deities | Reading Backwards book reviews

The Merry Gentry Series, books 6-8 By Laurell K Hamiltom Read: April 2010 Rating: Phwoar I tried really hard not to let them all run together, but they did. Rather than try to pull the last three books apart, I’m just going to shove ‘em in one post and mention what lasting impressions I have. A Lick of Frost I was [...] Full Story	Mistral’s Kiss By Laurell K. Hamilton Read: March 2010 Rating: Slam First, I would have to declare that Mistral is not terribly important to this volume. Let it be known that the titles are farking arbitrary. (Just to spite me, Lick of Frost is going to be ALL ABOUT FROST, I just know it.) Anyway, Goddess and [...] Full Story	A Stroke of Midnight By Laurell K. Hamilton Read: March 2010 Rating: Whirlwind Time moves differently in the sithen. Merry says, “I wish we had more time!” and suddenly they do. Time is moving glacially outside the hill, giving them all they need… to catch a killer. The book begins with a press conference, sometime in the afternoon (I [...] Full Story
Seduced by Moonlight By Laurell K. Hamilton Read: March 2010 Rating: Engrossing First, let me just say that that cover is a total plot-tease. It shows a woman’s belly, with a nice little round to it, and her hand just so… The series is about a woman trying to get pregnant. You are plot-teasing me, you stupid cover [...] Full Story	A Caress of Twilight By Laurell K. Hamilton Read: March 2010 Rating: Engrossing To be perfectly honest, I’m going to speed through this review, and #3, Seduced by Moonlight. These books slam into each other and it gets hard to pull them apart. Anyway, we now know the plot arc for the whole series. Merry’s aunt, Queen Andais, wants her [...] Full Story	Lover Avenged By J.R. Ward Read: Feb 2010 Rating: Devoured I don’t know what it is about JR Ward, but her books are amazing. Once begun, it is impossible to stop. Everything else gets put on hold. And that took a serious chunk out of my work this week, as this beautiful, beautiful volume is over 600 [...] Full Story
Until Forever By Johanna Lindsey Read: Feb 2010 Rating: Convoluted There’s a LOT of fun to poke at this thing. Before I have fun, let me say that it wasn’t awful. It wasn’t really good, either. BOOK-IN-A-MINUTE, Git-style (Yes, that means spoiler) Roseleen: I am a history professor with a penchant for old weapons. Look at this [...] Full Story	The Barbarian By Judith E French Read: February 2010 Rating: A bit muddled I bought this book because, well, it’s called The Barbarian and it has a laughably swoony cover. I mean, c’mon, what’s more classically romance novel than a dude’s face all up close and personal while he gaze intensely at you, all the while holding [...] Full Story	The Skull of the World and The Fathomless Caves By Kate Forsyth Read: ~2002, November 2009 Rating: Gripping Hoo-! I was up MUCH later than intended last night, polishing off the last of book 6, which I read right on the heels of #5. Good reading, there. When I say gripping, I mean it. The last third especially… The Skull of the World follows [...] Full Story
Racing the Dark Reviewed for the Feminist Review By Alaya Dawn Johnson Bolden Racing the Dark is unique among fantasy books. The world draws upon Pacific Island and East Asian cultures to create a rich blend very different from fantasy canon—an island nation with an animist religion centering on sacrifice and binding. Though a young adult novel, Johnson [...] Full Story	Whom God Would Destroy By Commander Pants Read: October 2009 Rating: Fun What could be more appropriate than to talk about god and mental illness? Even better, how about people who aren’t as ill as they seem? Commander Pants (yes, that’s his nom de plume) has written a novel that cleverly forces one to question human nature while making [...] Full Story	Helen of Troy By Margaret George Read: May 2009, approx. 240 pages. Rating: Sigh. I get very disappointed when books I want to be good… aren’t. It comes particularly hard on the heels of a riveting series, like the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And I just gave up on The Mermaid Chair, so it’s doubly depressing to give up [...] Full Story
Lioness Rampant By Tamora Pierce Read: First time in 6th grade? Multiple re-readings thereafter. January 2009. Rating: Immortal. I love Alanna. I love, love, love, love, LOVE her. I think I was about 12… possibly 10 or 11… when I found In The Hand of the Goddess at the public library. It was exactly what I had [...] Full Story	The Thrall’s Tale by Judith Lindbergh Read: December 2008 Rating: Woah I mean, seriously, woah. I’m still trying to sort out what I really think about this. I mean, it was good. It was really, really good. I can totally appreciate this as a writer, and an experienced reader. I’m not sure if that means its a good [...] Full Story	Sirena By Donna Jo Napoli Read: 1998, October 2008 Rating: Provocative I still remember seeing Sirena on display at our school library, when it first came out. I was perhaps in 6th grade. It was on a special shelf, for the library’s special reader program–those readers got first pick of the new titles and were supposed [...] Full Story
Divine by… Mistake, Choice, and Blood By P.C. Cast Read: First half of 2008. Rating: Um? The Smart Bitches have raved about two of PC Cast’s books so I figured she was a pretty safe bet. And it was really just… so-so. Entertaining, but not madly so. I don’t know what was wrong, per se, they just weren’t as good as [...] Full Story	Demonology 101 By Faith Erin Hicks URL: http://faith.rydia.net Read: December ’06-January ’07 Rating: Spellbinding. Genre: Supernatural, Supreme Good vs. Supreme Evil. Format: Full page. Style: Black, white, and watercolor grays for shading. Published: Not yet, but I would buy it ASAP. (Hear that, Faith!?) Bonus: It’s COMPLETE!!! No waiting! Wait–it’s over?! It took me a while to [...] Full Story	Iphigeneia at Aulis By Euripides. Translated by W. S. Merwin & George E. Dimock. Read: October 2006 Rating: Mixed. This is the Oxford University Press edition, with both a scholar and a poet working on the translation. The play itself is only, say, 1/3 of the book itself. (Brings back memories of Ayn Rand’s Anthem.) This was a [...] Full Story
Queen of the Amazons By Judith Tarr Rating: Ixcelsiooor! Read: June 2006 This one came from Strand Books, my beloved second-hand goldmine. The description was interesting, the cover art is gorgeous (her neck piece looks like mother of pearl) and the story is well-told and thoroughly unusual. Very good. Full Story	With a Tangled Skein By Piers Anthony Rating: Frabjous Read: approx. 1998 (age 12), reread August 2005. I first read the Incarnations of Immortality when I was about 12, and I remember enough to know that I didn’t comprehend nearly as much as I will now, some 7 years later. (Yosh, has it really been that long?) I’ve reread [...] Full Story	American Gods By Neil Gaiman Rating: DIVINE. Read: Xmas 04 Holy crapmonkeys, I LOVE THIS BOOK. I can’t remember who gave it to me (Sreya?) but I ADORE it. Neil Gaiman is absolutely brilliant (and sexy, too). We begin with a framed convict on the day he is released from prison. All he wants it to go [...] Full Story