Customer Comments

This was a compelling, thought-inspiring collection of essays. There were some that I finished, then immediately flipped back through to re-read sections and re-digest them. Glave has an impressive voice and writing style, using language fluidly and creatively to convey emotions and control the readers speed. Some of these are pieces that started as or partially were speeches he gave, and I found myself imagining what they must have sounded like as he spoke, since the rhythm and construction are so strong. He also includes hearty annotation notes, which I am a sucker for, sometimes reflecting on things he had written before, sometimes adding historical or cultural details, and obviously adding citations or suggestions to other author's work. I found myself often wondering if he has written anything similar recently, with some of the drastic political changes since 2005 (when this collection was published.) For example, in "Regarding a Black Male Monica Lewinsky..." his discussion with his students of what qualities a black man would need to have in order to be elected President seems almost prophetic, and I wondered if he feels any differently about the other qualities discussed in that essay. I was curious about how he felt Jamaican and Jamaican-Americans have been affected by the recent surge against American racism with Black Lives Matter and similar movements. I pondered how some of the international perceptions of the US have shifted over the last decade and a half. Has the legalization of gay marriage had the kind of impact for immigrants that it seems to have inspired in those born in the US? Basically, I finished this wanting more of his political musings!

Danny is trans and deep in the closet, trying to protect herself from her father's aggressive attempts to make her "man up." But while secretly painting her nails in a back alley, she gets caught in the crossfire of a superhero fight. When Dreadnought, one of the country's most famous heroes, passes away despite her first-aid, he passes his powers on to her. Now she looks like the girl she always wanted to be and has some pretty neat new talents, but being outed and forcibly-super-powered in the same day is a lot for a girl to deal with, and the new targets on her back could have devastating consequences for the city. This was a very fun, quick read, with some emotional complexity you might not expect from a superhero tale. There are not too many genre fiction stories featuring trans characters, so this book stands out in that respect immediately. The author spends a lot of time with Danny in her head, as she is quite isolated, so the reader gets an in-depth look at how she is feeling and attempting to handle the situations that she encounters. We end up knowing a lot about her, and I could see it being very encouraging to trans teens to read about those experiences in a superhero tale rather than the too-typical "issue book" where we are just supposed to feel sorry for a character who seems created to be miserable. It's a YA tale, and sometimes that feels a little too obvious. The intensity of school and family drama could be a little much for me, and most of the characters aren't particularly unique. We've seen a version of most of these folks before, and the heroes in particular sometimes feel too close to some well-known comic characters, leading to a little bit of a fanfic feel. The plot sometimes wobbled and got a little bogged down, but always got back on track before long.

I picked this up knowing it probably wasn't going to be one of my favorite books by Carriger, since the romance genre isn't typically my cup of tea and I haven't been particularly engaged by the Finishing School series, which is where we got to know Preshea as a teen. I actually enjoyed this more than I anticipated! Preshea was a fun anti-heroine, and her wit and the fast pace kept me moving smartly through the tale. Sadly, most of the other characters pale in comparison. The romance proceeds forthrightly in the standard direction, at the usual high speed of the genre. I would have liked a little more mystery and action in the plot, but here Preshea's job is mostly a vehicle to set up the romance.

This 700+ page book is hefty even in paperback, and packed with a wide range of adventure tales, mainly in the high-fantasy vein. Some of them were by authors I knew, others by folks who were new to me. Many of them are set in established worlds, which is both an advantage, since there's more if you find a tale you enjoy, and a drawback, as some of the stories don't stand-alone as well as they could. Overall, it is a solid collection and will keep even a fast reader busy for a while. Some of my favorite tales were: "Troll Trouble" by Richard Lee Byers is one of the lighter, more humorous tales, as an ex-merc tries his hand at diplomacy with trolls. "Seeds" by Carol Berg is a fast-moving action tale, packing thrilling heroics, morally grey rescuers, and star-crossed lovers into a small number of pages. "The Betyar and the Magus" by S.R. Cambridge is a historical fantasy set off by a highwayman's unlucky decision to attempt robbing a magus. "Irindai" by Bradley P. Beaulieu starts out feeling like many adventures centered on an orphan with talents, but takes some dark turns along the way.

William is struggling to regain a life in London under the control of his uncle while recovering from the deaths of his parents, separation from his lovers, and sexual abuse as a teenager at the hands of his first love. Invited to his cousin's "club", he discovers a strange brothel full of lifelike machines. His attention is captured by one in particular, the Succubus, a beautiful, clever, tender instrument of pain who is exactly what William wants. But when dark elements from his past and a violent, greedy relative combine to overwhelm him, he discovers that his relationship with this clockwork woman is far deeper than they anticipated, and that they will do anything to protect each other. I got this book through Con Or Bust's latest fundraising auction as part of a lot of LGBTQ+ romance/erotica. This book took a little while to get going, but once I was hooked on the plot, I devoured it. The beginning was the weakest part, with some wobbly character voice and awkward motivation, so I would advise future readers to push through the first couple chapters before deciding whether to put it down. Once the stage is set, the book moves fast, with excellent suspense pacing at points. There is a lot of action crammed into this book, and characters that we start to care about to an unusual extent for erotica. I loved that this book draws a very clear line between healthy BDSM relationships and ones that are abusive. With the popularity of 50 Shades of Grey, it is a conversation that the genre needs to keep alive. We get to see a spectrum of relationships here. Those who find actual torture and abuse at the hands of a lover triggering may want to steer clear of this book, there are definitely some stomach-churning scenes.

I backed this collection on Kickstarter because I always enjoy trying small press story collections, I'd heard good things about Alternate Hilarities and I found the premise fun. Over all I enjoyed this book and the stories within. My biggest issue was the very poor proofreading. There are sentence fragments and incorrect punctuation EVERYWHERE! This really damages the image of the publishing house and rendered one story (Joe Mogel's "The Hunt") almost unreadable due to the severity and frequency of bewildering, or just mangled, sentences. There were also a few non-vampire stories, which I think would have been best left out since they do nothing to help give the collection a cohesive feel. Despite the publishing issues, I found plenty of enjoyable stories. My favorites were: "Dark Illusions" by Even Dicken, which features a new vampire struggling to cope with the fact that being a real vampire is nothing like the movies. "A Winter's Wisp" by Tim J. Finn is short (only 3 pages of text) but features a vampire's attempt to feed on a young lady defeated in an unexpected way. "The Other Interview with a Vampire" by C.J. Andrew features a reporter who tracks down the vampiric descendent of Vlad the Impaler and finds a disappointment. "Not All That Glitters is Gold" by Giovanni Valentino takes a group of pop culture vamps, conceals them under barely-there pseudonyms (Les, gay vamp from New Orleans and Seraphim, brooding vamp with a soul get lots of page time) and has them trying to decide whether to let sparkling Eddie Culligain into their exclusive club. In "Paleo Diet" by J. Adrian Cook a vampire couple find a domestic human in their dumpster. Of course, no one keeps humans anymore and they are stumped as to what do with him.

This book is by the author of Badass of the Week, a blog which provides exactly what the title says: a short bio on someone who is badass. I enjoy the website, so I was pleased to get this book. Unfortunately, I prefer the website's offerings. Right off the bat, we are provided with a map of Europe and a clue as to what will be offered: the same white European and/or American men we get a billion history books about. I was really disappointed by the range of figures offered here, one of the things I love about the website is that it showcases people you've never heard of in a history book; people like South American warrior-kings or a little-known event where a woman rallied defense of her city. In this entire 334 page book, we get only 5 women and no South American, Native American or African badasses (there are a couple African-American men). That's kind of a big chunk of the planet's population to ignore! In the end, this felt like a strong example of why traditional publishing does such a bad job of diversity and shows such a skewed version of history. In contrast, I looked at the first page of the website's archive, which shows 12 articles. Of those, two are woman (1/6), 4 would be classified as non-white by modern, American, standards (1/3) and 2 are non-human. That's a very different cross-section than the book.

By day, he's Elizabeth, average high schooler, desperate to get on to real life, but on his radio show, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, Gabe gets to be who he really is, a music-addicted guy crushing on his best friend, job-hunting and trying to get his family to accept him the way he is. Unfortunately, keeping his two lives apart proves difficult and eventually the fact that Elizabeth is Gabe comes out, spinning his life out of control. There are very few books about trans teens, so I was really happy when I found this book. It is powerfully emotional, dragging you into Gabe's complicated life and plopping you down in his head. It's written in a conversational, stream-of-conciousness tone, and gets rather melodramatic at times, but it feels like an honest look into an 18 year old's thoughts. I'm not a big fan of the whole love-triangle element, but it's a staple of YA, and fairly well-executed. I did like the use of the Internet and texting, it's such a big part of life for many teens that it makes sense so much of the drama could take place there.

Skala was traditionally ruled by queens, but when Erius took over the throne, that changed. When his first child was a son, it seemed certain that the days of warrior queens were over, as every possible female heir, no matter how distant a cousin, mysteriously died. When the king's sister-in-law is about to give birth, her husband calls on three powerful wizards and witches to help prevent his child's death as well. Twins are born, but only one can survive and the newborn daughter is disguised as her dead twin brother. Tobin grows up lonely in a remote castle with a paranoid father, insane mother and the violent, angry ghost of his twin. But the king's nephew can't be hidden forever, and the same magically gifted people who made Tobin's new identity now have to figure out how to introduce him to the world. I first heard of this book as one of the very few fantasy series that approaches having a transgender main character. Certainly, we see elements that show Tobin's struggle with gendered expectations as a small child, followed by a later stubborn refusal to seem feminine, but we only really get a glimpse of fluctuating gender at the end of the book. I suspect the next book will get more into gender issues, since Tobin is only just starting puberty here and a kid is pretty much a kid, regardless of which gender they are assigned. I also felt a little irritated at some of the author's choices of things that show Tobin is a girl at heart, even if she is physically male. A fondness for dolls, fainting at the sight of blood after a first hunting trip and no interest in flirting with girls are all presented as signs that Tobin is female, which are pretty sexist, hetronormative things to choose. On the other hand, we have some gay side characters who I felt were handled quite well, and I liked the open acceptance bisexuality and that sexuality fluctuates with Tharin's discussion of the fact that his lover (who I won't name here so as to avoid spoilering someone) "grew out" of his relationship and ended up falling in love with a woman. It's too bad these flexible definitions weren't used for Tobin's character.

Rosalind was born with a horrible secret; a dragon's claw where her ring finger should be. No one but herself and her mother know, and despite all their attempts are finding a cure, Rose comes of age with no improvement. Now she is expected to find a suitor fit for a princess, but can't bear the idea of revealing her claw. These troubles will soon seem mild, though, when a dragon whose mate was killed attacks the castle looking for revenge and claims Rose as fair payment. I was looking for a light read and read this one in a day. I found the tone a little odd. The writing feels like it is targeted at the lowest end of YA, more tween, yet the older characters, heavy mythology and historical allusions are more than I would expect for this target demographic. This disconnect was a bit of a distraction. It would probably make a perfect book for an older teen who wants some detail to their tales, but reads below grade level. Rosalind is bland, a fairly unappealing stand-in for the reader and she does nothing particularly surprising or engaging. I loved the character of Kye, her love interest, despite the fact he gets few pages. Few historical books for teens acknowledge the trade between Europe and the Middle East, so giving Rose a Middle Eastern love interest was a bold move and one I liked. It also gave the author a chance to work in some culture clash and add internal and interpersonal conflict the book sorely lacked other places.

I loved this collection of creepy tales. Oe of my only two quibbles were that it focused nearly entirely on Gay and Lesbian characters. Since it was advertised as "queer" I was hoping for some diversity in gender as well as sexual orientation. We has some side characters who were trans, but little else. The other is that the stories tended to be clumped, with multiple tales with similar elements placed together. I think this does the authors a disservice, forcing closer comparisons than if they were intermingled with different stories. It also gives the reader a chance to burn-out on these elements ("Another haunted house?") which they might not otherwise. Rape and sexual assault happen throughout the book, so readers who find those triggering or too upsetting may want to proceed with caution. My favorites were: "Saint Louis 1990" by Jewwll Gomez, which had great characters who bounced off each other very well considering the small number of pages for events to happen in. "Blackout" by Jeffrey Ricker is one of the few haunted house tales I've read that was actually suspenseful and made my spine crawl. "The Zealous Advocate" by Carsen Taite is a great example of non-supernatural horror and the POV made it particularly effective. "The Price" by J.M. Redman was effectively horrifying, with characters you can't decide whether to root for or against. "Ordinary Mayhem" by Victoria A. Brownworth is the last tale, and IMO the most creepy. It was the first horror story I've read in a long time that succeeded in churning my stomach and made me consider setting the book down because of the intensity of the too-realistic atrocities.

Merlin returns with Urtha to his kingdom, where it seems everything has gone wrong. Ghost of the dead and shadows of the unborn have taken over his home, driving out the living. Merlin goes to work trying to discover why these ghosts, who were peaceful, unseen neighbors, have suddenly turned on their ancestors and descendants. It will take him, and those who have been caught up in his travels: Jason, Urtha and Niiv and others, into some of the strangest, most dangerous places across many worlds. Like many center books in a trilogy, the plot here is weak, trying to bridge the conclusion of the first and the set-up for the dramatic series conclusion. Luckily, Holdstock's strong, engaging writing and increasingly complex character relationships keep the reader going when the plot flounders. We see a lot more magic and supernatural events here, sometimes a little too much. At some points my attention began to disengage when we were treated to endless, minimally-helpful magic tricks and explanations of them.

Merlin wanders the Earth on an eternal journey, straying from this path rarely. One of his strayings was to help Jason seek the mythical Golden Fleece. He became close friends with Jason and was drawn into his life, staying by his side and trying to help him even when his wife murdered his sons in front of him. 700 years later, Merlin raises his friend and his famous ship from a watery grave and brings Jason shocking news: his sons are alive. His wife used her magic to send them into the future, and now they walk the earth 700 years after their birth. The two old friends gather a hasty crew and set out on another quest, but this is an entirely different world than the one Jason knew and the men and women they have crewing their ship all have their own reasons for wanting to travel south. I admit, I've been burned by a lot of "Celtic" fantasy and was a bit wary of this one. So many end up either being this hippy, peace and love and earth-magic sort or the wildly opposite, a white male supremacist gorefest. Rarely do we see the effect of the greeks and Romans or the fact that many people travelled and lived in places other than their homelands, but because this is basically a travel-tale, it means we get an excellent selection of different peoples, cultures, magic systems and beliefs. The male characters are well-constructed and complex, with conflicting motivations and emotions. Sadly, the couple women are terribly written in very broad tropes. Ullanna was better, but still very much the stereotype of an exotic warrior woman. Niive was just painfully bad, to the point where I was skimming sections that featured her heavily. The writing is slightly more formal than we see in most modern fantasy, but it is fast-paced and clear, sticking with simple structure that makes for a quick, easy read while reminding us that it is set in a time when written records were a big deal.

Well, I was rather disappointed with this book. It wasn't engaging me, emotionally or logically. I found Hikaru rather annoying and one-dimensional and the plot was an old chestnut I've seen done better many times. I kept mentally comparing it to Parasyte, a manga with a similar plot and art style, but one I liked much more. This book didn't really give me any reason to like Hikaru or care what happened to her, she is entirely personality-less for most of the book, and the alien is given a similarly vague treatment. I also would have liked to see Hikaru learn to cope with sharing her brain, instead of the rote-feeling freak-out and refusal to believe suddenly swapped for doing what this voice in her head tells her to. I think this book is riding too hard on the plot, figuring it will carry the reader past the bland characters, jerky pacing and wandering writing. That might work if the plot was tight and could hold up to being the only focus, but it can't.

This two-book series deals with the aftermath of the end of the Dominion War, and the attempts of many races to get back to "normal", a mission which is threatened by a Dominion attack which violates the peace treaty and risks throwing three quadrants of the universe back into a deadly war. Even worse, Bajor is undergoing religious upheaval, creating a dangerously volatile environment at the mouth of the wormhole and drawing DS9 into this chaos while preventing the crew from being able to focus their full potential to prevent another war. A quick comment on the format of this mini-series: I can't understand why it was split into two books. They don't center on different aspects or characters and the split just seems odd. If added together, it would be barely 500 pages, hardly a massive tome. I'm not sure what the rational was for publishing two slim books instead of one sturdy title. They both have a May 2001 copyright, so it wasn't an issue of a delay in writing. It just seems like an odd decision. Hence, I've reviewed it as if it was one book. I've never read other Trek books by Perry, (although I have read sci-fi by her father, Steve Perry) but after reading this I think I'll have to keep an eye out for more. DS9 did a great job being political sci-fi with an adventure veneer, and this book is keeping that tone. Perry also explores religious conflict, sexism, and culture clashes by tactfully and skillfully weaving them into the plot without being preachy or providing instant solutions. This book is very plot heavy, and those who like character-driven stories may find themselves frustrated.

I tried to read this book, but gave up before page 40. I just wasn't in the mood to put up with Gregory's melodramatic prose, but the bigger issue is the attempted rape early in the book. I understand why the situation occurred and don't feel that it was a historically inaccurate scenario, but I have a major problem with the positive portrayal. Elizabeth fights back verbally and physically, finally grabbing her rapist's knife from his belt and threatening him off, yet this supposed to be romantic? It fuels her fire? She wants him more? She owed him sex because she said no before? I was disgusted. This situation could have been a lead-up for some interesting personal conflict, but that would ruin the textbook romance, so instead she falls even harder for her attacker. I can't read and enjoy a book that promotes rape culture. This will probably also put me off trying other books by this author, particularly since I haven't been impressed by her others.

