fantasy

Such great world building. Such excellent character development. Such a detailed, compelling story. Such a refreshing pleasure every moment I spent with it.



While the first Seraphina book largely focused on Seraphina's efforts to keep her half-dragon identity hidden, Shadow Scale is all about finding and revealing her world's half-dragons. Seraphina and those close to her believe the half-dragons share a mental/psychic bond that may be a useful military defense in the war that is headed their way--and she longs for the kinship she hopes to feel upon meeting them after a lifetime of

Signy Valborn  was only seven when she climbed the New World Tree and Odin declared she would be one of his Valkyrie. Since then, the Child Valkyrie has grown to be a disappointment. She has failed to solve the riddle given to her by Odin, and thus has been isolated from the other Valkyrie for three years now. Then, Signy meets the mysterious and somewhat alluring Ned Unferth, a troll hunter who claims he has the answer to her riddle. Signy then embarks on a journey to seek out her destiny, even if it's not the one she anticipated.

Signy is a kick-butt, take-names heroine that is

Before she was even born, Nyx was sold by her brutish father to the demon Gentle Lord that rules over Arcadia. He made a bet with the Gentle Lord, and lost, like many other foolish people in Arcadia. It has suffered for almost 1000 years under the Gentle Lord's rule and the demons that escape his castle from time to time. When a person lays eyes on a demon they either die or go insane. So things don't look too good for Nyx. She arrives at his castle, ready to kill him, as she has been trained, but things of course don't go according to plan.



Nyx is not the average female heroine. She is

Blue Lily, Lily Blue takes place shortly after the events of The Dream Thieves, with the characters recovering from their fight against Kavinsky. Summer is over and school is starting, but the raven boys and Blue have many other things on their minds, particularly Blue who has been searching for her mother lost in the tunnels following the ley line. Unlike The Dream Thieves, which was a heavily focused Ronan novel, Blue Lily, Lily Blue focuses on all the raven boys and Blue. They are closer than ever to finding Glendower, now the only questions are, who will survive and what will they wish for

Tuan is an orphan, raised by his neighbors. He is a hard worker and buys himself a small house and field, but he is lonely and unable to find a suitable match even with the help of a matchmaker. Yet Tuan continues to work hard and, one day, finds a large snail in his garden that he begins to care for. Shortly thereafter, he finds delicious meals prepared for him when he returns home from work. Every night, the meals become larger and more delicious. Tuan cannot seem to find out who is cooking for him, so he decides to return home early to catch the generous cook. What he finds is a fairy, who

I love superhero comics, but I must confess, I don't like a lot of contemporary superhero comics. The trend has overwhelmingly become oriented towards grim and serious. There are some terrific, well done stories, full of high imagination and smart storytelling, but there's a distinct lack of whimsy and unabashed optimism.

Jeff Smith, mostly known for his critically acclaimed comic Bone, wrote and drew Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, a sort of reboot mini-series of Captain Marvel and his Marvel Family that eschews the grim, "adult" cynicism of most contemporary superhero comics. His story

Following on the heels of the critically-acclaimed Dragon Age: Origins, and its horribly rushed sequel Dragon Age II, Bioware has clearly taken customer feedback to heart and created something wonderful in Inquisition.

To get it out of the way, I'll talk about the flaws first.  I played the PS3 version, (it's also available in other formats) and it was filled with graphical glitches like slow-loading textures and falling through the ground.  The crafting system is cumbersome (if occasionally hilarious/fabulous), my controlled character trudged through battle as if the field were drenched in

While steampunk as a subculture may be best known for corsets, goggles, and extraneous decorative gears, beneath those trappings is rich fodder for fiction often featuring plucky female protagonists--and publishers have certainly been taking note. Beth Cato's The Clockwork Dagger is one such tale, complex enough to entice existing steampunk fans but approachable enough to those new to the genre.

All the requisite trappings are present here—a spunky heroine, airships, an alternate universe where scientific progress exists alongside older magic. Heroine Octavia is a "medician," a Druidic doctor

This novel is classified as high fantasy, but don't go in looking for another Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson clone. Award-winning author Ken Liu gives us a novel as sweeping and epic as you could possibly look for in fantasy's leading lights, but with a much different tone and flavor than you might be used to. Liu's world is based on Asian myth, specifically the Chinese Han dynasty, and Liu's writing marries the old to the new to become something altogether fresh and original.

Grace of Kings centers around two characters. One, Mata Zyndu, is a brilliant and overly passionate warrior, a

I am not naturally drawn to graphic novels but am quite willing to dabble in them. And in doing so I’ve discovered gems like Will Eisner’s A Contract with God, David Small’s Stiches, and Guy Delisle’s Shenzhen. Each is non-fiction, intriguing, and surprising in its delivery.  Yet, at the start, I was still skeptical of Batman. I mean, it’s still just a comic book, right?

