. Still, it is a charming book in a charming series.

In Lucinda's Secret the Grace kids get to meet their great-aunt Lucinda, who used to live at the Spiderwick estate, and they find out why she is an asylum. Its not hard to guess, but the fun just blasts off from there. This chapter of the Spiderwick Chronicles really ramps up the tension and introduces more fantastic creatures such as a phooka, elves, and little faeries whose food you should avoid. If you've come this far don't miss this third installment of the Spiderwick Chronicles!

Being a composer myself, I've always done my best to not be too hard when it comes to comparing a composer's scores. Simply because each composer has his own style and own kind of magic...and there is only so much of it. So there are times where two or maybe even more of their scores sound very similiar. Quite honestly, there is nothing wrong with scores sounding similiar with each other....however when a score is practically a copy of others..that's where problems show up.
The action music was no more than monotonous and repetitive and one of the themes in there was 'Casper's Lullaby' save for two notes which were simply flipped around.Yes, I sensed what Mr. Horner was trying to capture..but it lacked the originality. The uniqueness...

This book was a required read when I was in 6th grade, and I am now 25 years old. I began thinking about it after seeing War of the Worlds...the tripods sparked my memory and interest. I even remembered the title of the book, after all these years, which should tell you what kind of impact this tale had on me. I remembered that it had been part of a larger tale, a series, and began to look for the books. I haven't purchased the other books yet, but would recommend The White Mountains to any child or adult, and if this book is any indication, any other books of John Christopher's, as well.

I am not a person who normally likes science fiction, but really enjoyed this book. I thought that I would have a hard time finishing this book and instead I couldn't put it down and want to read the rest of the books in the series.

The White Mountains by John Christopher is a science fiction book and is the first in the Tripod series. This is a very good book filled with action and suspense. The story begins with a boy named Will, who is a year away from being Capped by the Tripods. The Tripods have been controlling Earth for about 100 years. People are Capped at age 14, at which time a device, called a "cap", is placed on their head. The cap allows the Tripods to control their thoughts and actions. For a brief time in each person's life, prior to Capping, they are free of the Tripods and can escape to a place called "the White Mountains."

There are many unique twists in this book and, as the plot develops, the reader is left with many questions. In the beginning, the setting of the story would appear to be medieval England but the reader soon learns it actually takes place 100 years in the future. The first twist occurs when the main character Will and his cousin Jack find the old ruins of a power plant. This gives the reader the first clue that something has destroyed a previously more advanced society and raises the first question about what has caused the destruction.

In the beginning of the story, Will freely accepts the fact that he will one day be Capped, just like everyone else in his society. However, he begins to question this tradition after his cousin Jack is Capped and is no longer the same. The Tripods are first first introduced in the book when Jack has his Capping ceremony. The Tripods appear to be tall, three-legged machines that stand about 30 feet high. The reader is once again faced with questions. Are the Tripods really robotic life-forms or vehicles for an alien race? Could they be the cause for the destruction? If so, why did they come to Earth instead of a planet like Mars? What is so special about Earth?

After Jack's Capping, a stranger comes into the village who Will first believes is a vagrant. A vagrant is somebody who has been unsuccessfully Capped and as a result wanders aimlessly with strange thoughts. Soon, Will realizes the stranger is quite normal and learns that he wears a fake cap. He tells Will of a time before the existence of Tripods and when men were free. The stranger describes to Will a place where the Tripods can't travel, called "the White Mountains." This causes him to question the custom of Capping even more.

Read The White Mountains to find out whether Will stays and accepts his fate, or runs away from the power of the Tripods to find refuge in the White Mountains. You will feel suspense and excitement as you find out what happens to Will and whether or not he can escape the Tripods. Cristian LA-7.

Mind-control alien master of the adult.


The White Mountains is a study of free will, as well as being the story of a young man who lives in an England dominated by aliens, where basic needs of all people is generally provided for.