Yummy, nicknamed for his love of sweets, accidentally shoots and kills a bystanding girl in the midst of a gang fight. At only 11 years old, he's on the run as the cops hunt for him. When his own gang decides he's too much a risk to harbor any more, they kill him, leaving the neighborhood confused, hurt and conflicted over the events. This book is somber and simple, but raises a lot of questions about what causes this kind of senseless violence. It also shows that there is rarely a simple answer as to why someone would commit a crime like this and that most people are not simply good or bad. The artwork is textured, stark and stylized, doing a good job of showing the harshness of many of these kid's lives and their surroundings. DuBurke has a talent for facial expressions, often showing the inner conflict or falseness of a character's behavior.

I had a little bit of trouble getting into this book, the first couple stories didn't really grab me and I was loosing some interest, but it picked up a little later. Overall, I wasn't thrilled with this collection. There were a lot of adequate, solid stories, but not too many that I found really creative and engaging, which meant a lot of them kind of blurred together. I was also a little uncomfortable with the amount of exoticism and systemic racial stereotyping in some of the stories. It is expected for the time period when H.P. Lovecraft and other occult-fic writers were working, but it feels rather insensitive in the hands of modern writers. Some of the stories I liked were: Elizabeth Bear's "Shoggoths in Bloom" was an interesting take on the "scientist in search of supernatural finds more than bargained for" which shows up in many of these kinds of stories. It also did a nice job of hinting at the racial tones in many of the stories without falling into the trap itself. "Bad Sushi" by Cherie Priest was a fun, adventuresome tale. Molly Tanzer's "The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins" is exactly what I expected from this collection: a tale with gothic-esqe styling that gets grittier and more graphic than would have been published in the '20's. "Jihad over Innsmouth" by Edward Morris takes a classic "trapped with horrors" tale on board a modern plane.

Ellen's life becomes unbearable after her mother dies. She can't handle her drunken father alone, and spends plenty of time away from home. But things don't get much better once she is out of his hands; she ends up bouncing from home to home, some better, some worse. She tries to keep her friends, particularly Starletta, who despite being poor and black, is Ellen's best friend, and family, but it is difficult. Finally she ends up in a wonderful foster home, where she finally feels like she can belong, but she is still haunted by harsh events in her past. This book was a fast read; the language is simple, Ellen is an engaging character and the fast pace of the plot means something new is always happening. Unfortunately, this means we never get a solid sense of many of the characters and places, just a quick sketch. The author is also a little too experimental with narrative and punctuation, which made things unnecessarily unclear in some spots. There were times I was really wishing for quotation marks, because elements had run together in such a way that it took a re-read or two to figure out what was actually said.

In 1941 Will arrives in Hong Kong and is swept into the elaborate social swirl where he meets beautiful, wealthy Trudy Liang and they begin an intense romance that is fractured and complicated by WWII. A decade later, Claire arrives in Hong Kong to work for a family as their daughter's piano teacher and finds herself in the midst of a scandal left by Trudy and Will. This book was a quick, engaging read, but none of the characters appealed to me. I can deal with that pretty well, focusing on the historical events and culture clash, but those who expect a character-driven story to involve likable characters will probably be frustrated. Lee does an excellent job crafting this world, showing the many different circles of the societies that different characters move in.

Cragon V is a planet with plentiful metal deposits and both the Federation and the Klingon Empire want control over it. When a Human-Klingon squabble results in the accidental death of a native child, the ultra-powerful ruler of Cragon V punishes the two ships, trapping them in a decaying orbit, and transports three Enterprise crewmen to the past. Sulu finds himself working as a samurai for a famed lord, Scott is entangled in a Scottish revolution and Chekov is a WWII-era soldier. The three must survive without altering the course of history until the Klingons and Humans can negotiate out of the sticky situation. I enjoyed this book. The author did a good job of the historical sections and figuring out how each character would conduct himself in disguise. The punishing super-powered being is an old TOS trope, and although familiar and fitting with the tone of the show, it is kind of boring. It would have been nice to see the crew find a way out other than waiting on the mercy of a god-like creature. It is rather mean to say, but this book definitely has that "sci-fi by a woman" feel. Heavy dollops of romance, lengthy emotional monologues and attempts to make the few fringe females in the story more prominent through heavy description and melodramatic scenes are all things I generally see as expected of female sci-fi authors. Personally, I found the heavy-handedness of these elements off-putting. I was rather curious about the cover, which features Scott, Chekov and Kirk, but not Sulu. Did the publisher have something against putting an Asian guy on the cover? Sulu's adventure is probably the most emotional, the most culturally detailed and involves the most difficult moral choices, but apparently that wasn't enough to get him the cover spot.

When a plane crashes in a dangerous location known as The Playground, the survivors are facing a terrifying death at the jaws and claws of whatever beasts remain from the days of the Nobility. Luckily for them, they meet D, and guilt him into taking them as clients. He agrees as long as he can stop by a ruin and complete his other job. But things get more complicated as the group enters the castle and the people who were clinging together start to be threats to each other. This series seems to be getting weaker as it goes on. The plots are more ambitious, but there isn't enough action and character development to hold the reader's attention. Kikuchi has written other VHD stories that involve a group of disparate strangers forced to travel together, and made them play off each other well. Here, we get almost no feel for relationships or motives. It makes it awfully hard to give a damn who lives and who dies a horrible death. There is also a lack of the playful, genre-savvy tendencies that showed up in the beginning. (There was one funny exchange between D and Jan when they were attacked on the raft that made me snort with laughter.) This book feels like it is trying too hard to be serious without the material to back it up.

This diary-format fictionalized biography of Marie Antoinette shows her life as a child. It takes the popular view of her not being very bright, meaning well but not being taught or having the natural inclination to think of others. She is portrayed as a child with little political ambition and too much vanity who stumbled her way into a bad situation at the wrong time. As this book is meant for children, there is a fair bit of politics and the nastier parts of life at court that gets glossed over. It focuses on her relationships with family, friends and later on, subjects.

Trouble stopped hacking when it became illegal, dropped off the 'net and disappeared from her circle of friends, including her lover Cerise. Years later, a new hacker shows up, going by the infamous name of Trouble, but Cerise is sure this reckless-hotshot isn't her girl. Yet the company she works for wants to make an example of someone, and they don't much care which Trouble they get. This book is made a compelling read because of the character and their relationships. Cyberpunk often forgets the human element in the midst of the thrill of cool tech, so it was a pleasant surprise to have characters who play well off each other, complex motives that cause events off-line as well as on the 'net, and rounded, flawed characters who are still likable. Scott does an excellent job describing the world and 'net in detail without bogging the reader down or info-dumping until you lose track of the plot. The book can be quite introspective, but none of the characters are whiny, brooding types.

Lucas is a bloodborn vampire who works hunting down rouge vamps who risk exposing their secretive world. But now he suspects a larger conspiracy that leads even into the vampire Council, one that hopes to allow for a vampiric takeover of the world. Nevada is a witch who has been held by a group of vampire rebels hoping to convince her to break the spell that prevents vampires entering homes uninvited. Chloe is a conduit, a person who is able to lead a mystical warrior being from another world into the human one to help defend the human race. These three people soon end up involved in a tanged web of conflicting conspiracies. I wasn't expecting much from this book, as it looked like the typical trashy vamp romance. I was happily surprised by the tight, action-filled plotting, subtly-motivated, conflicted characters and speedy pacing. Yes, the obvious romance feels rote and too planned, but the characters play off each other well, which lends it a little credibility. The writing is nothing special, but it is clear and direct, staying out of the way of the plot.

Tess leaves behind her job as a housemaid to work for Lady Duff Gordon, a well-respected fashion designer. However, she doesn't realize that this will take her on an infamous sea trip aboard the Titanic. When the ship sinks, she manages to get to a lifeboat, but her emotional trials aren't ended by setting her feet on the solid ground. Her employer ends up under investigation for taking a lifeboat with few people and refusing to help evacuate the other possible survivors. Tess is left torn between loyalty to her mistress, the honest, kind sailor who has accused her and the elusive truth. I didn't like this book as much as I had hoped. I thought a look at the legal and personal consequences of the Titanic accident was a fascinating subject. Sadly, I suspect the publisher didn't agree, as the plot is badly bogged down with historical romance tropes that don't mesh well with the seeming subject. I also hated Tess. Many narrating characters tend to be bland and a little out of the action, so I can't entirely blame the author for this, but Tess was also unlikeable and unlikely to have had these events happen to her. She's rude to anyone, including her employers, selfish and self-centered, has no sense of decorum, dangerously impulsive and bossy. Yet we are suppose to believe nearly everyone she meets likes her immensely, finds her amazingly talented, forgives her all her flaws and if male, falls in love with her. Yeah right! I wanted to slap her before she even met Lady Duff Gordon. It was beyond my credulity to think she actually would have kept her job, let alone become someone important within such a short time. I think the author was going for "teenage rebel", but ended up with "brat" instead, and the simple fact is that rebels had little place in Victorian high society, particularly not with Lady Duff Gordon's particularly rigid type.

Cinque has lived with his mother, grandmother and cousin in St. Jude all his fairly normal life. But when he gets a letter informing him that his absentee father has died, his life changes. His father used magic, a lot of it and for some evil purposes. A deadly curse, aimed at him but unable to harm a dead man, instead lands on Cinque. Now Cinque needs to figure out how to undo the curse by learning fragments of magic from the strange beings he has been revealed to and making up enough of a spell to fill in the gaps. I first read this book from the library, picking it up because I've enjoyed other books put out by ChiZine and the fact that there is very little urban fantasy written about black characters. I liked it so much that when I saw a used copy of it I snatched it up to Bookcross. It is the author's first novel, and it has a few typical stumbling blocks; the plot wavers a few times, sometimes the story hits a brooding rut and struggles to get moving again and a couple of the characters could have been better introduced and crafted. Yet the strong voice of the story, Cinque's earnest intensity and loyalty and the puzzle-like world keep you turning pages.

Matt is a self-aware zombie, the only one known to exist in the bizarre universe known as Nekropolis. Rather than stumping around doing a wizard's bidding or chasing humans down for a brainy snack, he keeps doing what he always did. He was a cop when he was alive, now he's a P.I., looking to earn enough cash to keep reattaching his constantly decaying body parts. When a lovely dhampire dame comes looking for help finding a magic crystal that was stolen from her powerful vampire father, he convinces himself he's just doing it for the Darkgems, but soon he has to admit that there is more going on, both in his undead heart and the extra-shadowy politics of the underworld. This book was exactly what the cover promised: a fun, genre-bending romp through a wacky world with amusing characters. I'm a sucker for a well-developed fantasy world, and Waggoner does a great job describing and creating his without bogging the reader down. A lot of this works because Matt doing a lot of leg work for his case, so the probing conversations with varied characters, analysis of places and who frequents which, and examinations of how different magics and talents work seem sensible and feel as if they are moving the mystery forward rather than holding the reader back. The plot is a little thin, and I think it probably could have been tightened up for a quicker-paced novel, but if you are looking for a light, entertaining read, this might be your cup of tea.

This was an excellent collection of sci-fi and fantasy tales with a focus on non-traditional styles of storytelling. The stories were engaging and interesting, and held together well despite the surface disparities. Many were tales that required you to stay on point and work to keep up and keep track, which is a fun difference from the tendency of these genres to fall into formulaic tropes. Some of my favorites were: "Angel Dust" by Ian McHugh, which is an emotional, moving and rather sad tale of a statue accidentally brought to life by an angel while her mate is stuck on his stone stand. "Open the Door and the Light Pours Through" by Kelly Barnhill is a wartime tale told in a set of letters ("what s/he wrote") contrasted with the less pleasant reality ("what s/he did not") between lovers, which slowly reveals a spooky truth. "Once a Goddess" by Marie Brennan tells the tale of a girl who as a child was reared in a temple as the host of a goddess, but who loses her position once she reaches puberty and must try to deal with living in the human world. "The Pain of Glass" by Tanith Lee is a circuitous, complexly plotted tale. Saying much of the plot elements may give away their connections, so all I can advise is that you read it. I am definitely going to be on the lookout for the other Clockwork Phoenix collections.

Charlie meets Eve when she causes an explosion in her garage while inventing a new kind of fuel. Soon he has volunteered to help the brainy beauty with her invention: a biofuel powered hovercraft. Before long he's head-over-heels in love with Eve. She's everything an engineer would want in a girl, but Charlie's determined not to start anything with her. After all, he wants out of the suburbs and has a job offer at a major power plant coming. Can the couple build a hovercraft without giving into the temptation of having finally found someone who thinks the way they do? This book was a light, simple read. It wasn't a very well-written or plotted book, but I found it enjoyable for a romance novel. The characters were engaging, if not particularly creative. The author doesn't try to make the story too serious or dramatic, which are common failings in romance novels. If you just want a quick, brainless read, this might be a fun option.

When a pair of men in Leadville, CO are killed gruesomely, local law enforcement doesn't have a clue how to proceed. Luckily, Cora Oglesby and her husband ride into town. They quickly decide that this is exactly the sort of supernatural attack they are best at handling and cut a deal with the Marshal to take out the animal that has been eating townfolk. But soon they and the little mining town are drawn into a larger battle against an ancient vampire who has quite a grudge against Cora. I really enjoyed this book. The pacing is fast, but steady and easy to follow. The author makes a good use of foreshadowing and hinting at events to come, engaging the reader in wondering if things will really play out the way they seem like they will. Collins cleverly drops plot twists without irritating, alienating or overly confusing the reader. Cora is an interesting, tough character surrounded by equally intriguing side characters. I felt like Cora was one of the most realistic heroines I've read recently in the paranormal genre. She's hard, but not invulnerable; worries a reasonable amount about the people around her, but trusts that they are smart enough to stay safe; the author avoids making her a stunning beauty, and instead gives her a compelling personality; she makes some serious mistakes, but pulls herself together to try and fix them. My one complaint is that the two jobs they take feel rather disjointed, as if the author had originally had two novella-length stories and combined them. The author mentions that NaNoWriMo got him writing, so if this story was written for that, it might explain some of plotting stagger. I can't wait to read the next one in the series, She Returns from War.

I do think this is a book that you have to read slowly, which is what I did, since there is so much info and it is often communicated in a disjointed way by our unreliable narrator. I could see where some people would get frustrated with it. I found the almost ironic contrast between the setting, a high-tech far future, and the main character's conflict, whether or not to cheat on his wife-equivalent, intriguing. Often we expect some sort of epic heroism from sci-fi, especially dystopias, so having a MC who is not a man of action, but a bystander, unaware of the societal chaos he is fueling, makes for an unusual viewpoint. I also loved the author's descriptions of characters and use of contrasts between them. O is a soft, friendly, familiar and natural women, while I is predatory, but dangerous and compelling and seductive because of her strangeness. R is outgoing, as much of a risk-taker as is allowed in this society, while D is extremely reserved in his expressions until being caught up in I's wake. I thought the author did a good job showing D's mental state through his writing, which starts out as formulaic and precise, moves towards what we might term a "normal" style, and then goes farther, into a knotted mass of ideas and feelings which he has no experience trying to trap on paper, and finally the result of OneState's decision becomes clear in the remote brevity of his final entry.

I read it in a day, and laughed so hard a couple times I had to set it down because my hands were shaking the book too much to keep reading! The author's absurdist sense of humor mixes with a tongue-in-cheek style of writing and hilarious caricaturization of the people around her. It may not appeal to those who are easily offended by some of her politically incorrect jokes and tall tales, but I think many others would enjoy it.

Jessica is a teenage writer, published under the fake name Ash Night. What she doesn't realize is that the stories she "invents" are true events and histories of the immortal vampires she doesn't even know exist. Her first clue that something odd is going on is when new student enrolls in her school, a boy who looks exactly like one of the vampires she wrote about and who seems oddly interested in her despite her attempts to chase him off. I've read and enjoyed some of Atwater-Rhodes' other books, but this was just terrible! The plot is weak, but could have been propped up by good writing and intriguing characters. Sadly Jessica is a blatant self-insert and a horribly designed character. She's also highly unpleasant to others with no reason (not even self-justification or defensiveness), arrogant, selfish, spoiled and the author still tries to paint her as perfect and powerful. I just kept hoping someone would slug her hard in the face! And I say that as a devoted fan of anti-heros. All the other characters seem to be there either to be her verbal punching bag or worshiper, which I also found distasteful and lazy writing. As far as the writing, it is not Atwood-Rhodes specialty at this early point in her career. That is clear in the other books written around this time as well, but it felt even more obvious here. I suspect that was because she normally does a solid job world-building, and so the content often grabs more attention than style, where as in this book there are minimal words devoted to anything but Jessica herself. If you are interested in the Den of Shadows world, you may want to read this book for the info on witchcraft in this setting, but I recommend you brace yourself.

This compelling book tells the history of Queen Elizabeth I, but instead of focusing on her rule, it focuses on the events that shaped the girl and woman who would one day rule a country. It covers ground from her birth and the treatment a royal infant received, through her rough beginnings of rule. As this is not info usually discussed when historians write about this famous figure, much of the info here was new to me. The author presents information on the schoolwork that helped shape a monarch known for her intelligence, her relationship with her infamous father, Henry VIII, and how his policies influenced her own political opinions and methods, her girlhood letters, and the wildly fluctuating religious and political landscape she grew up in the midst of. One thing that interested me is the portrayal of religion in Elizabeth's conflicts with Queen Mary. I've often found authors to hold that up as a major source of contention, with both sisters holding strong, opposing views that split the country as they grew up. Starkey's view suggests that while Mary was as devout a Catholic as popular view says, Elizabeth was more compromising and even enjoyed some elements of Catholic worship over the Protestant methods. He backs it up well with examples of each sister's own writings and her laws under her rule.