As usual, I quickly realized I was making the same mistake I always make with graphic novels—charging through and not studying the pictures. They matter. In fact, the pictures often make the point. You have to slow down and

The Fairyland series is whimsical - its language has both beauty and humor, and its content is a knowing, friendly wink to fellow lovers of fairy stories. There aren't just inventive "turns of phrase" - the phrases do more than turn - they galumph riotously across the page. But lest you think it's all play: moments of surprising clarity and gravitas can be found throughout the each book in the series. They come at you unexpectedly, and are all the more powerful for it. The fourth wall is often broken by the charming narrator and every character will seem both familiar and surprising as readers lose themselves in this unruly and deliciously wild tale.

Long before Samantha and Darrin, there were Gillian and Shep. Bell, Book and Candle (1958) is a romantic comedy directed by Richard Quine and is based on the successful Broadway play by John Van Druten. The film stars Kim Novak as the brash, sexy siren Gillian Holroyd. Jimmy Stewart plays the mild-mannered upstairs neighbor, Shep Henderson,  lured in by her spell. Blithely seducing Shep away from an old college nemesis, Gillian finds herself caught in a web of her own making. Soon she must decide: Is love worth losing everything?

This beautifully restored film (released on DVD in 1999) is

Hazel lives in an out-of-the-way town where faeries are real. The locals know enough lore to stay safe and be respectful, so for the most part the magical creatures leave them alone. Not so much with the tourists, who come because of the stories and to see the horned boy who has been sleeping, unchanged, in a glass coffin in the forest for generations and who sometimes end up dead. So everyone knows the fae are not to be messed with; sometimes it can't be avoided, though. Hazel and her family have had faerie contact in the past that has shaped them in ways they keep secret--sometimes secret

Let's say you've heard of this "funny fantasy series" called Discworld by some guy named Terry Pratchett. You've never read any of the books, but you're intrigued. Unfortunately, there are a lot of books in the series and there doesn't seem to be an obvious book to start with. What should you do?

I'll tell you what you should do: read Small Gods. Many of the Discworld novels are tied to one story arc or another, but Small Gods is independent. (The only recurring Discworld character in the book is Death, but you don't need to have read any other Discworld books to be familiar with Death. It's

Two Serpents Rise, the second book in Max Gladstone's Craft Sequence, can be read independently of the other books, although I'm glad I read this after the first, Three Parts Dead. Both are great, but I liked Two Serpents Rise a wee bit more. I found the characters a little more developed and the plot a little more complex than Three Parts Dead. And I'm in awe of the way Gladstone melds Hardboiled Detective with Baroque Urban Fantasy, making a delicious mix of razor-sharp banter, knight-in-tarnished-armor thriller, poetic description, weird magic, and ornate worldbuilding.

In a world as

In The Ocean at the End of the Lane, author Neil Gaiman presents a magical fairy tale that completely captures the reader’s imagination.  This is a book you will not want to put down once you have started reading, so it is a good thing that, at just over 200 pages in length, it is an easy day read!  The story unfolds as the narrator, a man in his fifties, returns home to England to speak at a funeral. (One of the many things you will ponder is whose funeral is he at….the reader is left to wonder.)  Having a few hours to kill after the funeral and wanting to avoid other people, he returns to

The full title of this amazing book is Aviary Wonders Inc. (Spring Catalog and Instruction Manual) Renewing the World's Bird Supply Since 2031.  The narrator of this story first developed his passion for birds and bird watching while working at his family's logging business (the irony is intentional.)  He is no longer logging; he now runs a company that builds birds.  After searching out the best engineers, biologists and artists to work for him, he launched the company in 2031 and they have struggled to keep up with demand ever since. The company creates the finest of birds, better in many

A year after the horrific rape and murder of his one true love, Ignatius Perrish got drunk, did terrible things, and woke up the next morning with horns growing from his forehead.  Horns that compel others to confess their true, worst thoughts, and makes them seek permission to do the terrible things they always wanted to do.  Ig may resemble a demon, but real demons reside everywhere, much to his horror.

I picked this book up on the suggestion of a friend, who said that I was the only person he knew who could appreciate how utterly twisted it was.  And it is delightfully twisted.  Horrific

Half a King is a rollickingly fun read, about a prince in a Viking-like kingdom who was born with a deformed hand, so he can't hold sword and shield and be a proper warrior. He trains as a minister and adviser, but is thrust onto the throne when his father and older brother are assassinated. Not to give too much away, but thus begins his adventure that starts on a creaky merchant vessel and goes to a cross-country journey in a frozen tundra and ends in an abandoned keep with the odds stacked against the characters. The book is laced with Abercrombie's knack for memorable characters and

Amy Gumm wants to get the hell out of Kansas. She is sick and tired of being mocked at school for her worn out clothes and trailer trash mom. After getting kicked out of school for getting into a fight with a pregnant girl (a fight that Amy did NOT start she would like me to point out), she comes home to find her mother out of her usual funk and primping for an evening at the local dive bar. The news on the TV in the living room shows radar towards Dusty Acres (their luxurious trailer park). Like the caring mother she is, she leaves her child in a trailer without tornado shelter to get drunk

