I admit that I picked up this book purely because of the title. I was expecting something a little goofy, and that’s what I got, but not in the way I expected. The action takes place in Orario, an area defined mostly by the existence of The Labrynth, what seems to be a cave of who-knows-how-many-levels filled with monsters. Adventurers come to town to slay the monsters and earn both reputation and money. Also in the case of the hero, Bell Cranell, the admiration of […]
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Berkley Showcase – New Writings in Science Fiction and Fantasy (1980) – What do you do with an anthology where you liked some of the stories and didn’t care for the others? I guess I’ll just go down the table of contents and give you my opinion of each one. This anthology had no specific theme and contains both fantasy and science fiction stories. Soldier of an Empire Unacquainted with Defeat by Glen Cook – This may be the entire key to the unevenness of […]
It’s the end of the world as we know it…
Ender’s Game arrived in my inbox from JB with this note: “Read this now…better than whatever you are currently reading.” Since I was reading Every Day, I can’t agree with that statement, but I can say that once I finished Every Day, I blew through Ender’s Game in just a couple of days and loved it. Ender’s Game is the first book in what eventually became a quintet about Andrew “Ender” Wiggins, the youngest of three brilliant children, who is chosen for Battle School, an […]
If his middle name is Luck, his first name must be Bad.
One of the worst curses you can fling at a Discworld character is “May you live in interesting times,” hence the title of the book. But aside from it’s promising title, the 17th Discworld book was a bit of a letdown after the fitting soulful musings of Soul Music, but it almost made up for it in sheer volume of jokes and witticisms alone. I wanted to quote something practically every other page. The perfect Discworld book is funny, biting, and deep-hitting. This one was […]