This is an interesting short story collection, each story centering around a particular Star Trek race and a biblical sin. I enjoyed all the stories, Britta Burdett Dennison's "Freedom Angst" was the only one I really felt was weak, and it was still an interesting idea despite the awkward execution. My favorite stories were: "Revenant" by Marc D. Giller, which creates an almost gothic claustrophobic creepiness, well suited to the title and the Borg. Keith R.A. DeCandido has written a number of very good Klingon tales, and although this one, "The Unhappy Ones", is set in a very different time than his post-DS9 stories, he makes solid use of source material and his own invention to make an entertaining, moving historical-feeling tale. I've always found the Cardassians a fascinating race, and the political and moral morass of their military is explored in James Swallow's "The Slow Knife."

On the surface Cherry St. Croix looks like any other wealthy young lady, but the truth is that she is working as a bounty hunter to earn money for the drugs she has been addicted to for years. Keeping her two lives separated becomes even more difficult when she takes a job catching a murderer who has been killing girls and harvesting their organs. She ends up tangled with scientists, prostitutes, circus acts, and two attractive and dangerous men, one from her public, courtly world and the other from the criminal, supernatural places her job takes her. This is a steampunky mystery crossed with a paranormal romance. That's a lot of ground to cover and it quickly becomes clear the author ended up with more than she could handle. The plot staggers and becomes obstructed by hoards of needless, distracting little sub-plots as the pacing leaps about, unable to keep steady enough to keep you engaged and collapsing towards the end into a sad hodgepodge. The characters are all fairly stock, with few attributes that are unexpected enough to make you wonder what they will do. Cherry is an odd assortment of traits that don't always come off as convincing and she never seems as smart as she should be for her line of work. Both love interests are essentially pretty cardboard standups and about as useful and engaging. So why did I rate this fairly high? The worldbuilding was nicely done, and I'm a sucker for a good fantasy world. Most steampunk is either all noble-hearted lords and ladies or glammed up streetwalkers and thieves. It's rare to find a story the features an actual contrast between classes and does a good job explaining how and why that gap is maintained. The tech and science were used sparingly, a personal disappointment as I like my sci-fi on the harder side, but when used they were used well. Cooper also has a gift for creating tone and the feel of the locations she sends the characters into.

I've held off on writing a review for this book because I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. It is a fascinating, captivation portrait of a young woman out of step with her societies' picture of who she should be. It starts with her as the admittedly spoiled child of wealthy parents and continues on through the numerous trails she ends up facing due to her stubborn unwillingness to give up and pretend to conform. Stephen isn't always a likable character, she has too many sharp edges and too much pride and inflexibility which are as likely to hurt those she loves as it is to harm her, but she is compelling and interesting. Hall's writing is as straight-shooting and passionate as her main character, ignoring the expectation that classic woman's book about a woman with romantic complications should be clever or light. This is the opposite of a Jane Austen-style book. It may be too harsh and desolate, with too few laughs or happy interludes for some readers, but if you like your classics with some grit to them, I would highly recommend this tale. It might also appeal to Downton Abbey fans who are looking for a more somber rendition of the same time period.

The Department of Temporal Investigations is examining a strange space anomaly, with an even stranger ship trapped in inside. It looks to be made of parts of the Enterprise captained by Kirk, other ships from that time period and alien technology. The name on its hull is DTI Timeship Two. As far as anyone seems to know, DTI never had any thing called a timeship. This impossibility results in a investigation that will mean digging into the past of the Department and its founding members as well as looking for information on DTI's most infamous time-law breaker: Captain Kirk himself. This book is definitely targeted to the hard-core fan and is jam-packed with references from every series and many of the less cannon novels, comics and games. If you look at the acknowledgments, you can see how painstakingly researched this book was. Bennett goes to far as to source his description and design of the timeship's service corridors. (Based on the ones seen in the ST:Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" if you were wondering.) For the detail oriented fan, it makes it a treasure trove of trivia. Bennett's writing is light and easy to read, although the techno-babble may bog down some reader. I enjoyed some of the quips that nearly broke the forth wall, such as the engineer discussing the design of the found ship and saying "The warp engines are a design from the sixties--sorry, twenty-two sixties."

While on a camping trip, Tarn Cabot finds a metal envelope from his long-lost father. Soon he is whisked to another world, Gor, where he begins a new life as a warrior. When a campaign against a neighboring city goes drastically wrong, he struggles through a series of unlucky events, trying to recover his new life and the beautiful women he has fallen in love with. This book is pretty standard-issue '60's "barbarian fantasy". It doesn't really do anything particularly noteworthy. The writing style is the popular overwritten and descriptive type that is seen often. Most of the characters are fairly stock and frequently lack much motivation for their actions. Yet it is still an entertaining and compelling read. One thing some people may have issues with is the highly submissive ladies in this tale. Some of it is clearly interest in BDSM-type relationships (particularly in Talena's case, where she frequently initiates roleplay-like scenarios complete with costumes and bondage suggestions), some just seems to have been easy-to-write wish-fullfillment.

Patty Jane and Harriet are sisters, sharing in running their beauty salon and raising Patty Jane's little girl after her husband Thor disappears. Neither of their paths are running smooth, but with each looking out for other, Thor's mother Ione, their motley group of employees, and a boisterous crew of regulars and friends coming to the shop, they manage to keep their spirits up and have a fair bit fun even during the hard times. I picked this up because I had liked Landvik's Oh My Stars. I didn't like this one as much. It is a much tighter, smaller story, almost like a blend of interwoven character studies, but I didn't find any characters I could really sympathize with or root for. They weren't bad characters, just bland. Landvik's to-the-point, no-frill writing is balanced with a sly dose of wry humor and zany characters, making it compulsively readable. The writing is really what saved the book for me.

This story collection came to my attention because a couple of these tales have been re-printed in mainsteam collections. I kept seeing that this small press book was the original publishing place and decided I had to track it down. It didn't disappoint. The editor balances many different tones and settings gracefully, and although each tale is different from the ones around it, somehow that makes each one stand out not get lost in the shuffle. None of the stories were ones I decided to skip, even the three I had read before, and N. K. Jemisin's "The Effluent Engine" which I have read several times. There are sad stories, adventurous tales, mysteries and, of course, romance. Normally, with anthologies, I write more detailed reviews for my favorite few tales. I'm not sure I could pick a couple from this set, so I won't try. I would highly recommend this to lovers of steampunk or unusual sci-fi.

These two stories are each about the length of a quite-long novella or short novel, one being 150 pages and the other 200. Cardassia: The Lotus Flower is by Una McCormack. The one other Star Trek novel of hers I read was spectacular. The Never-Ending Sacrifice was also set on Cardassia, and I would highly recommend it to any ST fan who enjoys detailed worldbuilding. McCormack focuses on culture, resulting in an immersive story. The Lotus Flower primarily follows the O'Brian's attempts to help Cardassia rebuild after the Dominion War resulted in near-catastrophic destruction. It explores more of the religious, cultural and scientific elements of this people, rather than the TV show's focus on military and political power. Andor: Paradigm by Heather Jarman was a bit of a surprise. When I think "Andorian" I generally think of the awkward blue-painted, badly-wigged, pipecleaner-antennaed actors of the original show, which was the only time this race was really featured until recently in ST: Enterprise. Including them in a Deep Space Nine collection seemed a bit odd; in fact according to Wikipedia, no Andorian ever appeared on DS9! What I didn't think of when thinking of Andorians was Jarman's chosen sensual portrayal, yet after a bit, I liked it. She had a bit of a rough start, and her main human character rather got on my nerves, but soon I couldn't put the book down. It's a little soap opera-esq at times, but the opportunities for interpersonal and romantic conflict in a slowly dying race with four genders and tight, rigid familial structures mean that most of it doesn't strain one's ability to accept the drama.

Jason is a well-liked basketball player with an equally popular girlfriend, but he can't seem to stop himself thinking about guys. He can't be gay, can he? Kyle knows he's gay, he just doesn't want anyone else to know about it, particularly since he's crushing on apparently straight-as-an-arrow Jason. Nelson is out and flamboyantly proud of it, but his confidence in his sexuality doesn't extend to telling one of his best friends that he feels something more for him. This book follows the interwoven story of these three teens as they explore their sexuality and friendships and the odd places where those two elements cross. This is a light read, easily finished in a few hours. Despite the high levels of teen angst and heartfelt, confessional tone, it never really engaged me with the characters. They were each modeled on one stereotype of a gay guy and although the author tried to add enough non-traditional traits, in the end, they never really escaped the role they had been cast in. I can see that it might be appealing to gay teens who feel like they want affirmation that others have the same thoughts as they do, but this story was just too teen-soap-opera-esqe for me.

Audrey is done being a thief, tired of using her magic to pick locks, and she is trying hard to live a normal life with an office-based job. But her family is still in the business, and still hassling her for her talent. When her brother gets into bigger than usual trouble she finally snaps and agrees to help her father with one final job in exchange for his never contacting her again. Of course, things don't go that smoothly, and soon she is corralling a motley group through a virtual war in an effort to grab her prize and go back to her law-abiding life. I'd liked some of the Kate Daniels books by Ilona Andrews, so I picked this up on bag day at the library booksale. It was a disappointing read. Perhaps it would have been better if I had started at the beginning of the series, but I tend to doubt it. The authors just tried to do way too much in one book. Too many characters, too many POV changes, too many unfamiliar factions, too many info-dumps, too many plot elements to gracefully fit in the book, too many stilted flirting sessions. You get the picture. Andrews solid writing is what prevented this book from scoring an even lower rating and what kept me reading until the end. It grounds the story just enough to make it readable. Based on the couple reviews I've seen, the next one improves, so it may simply be an all-to-common case of the authors being unable to figure out how to organize the middle of their story and throwing everything out there in hopes some of it will work.

Maybe it was because I came into this series in the middle, but I was pretty underwhelmed by this book. The plot felt fairly shaky and tentative for most of the book, like the author wasn't sure how to get the characters from where they were to where they were suppose to be at the end of the story. Likely a side effect of that problem was the uneven, jumpy pacing and tendency towards anti-climactic events. I know a lot of authors have trouble pacing a long series, and perhaps if I had already been familiar with this setting it wouldn't have been so jarring. I liked some of the character concepts, but none of them were as fleshed out as I would have liked. Most stayed neatly in their obvious role. The author's writing style seemed awkward, like she was trying to give her characters a "high" fantasy voice but didn't realize she couldn't mesh that with their urban setting merely by swapping out a few words with longer, more ornate ones.

When she is 9 years old, Rose eats a piece of her mother's cake and realizes she can taste her mother's feelings when she cooked. It changes Rose's life. Everything she eats tastes like the person who made it, intensely, horrifyingly. She struggles to figure out how to survive and eat food. She tries to focus on other things she can discover from her food, like where it came from and how the ingredients were grown. It also forces her to think differently about the people she is around once she knows their true emotions. I found this book mediocre. The idea was interesting, but the execution was wobbly. I found Rose uninteresting, uncreative and inflexible. I really couldn't care less how hard a time she whined about having. The supporting characters were a bit better, but fit too neatly and simply into their planned roles, without the diversity or complexity real people have. The writing is solid and well-paced, making for a quick read.

When Taya, a winged messenger, saves a Exalted woman and her child during a wireferry accident, she involves herself in a deadly tangle of political webbing. She soon becomes involved in crime-solving with a pair of Exalted brothers; Alister, the handsome, charming writer of engine programs, and Cristof, a socially awkward inventor who is an Outcaste from his family. The world building in this book is excellent. I loved the level of detail on the social and political systems. Pagliassotti writes well, with a graceful, quick, compelling voice that pairs well with her winged heroine. The pacing stumbled here and there when a change of tone or setting was needed, a common flaw for a first novel. The characters fell short however. Many felt fairly typical and created to fill in plot points. Nonetheless, Pagliassotti's writing manages to keep you interested in what happens to the characters despite their lack of individuality. I liked this book well enough to want more, and found out that this book is going to be re-published by EDGE with some rewrites and that the author is turning it into a trilogy. I'll have to pay attention and see when they come out. I was also interested to read that this was a NaNoWriMo novel.

Cedar Hunt is a werewolf and a hunter of both dangerous animals and people. Mae is a witch, living on the outskirt of town, hoping her husband, a free black, will return alive from his attempt to find work. Rose is an orphan, living with her adoptive parents and hiding her talents for making tiny machines. The Madder Brothers are a trio of miners who are either brilliant or insane, or possibly both. These people will have to band together to save their town when a railway man turns out to be building something more sinister than a trail for the iron horse. He is looking for a way to return to his former immortal status and that will be be a bloody path involving magic and technology unfamiliar to most. I found this book entertaining but not outstanding. Monk does a good job creating engaging characters, her worldbuilding is weak and often sloppy. One glaring example of this is that all, not just some, of the characters use the same terminology when discussing tech and magic, yet the author stresses the fact that few of them are suppose to have had any education in these subjects beyond self-teaching. What are the chances of them all developing the same vocabulary independently? Very slim, and there isn't even a hand-waving attempt to explain it. I also got the sense that Monk was trying too hard to make her characters stand out as historical or classically western by altering her narration and her ability to write this style was nowhere near up to the task. I see this a lot with urban fantasy writers when they try to go historical, and she was improving later in the book, so maybe it won't be as noticeable later in the series. Here it feels both choppy and muddled.

Theo has been kept in his room most of his life, told he has a serious illness that makes him unsafe to be around. But on his birthday trip out to a graveyard, where he won't meet anyone living to harm, he finds a tiny package addressed to him. This is the start of his adventure that will reveal his true power and force him to decide what to do with it. This is a kid's book, and tends towards some of the common flaws: an inclination to gloss over detailed explanations, villains who might as well be wearing a name tag reading "bad guy" since they are so easy to spot, over-emotional characters who tend to state the obvious and a hero who mostly follows the rest of the cast around asking questions about his new reality until the end, where he suddenly steps up to the plate. Despite that, it was a fun, light read. The setting is interesting; it is set in the modern day, but Theo's lack of experience of the outside world and the fact that it involves Victorian Era secret societies and a few immortals blurs the sense of time and place.

Cameron is a young girl living in Montana, struggling with her parents' sudden deaths and her feelings for other girls. Neither is something with an easy answer, but despite this heavy, complex issues she knows she will have to resolve one day, she does her best to be a normal teen in her little town. But when she meets Coley Taylor, straight and gorgeous, she is willing to risk everything for their friendship and the possibility that one day it could become something else. Despite warnings, Cameron flings herself headfirst into love, but the complications of this situation quickly pile up, until suddenly everything and everyone seem to turn on her. It was a nice change of pace to read a more realistic teen novel about a gay teen learning to understand their sexuality and dealing with the ramifications. Often books focus on the teen's angst about someone finding out their orientation, and then their being outed and discovering that it wasn't as big a deal as they feared. Unfortunately, that isn't always how it works, and even if one's family and friends will one day get use to having a gay in their circle, the initial shock and backlash can be harmful. I felt Danforth did a better job of showing a variety of personalities and made Cameron a stronger character, with more substance than merely her sexuality, than many authors have. Part of this is thanks to Danforth's clear, solid writing and avoidance of unneeded melodrama. Cameron comes off as grounded and girl-next-door, rather than a tragic heroine. I did have two issues though. One is the ending. It felt too abrupt and unfocused. I understand wanting to leave things open, but this just felt like the author didn't know what to have happen next and gave up. The other is the sheer number of young lesbians who just seemed to appear in an itty-bitty town ready to fool around with some teenager they barely knew. If it had just been a couple, spread throughout the book, I might have bought it, but it felt like the author introduced a new girl every time the plot slowed down, which ended up seeming like a cheap way to add drama.

Violet wears black, adores movies and has hard time getting along with people. Claire loves fairy stories, wears bright, creative outfits regardless of what other people say and struggles with her broken family. The two girls become friends in a day and soon plan to make a movie. Violet will write it and Claire will be the lead. But as time goes on and the girls try to explore their interests and find a way to be happy in a world that isn't always kind to those who dare to think and act creatively, they find themselves dragged apart and wildly changed by those around them. After a while it seems they may be too bitter, too hurt and too angry at the world they are in to ever be the kinds of friends they once were. I read this book in a couple hours. I just couldn't put it down. Block's writing is fast and intense, her characters are compelling and their connection undeniable. I had tried Block's book The Hanged Man, and couldn't get into it, so I was a little cautious trying this one, but I'm so glad I did. It is short, only just over 150 pages, and the plot is simple, with a small cast of characters, but I was impressed by how much was expressed in it.

Gavin and Judy are both in jail for murders which they didn't commit. Both of them have secrets which could upset the balance of the country. Gavin witnessed the assassination of the President and realized it was an inside job. Judy discovered that two of the most popular medical drugs around had disastrous side effects that the government was afraid to admit. As the outside world seems to begin falling apart, Gavin and Judy decide to try and escape in order to reveal what they know, in hopes that the country hasn't destroyed itself beyond repair. I found this an entertaining, light read. Although there is plenty of action, it is balanced by enough moral questioning of where responsibilities lie and the struggle of getting individuals to work together as a team that it provides some interesting mental fodder as well. I thought some of the side characters were too cliche and created mostly for the sake of moving the plot onwards, which was a bit distracting. I also felt that the author had a tendency to tie up loose ends a little too neatly, particularly when there were strong emotions involved. The writing is not flashy or outstanding, but it effectively keeps the story moving and is well-paced.

