Author: Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, translated from the Russian by Keith Gessen and Anna Summers

2009, Penguin Books

Filed Under: Literary, Fantasy, Horror, Short Stories

Here’s one thing not to do with these stories. Don’t leave them on your bedside table so you can read one each night before going to sleep. They aren’t the scariest stories you’ll ever read, but they are warped little tales that will send your dreams off in strange directions over barren, unmarked terrain.

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya is one of the best-known Russian authors writing today, and this collection offers English-speaking readers an introduction to the supernatural side of her work. These stories range from classic ghost stories to apocalyptic allegories, with a few lighter touches in between. They all bring the straightforward manner of a fairy tale to a contemporary Russian landscape, where there are asylums and hospitals instead of dungeons, and where destiny can take the form of true love or mandatory government service. …
Continue reading »

Author: Lev Grossman

2009, Viking Adult

Filed under: Fantasy

Quentin is a gifted student and a sullen teen. Though he’s nearly an adult, he chooses somewhat childish methods of escapism: sleight of hand tricks and Narnia-esque novels set in a land called Fillory. When he is unexpectedly summoned to a secretive college for magicians, Brakebills, he quickly learns magic and other worlds are quite real.

This book was billed as as Harry Potter for adults, and at first, that’s exactly what I got. Turns out, I didn’t much care for that. For the first few chapters, The Magicians is a somewhat fun romp in the mode of Harry Potter: there’s plenty of making friends and learning magic at an enchanted institution. There’s some sexuality and drug use mixed in, but it’s more or less a Potter knockoff. It’s entertaining, but it got stale fast and is somewhat forgettable.

The novel really begins to take off once Quentin and his classmates graduate. Unlike most fantasy stories of this ilk (the Harry Potter series, The Neverending Story, etc), the empowered Brakebills students don’t exit their insular community into a world in desperate need of saving. Instead they are unleashed on a world that is probably better off without them. …
Continue reading »

Author: David Petersen

2008/2009 Archaia Studios Press

Filed Under Graphic Novels, Fantasy

I used to love Brian Jaques’s Redwall series when I was younger (and I’d probably still love it if I went back now to read it, which I now may), so when I saw the cover of Mouse Guard Winter 1152 depicting the cloaked and armed mice trudging determinedly through the snow, I couldn’t help but get it. This review is actually of two books, Winter and Fall, both quite short. …
Continue reading »

Author: Austin Grossman

2008, Vintage Books

Filed Under Literary, Fantasy

In Soon I Will Be Invincible, the world’s greatest villain, Dr. Impossible, has once again escaped from prison and the diabolical genius is about to embark on his latest scheme to take over the world. As usual, standing in his way is a league of superheroes, in this case the Champions. Nothing terribly original so far, right?  Wrong.

Austin Grossman does nothing short of re-invigorate the superhero story and takes great strides in legitimizing the comics genre as a subject worthy of literary pursuit. Grossman greatest achievement is adding depth and richness to his characters in an arena where characters are usually reduced to superficial props that set a stage for epic battles and the showcasing of ludicrous powers. As is evident in the title of the book, and the chapter titles within, such as “Riddle Me This,” “Welcome to My Island”, and “But Before I Kill You”, there is a good deal of playfulness and send-up at work, but Grossman’s use of comic book clichés is more an act of celebration rather than of subversion. …
Continue reading »

Author: Lord Dunsany

Public Domain, 1912

Best ebook deal: free

Filed under Literary, Fantasy, Short Stories

It’s always great when a book turns out to be nothing at all what you were expecting, and all the better for it. I’d never heard of Lord Dunsany (aka Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany) before, but apparently he’s a big deal in fantasy. This collection is ecclectic and creative, with stories that delve into many wonderous locales and involve a wide spectrum of characters and situations. Though there are centaurs and man-eating gibbelins and fantastical locales such as The City of Never, the fantasy Dunsany presents is not of the sword and sorcery variety I expected to encounter. …
Continue reading »

Author: Neil Gaiman

Harper Collins, 2002

Best ebook deal: ebooks.com (only $3!)

Filed under: Young Adult, Literary, Fantasy

Neil Gaiman has a real knack for macabre young adult fiction. His characters are fleshed out and idosyncratic, his settings unique and vivid, and his plotting and pacing pitch perfect. This is the second of his novels I’ve read in two weeks, and this description holds true for both. They both won Hugos amongst other awards as well, so I’m not alone in thinking this.

