These Vampires Still Don’t Sparkle Edited by Carol Hightshoe (2014, 245 pages) – A sequel to These Vampires Don’t Sparkle, this collection of various vampire tales contains a short story by my daughter, Botheri43, so I’ll skip that one to appear unbiased in my review. This collection contains some interesting and entertaining ideas about vampires, and I enjoyed reading it even though I haven’t read a vampire book since Dracula. As usual, I’ll deal with each story individually, and skip any poems as they seem […]
Relentless badness, with some boats
When all your main characters are whiny and spoiled and unlikeable, making your multiple villains as awful and vile as possible for comparison does not make your protagonists look any better. “Look how EEEEEEVIL the pirate captain is! He kicks puppies and drowns kittens and doesn’t call his mother on Mother’s Day!!!!” “Yes, Robin, I see, but that doesn’t make Althea any more fun to read about.” The Vestrits are a wealthy trader family from Bingtown, and the proud owners of a rare and expensive […]
A delightful dystopia.
I’ve been sitting on a hardcover copy of this book for YEARS, waiting for the right time to read it. The long-promised two sequels seemed nowhere in sight, so I figured no harm in waiting. And now that it looks like the second book* is on it’s way for next year at the earliest, 2017 at the latest, I figured it was about time. I am also feeling resentful and wanting to take back the phrase “Shades of Grey” from certain . . . sectors. […]
Ugh, this could have been so.much.better.
Oh, this book had such a cool set up, but just couldn’t seem to live up to it! Set about 150 years in the future, The Dead Lands focuses on a society built among the ruins of St. Louis. This community, known as the Sanctuary, is all that remains of the United States after a super flu, and then nuclear war, wipes everyone out. Or so they’ve been led to believe. Then one day, a slightly-mutant girl (Gawea, as in Saca-) shows up at the Sanctuary, […]