The first Final Fantasy game for the PS2 now has a pretty graphical upgrade and new content for North American players!  FFX was pretty enough before, but the cleaned up character models are nice for general gameplay, and the cutscenes are inexpressibly gorgeous.  All of it has been adapted for widescreen, so there's even more to look at than before!  This edition also contains the optional Dark Aeons, previously only available in the International version that North America didn't receive, a new version of the Sphere Grid for leveling, and a handful of new abilities, so there are in-game

The newest book in The Dresden Files picks up about a year after Cold Days, and Mab is calling in her Knight once again.  This time he's being blackmailed into helping Nicodemus break into a secure vault, all the while upholding the good name of Winter, watching his back against a Fallen with a grudge, and hopefully managing to sabotage the project to keep old Nick from getting his ancient paws on an insanely powerful magical artifact.

Unlike previous novels, where there are usually multiple plot threads that are intertwined, this is a fairly straight-forward action-adventure novel with a

This movie shouldn't be any good. And yet, it is.

I like a lot of wuxia movies, but a wuxia film written and directed by Americans with an American boy as the main character? Even with Jackie Chan and Jet Li in feature roles (the first time the two have been in a movie together), I was filled with doubt. A lot of doubt. But by the end of the movie, I wanted to go back and watch it again. Like the 1980s cult classic Big Trouble in Little China, The Forbidden Kingdom is less a Hollywood attempt at doing a Chinese martial arts movie and more a love letter to those movies.

Jason Tripitikas is a

I grew up reading Terry Brooks and have loved his books for a long time. As I read this new addition to the world of Shannara, The High Druid's Blade, I couldn't help compare it to my absolutely favorite story, The Wishsong of Shannara. It is in Wishsong where we are first introduced to the powerful magic of the Sword of Leah, a talisman that has become just as important to this series as the Omhsfords themselves. I was thrilled that here was finally a tale that would allow us to learn more about this enchanted and dangerous blade.

The High Druid's Blade didn't quite live up to my

With art from the esteemed Studio Ghibli, and mechanics that hearken back to the early days of RPGs, Ni no Kuni (literally "second country") is a game that exudes charm from its every pore.

You play as Oliver, a young boy in a '50s-influenced town who, after a charming introduction, suddenly loses his mother and is orphaned.  After weeks of withdrawn grief, his tears fall on a stuffed toy his mother had given him, and it comes to life.  The former toy, named Mr. Drippy, tells Oliver that he's from another world and says that since the two worlds are connected, it could be possible to save

Ted Hall is a San Francisco blogger suddenly hit by strange events. After a fortune cookie explodes in his face in a Chinatown restaurant, he starts having restless sleep, apparently sleepwalking. Even worse, his sleepwalking seems to coincide with the actions of the Hang Wire Killer, a serial killer that's been hitting the city, murdering people and stringing them up with wires like puppets. Meanwhile, a circus has come to Golden Gate Park, and the Celtic dance troupe is practicing eerie rituals in the off hours. A masked acrobat with no name has joined the circus. A beach bum who gives

An amazing and unique retelling of Hansel and Gretel this story is narrated by the Jacob Grimm himself, caught in the plane between life and death. Jacob has become rather fond of Jeremy Johnson Johnson, who has the unique ability to hear spirits, a gift that has ostracized him from many in his small town of Never Better, unfortunately suffering from a rash of missing persons. Luckily it does not deter the friendship of the enigmatic and problematic Ginger Boultinghouse, who’s thirst for adventure has gotten them both in trouble on more than one occasion. Ginger's plans, and Jeremy's unique

When Kyra, the youngest and most talented potions master in the kingdom, has a vision of the soon-to-be-married Princess destroying the land, she knows what she must do: kill the princess…her best friend. Kyra is distraught at the thought of killing her best friend, which must be what causes her poisoned dart to miss it’s target and send Kyra running for her life from the Crown’s justice. Looking for another chance to save the kingdom, Kyra acquires a tracking pig from the King of Thieves, and a boisterous traveling companion, Fred. This strange have many misadventures, including a run-in with

The main character in Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series is a type of heroine I like to call “the flawed hero who can’t stop herself from helping those in trouble even if it gets her into trouble; sometimes potentially fatal trouble.” There are a number of supernatural series that feature this type of character - Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison’s Hollows, Sookie Stackhouse from Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse, the women in Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld.

These people have weaknesses, faults, and limitations that they don’t

If you've played the original PS2 versions of both of these games, then the PS3 upgrade doesn't make that much difference.  Sure, the games are prettier in HD, and the textures are gorgeous to behold (and if that's your thing, then I'm hardly going to discourage you!), but the glory of these games lies in the content, not the resolution.  If you've never played either of these, then this is a perfect opportunity for you.

Ico (pronounced EE-koh) is the first game in the series, and it's not without its flaws, but I feel that the flaws are vastly overshadowed by its brilliance.  You play as a