Four pretty, popular guys agree to train their landlady's niece, Sunako, to be a "lady" in exchange for free rent. However, this task turns out to be more difficult than expected. Sunako is a fashion-hating, bitter and violent horror-movie addict who refuses to comply with any of their schemes. It seems questionable as to whether they will be able to live in a house together, let alone turn her into what her aunt was hoping for. I'm not usually a shojo fan, and generally find reverse-harems dull, but I actually enjoyed this comic a lot. I liked the dark sarcastic humor and the tendency to parody the genres it fits into. Sunako is entertaining, unpredictable and unusual, making for a read that often leaves you guessing as to what could happen next. The boys are left fairly undeveloped, except the one who is blatantly being set up as her love interest, which seems like a missed opportunity. I didn't think much of the artist's style, it's a pretty sort of bland, but her layouts are compelling and easy to read. I loved all the side text expressing characters thoughts and comments, which you don't often see.

Detective Lily Yu is called onto the scene of a gory murder that appears to be the work of a werewolf, just down the street from a nightclub known for its sexy were hosts. One of these men, Rule Turner, contacts her offering to be her expert guide to understanding the weird werewolf world. She is pleased to have some help navigating this secretive underworld, but feels cautious about letting him in on too much of the case, as she doubts his willingness to cooperate with the law if it seems a threat to the mostly-self-policing pack structure. Things get even worse when she realizes that she is intensely, unreasonably, frighteningly attracted to Rule-- and those feelings are mutual. How can she possibly catch a killer in this mess? I liked that although this book is pretty romance-heavy, the rest of the plot doesn't feel like an excuse to create the characters or drastically atrophy after the characters admit their attractions. This is as much a mystery as a romance, and not too many authors can manage that balance. Wilks' writing is fairly unobtrusive and straight-shooting, more typically mystery than romance, although there were some points where she slipped into melodramatic or purple prose. This book doesn't have much by way of substance, but it is a fun, light romantic adventure read.

This book features three playful re-tellings of classic fairy tales. In"The Fairy's Mistake" a fairy rewards one kindly girl of a set of twins with the ability to produce gems when she speaks, and curses the greedy other to let loose bugs and reptiles when she speaks. However, soon the consequences of the reward make it seem like a curse, while the other sister learns to take advantage of her curse to get what she wants. "The Princess Test" features a pampered, delicate girl, who despite being a poor commoner, might be able to pass the royal tests that would allow her to marry a prince. "Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep" is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty that puts more focus on the other fairies' gifts in creating Sonora's character and gives us a separate storyline about the prince, so his braving the castle seems natural. These stories are geared for a younger audience than some of her more famous works (Ella Enchanted, Ever, etc.) and are told in more of a classic, formal fairytale format with less focus on detailed plot and more on character interaction and speedy progression. This means that sometimes events seem rather sudden and unexplained, but if you can set aside this sometime jarring fact, this makes a silly, light read. I particularly liked the final tale, and though it was a clever expansion of an often trite and passive story.

Alice is struggling with her uncertain job, her teenage kids, her disconnected husband and the fact that she is now the same age her mother was when she was killed in a car accident. When she gets an e-mail inviting her to participate in a survey on marriage in the 21st century, she impulsively decides to do it. She is given the anonymous name, Wife 22, and is partnered with a man she only knows as Researcher 101. At first venting her frustrations and voicing her opinions to a perfect stranger is liberating and calming, but when she begins to feel that her relationship with 101 is more solid and important than her real life, she starts to worry. This book is as hard to put down as many carefully-crafted website. I found the aspects of social media addiction and the ease of which we befriend strangers online interesting, as well as the fact that the internet has become such a popular escape for people unhappy with the real world. These are everyday issues of our society that are largely ignored in books. Gideon crafts compelling characters, who manage to feel real by not being unique. Instead, they feel like people we know and have to deal with. Her writing is fairly strong, and I liked the varied format of the book. The pacing did wobble a bit here and there, but as the rest of the book manages to keep you interested, it wasn't too hard to push through the rough spots.

This steampunk-esqe mystery is set in an alternate universe where ghosts exist, and North America is still primarily Dutch. Doktor Eschbach is a professor who, when not attempting to get sullen college students to think for themselves, is seeing a beautiful music teacher and writing. But when a colleague of his girlfriend is murdered, leaving a gruesome, incoherent ghost, and no-one seems to be investigating properly, Eschbach must use his slightly rusty spy skills and deft political maneuvering to secretly go back into a line of work he thought he had managed to leave behind. I really enjoyed this book. The world-building is complex, with much of the reader's knowledge about this setting being collected through small comments, conversation, hints and off-hand descriptions. The characters are interesting, and have just the right amount of unpredictability. The writing is understated and simple, staying out of the way of the action, and providing deft tension to the tale. The pacing was very good; not as fast as most mysteries, and it holds the reader back without seeming to, not letting you rush ahead of the main character. I'll definitely be looking for the sequel.

After Jet and Iridium inadvertently destroy the method by which the Corp has been keeping superheroes calm, sane and in a helpful mood, obviously, chaos erupts. Heros split into two factions; some lashing out at the society that kept them chained, and others trying to prevent New Chicago and its everyday citizens from being destroyed by the others. The plot of this book felt a bit splintered and scattered. Unlike the first, there isn't a solid goal for heros and villains. It's all reaction rather than action. Things improved towards the middle, with the pacing evening itself out and the writing feeling more focused. I liked the structure of the book, displaying events from so many angles, but thought some of the new characters could have been introduced better and integrated into the plot quicker.

Once a month, the back of Lillian's restaurant becomes a cooking school. 8 very different people end up learning together, not just about food, but themselves and each other. As one would guess from reading the back of this book, it is a trite, feel-good, happily-ever-after sort of affair. Few of the characters are particularly interesting, and we all know that they will neatly sort out the kinks and bumps in their life's road by the end of the book. The writing was okay, a bit overblown and excitable, but that goes with the genre. It was a quick, easy read, but would probably best suit a reader less cynical than myself.

Travis Wilder was a barkeep in a small Colorado town, Grace Beckett was one of the best medics in the ER. But on a strange, snowy night these two strangers are sucked into another world. Travis ends up with a wandering bard, who has terrible news he means to spread to the local kings. Grace is picked up by a grim-faced knight, who brings her to the castle where The Council of Kings will meet. Hopefully these two and the friends they make will be able to defeat the evil power that is waking up. This book was a bland re-hashing of way too many fantasy tropes and I was wincing at the number of scenes and situations ripped from The Lord of the Rings. Yet I finished it, at first because just as I concluded I couldn't force myself to read any more something just interesting enough happened, and later because I was 200+ pages in and might as well finish it up. There are a few interesting elements here and there, and I liked Grace's character, but nothing original. Every single character is a neat, cookie-cutter version of characters we've seen before. Every situation is overused to the point of utter predictability. The writing is mostly bland with the too frequent wince-inducingly bad sentence. The writing and phrasing is as cliche as the rest. It's a fine read if you just need something light, but don't expect a great story.

This sequel series to Pet Shop of Horrors takes Count D to Tokyo, where he sets up a brand new shop in a multistory mall known as Neo Chinatown. As with the first series, it is told as a series of short stories, each one focusing on one client and their fated pet. "Domestic" features a frightened single mother with a violent ex-lover. She goes to D for a guard dog and ends up with a new member of the family who helps assure her that she is a good mother despite her fears. "Double-Booking" is the story of a unhappy writer who takes in a strange bug that changes her luck around. In "Dust" D's new landlord is getting suspicious about the odd, beautiful people he keeps seeing and starts investigating, suspecting D of slave-trading. Meanwhile, a yakuza underling struggles with his feelings for the boss's lover, whose dog he looks after." "Door" is a side story about D's attempt to move to Berlin after escaping L.A. but before fleeing to Tokyo. But mostly it focuses on D's grandfather, who ran a pet store there during WW2 and sold a pet to one of Hitler's lovers. I admit that I miss Orcot and all his loud, brash, wince-inducing, obnoxiousness. He and D just made for such a hilarious combination. This book seems much more serious, lacking the (often not-so-politically correct) humor of the original. I can tell they are trying to set up Woo-Fei in a similar role, but he is too controlled and cool. His conflicts with D are like mixing water and oil, each element just smoothly evading the other while causing no real damage. Orcot and D's fights are more like vinegar and baking soda; they result in a dramatic, amusing, somewhat-out-of-control, foaming mess. Only time will tell whether Woo-Fei becomes a more interesting character. I love the cover design for this series, with the slash marks revealing hints of the first interior splash page.

Zane discovers shooting Death was a serious mistake. He is forced to take his victim's job, which involves sorting and weighing the souls of people who aren't clearly good or evil in order to decide whether they belong in heaven or hell. It's a heavy responsibility, but he is helped by Mortis, his trusty, shapeshifting steed/car/boat, and a few handy magical tools of the trade. But when he becomes entangled in one of Satan's plots, he may have to abandon Death's traditional jobs of the office in order to preserve the balance of good and evil and save the lady he loves. This is a fun, fast read, with a little touch of weightier moral issues to keep your brain from stalling out on fluff. Most of the characters aren't very developed and a few are almost painfully cliche. (Nature and Luna in particular.) However, the setting and the interesting systems by which the Powers operate make this a compelling read, assisted by the fun gizmos of Death's office, interesting side characters and the digressional stories of Zane's different clients. One jarring thing is Anthony's tendency to write very stilted dialogue. This might make sense for the powers who have little connection to the modern world, but fits most of the characters poorly and pulls the reader out of this interesting world.

Sima runs a lingerie shop out of her basement. She appears to be a successful, respected woman with a handful of close friends and a willingness to help any woman find what her body needs. However, Sima has a secret which has all but destroyed her marriage, her self-confidence and her honesty. When stunning Timna walks into the store and becomes her seamstress, Sima thinks the vivacious girl might be the lifeline and inspiration she needs to heal herself. I began this book eagerly, but ended up dragging myself through it, hoping I was going to find the reason for the compelling cover description and reviews. My main problem was Sima's weak, selfish, bitter, demanding personality and behavior. I found myself disgusted by her so frequently that it was impossible for me to feel anything but fleeting sympathy for her problems. This wasn't helped by the fact that she didn't seem to think anyone else was capable of thinking or feeling. She was dismissive and rude whenever confronted with something that disagreed with what she felt should be happening. As she is the main character and the story is told from her POV, this quickly turned every other character into a bland, tissue paper-thin, statue. At the end of the book, I didn't feel she had made any important personal progress. She was just as disconnected from reality and fair treatment of others as at the beginning. The writing was solid and smooth, but nowhere near good enough to make me think kindly of this book. Perhaps this book would do better with someone who has a different worldview from me, with a different idea of personal emotional responsibility. It certainly has gotten good reviews from many others.

Jae is a young Korean artist, hoping for something that will mean she can make a living doing what she loves. Inspiration comes in the form of a beautiful, drunken young man her friend drops off. It turns out he's a vampire and Jae makes a deal with him: he'll be her model in exchange for her blood. She comes to stay in his opulent house, but soon discovers that there might be darker things happening there than her little bargain. I was excited when I found this at the Friends of the Library booksale, since I had heard good things about it. Unfortunately, I found it a disappointment. From the little bit of info I could find online, this is one of So-Young's early works...and it shows. The pacing is wildly inconstant and the layout uninspired, particularly in the first two-third of the book. Towards the end, the author is clearly trying to make things a little more dramatic and begins using some more advanced layouts with varying results. None of the characters were very interesting, and even though I probably could have read this book in 40 mins, I kept putting it down and doing something else. Most are bland tropes trying to present themselves as mysterious. Character design wanders and particularly in Jae's case, is inconstant. In a comic it is important to use the visuals to help convey character and personality, which So-Young doesn't seem inclined to do. The art is of middling quality. Technically, it is often quite good and So-Young clearly has an eye for style. Her clothing and decor are well planned and executed. But often it feels either bland and blocky or overwrought, with too many layers of effects and not enough use of white space and thoughtful framing of scenes.

Quark acquires a set of alien artifacts in order to sell them, but Odo is, of course, suspicious about how safe they may be. After attempting to examine them, Odo is quickly proven right when Quark and Odo are propelled three days into the future, onto a nearly destroyed DS9 filled with a dead crew. Together the unlikely pair must figure out who invaded the station and how to fix the timeline. I picked this book up because I had read Dafydd ab Hugh'd excellent DS9 novel, Vengeance, but was rather disappointed by this one. Time travel stories are tricky to do, and this one wasn't particularly interesting. Another tricky element is that this was written in the first season of the show (which was abysmally uneven, anyway), meaning ab Hugh didn't have a lot of material to work with, particularly character backgrounds. He chose to make up a lot of background for some characters, particularly Quark, that ends up clashing badly with "canon" backgrounds provided later in the show. His writing also had a tendency to wander, probably due to the very limited character interaction and somewhat monotonous plot. I was also annoyed at how long and wandering the resolution was. It felt like a slow-moving video game: "Let's go to this corner of the station and pick up one object, chat about what else we need, go get one more object, chat, etc." After a couple stops it just became boring. I did like O' Brian's characterization. He was a more fleshed out character, having been on TNG, and ab Hugh makes good use of him.

In a worn-out world where most people live in slums Spaz is even more of a loner than the rest. He has seizures, hence his name, which brand him as a "deef", defective even more so than the Normals. He works for a crimelord, mostly stealing things, and never thought about the rest of the world until he was ordered to steal from a crazy old man named Ryter. The old man unnerves him, but also makes him think. So when Spaz gets a message that his little sister is dying and he decides to disobey the Bangers, illegally cross multiple districts and try to see her one last time, he brings Ryter along. Their adventure is further complicated by a tagalong toddler and an astonishingly beautiful and healthy "Proov" who has wandered away from her wealthy, safe life and into his. This story wandered a lot. Part of it was that the author couldn't quite seem to decide a target audience: older kids, teens or adults. The writing feels dumbed down and bland compared to the plot potential. The plot itself was oddly and unevenly arranged, with wobbly pacing. None of the characters seemed to have been fully realized or given fleshed out backgrounds, despite the interesting possibilities the basic character traits could have been used for. This results in an adventurous band that I couldn't really care about.

I picked this book up at the Trumansburg Library's booksale and was throughly impressed. Anthologies are, by nature, generally a blend of good and bad stories with the occasional gem and/or really terrible tale. In this one there wasn't a single story that I didn't like or thought was a poorly done story. Not all of them were to my taste (For example, "Amends" by H. Courreges LeBlanc wasn't my kind of story, but the framing device was well done and the unusual powers well used.) but none were ones I wished had been left out. Here are my couple favorites: Nancy Jane Moore's story, "Walking Contradiction" was definitely one that stuck with me. I think one of the marks of great sci-fi is when it makes you think, for days, about what was presented. For me, I spend a lot of time thinking about bioengineering and the possibility of genetically modified humans. I've always been uncomfortable about GE, and often thought that the ways it is used seem immoral, against nature. But somehow, Morgan's situation seemed not only acceptable but even positive. If it is possible to have a perfectly healthy blend of the two genders and it is fairly socially acceptable, why not have the best of both worlds? Thinking about that disconnect made me empathize strongly with Morgan's struggle with what is a morally "right" kind of GE. Moore's quiet, sturdy writing was unobtrusive and yet an elegant framework for the issues she presents. "A Planet Called Elvis" by Craig Shaw Gardner was pretty much the opposite. What can you expect from a story about a tourist world where everyone gets to pretend to be Elvis? It was fluff fiction, and didn't try to tack on some half-assed element to hide the fact. It is a story that will make you grin, even as it melts a few brain cells with its ridiculousness. "The Thalatta Thesis" by Charles L. Harness is a rare example of academic sci-fi. It focuses on a graduate student who is stuck with tiny grant to work on developing a microbe that would be able to live on Venus and, hopefully, help terraform it. Harness starts out in a staid, intellectual manner and as his character learns to throw caution to the wind, the story picks up pace and the writing loosens up. The light, sly humor also adds to the story, keeping it from becoming dry. I'm not sure why I liked Aaron Rosenberg's "Inescapable Justice" so much except that the main character felt like a real guy. It often feels overblown and melodramatic, as one might expect from superhero fiction, but Mike feels like the single steady character; a rock in the river. It conveys perfectly his (partly self-inflicted) isolation and disconnect with what others consider reality.

Jake is Heavy, he can control and alter gravity. This power has gotten him in trouble, but also out of it when the government offers him parole if he helps catch and contain and/or kill criminals who also have superpowers. That would be how he ends up facing off with his ex-girlfriend, the beautiful Delilah Jones, who is a powerful Brute capable of increasing her strength to incredible levels and withstand nearly anything thrown at her. She's accused of robbing 20 banks and killing the people who got in her way, but she claims otherwise. Before long, Jake gets swept up in a worldwide power battle and ends up meeting some interesting folk along the way; including an Okie farmgirl Traveller who can appear and disappear at will; a cold, serious, German Fade who walks through walls; and a bland looking man who is a Mouth and can convince you to believe just about anything he wants. This book was a lot of fun. It may not have great writing, but Correia's blunt, straight-shooting style suits his character and genre. The plot isn't anything overly complex or riveting, but it holds up the characters and manages not to stumble into too many holes. The characters and their relationships end up being the heart of this tale. Even though they may not be the most original bunch, it is difficult not to like them. Correia has set up a solid and fairly unique magic system in this book and he manages to do so without the info dumps one often finds in such situations. He provides information in little drips and drabs with a comment here and an observation there. Some readers may find this difficult at the beginning of the story, (although personally I like the hint of a challenge and find it engaging while waiting for the plot to ramp up) so it is a nice touch that there is a glossary in the back of the book for the magical terms. This book also featured blocked B&W illustrations by Zachary Hill, which make for another interesting thing to keep your eyes open for.

