Hardcover, published July 2014, Minotaur, (St Martin’s.) This is the 17th in the ‘Meg Langslow’ series and as good and as funny as ever. I first ran across this series with the fourth book ‘Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos.’ I brought it because it had RPGs in it, (er no, not rocket-propelled grenades -but role-playing …
Category: Reviews
BOLD BLOOD by Lindy Kelly.
Softcover, 2009, Harpercollins (New Zealand.) Our local video shop, accepting that sometimes people like a book instead, has a set of half a dozen bins along the shopfront, containing books at $2.95 each or 4 for $10. All used but in almost new condition, and it’s common if I’m in town for me to stop …
Writers of the Purple Sage by Barbara Burnett Smith.
Worldwide Mystery, paperback, September 1994. I picked this up in a bookarama in 2007 and some time later heard that the author was dead. I was annoyed about that, as I was also given to understand that this was her only book. I liked the background and the characters and muttered again my mantra that, …
Tamsin by Peter Beagle.
Published 1999, paperback. Firebird books. The truth is, and some readers will think it heresy, I never much liked Peter Beagle’s writing until I ran across this book. Jennifer Gluckstein moves with her mother to a 300-year-old farm in Dorset, England, to live with her new stepfather and stepbrothers, Julian and Tony. Jenny discovers Tamsin …
LOST IN THE MUSEUM anthology.
Published May 2014, paperback, 20 stories, also bios, glossary. Minor internal (attractive) artwork Reviewed Steve Johnson. As a theme anthology this worked quite well. I didn’t like several of the stories, but all over it had more that I enjoyed than those that I didn’t, and some of the ‘didn’t’ was personal taste rather than …
USE ONLY AS DIRECTED, anthology edited by Simon Petrie and Edwina Harvey
Theme anthology, 14 stories, includes an introduction by the editors, and information on each writer. Published by Peggy Bright Books in May. Available in print or e-book. Reviewed by Steve Johnson. This is quite simply a very nice job. Presentation is excellent, (attractive cover by Lewis P. Morley) layout very good, and it’s a great …
Night Broken by Patricia Briggs.
Hardcover published Orbit 2014. I admit to being slightly worried how this series would go when Mercy and Adam married, (River Marked) but it hasn’t slipped a bit. This is the 8th in the Mercy Thompson series and again, it’s an excellent read and a keeper. A portion of the plot is familiar this time, …
SF TRAILS 11 edited David B. Riley
large size softcover, 102 pages. Reviewed by Steve Johnson. As always I enjoyed most of this anthology. The editor has a knack of picking good authors and the work that I wasn’t crazy about isn’t because of poor quality, but over personal preferences. I didn’t much enjoy the opening story Paradigm Lost simply because it’s …
BRUTE STRENGTH by Susan Conant.
Softcover Severn House, 2011. I was introduced to this author in 1990 when her first book (A New Leash On Death) appeared. A friend recommended it and I’ve been buying them ever since. However in late 2007 after All Shots, there appeared to be no more. I looked until late 2010, and found that she …
Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn
hardcover, published Ace November 2013. Sequel to Troubled Waters but would I should think, be perfectly readable as a stand alone. I was delighted to receive this as a birthday present since I’d really enjoyed the previous one about Zoe Andelay and hoped she be in this one. She was, as were two of the …