The alien solution to this problem is a mind control implant, and the boy and his friend realise that all just might not be as it seems.

The implanting is done at a certain age, so the minds of children are their own.

Rather good, for a kids book.


4 out of 5

I do not think there are three juvenile novels that I enjoy nearly as much as these three. The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead and The Pool of Fire are absolutely perfect examples of Juvenile fiction. The books teach moral lessons as well as tell a rip roaring good tale.

Without giving to much plot away this tale is covers a not too distant future when Aliens who roam the Earth in giant Tripods rule the land. Every person who reaches puberty is capped and there mind is controlled or at least molded by the Tripods.

These three books follow a group of runaways and rebels who have never been capped and who desperately want to free Earth and its inhabitants. This band of rebels must find a way to defeat the Aliens without knowing who they are, what there weaknesses are or any worthwhile knowledge. On top of this the `rebels' have to defeat these space age aliens with technology at roughly 19th century levels.

This is the first book and it is the one with the greatest mystery and were you get connected to the characters. A great timeless piece of work.

These books are even more remarkable as they were written in the late 60's. I first read these books as a cartoon serial in `Boys Life' in the early 80's. I enjoyed the tale back then and still enjoy the stories now. I highly recommend all these books for kids and or there parents. Read and enjoy.

We have a Pokemon fan at our house but this story doesn't have enough substance to hold his attention for more than one reading.

Sorry, but I never received this item. My son was disappointed. However, after contacting Amazon and letting them know this I was very pleased that they reacted quickly and refunded my money within a few days.

This book is a very cute, fun book for young children ages 3-5, or for those who are just learning how to read.
It's a very cute and fun 32-page book with large text, a colorful illistration on each page to show you what's happening, and a easy-to-follow story.
Definitely recommended for children ages 3-5, those who are just learning how to read, or any Pokemon fan who wants a cute, short read!
Hope that helped!
~Ashley

It's not exactly great literature - but that's not the point. The point for me was to get my 7 year old son to be interested enough in a book that he might pick it up on his own and read it. And it worked! This book is great for any budding reader who is also a Pokemon fan. It is more substantial than a real little kid's picture book, yet not too dense to be intimidating or tiresome. Each page has a cool pokemon picture and roughly 2-4 sentences per page. For my son - a book has to be "cool" enough to interest him to read it on his own, and this fit the bill.

It is an O.K. story told from the prospective of 3 different characters:

1. Ana Khouri (a paid assasain)

2. Triumvir Ilia Volyova is a crewmember Triumvir Ilia Volyova of the space ship "Nostalgia for Infinity".

3. Dan Sylveste (an archeologist studying a dead alien culture)

This book reminds me of a short story by David Brin in " River of Time" where Humans are "Late in the GAme" in the Universe and a war between machines took place eons ago.

It is an interesting story, but I found it hard to keep track of the different terms like "Trumivir" or "Ultra". Also the female characters are not really believable and often the dialogue between the characters didn't seem to be real ("Nobody would talk like that in real life!").
I believe this is a beginning of a series. I don't know if I want to invest the time to read the other books in this series.
I would say that if you can't find anything else to read, you could do worse than this book, and it is very entertaining.
This book reminds me of a short story by David Brin in " River of Time".

As many reviews here have noted, the pacing and flow of the novel are ragged. The plot alternately stalls and lurches forward, often aided quite literally by deus ex machina elements. The use of many short scenes is a conjurer's trick aimed at convincing the reader that more is happening than really is. And introducing the bulk of the mystery early on and then waiting for all the characters to slowly uncover that same data over hundreds of pages fails to build suspense. Reynolds has repeated sections where characters restate information we already know, as if to remind us that "don't forget, there's something important just around the bend." Or perhaps he was afraid the reader would be lost in the juggling plotline. The novel is longer than it needs to be and the ending falls very flat after slogging through nearly 600 pages of promises that something big is going to be revealed.