Young blue-eyed Chiyo lived with her elderly fisherman father, simple-minded sister and ailing mother in their "tipsy house" in rural Japan, but her life changes utterly when she is taken and sold to be trained as a Geisha. In the okiya, she must learn an entirely different way of life. If she wants to earn her freedom, she must become one of the best geisha in Kyoto. This means abandoning her old identity and learning to become whatever is wanted of her through whatever means necessary. But her path isn't going to be easy, mainly because of gorgeous, jealous Hatsumomo, the only fully-fledged geisha in the okiya. Hatsumomo isn't going to allow a rival under her roof, and as time passes, she beats Chiyo down or ruins her reputation with all of her cunning skill. Can a country girl learn to outthink the kind of worldly, trained women who hinder her attempts to learn? and will she find any allies to help her in this seemingly impossible task? Despite how popular this book has been, I didn't really care for it. I found the writing self-concious to the degree that it became a distraction. I understand that the author was trying to create an elaborate, exotic, old-fashioned sounding voice for his character, but it was overdone. If it had been toned down a little and some of the melodramatic language cut out, it would have been much improved. I couldn't buy the sudden romance at the end either. I felt no chemistry between the characters throughout the book, and the sudden turn-about of affections felt forced. There was no real reason for the characters to be attracted to each other aside from some degree of physical attraction. I understood Chiyo's feelings as a little girl and how that could have become a girlhood crush, and probably she would have looked back on the object of it with tenderness later in life, but trying to make something substantial out of it was too much of a stretch. Golden has a sharp eye for character studies and the ability to write at length about simple lessons without boring the reader, but his plotting and the story's focus often wander, which leads to some problems.

Newly pregnant Alexia Maccon may have been thrown out of her house by her overemotional werewolf husband, but she is not about to let that ruin her, despite the rumors the press is spreading and the loss of her job. While her husband wastes his time getting drunk and leaving others to try and run his pack, she is going to find a way to prove to him that the child is his, even if that means a dangerous dirgible trip to Italy (a very anti-supernatual country) and dealing with the wily Templars. The Templars once bred Soulless people like her to battle the supernatural, and are the closest thing to experts on her odd biology Alexia can find, but they are far from a safe, open group to deal with. Alexia and her companions will have stay sharp and one step ahead of their smart, secretive and heavily armed hosts. This series may not be great literature, but is sure is fun! Carriger tongue-in-cheek humor sometimes leads this novel almost into the land of parody, and she makes no attempt to hide it, while occasionally flirting with breaking the forth wall. (An example, Alexia's step-father comments during a high drama scene "I have died and gone to the land of bad novels.") In the first book, I thought Alexia was a thoroughly uninteresting main character, but by this point Ms. Carriger has fleshed her out and used her to guide the series into touching on more serious elements as well as fooling with caricatures and assorted genre tropes. As Carriger expands her universe, no longer is Alexia heavily constrained by the expectation of a single, tight-fisted genre. Another helpful change from the beginning of the series is giving her fascinating sub-characters to interact with, such as Madame Lefoux.

When heavily pregnant Alexia Maccon receives information from an insane ghost on an assassination plot focused on the queen, she already has a lot on her plate. She's been busy with things like secretly moving into Lord Akeldama's closet, an attack of zombie porcupines, a sister who has been sneaking out to join a suffragette group and possibly most worrying, Madame Lefoux seems worn out and is being very cagey about her newest invention. Nonetheless, Alexia feels it is her job to help protect the queen. But is this plot simply too big and well-organized for one woman, even armed with an emitting parasol, to undo? I didn't find this book as good as the last two, but it is still a fun read. My main problem is that I found Madame Lefoux's actions badly out of character. In the previous books, she has employed a good deal of subtly, cool logic and sneaky, sideways methods in her planning and technology. Such a melodramatic, public display seemed wrong for her. On the other hand, Ms. Carriger did an excellent job with the reveal of Professor Lyall's past. I had guessed at it before, as the author did some nice subtle foreshadowing through the series. Don't believe me? Re-read with the new info in mind. I reckon you'll be impressed. I am also enjoying the evolution of Ivy's character and the newer, more elaborate uses of her in the plot. I hope she gets a bigger piece of the action in the last book.

This book blends classics with speculative fiction, mostly along the lines of horror. Not all the "classic" elements are classic books however; some are based on movies and others on famous people. (Hence the re-occuring logo of Elvis with a tentacle beard.) Some even blend two stories together, such as "Twilight of the Gods". Like most story collections, this one has a mixture of quality tales and ones that never really got off the ground. When I was reading these, I was looking for stories that were a fairly well-done alteration of the original story and had some unexpected elements. It was also important, as in all short stories, for it to be engaging right from the start and be tightly plotted. Not all of these stories met those criteria in my opinion. Marc Laidlaw's "Pokky Man" was badly wandering, and despite the clever concept, the entire story felt like it was trying to build up to something that never quite appeared. I know Joe R. Landsdale generally writes purposefully overwrought, tonuge-in-cheek tales, but this one couldn't seem to find its stride. "Dread Island" struggled to find a tone, and then kept changing it. When the author had a focus, it was good, and the second half of the story was much better as Landsdale had a clearer plot. I was also disappointed by "Little Women in Black" by Rick Hautala because of the character changes. I found all the girls rather petty and whiny, and the writing bland and self-concious. There were also some very enjoyable stories in here, which more than make up for the lower-grade ones. "Death Stopped for Miss Dickinson" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch would probably be my favorite. I felt the reserved style of writing suited the story well, and prevented it from becoming too melodramatic. Dickinson's poetry has intrigued me, so this was an interesting tale. "The Fairest of Them All" by Sean Taylor was fast-paced, smoothly written and tightly plotted, helping to make up for the fact that the concept wasn't particularly original. Lezli Robyn's "Anne-droid of Green Gables" was syrupy and overtly preachy about human nature, but entertaining nonetheless. I was surprised by how much I liked "From Hell's Heart" by Nancy A. Collins since I didn't care for Moby Dick and thought Ahab rather frustrating and un-engaging. But Collins manages it by presenting the story through the character of a wide-eyed trapper, who gives us an interesting view of Ahab as a savior and action hero. "Frankenbilly" by John Shirley was a fun romp with engaging larger-than-life characters. I also enjoyed "Vicious" by Mark Morris. The strong character voice was impressive, and I liked the writer's willingness to break grammar rules and typical story guidelines to do it. Such a method suits a story about Sid Vicious. My father also borrowed the book in order to read "Vicious" as he is a fan of punk music. He said he enjoyed it very much, and thought Vicious's personality and voice was well-done based on the interviews he's read and seen.

Jonah Hex is a Confederate soldier turned bounty hunter, who drifts across the West without any real goal except to stay one step ahead of those who would like to kill him. There are plenty of those and it's not just because he's rough, mean and likes a good fight. His past is darker than that; tanged up in Rebel politics, angry families of those he's turned in, and assorted amoral situations before, during and after the War Between the States. This book collects 9 classic Jonah Hex issues from the 70s. Many focus on individual bounty-hunting jobs he takes on, but some are primarily character development stories. I was impressed with the quality of much of the art. One reason I haven't looked too hard into DC's series' is that much of the art I have seen was very stiffly rendered, with minimal apparent attention to fluid composition. Well, now I'll know that it's worth trying work drawn by Tony DeZuniga or Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. Both of these gentlemen do an excellent job of using subtle angles within panels to keep a sense of motion and drawing characters in engaging poses. Even if Hex is just standing, they do a good job of finding a way to keep it from being stiff and bland, such as having his weight shifted to one side, a leg bent as if about to take a step, or adjusting his hat and/or gun belt. The attention to such details as positions of feet and making sure motions were feasible in enclosed spaces also pleased me. (Garcia-Lopez did the cover art, a good example of the kind of minor detail that makes things look more realistic.) The one artist in this collection I would say I was disappointed by is Noly Panaligan and his story "Breakout at Fort Charlotte". His work was very static, a fact made extra blatant by the fact that it was sharing space with some very talented artists. Some of the techniques he used, such as turning panels on a corner, ended up seeming ham-handed. The writing for the story itself was quite good, so it seemed a shame to end up not doing it full justice. Most of the stories are well-written, although I didn't enjoy "The Lair of the Parrot!" by Michael Fleisher as much. The plot wandered and the author seemed unable to find a tone and stick with it. Some stories felt like they had a few too many elements in them to be easily absorbed in one reading, and some plot threads were dropped. (Presumably, these unfinished and extraneous elements were used in issues not included in this book.) Overall, I highly enjoyed this book and would recommend it fans of anti-heros, well-done comic art, Westerns or those who have been reluctant to try DC's long, elaborate series'.

This comic anthology follows Cotton Coleridge, a cursed gunslinger with a talent for attracting trouble and killing supernatural monsters. The main thread through these tales is his hunt for a way out of the curse. The art styles vary wildly, from the exaggerated caricatures in "A Man, With a Stake in His Hand" to the finely rendered pencil of "Taking Big Medicine", which is nice in that almost any reader can find a style they like. However it sometimes makes the stories feel a bit fragmented. I think the abrupt, tangled feel isn't helped by how short some of the stories are, as little as 3 pages, which gives the writer and artist almost no room to tell a tale. I was impressed by a few of the stories, where the artist made excellent use of layout in the limited space. I liked the idea of the couple short stories that are included, however I was less pleased with the actual result. "The Assay Office" felt in need of an editor with a new red pen, as it wandered badly at a couple points and the beginning lacked the needed "hook" to keep a reader interested. " 'I Kill The Dead' " was much better, but in both cases it seemed clear the editors weren't used to working with prose fiction. Some of my favorite stories in here were: "Taking Big Medicine" by Robert Tinnell, Todd Livingston and David Michael Beck. The excellent artwork makes good use of unusual, sometime almost noir-esqe angles and lighting, while the plot forwards the main story arc. "Tern Bak!" by Andrew Sands and Filip Sablik. This four-page story managed to tell a darkly funny, dialouge-less tale without crowding the pages, in fact the art is almost spacious looking. That takes talent. "Nothing Behind but Sky" by Robert Tinnell and Micah Farritor. This plot of this story would almost be at home in a gothic novel, seeing it transplanted to a western setting was interesting.

This collection of steampunk short stories was nice in that there was a definite attempt to go beyond the commonplace upper-class European setting, and that the authors didn't cling to the technological tropes of steampunk, and instead found their own versions of what might have been. However, the qualities of the writings vary heavily and many of the stories lacked the compactness of plot needed in short stories. There were great ideas and inspiration, but a lack of skill in execution. Many seem unsure of what, exactly, the point of the story was and wandered around blindly before making an abrupt attempt to end the tale. "The Battle of Cumberland Gap" by William C. Dietz was the most extreme case of this. The idea of the American Revolution having failed and England and France squabbling over the Americas even in the Victorian Era was an interesting one, but the story became so bogged down in pointless details not relevant to the main plot and became so contorted by quick changes of POV and too many characters for too few pages that this interesting concept became a difficult read. There were a few tales I really enjoyed. "The Nubian Queen" by Paul Genesse is quite different than the typical flashy, tech-heavy stories we associate with steampunk, instead this feels more like alt-history. Genesse has the careful, light touch for information needed in short stories. He worldbuilds expertly, without distracting the reader from the building tensions of the tale. "Of A Feather" by Stephen D. Sullivan is a fast-paced adventure that lightly uses pulpy adventure tropes (such as the beautiful Russian government agent who is trying to undercut our heros' plans) without trying too hard to convince the reader that they are unique. The result is a fun romp that feels familiar. Sullivan does a great job with character interaction and creating likable larger-than-life heros. "Opals from Sydney" by Mary Louise Eklund is in many ways a classic steampunk story, but the author gives it a slightly gothic feel and doesn't overdo the philosophical elements, letting the reader draw their own ideas. "Scourge of the Spoils" by Matthew P. Mayo is part Western, part sci-fi with a dash of horror. What the story lacks in engaging characters, it makes up in worldbuilding. This situation and land may make the reader feel as uneasy and unsure as our simple heroine.

The U.S.S. Merrimack is a battleship, its crew hunting the Hive, a race of beings that eat more or less anything they come across, so when they stumble into a strange section of space it presents an interesting challenge. This area is filled with oddly stable wormholes and a sub-light colony civilization that doesn't seem to have a homeworld that anyone can locate. Even their newest crew member, a cybernetically enhanced Roman soldier, is confused by how these beings arrived and survived, as the Hive seems to have not noticed them. This book's paradox filled plot is a fun read, although occasionally puzzling and entertainingly tricky to follow. Some of the characters are interesting and engaging, however others fall flat into stereotypes and caricature. I particularly found Kerry completely unbelievable and can't picture her making it through any kind military training. Reading many of her scenes was a painful process. I did like the neat, elegant, slightly formal writing and thought it well suited to the genre. The pacing was good, and the subtle suspense made it difficult to stop at the end of a chapter. I have some issues with the ending: (There are some slight spoilers here) I found the twist ending and undoing of much of the character development to cheapen the story and push me, as a reader, away from caring about the characters. This doesn't seem entirely like a good way to sell the sequel. But I will pick the second book up anyway, and see how it is.

700 years ago a prophecy was made about a witch with enormous talent and raw power. When Lucivar meets a strange little girl who does things with magic that no one should be able to do, he realizes right away that she must be the one the prophecy was about. Soon a tangled web of people running from prostitutes to the Lord of Hell himself begin to arrange themselves to teach and protect her from those who would harm her... or break their loving but tight control over her power. On the back of this book there is a blurb by the Library Journal that describes this book as "based on a reversal of standard genre cliches." I'm pretty sure the only thing this refers to is the fact that most of the men in this book are prostitutes, while countries are ruled by Queens. Unfortunately, the men come off as dramatically heroic underdogs, while all the woman (save our heroine) are whining, petty, weak-willed harpies. So not really all that different, actually. The writing wasn't unbearable, but was more melodramatic than my tastes run to. Most of the characters make me wince just thinking about them, but I found the Lord of Hell rather interesting. I only really finished the book to see what he was doing, and won't be picking the next one up.

The seventh volume of this gruesome and amusing comic has a few more elements carried over from earlier stories than some of the early volumes. Hopefully this indicates the plot is going to keep picking up after the slight slump in the 4th and 5th books. As with the earlier books, the book is comprised of short stories focusing on the group's current client or clients, however these stories are longer, which allows the author to add a level of detail and suspense often lacking in the shorter tales. The first story focuses on the Kurosagi Delivery Service's attempt to handle some ordinary but heavy jobs. They enlist a local robotics group, volunteering to help test out robots. But they are in for an unpleasant surprise when a cyborg-like invention of the group goes on a violent tear inside a shopping center. The second story takes two chapters. When Makino's friend starts hearing voices shortly after getting plastic surgery on her ears, the Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service wonders if the ears might have belonged to someone else. They start investigating, but the truth turns out to be a whole lot weirder than simply ear transplants. The final tale takes three chapters to tell about the odd occurrences around the making of a movie. Makino is working as a make up artist on the film and the rest of the gang get minor jobs as well, which puts them in the perfect place to investigate when cast members start to disappear. I've been enjoying this series and this volume is no exception. The harshly realistic, detailed artwork appeals to me much more so than super stylized artwork where everyone looks like a supermodel. The writing is sharp and witty, helped by an excellent translation. The characters are just fun and interesting people who frequently fall outside the typical comic book character tropes. The detailed translation notes are a great way of making sure that the American reader can "get" the cultural jokes, and are also entertaining.

Dr. Nathaniel McCormick works for the Center for Disease Control, so he's seen a lot of illnesses, but the virus he's assigned to study this time is strange. Nate struggles to figure out the links between the victims and where the virus came from. Nothing is matching up right, patients are dying and Nate worries that the bureaucracy of working for the government is slowing him down. This book is a quick compelling read, mainly due to the fact that the author is not stingy with information on the case, giving the reader plenty of little facts to turn over and an incentive to get to the end and see if they are correct. Many mysteries involve a lot of dancing around and teasing the reader with withheld info, which can be frustrating for a reader who is aware of and distracted by that fact. I didn't like Nate very much, which made it hard to care too much at the beginning. I often don't mind a character who is a bit of an immature jerk at times, it's more realistic and often more entertaining than reading about Mr. Perfect, but as a story told in first-person he got on my nerves. He was so egotistical. The writing was quick and to the point, even a little brusque at times, which I liked. It fit well with the fast pacing and action-filled plot. I would have liked to see it slow down and soften up a bit at points though, as it became jarring after a certain amount of time. I admit I was bothered by the relationship between Nate and Brooke. It is just such an overused and overly expected trope. It didn't feel natural for the characters, instead it seemed that the author was just doing what every mystery writer is expected to do. It would be refreshing to have a mystery where a man and woman can work together on a case without having to end up in bed.

While testing a new military flying apparatus President Custer's son is in a terrible crash. Only he and one other man survive. George Custer Jr. is captured by the Cheyenne, who believe he is the person seen in a girl's vision, which depicts a man who has fallen from the clouds. They dub him One Who Flies, and try to decide what to do with him while George struggles to understand a very different culture and balance what he sees of the Cheyenne with what he has been told. Meanwhile, President Custer sees a chance to go to war and try to wipe out the Native people who have been successfully fighting off the U.S. troops attempts to take the frontier land primarily because of their highly trained fighting dinosaurs. Reading about this book, I couldn't see how it would work. Alternate military history heavy on the social criticism? And with dinosaurs, of all things? But does, spectacularly. I think the main reason it works so well is the casual way that Giambastiani handles the changes in history. It's all very matter of fact, without pointing out changes and only making minor allusions to a few major ones. (Such as Lincoln not having been successfully assassinated.) This even manages to work with such major things as the dinosaurs. The writing is crisp and clear, yet flows nicely and doesn't seem severe. Giambastiani has quite an ear for dialogue and does a good job subtly differentiating between the rhythms of different languages. My one complaint is that George's decision to help the Cheyenne felt rather sudden and contrived. He had been quite stubborn before that point, and it seemed rather an abrupt about-face. It would have been nice if the author had spent a couple pages, rather than sentences, showing the reader why this change came about.

