The Bees is an enthralling and gorgeously written tale in the tradition of Watership Down. The frightening realism coupled with the brilliant world-building makes for an experience that will haunt you long after the story is over. Flora 717 is born in to the lowly sanitation class of her hive but upon her emergence it is discovered she can make Flow, an essential food source for the babies. She is put to work in the nursery and rotates through several roles. Later an act of […]
Do They Cover Deicide on NCIS?
Together, under the direction of Tara’s boss from the mystical firm of Kelethres, Albrecht & Ao, they set out to answer the three simple questions that pop up in any suspicious death: Whodunnit, how, and why? The fact that the who is Kos Everburning, god of the city of Alt Coulumb, does make it a little trickier.
…like a fish needs a bicycle
The Summer House Trilogy was originally published as three separate pieces in 1987, 1988, and 1990. Putting all three together is not just convenient for the reader but a boon for seeing Ellis’s overall picture of her female characters’ friendships, romantic relationships, and independent thinking. Each story is a perspective on the same event: the weeks leading up to the wedding of very young and reserved Margaret to neighbor Syl, who is old enough to be her father. In fact, Syl has known Margaret’s mother […]
Long on the Historical, Short on the Romance
This novel came to me through a recommendation on my list of books sorted by author when a commenter wrote that she/he thought someone was missing from my reading list: Sheila Simonson. Always willing to look into a suggestion, I found one of this new-to-me author’s books available on e-loan from my library. Bar Sinister surely had the most authentic feeling historical elements of any romance I have read. (I say feeling because I am not a historian, just a pretentious reviewer.) I wasn’t expecting […]