The characters are one of the major failings of the novel. If the novel was meant to be about the journey, the character interactions needed to be much more varied and interesting than repeated hostile showdowns. After spending so much time with these characters, we should also know much more about why they are so driven and obsessive. "Aliens warped their minds," "he's just a jerk," and "he/she/it is crazy" begin to wear a bit thin. I had no idea where the rare emotions that anyone displays for anyone else came from. A few ambiguous, amoral characters who struggle to communicate or empathize with others might have worked--populating the novel with them is severe overkill. Who are we supposed to root for? The abstract idea of humanity as a species? I did not care if a single one of these characters survived. And the revelation they uncover was not worth forcing myself to pretend to care as they plowed forward.

By far the most interesting aspects of the novel, and the only reason I wavered between two and three stars, are the intriguing setting and the technologies that Reynolds imagines. An epic novel based on presenting these aspects in greater detail or greater scope would have been more satisfying. But we view these elements only through the claustrophobic perspective of a small collection of unlikeable or simply inscrutable characters.

When I decided to start reading science fiction this is what I started with. What a shock. You need to be able to keep track of several story lines happening in several different decades. After adjusting to this I found myself quite engaged in the story and very drawn into this universe.

However, I didn't feel like the universe's background had been adequately introduced. This left me confused since there is so much new jargon and references popping up everywhere. I have since finished the trilogy and the stand alone "Chasm City". It was the latter that really helped explain some things and I might recommend reading it first.

I like science fiction, but that isn't to say I like all subgenres of science fiction equally. I'm lukewarm about cyberpunk and generally averse to alternate history stories. On the other hand, I have a general fondness for hard science fiction (especially in the classic vein of Asimov and Clarke), but my favorite subgenre of science fiction must be space opera (of course, there are overlaps between these categories).

What is space opera? Generally, a science fiction story that deals with conflict beyond the Earth (on far-off planets or in deep space), with an emphasis on action and adventure over ideas (which is where it tends to differ from hard science fiction). The actual science of space opera may be quite speculative. 2001 may be hard sci-fi, but Star Wars is space opera. According to the back-of-the-book description, so is Alastair Reynold's first novel, Revelation Space.

Revelation Space takes place around 550 years from the present day, in a time when humanity has spread far beyond Earth, and in the process has expanded far beyond what would be considered human. Light speed remains an absolute speed limit, but it can be approached very closely; it takes relativistic effects and suspended animation to allow people to travel between the stars in a somewhat timely (to the traveler) manner. For this reason, the three separate plot lines in the novel begin at times separated by years or decades, but they will eventually converge to a single timeframe.

In the central plot, Dan Sylveste is on the backwater planet Resurgam, doing archaeological work to unearth truths about an extinct alien culture called the Amarantin. What killed them off is unclear, but Sylveste is determined to get answers; even a coup that throws him into prison will not deter him. Meanwhile, the crew of the huge spaceship Nostalgia for Infinity needs Dan (as well as the stored memories of Dan's father Calvin) to restore their captain, who is dying of an exotic cybernetic virus. And elsewhere (and elsewhen), assassin Ana Khouri is recruited by a mysterious woman to kill Sylveste. To do this, she will eventually join the Nostalgia for Infinity on a trip to Resurgam.

On a technical level, Revelation Space is fine, but it also has something of a cool feeling to it that keeps the reader at a bit of a distance. I found it to be an interesting and generally entertaining book, but it wasn't a real page turner. Others, however, may find this a more involving book; if you're up for a mini-science fiction epic, it may be worth a shot.

Don't be put off by the label of "hard" science fiction. This book contains some hard science backdrop, to be sure, but by and large it is a sprawling novel with some interesting, and interestingly flawed, characters. Those readers who generally prefer fantasy-type science fiction or military-oriented sci-fi will probably not like this book so well. It is not action-packed. Neither the climax nor the denouement is completely satisfying, but this book reminds me of Cavafi's poem Ithaka: this is about the journey, not about arriving at a destination. If the journey is rich enough, you will not feel cheated at the final destination. This book, its storyline, and its characters definitely make the journey rich.