Eff is a thirteenth child, which according to superstition means she is bad luck and inclined towards evil. Her twin brother on the other hand, is the seventh son of a seventh son and will supposedly be talented at magic. Both children have heavy expectations hanging over their head from birth, but Eff's is much more unpleasant. As a small child she is constantly faced with people's fear of her, so when her family announces that they are moving to the frontier so her father can work in a small, rural collage, Eff finds it hard to be sad. It's a chance for a new beginning, one where no one needs to know about the doom hanging over her. But keeping it a secret might be harder than she expected, particularly as her magical abilities grow and won't do what other children's do. This story is quite introspective at times and deals with a lot of complicated issues of society's expectations, which I found interesting and rare in a children's book. It has a slower pace than most children's fantasy and is character-based rather than plot-based. The writing is rather simplified for ease of reading by its young audience, but typically doesn't feel condescending. One interesting thing that I know a lot of reviewers have commented on is the odd nonexistence of the Native Americans in this book. Perhaps this was done on purpose, maybe to make this alternate American frontier seem more inhospitable, but if so I think the author should have addressed it briefly. A simple line where one of the children ask why no people have lived out here would suffice. As it is, it seems more that the author forgot about these people. This book is a little bit like Little House on the Prairie with magic, and I certainly found it an interesting read despite being older than its intended audience.

Cinch Carston is a Stellar Ranger and right now he's investigating a land feud between two rancher-farmers on a rough planet by the name of Roget. He came onto the case when a man's prize bull was mauled to death, but it soon becomes clear that in the case of the biggest landowner in the area, Tuluk, this is about something bigger than grazing land. Tuluk's doing something he doesn't want a Ranger near, and he's got the local authorities in his pocket. Carston is going to have to figure this one out on his own. This book isn't too complicated plot-wise or in creating deep characters, but it was a good light read. I found the characters engaging and liked the setting. The author did a good job explaining assorted items of tech without interrupting the flow of the story. Some of the characters were a bit overly flat and cliche. (Mostly thinking of Baji.) The writing was smooth and neat, rarely becoming overdramatic.

This isn't 1881 Tombstone, Arizona as history books show it. Here there aren't just conflicts of politics and less-than-legal activities, but the silver underground tends to attract people with unusual powers. Jesse Fox, a young man reluctant to admit to himself that he has supernatural powers, rides into town and into the middle of a messy situation. The Earp brothers are at the center of a growing unrest in the town. Things get messier when a holdup out of town goes bad and people are killed, but the townsfolk start to suspect that the Earps are protecting whoever actually committed the crime. When a friend of Jesse's is murdered by one of the factions, he decides he can't stand by and ignore what he knows is the underlying problem: magic and people using it to control others. Bull's writing is sharp and matter-of-fact, making the story seem more realistically solid and historical rather than a light, alt-history. The use of magic is subtle and well-developed. Pacing is good, and although the plot can get a bit wandering, it isn't bad enough to be distracting. Characters are well-crafted and given good motivation. Bull did a good job researching a lot of the people who lived in the town at that point and including them as background characters. If you look up information on the gunfight at the O.K. Corral and check out witness names and people who provided information on the people involved you'll notice a lot of names that show up in this book. Her two main fictional characters Jesse Fox and Mildred Benjamin, a typesetter/reporter who helps Fox, are enjoyable and realistic. I would have to say this is one of the best historical fantasy books I've read. It's just too bad the author doesn't seem to be in any kind of hurry with the sequel.

Lizzie is a reporter with a pretty normal life, but she is unaware that she carries vampire blood that makes her a prime candidate for being the main figure in a prophecy. When she is first approached by vampiric leader Julius while writing a piece on modern-day vampire-influanced culture, she assumes he's as delusional as the folks who wear plastic fangs. When she attends a party he is holding and watches him kill people in a ritual, she decides he's definitely crazy and way too interested in her. Lizzie slips away to her cowboy boyfriend, Tucker, out in rural Wyoming hoping to hide until the creep gets tired of looking for her. Julius has no intention of letting her get away from his control, and has his minions kidnap her and whisk her off to New York City. But what he didn't count on was a pissed-off cowboy with a smart dog, good guns and clever friends coming after him. Mostly the writing in here was pretty smooth, although not exceptionally nice. There were some spots that I felt like weren't weren't quite in-character or used words and ways of explaining things that seemed off. (The book is written in first-person, switching between characters.) I found Lizzie kind of annoying and shallow at points, which was a shame. Tucker was a bit better; although he's rather a stereotypical hero, I didn't get frustrated with him as a character and found him a lot easier to empathize with. The supporting characters were mixed bag, some I loved (Tucker's dad) and some I found overused and uninspired (Sully) but overall they were used pretty well.

Long ago a powerful and cruel vampire named General Gaskell terrified vampires and humans alike until he was finally killed. But as D approaches the land where he once ruled, odd things begin happening that might have a connection to Gaskell's fondness for playing with other dimensions and his highly advanced weaponry. Looking for an excuse to hang around and see what of Gaskell's technology might be left, D signs on as a bodyguard for a train of supply wagons distributing new medical supplies and farming equipment from the Capital to rural towns on the Frontier. It soon becomes clear that the local troubles aren't random, they are targeted at D. Thanks to a powerful supernatural contract, Gaskell isn't as dead as he once was, and the cost for his return to life is that he and a group of other skilled vampires must kill D. This storyline is the weakest so far in the series. It started out quite strong, but quickly devolved into a series of repetitive battles and contrived attempts to add length by having characters make illogical and/or out-of-character decisions that require more pages to get back out of. The supporting characters seem to have a lot of potential, but aren't used. The enemy feel like cookie-cutter characters, they aren't fleshed out sufficiently and many lack solid motivation. Because this plot is so tenuous, Kikuchi seems to collapse back on lengthly descriptions and pointless explanations glorifying D to an extent beyond the normal purple prose of the series. It's adds pages, but shortens the reader's temper. Even in VHD: The Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane I wasn't this annoyed with having to hear about how good-looking D is, and that book involved a serious need for a thesaurus. It was nice to have a story that involved a few more of the Western elements, although I think they could have been used a bit more to help flesh out the setting. Had this been a first novel, I would have assumed the writer had more characters and sub-plots than they knew how to use and ended up in over their head. But it is not. In this series alone, Kikuchi has previously shown talent at carefully balancing large casts and long stories. The result is that the books that make up this storyline feel like the author got lazy. NOTE: In Japan there were 3 books that made up this storyline, but for the English edition the first two were combined, hence the parts 1 & 2 in the subtitle.

Marzi is quite happy working at a Santa Cruz coffeehouse and writing her Weird Western comic in her spare time, but then something happens to severely disrupt her delicately balanced life and mental health: she starts seeing the characters from her comic walking around town. Before long other people can see them too, and her villain, the Outlaw, is making the kind of trouble only a walking earthquake in semi-human form can. It looks like Marzi is going to have to take up her protagonist's part and become Rangergirl. Marzi is a pretty well-rounded character and I liked how psychologically complex the author chose to make her. Her problems aren't popular or common issues for an author to use and it's nice to see they weren't fixed with a snap of the fingers. This is a first novel from an author used to writing short stories and the pacing limps a bit. The writing is solid, although sometimes a bit bland or vague about describing things that it would make sense to spend an extra sentence on in a novel.

This short story collection follows the adventures of Amos Malone, A.K.A. Mad Amos, a huge mountain man living in a Wild West a bit different than the one history tells us about. He rides a part-unicorn with a filed-down horn (that's suppose to keep him from scaring people) and does his best to help people on the frontier who have some unusual problems. Through this collection does everything from Amos chase off an attacking dragon in pursuit of gold to battling a medicine man who refuses to share his great expanse of land with any other being in a magical duel of insults. I had fun reading this book. Each story was entertaining and I didn't skip any, which is rare for a story collection. Amos isn't a complex character and there wasn't really character development going on, but he is like a classic pulp character in that way. Worthless, his "horse", amused me a lot with his bad attitude and role as the sidekick. I did get annoyed with the fact that Worthless' lineage was inconsistent. It is distracting to keep noticing that the list of breeds in his motley background kept changing. The writing isn't exceptional, but it is dryly funny. The dialogue tended to be stilted at times. If you are looking for a light and somewhat silly read, this is perfect. If you want something serious, best to keep looking.

I loved the Vandermeers' short story collection Steampunk and so when I saw this in the bookstore I bought it right away. Unfortunately it didn't have same playfully avante-guard and slightly reckless feel of the first. This book felt like the editors were playing it safe with many bland, middle-of-the-road pieces. What I loved about the first was the huge variety in styles, dates written and subjects. Sure it was a mishmash, but it worked. I'm not sure if this collection did. One thing I really missed in this book were the lighter, pulpy pieces that I think capture the adventurous, creative, dramatic and sometimes flighty spirit of some steampunk. I liked the Edisonades, even if they weren't PC. There were a few highlights in here I feel I should mention: Caitlin R. Kiernan's The Steam Dancer was lovely and touching, Andrew Knighton's The Cast-Iron Kid was a slightly Neo-Edisonion tale that made me miss the few pulpy stories of the first collection, Margo Lanagan's Machine Maid caused me to wonder why we don't see more steampunk-type stories set in the Australian Outback, Shweta Narayan's The Mechanical Aviary of Emperor Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar was an elegant, dreamlike tale, Cherie Priest's Tanglefoot was gripping and convinced me to give her novel Boneshaker a go, and James L. Grant & Lisa Mantchev's story As Recorded on Brass Cylinders: Adagio for Two Dancers was fascinating with good characters.

Emily Edwards was perfectly content being a small-town witch out west, making lucky charms and protection spells for the local folks. But it isn't much of a living, and with the recent influx of popular mail-order spells, she's losing enough business that she is worried about being able to support herself and her adoptive father. She decides to put a love spell on a young and rich man in hopes of not having to worry anymore, but goes just a little overboard and he becomes obsessive. Emily is trying to figure out how to undo it when disaster strikes in the nearby mine- the normally calm zombie miners go crazy. Emily and Stanton, a pompous big-city warlock who wants to bring her magic into the modern times, go to investigate. The problem turns out to be a strange, magic-absorbing rock which Emily makes the mistake of picking up. It embeds itself in her hand, making it impossible for her to do magic. She unhappily sets out with Stanton for San Francisco in hopes that they will find a way to get the damned thing back out, but their road isn't going to be smooth. The resulting road trip involves a number of people who would like to have the stone and don't care if they spill blood to get it. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. The cover description made it sound like romance was a major part of the plot, but instead it remains only a tasteful subplot. I also loved that Emily felt like a girl from the 1860's, not a modern lady in an old dress. Her concerns and decisions felt much more historically accurate than you sometimes find. Stanton was exasperating at the beginning, but as Emily softened up and decided that he wasn't so bad, so did I. The writing hit a few rough spots and every now and then the pacing staggered, but it is highly impressive for a first novel. The dialogue made me laugh a couple times just because it was so sharp and in-character, quite the achievement for a newer writer.

Jason and Whit Fireson are the Firefly Brothers, ringleaders of an ever-changing and successful group of bankrobbers. They are viewed by some as enemies, particularly by the government, but this is the Great Depression and some view them as a stab back at the banks that foreclosed so many homes and the business. In August 1934 the police catch up and the Firefly Brother's crime spree is stopped with a rain of bullets. Newspapers run with the story, but rumors spread that they aren't dead, that they escaped. The brother's girlfriends and family don't which might be true, but they are determined to find out. I couldn't put this book down. The complex, tangled, flashback-heavy plot made it impossible. I liked the characters and their relationships. I found it interesting how many different social circles the brothers seemed to have that never touched. The writing was nice, if a touch over-descriptive at times. The pacing got a little rough now and then, but for the most part I was turning pages as quickly as I could, so it didn't have much time to bother me. A lot of reviewers have commented on the similarity of the setting and today's economic problems, some have even complained that he was trying too hard to draw parallels between them, but as the author mentions in the interview at the back of this copy it was written before our current problems. Interesting to know how alike the problems are, eh?

Princess Lissar's mother was the most beautiful woman anyone had seen, and when she died the king lost his mind. Lissar grows up mostly ignored, but when she has become a young woman she looks very much like her mother. She and her people are horrified when the crazed king announces he plans to marry his own daughter. One night he attacks Lissar and afterward she flees, accompanied by her faithful dog. They wander for a long time, while Lissar struggles with her past, until they arrive in another kingdom. Lissar gets work in the palace kennel under her assumed name: Deerskin. In time the people of the kennel start to suspect that there is more to the shy girl than meets the eye. But will Lissar ever trust people enough to let someone help her? This book was a real struggle to start. The first few chapters were very dull and gave the reader little info and few characters to inspire continued reading. However, after Lissar received Ash, her dog, their relationship was enough to keep me reading until the plot picked up. I have rarely found books that show the inner courage and strength finding a steady furry friend can bring. The story took a long time to build up momentum or create any situations the reader could feel invested in, which I think is unfortunate, as the second half/two-thirds of the book are well-paced, and often emotionally intense. I am glad I didn't put it down, but I thought about it a lot in the beginning and suspect many readers have set it aside before getting to good parts. The writing was a rather melodramatically inclined throughout the book, which bothered me a good bit until the story picked up enough to be a distraction. My overall impression of the book is that with a little more editing it could have been a really amazing tale, but as it is, the flaws are frustrating mars on an otherwise splendid story.

Emile Khadaji was a soldier until he had a moment of revelation. He stumbled off the battlefield and ended up learning a complex martial art from a priest. He decided to do something to stop these wars and military brutality. He uses his training to create havoc for a military base by stunning their soldiers with a poison that will knock them out for 6 months. Before long, the military is on a manhunt, trying to discover where the attackers are hiding. Although the plot may not be complex, I enjoyed this book a lot. The writing is smooth and easy-to-read, without feeling generic or dumbed down. Emile is an interesting character and his wandering path through life is well-paced to prevent it becoming dull. The supporting characters aren't overly fleshed out, but still manage to provide an interesting background for Emile's journey. There are a lot of flashbacks, which may annoy some readers.

When the passenger ship Sirantha Jax was jumping through Grimspace crashed, 82 people died including her lover and co-pilot. The Corp says she did it on purpose, and begin a fierce interrogation program. So when a man walks into her cell and says he can get her out from under their thumb, Jax says yes. He wants her to help form a rebellion and train jumpers who who aren't part of the Corp. But with bounty hunters and the Corp hot on their trail, the rag-tag crew she's joined are going to have a rough ride. Jax doesn't mind. She likes danger. This first book in the series isn't as smooth as the later books, but is still very enjoyable. I don't read a lot of first-person books, and Jax's sharp narration with heavy use of sentence fragments took getting use to. I don't recall it being as obvious in the later books, so perhaps the author realized it was a bit too much. The characters are the strong point of this series, each one wonderfully complex, morally grey and most with unpleasant backgrounds of one sort or another. Jax and the mechanic, Dina, feel a little underdeveloped in this book, but both ladies improve over time. The one thing that I was getting rather frustrated with was that the author kept setting up to explain some more of the hows and whys of grimspace jumping, but kept veering off and not delivering the info.

When a pair of men hit a manatee while smuggling a human head, they lose the cargo. Before long chaos ensues as the person who finds it tries to keep it away from the folks who will will stop at nothing to recover it. As more and more people become involved, from an ex-president to a 102-year old grandmother, and another head appears as well as the famous person who everyone believed the head to be, thing take a turn for the strange. The unusual way this story was written (each author wrote a chapter and sent it on to the next who did the same) has worked surprisingly well. The writing managed to stay surprisingly consistent and it certainly creates a good sense of building tension and shifting loyalties. There were definitely some weak spots, like fact that characters seemed to keep being added to fill in plot holes, resulting a giant, convoluted cast by the end. (Even with the folks getting killed.) It also had a tendency to feel like the plot wasn't getting anywhere, instead the authors just kept tangling things up more. With these chain stories, being polite, not stepping on toes and leaving other author's additions alone just stretches things out without creating a story arc. Someone has to be willing to be drastic and make the reader pay attention. The only one who really seemed willing to walk near the edge was Tananarive Due, who provided the only real dramatic happenings up until the end.

When a solar system's planets begin mysteriously exploding, the Federation immediately assumes that rumors that the Klingons have developed a superweapon must be true. Captian Kirk and his crew rush in, only to discover a band of angry Klingons who think the Federation has a new weapon they are testing on a pre-Warp culture. Neither side believes the other's explanations, but as the conditions in the solar system worsen it becomes clear something must be done to prevent more of this damage before it spreads. According to the Prime Directive, the local civilization is too undeveloped for contact with aliens, but the entire race is on the edge of extinction due to the damage to their home planets. Will Captian Kirk find a way to help these people without violating Starfleet's most basic law? The writing in this book was quite bland and lacked the sense of urgency I would have liked to have seen for such a tale, but is not bad. It certainly made for a quick, simple read. Pacing could have been a bit smoother. I was actually happy with the direction the author took the plot in. I was expecting something that tends to be overused and much more simplistic, with only superficial moral issues, but the result was quite good for a light read. Adding a very "by the book" style captain as a foil to Kirk's guns-a-blazing techniques added an interesting conflict and helped round the issues out a bit better. The Klingons could have been better utilized, it felt as if the author wasn't sure what he could get away with in this book, but I understand that they are a race that many Star Trek authors struggle with writing because the way they were portrayed in the Original Series is very different from the later ones. I felt the author made too many allusions and hints to future Star Trek series. One or two can make your characters seem clever and forward-thinking, but many just feels desperate somehow. It's as if the author is trying too hard to make connections that just aren't there.

