Fantasy & Science Fiction - June 2006

Finished this one during the camping trip.  Fun little Albert E. Cowdry bit in his New Orleans universe (which I love).  A fucking marvelous horror piece by Laird Barron (Hallucigenia).  And another lovely movie review by Lucius Shepard (even if he does end up reviewing BloodRayne -- which sounds so bad I might have to rent it).

Stormcaller - Tom Lloyd

So, this is a high fantasy novel and we've got the usual suspects.  Boy chosen out by destiny, leaves stricken poverty and abuse to rise to be a prince of the nation, faithful sidekick with a dark secret, and so on.  It's also a first novel for the author, which may explain the format.  And I liked it a little.  I probably shouldn't have purchased the trade paperback, but it was an entertaining enough read.  Interesting if not wholly original magic/god/animism thing going on that I liked the additional detail around.  Supposed to be the first of a series (no surprise), but this novel was a relatively complete package with no agonizing cliffhangers.

Fantasy & Science Fiction - July 2006

Started this one on the camping trip, got side tracked, and just finished it.

In the book review column, James Sallis writes about River of Gods by Ian McDonald.  On that basis, I think I should seek this book out.  The quotes from the book are, um, tantalizing.

Really great story by Ysabeau S. Wilce called The Lineaments of Gratified Desire.  The editor's notes say they've published an earlier story with the same characters in Feb 2004.  Hmmm, must have missed it.  I'm sure I'd have remembered a little girl named Tiny Doom and her companion Pig.