My two now grown daughters remember this book being at their Grandmother's. My Mother passed away last Fall and we couldn't find the book. When I saw it on amazon I hoped it would not be disappointing. I ordered three so we could all have one. We are all very pleased. It brings back some good memories.

This is a great book. I had a beat up old paperback copy and I wanted a new hardcover! I have it on my coffee table.

What a delightful fantasy book! The pictures are enchanting. The text is very imaginative. The artist has perfectly captured the author's thoughts in delightful pictures. This is a pictute book for adults than is funny, imangative, and very pleasurable to read. I highly recomend it. I gave it as a gift, but not before I read it.

My sister and I were given this book when we were kids in the '70s, so I recently bought it for my four-year-old. The book is written as if gnomes actually exist. The illustrations (watercolors? not sure) are absolutely beautiful. It made me seriously doubt gnomes' non-existence. And my son got the same giggle I did thirty thirty years ago when he discovered the "gnomes going potty" page. And the "mating cycle of gnomes" page ("They're nakeds!!!," he said.) Yup, they are.

I loved this book as a kid and it's still beautifully illustrated. I got it for my children but they're a bit young for it. They are 5 and 3 years. The Trolls are a bit scary looking. I think it's great for 7 and up.

I LOVE everything I've read by Hamilton so far (Which includes all available Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry novels) and I love this one too! Granted, I may be a bit biased... but if you're into dark fantasy, Vampires, Erotica, Sci-Fi, Romance, Horror, faries, or any combination... these are WONDERFUL books! Laurell is a very good writer with wonderful attention to detail! This is book #4, I would STRONGLY suggest beginning with book #1 of course, but in my opinion any of Laurell K Hamiltons' works are a real treat!

A Stroke of Midnight is the fourth in Laurell K Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. They are best read in order, so I recommend you go back and start with A Kiss of Shadows (Meredith Gentry Novels). The series is a fun ride, so you might as well start from the beginning.

Merry Gentry is a princess of Faerie, where the Faerie are an ancient magical race that had powers which caused humans to think of them as gods. The Faerie are faded from their ancient glory and live among us, with unearthly beauty and superhuman powers bound by their treaty with our government. This fourth installment takes place over the course of a few days before the Yule holiday, when Merry returns from Los Angeles to her Faerie home.

Although Merry herself is mortal (dubious heritage on her mother's side), mysteriously she is belatedly awakening into a power that has not been seen for centuries in Faerie. Her power is manifested through sex - she is able to catalyze power in others and in her surroundings during lovemaking. This makes for erotic reading as Merry's primary mission, set by her Queen, is to have as much sex as possible with as many eligible Faeries in order to get pregnant. Pregnancy will secure Merry's place in the succession.

What makes this not pornography is that there actually is a plot and character development. The reader ends up caring about Merry and the future of the Faerie people. Even the internal Faerie politics, normally a snoozer for me, was well done and kept my interest. However, this is not a book for people who only want to read about sex inside committed relationships.

Meredith's Sidhe bodyguards, of all types and flavors are keen to have
sex with her as much as possible, as if any of them win the faerie bun
in the oven lottery, prestige awaits.

Also, it appears that doing so, brings back long unused and dormant
powers from the time when the Sidhe were top dog, not the humans.

Apart from this, they have to solve the murder, in public, at a press conference, of two people, and the Sidhe are involved.

The Meredith Gentry series makes me wish I were not such a nice person. I don't want to keep reading these books. Truthfully, they keep disappointing me. But I am a person who finishes what she starts, and four books into a series I won't give up. I just won't.

That being said, A Stroke of Midnight is by far the second best Meredith Gentry novel after the first. The last two books were more a "Faerie Court Politics for Dummies" course rather than actual novels. I get so sick of reading about how the fey will never lie. Really? I've only had it beat into my head 1,000 times, I almost forgot. Also, you should always compliment a sidhe who is trying to look nice. And when they look for comfort they touch one another. I get it! Can we get on with the story now please?