In the second volume of this science-fiction adaptation of the classic book The Count of Monte Cristo the Count continues with his revenge on the men who sent him to jail. Here he concentrates on trying to break the mind of Gérard de Villefort, the man who falsely convicted him in an effort to hide his family's own illegal doings. This comic is much closer to the plot of the original book, rather than the anime it shares a name with. One of the main differences is that there is far less gadgetry and physical items used in the Count's plots. He does the most damage with a few choice words and suggestions calculated to frighten and confuse the people he knows very well. It's a much more subtle way of going about his business. The Count is also less involved, he tends to get start the ball rolling and just watch as things fall apart. I didn't much care for the art in this book. It felt too rough and choppy. It was difficult to pick up on subtleties in the midst of the chaotic layout and drawing style, and in this story that is very important to be able to do.

Donal Fleming is only half-human and prefers using his Fane powers to converse with animals than deal with his mother's race. He is quite happy to be a scruffy country veterinarian with a hoard of rescued critters. Even when he rescues an orphaned girl from the street in an effort to find her a better home, he keeps her at arm's length. Cordelia Hardcastle is a widow struggling to manage her harsh, invalid father's estate while haunted by her painful childhood and dodging suitors who want the land and expect her to be desperate. She keeps herself under tight control at all times. The two meet in less than civil circles and neither quite likes or trusts the other, but Cordelia hires Donal to come to her estate and examine a number of exotic animals and volunteers to take the girl in and try to teach her whet she'll need for a more civilized life. After a while, both start to realize there is more to the other than meets the eye and begin a tentative friendship that quickly becomes something more. Something that threatens to rip down all the barriers they have spent a lifetime putting up. This book has a surprisingly complex web of character relationships for a romance novel. There are a lot of side characters and subplots that subtly change the main romance. I didn't find the main characters' romance very interesting, so it was nice that there was something else to concentrate on. I found the writing grating, with a simplistic style and form that meshed badly with the attempt at historical formality of language.

It was pure chance that Megha got up in the middle of the night and overheard her husband and his mother plotting murder. As she listens further, she grows terrified upon realizing she is the intended victim because her parents won't pay her dowry. She impulsively flees, ending up at the home of her husband's cousin Kiran, one of the few people she thinks can be trusted to hide her. As the police and the would-be-murderers turn the town upside down looking for the runaway wife, Kiran keeps her hidden and tries to help her figure out where to go. The two of them become close, and now Megha is faced with the fact that she is falling for him and he feels the same way. However, she is married and still a hunted woman. Is there any way for her to escape this tragic mess of her current life and create a new one with someone she loves? This book was a compelling read, certainly a page turner and difficult to put down. However, I found it rather lacking in substance. I got the feeling it was a romantic thriller trying to be something deeper, but failing due to the constraints of the genre's expectations. With the exception of Megha and a couple side characters, the characters felt underdeveloped and rather dull. The writing was rather rushed and had a tendency towards melodramatic dialogue, which got on my nerves sometimes. This is a good book if you want an easy, captivating read that doesn't make you feel brain dead due to reading it.

When Terri flew from England to help her cousin with last minute plans for her wedding, she thought being put up with the groom's brother was odd, but it just gets weirder. She isn't sure what to make of the secretive, seductive Bastien, let alone his cousin, Vincent, an eccentric stage-actor who seems to be taking his latest role as Dracula a little too far. Before long Terri is falling fast for Bastien and he seems to be thinking the same way, but her painful past makes it hard for her to let herself get close to a man who seems to have more than a few problems of his own. This is very much fluff-fiction, but it was entertaining. I found the characters interesting enough to keep me reading, despite their being stereotypical romance characters. I think the fact that they had some more serious backstory helped with that. I found the romance improbable and ridiculously fast-moving, but that's true of many light romances. The writing was not the strong point of this book. It lacked a sense of the author's own touch, becoming so generic that it stood out. I also found the author's overuse of long, but common, words when a simpler one would suffice a bit distracting. On the other hand, some of the dialogue was pretty snappy, and the humor wasn't overdone most of the time.

When Dylan O'Conner is attacked by a man who injects him with an unknown substance, his life is turned upside down. The man tells him that there are people who will kill him because of what is now in his body and tells him to run. Dylan and his autistic little brother are going to do so when they find a woman who is another of the strange man's victims. The three set off on a panic-fueled road trip to try and find out what the changes they are experiencing mean, but there are folks who would quite prefer that they never get the chance. This book is a simple tale that is far more character-driven than plot-based. The main point of the story is the characters' attempts to figure out what happened to them and deal with the consequences. This is accomplished through assorted scenes and incidents that are relatively self-contained. The characters are each interesting and I found the relationships between them very honest feeling. I particularly found the portrayal of Shep interesting, I admit to not having known many autistic people but I felt that this character was probably the most solid feeling of the three. He didn't seem to be created to suit the plot, as I often feel about characters with mental illnesses. I know from reading other reviews that some folks found his tendency towards repetition annoying, but it didn't bother me most of the time and in my limited experience it is a common thing for people with this disorder to do. The writing was overdone, in my opinion, with the author trying too hard to sound sophisticated and literary. The result was messy, with too much description and a tendency to use overused phrases. Without spoiling anything, I also felt very disappointed with the ending. It was wrapped up too neat, too fast and was not one bit believable. I sort of wish I hadn't read it, because it pretty much ruined any possible respect for the author's plotting skills.

Gabrielle can see demons in a way that other people can't, she sees their real form. She can see the unnatural kind of evil that hangs around them. Trained by a priest in killing these creatures, Gaby's life is spent looking over her shoulder and trying not to stand out lest she is caught. But when Detective Luther Cross starts investigating her connection to a body the cops found, Gaby ends up with a whole new set of problems, one of which is that she finds herself attracted to him. I really liked that the author took a more realistic approach to what it would be like to have the kind of job Gaby has. It isn't shown as glamorous, and Gaby is continually having to worry about hiding what she does. I also found it very interesting that she is shown as religious and believing that her ability to find and kill demons is a gift from God. Most authors try hard to get rid of religion in genre fiction, but the simple fact is that religion is a huge factor in our society. It was nice to see an author write a book that isn't preachy, but acknowledges religion as being a part of a lot of people's lives, including the main character. The writing wasn't bad, but was rather flat and simple. There were also some spots I felt were rather melodramatic, and could have been toned down a bit with better word choice.

Jamie Sommers is a confusing case to his doctor at Terrace View Asylum. He is a young man who will cheerfully and calmly tell stories of narrow escapes from hungry sharks in his days as a sailor, but starts panicking as soon as the sun starts to go down. From what the doctors have found out, Jamie was never a coward and lived a dangerous life few would risk, until he moved to Hawks Harbor. There he went mad under the apparent employ of a strange, old-fashioned man. This book was very enjoyable. Some people may find it too jumbled and oddly paced, but I thought it was a good way of conveying Jamie's mental state. Jamie himself wasn't a particularly interesting character, but the development of some of the supporting characters (Kell and Grenville, especially) made up for that lack. Character interaction and the dialogue felt very real and solid. The writing sometimes took a turn t'wards the melodramatic, but for the most part was steady and clear. This is a supernatural horror story that doesn't rely solely on things that go bump in the night to creep you out. Some of the most frighteningly intense scenes only contain threats, but one can easily see how Jamie would go crazy under the constant threat of his "master". The book is pretty short, but manages to pack quite the emotional wallop into the 250 pages. If you like horror that is almost entirely psychological, you may want to give it a go.

Elena is a vampire hunter and one of the best, due to her ability to sense vampires when they are nearby, a trick which makes finding them a lot easier. When the archangel Raphael contacts her he's not looking for someone to track down a lost vampire servant, instead he wants her to help kill a fallen angel. He believes she can learn to use her vampire-tracking power on an angel too, but Elena isn't at all sure this is a job she can handle. She takes the job; after all, who would refuse one of the most powerful and dangerous angels alive? However after a while Elena is wondering if Raphael might be more of a danger to her life (and/or sanity) than their target. He keeps pressuring her to join his bed, and she's not sure if she can say no. She's not even sure she wants to or how to tell, considering how entertaining he seems to find messing with her head and making her do things she doesn't want to do. The "power =magic =control =sex =power" concept is very common in paranormal romance, but rarely is it done well and in a believable manner. Here it is. Raphael is shown as inhuman at the beginning, his main interest in Elena seems just to be about getting his power-trip from forcing a powerful hunter to do his bidding, slowly and surprisingly believably, becoming a relationship about something other than wrestling over who's tougher. I think the key thing that makes it seem possible is respect. Both characters learn to respect each other's abilities, weaknesses and pasts, in doing so they both learn to start letting go of the urge to try and run the whole world, which lets them realize that their relationship doesn't have to be about control and power. It's very rare for a paranormal romance to use character development so effectively, which makes this one a breath of fresh air into an often stagnant genre. I wish the writing had been as good as the characters. It wasn't dreadful, but it felt sloppy and rushed in a number of spots. It was generally rather bland, I got the sense the author was trying not to make her writing a distraction or stand out, but instead it meant that when exciting stuff wasn't happening to keep the reader interested via the plot and/or characters, the writing had a tendency to drag and get rather dull. Another problematic thing is that both main characters were so unlikable at the beginning and it was very difficult to empathize, like or be interesting in learning more about them until more than a third of the way through. I only stuck with it that far because of the interesting setting, a couple background characters and the fact that I had received it through Bookcrossing and wanted to write a proper review. Had it been a library book I would have put it down unfinished, which would have been unfortunate since it improved so much later on. This is an interesting read, but one has to slog through a tough beginning to get to the "good stuff".

Sam Vimes is mostly happy with his wife and soon-to-be-born child and his job as Commander of the City Watch, but sometimes he misses the "good old days" back before he got the crime in the city under a semblance of control. When a knife-loving psychopath decides to go on a murdering spree, he is only too happy to join the fray. But during a rooftop chase on a stormy night something magic and odd happens: Vimes and his quarry are transported back in time 30 years. Vimes now finds himself penniless, homeless and without a single person who knows him in the messy situation of a city hovering on the edge of a city-wide riot and the supremely awkward one of meeting himself as a over-eager teenage watch trainee. Can one watchman from another time help keep people safe? and how much can he get away with before he has destroyed the timeline so badly there is no way to get back to his right place? This book is definitely much more serious and dark than the other Discworld novel I have read (Guards! Guards!) but that isn't a bad thing. Pratchett easily glides his story between playful, introspective and action-packed moments. One moment the reader is laughing, the next brooding along with Vimes. This quick movement between styles can lead to a bit of mental whiplash, so I recommend taking a break here and there rather than trying to read it straight through. The writing is not fancified and elaborate, but clearly conveys what the reader needs to know while staying interesting. Pratchett has a good ear for phrases that don't sound commonplace or cliche, but make perfect sense and don't require the reader to stop the story in order to try and figure out what the author was trying to say.

The head of the Phantomhive household is a successful businessman, does information gathering for the Queen and is only 12 years old. The secret of Ciel's success? A contract with a demon: the demon will work for him in exchange for Ciel's soul somewhere down the line. Most of the time Sebastian's work involves more mundane tasks of running a household to the whims of an owner who is still a child. But when the situation gets messy, Sebastian's weapons and unnatural powers come out, and nearly anyone who defies him or his master ends up 6 feet under in an unpleasant way. I still don't really get the attraction of this series. I found this book quite bland. None of the characters really interested me, what little plot there is often seems overdramatic, the artwork is rather overly-smooth and neat and the design (while lavish) is very commonplace and standard-looking. There wasn't a sense of an author telling a story with their own flair and style, so much as an author with a huge marketing scheme behind them waving over-used fanservice-y scenarios at otaku who are determined to always be reading the popular series, and who fell for the idea that because it has as many anime/manga tropes crammed into it as it can hold (and some extra that really didn't fit) it must be the most anime-ish anime around. There's really nothing that is easily pointed at as "this is what makes it a frustrating read" so much as a general sense that this could have potential, but is too busy running the characters around in drag, creating crazy (but commonly seen) hijinks that only the Super Awesome Guy can solve, and attempting scenes that seem to simply be there to fuel fanfiction rather than providing anything useful to the series itself. This is definitely better than the anime, which I found so exasperating I could barely force myself to watch the half-dozen or so episodes I felt I had to watch in order to give it a fair try. There are hints of character depth and interesting backstory. It is interesting to look at. Characters have personalities and emotions. Useful stuff like that. The art is mediocre for the most part, but now and then I found some really good panels. I really didn't care for the look of a cast of generic bishies, but in the better panels the artwork conveyed enough emotion, movement and planning on the artist's part that one could ignore the weak points for a bit. I found it interesting that Sebastian's face in this manga is slightly mask-like, his expressions, poses and movement seeming subtly non-human. In the anime they seemed to try and convey this idea of his being non-human by removing all but the slightest trace of personality, resulting in a cardboard-standup type of character. (This idea is tried in so many animes/mangas, and it almost never works. Why do they keep doing it?) This series has possibilities, and may improve in the later volumes if the author can focus on a plot rather than frippery that's meant to... I have no clue what the point of it is. I don't know how much effort I would be willing to put into tracking them down, though, as I don't know what the likelihood is that such changes will happen considering how popular this has been in its current form.

This volume continues the hijinks of a dramatic, suicidal teacher and his class of misfits and rejects. Most of the stories are in the same light, silly and culture and genre-parodying vein as the first. I feel like we got some more character depth going on here (despite the fact that the whole cast are essentially parodies of stereotypes) than the first volume. We got some hints of backstory on a number of characters, and a few spots of seriousness mixed into the franticly paced humor. It was nice to have a guy in the class added as a main-ish character, since before that it seemed to just focus on a bunch of cute, mini-skirted girls. The artwork stayed solid, even improved a little bit. We have a bit more detail here and there, and some interesting screentones are used. I really like how well the art conveys emotion, many comics are so stiff seeming or simply too over-the-top and into the land of the ridiculous. I definitely recommend that this series be read slowly, it's not one you can down in big gulps without the flaws and shallowness of some elements starting to overwhelm the funny parts.

When Sister Helen Prejean agreed to become a penpal to a prisoner on death row, it began a chain of discoveries that have lead her to become a well-known advocate of abolishing the death penalty in the USA. As she got to know Pat Sonnier and subsequent prisoners she learned their side of the story and the problems they often experienced in trial. She met the families of these people and the families of their victims, as well as the men and women whose job it was to legally kill killers, even when they didn't believe it was the right thing to do. This book was intense. By the time I had read about the first death Sister Helen went to, I was pacing my room. I couldn't sit still. The lead-up and worry and minuscule chance that it would be called off were more page-turning and stomach-churning than most books that are written for that effect. Sister Helen is a good writer, although she had a tendency to stick in clumps of statistics in poorly placed spots that were hard to slog through and broke the flow of the story. The other thing that annoyed me somewhat was the fact that she relied heavily on emotional and moral appeals rather than showing facts that backed up her claims, except for these info clumps where it seemed she had gone, done research, stuck it in there, and gone back to her story where we don't see much citation for her statements and they remain unconvincing to anyone who doesn't already agree with her stances. (Well, perhaps not too many folks who disagree with her are reading this book anyway.) Good, harsh look at these secretive systems, but the pacing could have been a lot better.

When D finishes off a Noble, the dying man tells him to "Go to Muma." D has no memory of whatever that is, but is surprised to find his heartbeat speeding. Not being one to walk away from the chance to learn more about himself and his creation, D sets out to try and discover who or what Muma is. He meets a young fortuneteller who says she must accompany him and reluctantly allows her to tag along. D's search leads him though a town where the dead walk to a mass grave, along old Noble roads and finally into the research facility where his father spent ages trying to create a perfect being. D always believed the Sacred Ancestor considered him the only "success" but discovers that he was one of two genetically identical experiments. The other was kept in cryo for a long time but finally awoke. This man has the same skills and looks as D, but living in solitude and convinced that had he been offered all the chances D had he would have been a great Noble leader; his mind and morals are very different. I almost put this book down. I couldn't tolerate the annoying, swoon-y, superfluous hanger-on character of Mia, the fortuneteller. In addition, I'm assuming as setup for the introduction of D's brother, D became trope-like and frustratingly "good guy"-ish. He didn't return to his normal snarky, cocky, sometimes rude, morally-grey self until well into the book. I'm glad I hung in though, as the book improves. D starts to go back to being himself, the writing smoothes out a bit, and the dialogue gets witty and fast-paced again. It was really nice to have a book so focused on D's determination to hunt his father down and put a stake in his heart rather than just another bounty hunting job. Not that I don't find the bounty hunting interesting, but the typically scarce hints of info D (and the reader) get about the Sacred Ancestor each book can be frustrating. Mia doesn't improve through the book; I kept hoping someone would bloody well eat her already! I won't tell you if I got my wish. The setting is much more sci-fi than most of the books, and I definitely noticed a lack of the Western elements in this one. NOTE: This book was originally published as two books in Japan, but combined into one volume when translated, hence the "parts 1 & 2" on the cover. It's also worth noting that the cover description was apparently written by someone who never read the book, as nearly everything on it is incorrect. :-(

What do you get when you mix a suicidal middle school teacher with a class full of unusual students who run the range from cyber-bully to stalker to illegal immigrant? A lot of amusing situations, mixed with more serious ones. Some are in the classroom and others take place outside as the teacher is sent out to help his students. One of my favorite parts was about a girl who had become a shut-in and refused to leave her home. The teacher and one of his students convince her to come to the school, but she then decides not to leave and wants to live in the school. Many of the situations are highly improbable, but amusing. This is very much a cultural satire and pokes fun at many manga stereotypes as well. (For example, the cyber-bully tells one girl "UR just a panty character, so flash em already." This girl appears in nearly every chapter with her short skirt fluttering.) I found myself giggling several times at the highly dramatic dialogue and character stereotypes successfully being played for laughs. The art really stands out. It is bold and almost modern-art looking, with some fun visual elements that resemble traditional asian art. The layout is really nice; clearly showing the reader where to go, but never dull. The author isn't afraid to step his characters outside the boundaries of the panels or use unusual shapes and design, which is nicely complimented with most of the base panels being well-spaced and not too crowded with action. Since most Americans aren't very familiar with Japan's cultural references and most of the wordplay is lost in translation, there is a very handy guide to the references.

