Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels series is a gift that keeps on giving. After thoroughly enjoying the first two books, my delight continued right up to the final page of the third installment, Magic Strikes. The seductive nature of this world and its characters springs from Andrews’s near-perfect balance between novelty and familiarity. The story continues [...]
Poor Kate Daniels! She can’t even enjoy a fried chicken wing or a cup of coffee without some hellraising demon or malevolent god showing up to ruin her day. If Magic Bites is the lure for this series, Magic Burns is most certainly the hook. Ilona Andrews’s characters continue to entice and impress with a level [...]
Urban fantasy novels are not my usual cup of tea; in fact, they’re not even my unusual cup of tea. Ilona Andrews’s Magic Bites departs from my typical reading in too many ways to count, but my wife loves this series so dearly that I had to give it a shot. And what a pleasant surprise! This book––the [...]
Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings is like the first computer my family ever owned: It took a long time to boot up, but did some pretty nifty stuff once it got going. This massive fantasy novel is the first in a series of ten planned installments, only two of which have been published. Committing [...]
This is definitely not a book I would have come across had Mr. Detzner not offered me an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review. It’s fun to get an early look at a new piece of fiction, but this short story collection struggled to capture my attention. I spent more time thinking [...]
A whole class of first-years could have graduated from Hogwarts since 2007, when J.K. Rowling shocked the world by concluding the Harry Potter series with a book that delighted the vast majority of her rabid fans. It’s still a wonder she pulled it off, given the pressure she must have felt to avoid being tarred [...]
I recently listened to a recording of Stephen King speaking and reading an excerpt from his latest book for a live audience, and was charmed by his rough candor and obvious affection for his doting readership. He seemed like a guy who’d be great to get a beer with (or seven). I’ve never done more [...]
Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a bewitching but almost unbearably bloated novel. Deftly mimicking the oblique style of Jane Austen, Clarke resurrects the concerns, mannerisms and values of early-19th century England. Into this historical milieu she chucks a fabricated history of “English magic,” a longstanding but recently stagnant tradition waiting to be [...]
After several years of observing the barrage of praise that’s been heaped upon Cloud Atlas by friends and critics, I finally sat down to read it, convinced it couldn’t possibly live up to the hype. One hundred pages in, I’d already dismissed David Mitchell’s well-loved book as nothing more than a garish, sprawling, unfocused coterie [...]