A Stroke of Midnight almost went on with the story. I'll say... about 50 pages out of the entire 366, which is a lot considering the drivel contained in the last two stories. At least this book gave me a little info about why faerie started fading, what the sithen means to the future queen, and FINALLY a taste of what Queen Andais is all about. I'm still not satisfied. I still think I'm being strung along so that I will continue to shell out $8-$20 (depending on whether I spring for the hardback) for a series that has no clue where it's going and just expects me to go along for the ride. I have to be honest, though. This ride is a little boring and I might try to get off at the next station.

Princess Meredith, the private detective and not-so-private Princess of Faerie, is back in this 4th installment in the Merry Gentry series.

The race for the throne is underway, and Merry gets busy fulfilling her royal duties of trying to get pregent by one or more of her royal guards (all of the previously celtic dieties in centures and millenia past, when the primal forces of magic were much stronger in the world) ... and in the process, the Goddess (and the presence of magic along with her) begins to show more signs of returning, and restoring vitality to the faerie realm ... a vitality that has withered over the millennia under the cruel sadism of the Queen of Air and Darkness.

Prince Cel is still in prison, but his followers (and other elements opposed to having a half-breed like Meredith take the throne) have not been idle ... there has been foul murder done within the halls of the sidhe, and further murders are attempted - and neither Princess Merry nor her Elite Guards (even as they begin to reclaim some of their old strength from ages long past) are safe.

The author tells her tale with her usual mix of steamy magically-enhanced sex, mythological fantasy, court intrigue, and forensics. It's a highly enjoyable romp.

My only memorable nit is the authoress' tendency to write, at times, in extremely short and fragmentary chapters ... such as breaking up a single continuous scene into 5 chapters, of only 3-5 pages each. There's no apparent rhyme or reason to her chapter divisions, and her plot advancement is slow.

Reading this as I am hot on the heels of George R. R. Martin's excessively long-winded and overly complex "A Song of Ice and Fire", encountering back-to-back chapters of only 3-5 pages each, and all of them a seemingly unbroken continutation of the parahraphs immediately before ... it caused an involuntary nervous twitch, and I had to repress the urge to laugh hysterically.

This is the second in the "Multiverse" series by Dave Weber and Linda Evans and follows on from the excellent "Hell's Gate."

Tells the story of contact and increasingly of conflict between two civilisations, both spanning multiple universes.

Between one and two centuries before the events of these novels, portals start to open between different versions of the planet earth - apparently between parallel timelines. Most of the different universes are not inhabited by intelligent life, but two have human civilisations. Both start to explore the new worlds to which their homeworlds are suddenly connected. At first neither finds any sign of intelligent life.

Then on a world new to both civilsations, a lone scout from a military survey party of the Union of Arcana encounters a single member of an armed civilian survey party from the world called Sharona. Nobody, including the reader, would ever know for certain who shot first, because one was killed and the other mortally wounded. At first each side believes it has been attacked.

Both civilisations now spread over hundreds of worlds, and their cultures have more in common than either realises, but their technology is utterly different. Sharona's is broadly similar to our science, and their engineering and construction abilities are in most respects about where our Earth was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including railways, machine guns and heavy artillery. They don't have radio but do not need it because their scientists have discovered how to train people to use certain psionic talents such as telepathy.

Arcana, by contrast, has very little of what we would call engineering - the most advanced weapon they which does not use psi-abilities/magic is the crossbow - but they have formidable weapons of a completely different type. Firstly they have trained creatures from their world, such as flying, fire-breathing dragons, which are just legends in ours: and their magical/psionic talents, while operating on different principles, are far more powerful than those of the Sharonians, and include the ability to store energy and information in crystals so as to be able to use them like a handgun or a laptop computer.

