vol3no2

Volume 3# 2

All books reviewed here are recommended. Please, always keep in mind that the only books that appear on this page are ones that I liked enough to write about. For every book reviewed here I have usually read two that I would not want to inflict on anyone.

Happy reading,

Fantasy/World of Faerie
Historical/Western/Fantasy
The Flight of Michael McBride
Midori Snyder
Tor 0312854102

If this had a contemporary setting it would surely fit into Urban Fantasy. Michael McBride has grown up in a fancy Gramercy Park home where his mother, a faded Irish beauty and his railroad magnate father live estranged lives. His mother's dying blessing gives him the ability to see the denizens of the tales of Faerie she told him as he was growing up. Fleeing one of the Sidhe he ends up on a westbound train and then on to Texas. Unable to outrun his troubles he must fight or see everyone he cares about destroyed by the vengeful Red Cap.

Readers of The Wood Wife and Someplace to Be Flying should enjoy the juxtiposition of our world and that of Faerie as well as the Southwest connection and the presence of Animal People.

Fantasy/Sword and Sorcery
The Raven Ring
Patricia C. Wrede
Tor 0312850409

Eleret, a young woman of the mountain dwelling warrior people the Cilhar, journeys to the city of Ciaron to retrieve the personal effects of her mother who was killed in the line of duty. Upon arriving in the city she discovers that her mother had with her an heirloom ring that seems to be the focus of several attempts upon Eleret's life. Hooking up with swordsman wizard Daner and thief Karvonen she unearths a shapeshifter and discovers the motives that could lead to disaster.

Wrede will be speaking at the SF in SF preconference on June 15, 2001 in San Francisco. It is still in print and available no matter what some on-line retailers claim.

Romance/Historical
The Golden Rose
Denee Cody
Zebra 0821759086

Recently widowed but not bereaved, Catherine Stanley is returning to Rosmar where she hopes she can raise her daughter in peace but as they approach the castle she sees an unfamiliar pennant flying. She discovers that the king has awarded Rosmar and guardianship of her beloved Nell to Andrew Mandeville who hates all Stanleys with a passion. The king has also made a requirement that Catherine wed Andrew. As the two enemies become lovers political intrigue at court endangers not only their love but Andrew's life as well. Set fourteen years after the end of the War of the Roses that has shaped the characters and impacted their lives the day to day lives, customs, and dress of England in 1499 are vividly portrayed.

Cody is the best writer of historical romance today. This statement is not hyperbole. Her books have supplanted those by Deveraux and Gabaldon as my personal favorites. Her complex characters come to life in accurately and vividly portrayed settings not only giving the reader an enthralling escape into romance but a journey to an other time and place where her skillful prose brings even the smells of a bygone era to life.

Royalties from the sale of this book are going to breast cancer research. I don't often exhort my readers to "go out and buy this book" but those who do will be making a contribution to important research while rewarding themselves with a terrific story.

Young Adult/Adventure
Max the Mighty
Rodman Philbrick
Blue Sky-Scholastic 0590188925

Freak the Mighty is one of my all time favorite teen books. It will be out soon as a movie titled The Mighty. I didn't see how Philbrick could follow it up but he has once again produced a thoroughly enchanting story of strength in the face of adversity. Max rescues an 11 year old girl called Worm from a tormenting gang-banger and then later witnesses her being abused by her evangelizing step-father. Max steps in to rescue her again only to find himself on the run and accused of kidnapping. Worm has always tried to escape her problems by keeping her nose in a book but now she and Max are headed across the country, hitching rides with old hippies, and hopping freights to try to find her real father.

Philbrick is the Carl Hiaasen of young adult fiction.

Young Adult/Historical/Sports
Bat 6
Virginia Euwer Wolff
Scholastic 0590897993

The fiftieth anniversary softball game between two nearby towns has all the sixth grade girls working hard at honing their skills in 1949. Each team has a new girl. Aki has finally returned with her family to the community after years in exile at a relocation camp. Shazam has come to live with her grandmother at the gravel pit, her mother unable to care for her and her father dead at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. As the story progresses as told from the viewpoints of the 20 girls on the two teams we as readers sense with dread that something terrible is going to happen.

Never one to rest on her laurels, Wolff has once again written a very unique book that examines cruelties in the world.

Children's/Historical
Once on This River
Sharon Dennis Wyeth
Knopf 0679883509

I don't usually review children's books here but I was so impressed with Ms. Wyeth when I met her last month I had to read this and was amply rewarded with a good story by doing so. The year is 1760 and Monday deGroot and her midwife mother Leslie are on board a ship heading for America to free Monday's uncle by providing the proof that he was born a free man. On board the ship Monday witnesses a dramatic birth and discovers the harsh and hideous realities of slavery. Once in New York she witnesses the close relationships between African-Americans born free and those enslaved.

This look at a little know historic community is fresh and fascinating.

Young Adult/Coming of Age
Charlie's Story
Maeve Friel
Peachtree 1561451673

Fourteen year old Charlie lives with her dad, grandmother, and uncles in Ireland but at school she is friendless and picked on by the popular crowd who discovered that when she was little she was abandoned at London's Victoria station. A strange boy helps her out a few times but the hate and cruel tricks played on her at school have her actually contemplating suicide especially after she starts to suspect that her dad knows her mother's whereabouts.

Crime/Caper
Lucky You
Carl Hiaasen
Knopf 0679454446

What can one say. This is typical Hiaasen gleefully exposing the oddities of life on the edge in Florida. Registered nurse and veterinarian's assistant JoLayne Lucks wins half the state lottery jackpot of 28 million dollars. The winner of the other half is stupid low-life white supremacist Bodean Gazzer. JoLayne plans to use the money to save one of the last refuges for wildlife near Grange a wide spot on the road known for unlikely miracles while Bodean and his buddy Chub want to use the money to finance a militia to stop a NATO invasion they believe is staging in the Bahamas. Gazzer and Chub discover that JoLayne is the winner of the other half of the jackpot so they beat her and steal her ticket. After that all goes delightfully bizarre in this laugh out loud romp.

Fantasy/Magic/Detection/Romance
Romance/Regency/Fantasy
Magician's Ward
Patricia C. Wrede
Tor 0312853696

Kim, former street thief and currently ward of Lord Merrill a.k.a. Mairelon the Magician, is appalled when Mairelon's mother decides she must take her place in London society just when they are in the midst of trying to find out why their library was the target of a bungled burglary. The ordinary magic workers from the backstreets have disappeared allegedly hired by a mysterious individual and someone is flinging around bizarre magic that has unpredictable results.

Even though this is a sequel to Mairelon the Magician it does stand alone and is a delight to read.

Fantasy/Contemporary/Magic Realism
Someplace to be Flying
Charles de Lint
Tor 0312858493

de Lint once again produces a terrific contemporary fantasy read. It is complex and lovely reminding me of Terri Windling's excellent Wood Wife. The huge cast of well developed characters may be confusing to readers who are not already accustomed to the mythos of Newford, a town on the cusp between our mundane world and a New World version of Faerie.

A cabdriver going to the assistance of a woman photographer under attack finds himself being rescued by two seemingly identical and strange young women who slay the attacker. Released from a nearly lifelong stay in a mental institution a young woman tries to take up a new life in Newford, moving into an apartment where her neighbors are a close friend of the photographer and two young girls, called the Crow girls who claim to live in a tree. All these and more come together to fight an evil family that is seeking something that will destroy the world.

Return to the Books of the Week Page