Though it isn’t a direct adaptation like The Graveyard Book is, Coraline is a wonderful amalgamation of Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel with a substantial amount of creative originality stirred in. It is a short and marvelous story that at times channels Tim Burton and Roald Dahl, and at times surpasses them. …
Continue reading »

This book has been chosen as a Great Read.

Author: Neil Gaiman

Harper Collins, 2008

Best ebook deal: Sony eBook Store

Filed under: Young Adult, Literary, Fantasy

I guess I chose a pretty good time to read and review this book, as it was just awarded the Hugo Award (to compliment the Newbery and Locus awards it already has won), making this as good a time to talk about this great novel as ever.

As you might infer from the title, The Graveyard Book takes its inspiration from Kipling’s classic children’s’ novel, The Jungle Book. Nobody (Bod) Owens is an orphan raised in a graveyard by its otherworldly denizens. One of Gaiman’s greatest achievements with this novel is the cohesive and enthralling world he creates. He quickly establishes the different lore and hierarchies within the world of the dead, and never once was I confused about the rules of this fictional world that very early on felt as robust and immersive as that of Rowling’s Harry Potter series. …
Continue reading »

Author: China Miéville

Del Rey, 2009

Best ebook deal: Sony’s eBook Store

Filed under: Fantasy, Mystery

On the one hand, The City & The City is a straightforward mystery about a murder that has (of course) ties to larger forces at work. On the other hand, it presents the mystery of the world in which it takes place. This second mystery has the potential to be philosophical, allegorical, and richly entertaining in the grand tradition of the best magical realists. Unfortunately, Miéville barely scratches its surface, and so the whole novel feels unsatisfying and frustratingly unrealized.

The two cities of the title are Besźel and Ul Qoma, city-state neighbors roughly somewhere near Eastern Europe in an alternate history version of the approximate present. At some point, evidently, something happened, and now there’s a stringent set of absurd fascist laws that make life tricky to say the least.

I’m not saying more because it feels like I’m giving too much away―and that’s not good. Evidently, Miéville requested that reviewers not spoil the “twist” of the novel; the problem is that that twist is actually the premise, and once you figure out what’s going on, there’s nowhere else to go, nothing further happens.

The real mystery of this world should be how these circumstances were established in the first place, and why the citizenry puts up with such an admittedly ridiculous way of life. Those are questions that Miéville doesn’t have answers for. If he had made the psychology of these people intrinsic to the murder mystery, this book could have been brilliant.

Unfortunately, the mystery doesn’t rely on or care why this odd relationship between the cities formed, only that it formed. The result is a Jerry Bruckheimer-ish novel: an interesting world wasted as merely a backdrop for a formulaic story.

…
Continue reading »

Author: Nahoko Uehashi, translated from the Japanese by Cathy Hirano

Arthur A. Levine, 2009

Best ebook deal: Not Available

The first Moribito had all the trappings of a great YA adventure story. I bought it on a whim and found myself quite surprised at how good it was. A lot of the things that Moribito did well, relatively deep political undercurrents, strong characterization, quick action and sprawling adventure, its sequel does well too. Yet something feels a little off. Not unlike Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Moribito II feels like a story with familiar characters who are forced to be somewhere they shouldn’t. The story works, but it doesn’t feel as organic as the first, and the structural supports its predecessor so nicely blended and wove here show through and draw the reader out.

In this second adventure, Balsa returns to her homeland to clear her adoptive father’s name. He fled the land to save Balsa’s life, allowing his honor to be sullied by conniving and power hungry brothers. When she meets a young warrior and his sister in a legendary cave, she is re-thrust into a political drama set in motion when she first departed the land as a child. The story is strong and well thought out, featuring a plot by nobles to utilize the local spiritual lore in order to usurp the kingdom. …
Continue reading »

Author: D.W. Golden

Eloquent Books, 2008

Best ebook deal: Not Available

I love reading small-run books. I always have the feeling I’m in on a secret when I read a book most readers have never heard of. This feeling is tinged with sadness though, as there are so many good books that just don’t get the attention they deserve. Though they sometimes lack the precise polish of books put through big editing factories, independently published and small-run books are often more creative and original than mainstream fare. There’s also something charming about reading a labor of love that feels more like the author’s uncompromised vision than an attempt at character branding or serialization (as often seems the case with middling YA).

Purple Butterflies is just this kind of book: it is both creative and charming. And you’ve probably never heard of it. …
Continue reading »