So when these two utterly different civilisations find themselves at war, each is able to inflict surprise after surprise on the other.

At the start of this book the two civilisations have made a temporary truce after a series of clashes of arms. Negotiations are under way, which the decent people who are a majority of both sides want to succeed. Unfortunately both sides have their share of wicked individuals. On the Arcanan side, a country called Mythal is ruled by a hereditary caste of magic users called the shakira caste, who resent the fact that the Union of Arcana constitution gives the other castes some rights and restrains the power of the shakira.

An evil conspiracy of these shakira has some of its people in key positions among the the Union of Arcana army units and diplomats who are dealing with the Sharonians. These individuals decide that provoking a war with the Sharonians is the best way to trigger the conditions which will let them launch a bid for total power in Arcana ...

Soon both sides will have more victims to mourn and more stories of atrocities, mostly true on the Sharonian side, mostly black propaganda on the Arcanan, will lead to a downward spiral of ever-greater anger between these to nations and an increasingly nasty war.

Before I read these books I thought they might be just another rehash of John Barnes' "Timeline wars" stories of the battles against the Closers (e.g. Patton's Spaceship etc). Having now read the first two "Multiverse" books I think that does Weber and Evans an injustice. If you do like Barnes' "Timeline wars" books you will probably love this series but it's not just a rehash of the same idea, there are a lot of very original aspects to the clash of civilisations in these books.

I can strongly recommend both "Hell's Gate" and "Hell Hath No Fury."

Leaves you hanging like a "B" movie serial. Sad, a waste of time and money

As he did in the final 2-3 books of the Honor Harrington series, Weber gets so wrapped up in geopolitical maneuvering that the book bogs down in places. The characters that I became interested in in the first book are absent or minimalized and little actually happens for all of the battle scenes that appear. I found Off Armageddon Reef a much better read, and I'm hoping that its sequel does not fall into this same pattern of talk, talk, talk with the subsequent loss of interest in the characters and a paralyzed plot.

Picked up these books on a whim - I've been a David Weber reader for close to two decades not including an old game system that he and Steve White wrote. What I found was a bit disappointing.

First, I didn't really appreciate the cliffhanger endings - yes they're formula, but this seems to be more the influence of Linda than David. Not exactly a glowing display of writing style although I'm not really talking about that they wish to leave plot elements unfulfilled. My issue is, it just seems incredibly obvious where (for example) the end of the second book is going.

Such as - the marriage - it's obvious that we'll be introduced to some facet of Uromathian/Ternathian custom/law with emphasis on some portion of the Unification documents that defeats the intent of the Uromathian Emperor (although it's probably as simple as - the girl rules, the guy is merely a consort/present)

Second, it also seems rather obvious that the enventual end of the series will be some sort of stalemate. The why's are already advertised - blatant and re-washed plot elements involving multiple universes...that somehow the physics/laws of any given universe dictate or allow certain abilities to exist - it seems likely that Arcanan magic will falter or fail the closer they get to Sharona and vice versa...psionics & chemistry (gunpowder) will fail near Arcana. Not to mention the vastly different logistics capabilities suggest that Sharona will likely only be able to push back to the universe with all the gates.

Expected twists would include things like the introduction of a third race/group/nation that drives them to coordinate.

I guess you can say I just feel like I've read this entire story before - in snippets here and there, some from Weber, some from many others, and it's all just a matter of how it's going to be re-washed and re-combined. Will I continue to read the series...perhaps. If it extends in length like Robert Jordan's...I'll probably lose interest. Dave really has himself overcommitted to too many projects that has put him in a situation where he wants to please everyone but can't produce new books without all but suspending multiple other long running series. Personally, I'd prefer to see him put this one down, hand it off 100% to Linda and some other party if necessary - back out and go back to his core competencies.

Hell Hath No Fury is an excellent read; even better than Hell's Gate. I am really looking forward to the next one, if it ever comes out.