These 5 tales are all constructed to sound similar to traditional fairytales with the twist of being told by wizards, but I found that most fell flat for me. "The Fountain of Fair Fortune" and "The Warlock's Hairy Heart" were alright, although bland. The rest felt like a waste of time (luckily they feature extremely basic writing and are very quick to read.) Rowling has never had a way with words, but this was abysmal. The writing was choppy and stilted, with a tiny vocabulary (even for kid's stories) except where a thesaurus seems to have been used to stick in more interesting words that stick out like a sore thumb in Rowling's weak sentence structure. This book looks bigger than it is because of the large, double-spaced font with HUGE margins. If you put it into a normal-ish format this would barely qualify as more than a pamphlet. Dumbledore's notes were obvious and uninteresting, with feeble attempts at wittiness that just made me wince. HP diehards will probably find the scant few hints about the Wizarding World worth the quick stories, but casual fans will probably want to skip.

A wandering rōnin (masterless samurai) and his small son are looking for work. Their flag proclaims them to be the "Lone Wolf and Cub" who are known throughout the area as swords for hire. Ogami Ittō is doing his best to provide and care for his son in while in a dangerous line of work. Most of his jobs are assassinations, which hasn't made him very popular and he has plenty of enemies who would dearly like to run him through. Although I imagine this is a pretty realistic idea of what life was like for a rōnin in the Edo-Period, I didn't find it to be a very compelling story. A most of his jobs were very interesting and contained likable supporting characters, but some lacked drive and left me wondering what the point of including that particular tale was. I also found the lack of over-reaching plot a bit bothersome. Even if all the plot had shown by the end of this volume was a hint of motive for Ogami's choices and what he hoped to accomplish by wandering Japan, I would have at least felt like there was a point to the book. Perhaps it is revealed more in further volumes. I also found Ogami Ittō hard to like or relate to, he often seemed overpowered and smug. A few slip-ups or even a slight show of emotion now and then would make him feel a lot less wooden. I did enjoy the fact that he is not shown as noble and perfectly moral, but willing to sacrifice a good bit of his soul in order to keep his son and himself alive. The incredible artwork does make up for a lot of the story's flaws. Reading these older mangas drawn in heavier, serious-looking, slow-to-create crosshatched pen and ink makes the relatively quick and easy modern process where the main artist creates what is basically a rough draft that is cleaned up by a team of assistants, before being swiftly screentoned and speedlined (if the whole piece wasn't done on a computer) look completely bland in comparison. Just think about how much longer and more care it takes to crosshatch all your shading than rub a piece of screentone against the paper and be done. The artwork ranges from blocky and weighty to light and airy, without losing the artist's own style and the serious feel of the comic. The layout in this volume creates an amazing sense of space despite the fact that the book itself is very small.

The Imperial Army State Section III (AKA the Pumpkin Scissors) is a group is in charge of trying to piece together a war-torn country now that they are no longer at war. Reconstruction of a bombed out land and trying to save the starving, ill or injured people left behind after the war are their primary jobs. It's not an easy job ever, but roaming ex-soldiors and a poor governmental decisions in the past make the populace skittish about trusting anyone who is involved in the government, even if they only want to help. This story focuses on a young and still idealistic noblewoman who leads the Pumpkin Scissors group on their missions and a scarred veteran who joins them in order to try and do some good in a far different capacity than his wartime job as a berserker-like Anti-Tank Trooper. The first line of this book is "There is no war, but peace has not yet graced the land... This story is about the stage in between..." I found that a fascinating idea, as few books and even fewer comics deal with this messy situation. It manages to be very serious and even grim, but not get bogged down into depressing, angsty melodrama. The unpleasant situation the country is in is something the characters don't waste more than a comment or two complaining about, instead they are doing what they can to help without expecting much in return except that people will be better off because of it. The art is a definite strong point as well, it's heavy and varied yet graceful and smooth line art with solidly drawn, substantial characters give it a weight and depth that I find rare in shōnen series. It's almost more seinen in that aspect. The amount of screen tone is very balanced, not too heavy and crowded as in many mangas with an action element, and so are the speedlines and crosshatching. The character designs stand out without resorting to ridiculous and unrealistic additions tacked onto a bland base. The panel layout makes for a nearly effortless, smooth read, with excellent visual pacing to show you where to stop and pay more attention or glide through fast-paced fight sequences. It's very easy to just keep turning pages. A few spots in the translation seemed a touch rough grammatically and sounded a little off, although I had trouble figuring out exactly why in some cases. I think this is not uncommon for translated stories, as the arrangement and structure of each language is different and they don't always easily match up. I admit that at the end of this book I still didn't know why the group calls themselves "Pumpkin Scissors" which bothered me a bit. Perhaps I missed it or it isn't explained until a later volume. There were also a few spots where I had to turn back a couple pages and re-read to make sure I didn't miss something because of an overly fast transition from place to place. All in all, I highly enjoyed this and will keep an eye out for more. I may also have to try the anime, I know FUNimation streams at least some of it online at their website. However a look at screencaps from the show seems to indicate very typical, normalized, CGI artwork without the same weight of the comic, which is a touch off-putting. It doesn't have the same distinctiveness and looks the same as a hundred other series.

This is a simple tale without complicated plot twists resulting in long, tricky explanations. It is about a little kitten and her family. It follows her day-to-day dramas, including the ones around a large, pushy black cat from around the neighborhood. The art is too cute and perfect for expressing the dramatics of feline emotions. There were times (like during Chi's tantrum about having her food eaten by another cat or her excitement over the "muilk") that I was laughing out loud simply over the perfectness of the artwork. There were several panels that if someone printed them up poster-sized I would have an really hard time not buying. Definitely a book filled with "awww" moments and a few that will tug the heartstrings of cat-lovers. Those familiar with manga may be surprised to notice that it is in color rather than the more common black-and-white. I haven't a single complaint about this book other than it makes me want more!

Cameron's life was changed by her nose job. She went from being teased and tormented to being a popular girl with a cute boyfriend at her new school. She is happy at last. But when her little sister Allie is scheduled by their parents for the same surgery, Cameron starts to look at herself again with criticism. Why settle for "pretty" when when "gorgeous" is an option with just a little more body work? This was an interesting tale of two sisters and their ideas of modifying themselves. It also had some interesting and thought-provoking info about people's perception of plastic surgery. It is wrapped up in a cute, teen chick-lit-sounding cover description and story beginning which I imagine drags in readers who might not pick up a more serious seeming book about the same subject. It was very well written considering it was the author's first book and that some of the characters are rather shallow people. This isn't the same as the author not creating proper 3-D characters, instead it is a case of the author skillfully showing that some people are just interested in things we consider shallow in our society, yet encourage young people to obsess over. An enjoyable read, and one I would recommend to many people who like a quick read mixed with some hefty subject matter.

When Dr. David Henry's wife gave birth his son was perfect. His daughter had Down syndrome. He tells himself that the best thing for her is to send her with a nurse to a facility for the mentally ill and inform his wife that their daughter died in birth. Caroline, the nurse, can't bear to do it and she disappears, taking the infant with her. Each family attempts to go on with their lives, but they are secretly bound to each other. This was a gripping story, and difficult to put down once you start reading. However, I didn't find it as inspiring or wondrous as some reviewers apparently did. I was rather appalled by how weak most of these characters were. They seemed all to willing to simply throw their hands up and flush their life down the toilet. I was frustrated by this, and rather angered. I know I am more stubborn than most folks, but I still found it unbelievable that all these people just sat back, got a drink, and watched things fall apart. Then they had the nerve to whine about how hard everything was and how unfair, which mostly all worked out happily in the end. Shouldn't a family try to help one another through these incidents rather than sticking their heads in the sand and saying "It will go away. Just wait a little longer."? How often does that work? My problem wasn't as much the decision to send away the little girl, I know that was common in the time period this was set in, but with the inability of these characters to do anything for each other rather than themselves. (Even Caroline has some selfish reasons for keeping the little girl, although hers bothered me the least.) The writing is solid and the characters are varied. I did feel sometimes that the author was trying too hard to write something that could be called "literature" rather than mere "fiction." It felt a little forced and lofty sometimes, while the actual language and sentence structure weren't always strong enough to support all of what the author dumped on it. Despite it's flaws, I enjoyed this book. I thought it did a good job of showing that things we consider completely unacceptable (giving away a child) isn't necessarily an act of evil.

As the first known celebrity werewolf, Kitty's life has been a little nutty. It just gets worse when the US Senate decides to take the recent uncovering of the supernatural seriously and sets up a hearing where they want her to testify. Kitty has always made it a point to stay a radio host and not let her picture go public, but she will be appearing on national TV. When she shows up in D.C. the vampire mistress of the city makes Kitty stay with her. Kitty is initially uncomfortable with the arrangement, but a place protected by vampiric security turns out to be rather handy; as the rest of the time she is dodging crazy tabloid reporters and trying to avoid getting into trouble with the conservatives who want to start a modern witch-hunt aimed at the supernatural community. I am not usually a fan of modern paranormal fiction, but I am very fond of this series. Kitty is a great character and actually develops throughout the series, which is rare in this genre. The witty, often sarcastic voice the author writes Kitty in makes for a fun read. I also enjoy many of the supporting characters, and those that reoccur experience the same character growth as the main character. I have read and re-read this a lot of times, and it still makes me laugh. As a side note, I find it impossible to read Alette's character and not picture Olivia Williams as her. Alette's brisk, no-nonsense attitude paired with with a serious, elegant air reminds me of Williams very much.

For the employees of the Summons Department in the Ministry of Hades, dealing with death is an everyday job. When someone who is suppose to die doesn't, it is their job to find out what went wrong and sort it out. Asato Tsuzuki seems like a slacking, careless guy to his new partner, Asuka, but as they start investigating a few odd cases he discovers that there is more to him then meets the eye. Although certainly entertaining, this manga has nothing that really stood out in the first book. Each chapter felt isolated, there was not even a hinted plot arc, which leaves me wondering what the rest of the series could consist of. Is it all just a "case of the week" approach? That is the feeling I get, and the characters simply aren't strong enough to hold my interest for more of this. I did think the translation was excellent, there was only spot that seemed drastically "off" in terms of grammar and word use. The art is basic, standard imported manga. The character designs and style decisions are pretty much the same as a hundred other horror/mystery stories. There is no real sense of the author having her own flair, the whole story seemed formulaic. The panel layout is clear and simple, but rather uninteresting. This is an entertaining read if you have a little time to waste, but don't go in expecting a masterpiece.

In a harshly regulated future universe first pictured in the TV show Firefly, there are always a few rebels. One run-down little transport ship named Serenity has a crew comprised of mercenaries, thieves, fugitives and an elegant prostitute who is the only one who makes her living legally. This is the group readers follow on heists and general trouble-making. This comic helps to explain a few of the loose ends that come with a canceled TV show, while throwing a few more mysteries at it's fans. I love Firefly. I tend to curse in accented Mandarin, spontaneously re-enact or recite scenes with friends and family, and sometimes drawl Broad Browncoat so badly that I have been asked if I come from down south because it is the closest real dialect to the slang featured in the show. I mention these facts because it means I am a very biased reviewer when I say that this is an excellent comic. I have been very disappointed by most comics that are based on a TV show. The mediums are very different and the "feel" of the show is almost always lost. Not so in this case, this still feels like the 'Verse fans know and (obsessively) love. There are some things lost; readers will find a lack of striking scenery, gritty "wild west" styling seems to mostly be abandoned in favor of a harder sci-fi story and the comic layout feels rushed and crammed, even a touch claustrophobic. The art is some of the highest quality I have seen in American comics, from the expressive, yet technically solid line art to the well-balanced colorization. Characters are instantly recognizable and the dialogue is spot-on. This is definitely a book no Browncoat should pass up.

Sethe escaped slavery, but it left heavy scars on her body and mind. All the evils that she thought she had put from her mind come back with the arrival of a man from her past and the sudden appearance of a young woman named Beloved. Sethe struggles to figure out what to do with herself and those around her, without succumbing to the madness she has experienced before. This book felt very fragmented and scattered, perhaps this is an attempt to show Sethe's confused state of mind, but it makes it hard for the reader to follow what is going on. The characters felt inconsistent and I was often confused by what the relationships were between them. The writing is solid, if occasionally sliding t'wards purple prose. I admire what the author was trying to do, and she wrote something that is very powerful at points, but the scattered feeling of the overall book detracts from her message.

Lily Owens' mother died when she was four and she has been raised by a violent father and their hired help; mostly Rosaleen, a strong-willed black woman who is determined not to let the racists in their town stop her from doing what she has a right to. This attitude leads her to fight back against the town's 3 deepest racists, and she ends up badly beaten and in jail. Lily decides she's had enough, springs Rosaleen, and they set off to a town whose name is written on one of the few belongings Lily has of her mother's. They are taken in by three beekeeping sisters and Lily learns not just about beekeeping, but about what it means to have a family. I devoured this book in a couple hours. Once I started I just couldn't put it down, the characters had such a hold on me. They seemed so real and fleshed-out, like people who actually might exist. The writing was graceful and unobtrusive, a smooth flow of words that conveyed information clearly without being wordy.

Nicholas Vail has had strange dreams about a girl he has never met since he was young. His family says she is their debt, put upon the family after the life of a sailor was saved by a strange wizard, and that one of them will meet her and have to pay the debt. At a party in London he sees her, even though she is a woman and not a little girl anymore. When they fall in love both are left wondering what the debt is and how he will have to pay it. A mysterious book that her brother found may hold the key to their fate. This book was highly mediocre. The writing was dull and slow, making it hard to stay focused on the story for a long period of time. The characters were not very fleshed out and there was a feeling that the author assumed you had read basically the same sort of tale often enough that there was no need to explain or describe anything. I was also bothered by the "magic solves any problems (including plot holes)" attitude, I like some method and structure to my magic. It was a mildly interesting read, and probably a good choice for a day when you aren't in the mood for a serious book.

Lestat is now a famous rock star, but his life started back before the French Revolution. This vampire has lived a wild, rampant life and vampiric death no matter the age. He has never been content with staying in one place and has travelled around the world, collecting riches and connections as he went. This sequel to Interview With the Vampire far outshines the original. The decade between them gave Rice the ability to actually write something that didn't sound like hyped-up melodrama written by a teenager who has never read classic vampire fiction. She also gained the skills to create an interesting character, who is not clearly "good" or "bad" and is frequently full of contradictions. Lestat is greedy but charming, immature yet knowledgeable, thick as a brick while being clever, but somehow it all rings true. The writing is still wobbly and simple at times. Rice seems very fond of overusing "exotic" words to try and make her vampires exciting. (A technique which takes away from them instead.)

April wishes she was more like her sister: tough, tall and athletic. Instead April is shy, short and overweight despite her attempts to be otherwise. Brenda doesn't seem very affected by their father's cruelty towards the family, but it hurts April and seems to be breaking their mother's heart. April doesn't know what to do, or if there is anything she can do to try and help keep their family from shattering. This was a mildly entertaining novel and a page-turner, but very forgettable. The writing was not bad, just blah and uninspiring. The characters and scenarios all felt stiff and overused, they became uninteresting after a while. This is probably a good book for some distracted reading when you don't want to have something too fascinating.

Every family has it's issues, and the Sades just a bit more so because they are vampires. Grandma Marie works as a dominatrix, sneaking sips of her client's blood, Liliana works in a morgue and drinks the blood of people already killed by other means, and Louis Sade himself still tries to live like a classic vampire in a mansion, hunting on the streets and seducing his victims. Not a particularly interesting book, and although the characters have promise, they never quite achieve a high enough level of life (or un-life) and personality to hold the reader's interest. The author also couldn't seem to decide if she was writing a story about classically evil vampires or the now-popular nice vamps, meaning it feels scattered and the reader is left scratching their head, trying to figure out what the author is trying to accomplish. The writing is dull and is hard to follow due to convoluted sentence structure.

Airi is a diligent high school student who is addicted to romance shows and books. All she really wants in life is to marry the perfect guy and have a beautiful house when she grows up. But her life is turned upside down when she loses a mirror passed down through her family. By the time she locates it, a little boy from a magical kingdom has appeared and claims the mirror is a portal between her land and his. Not sure that she believes him, she takes him home and that is when things get weird! Although low on plot and high on melodrama, this sweet Shōjo manga was fun to read. The art is solid, for the most part, and some of the costumes look awfully tempting. If I thought I could persuade my little brother to cosplay as Aram (the magical kid) I would totally make his little outfit. The character design is well done, making folks who are related look alike, but not so alike that it is hard to tell who they are. Fans of Shōjo, and particularly of Hino's newer series, Vampire Knight, will want to give this short series a try.

Yukari is now definitely going to be a fashion model for Paradise Kiss. She is excited and happy, which surprises her. However, when her parents find out they forbid her to see any of her new friends. She tries to explain that it is the first time she has ever really cared about something, but it doesn't sway the adults. In a fit of anger, she runs away from home and decides to quit school. But where will a pretty teenage girl who has lived in a book-learning world go and what will she do with herself? This book is interesting and hard to put down. Yazawa is a master of stories that explore characters discovering themselves as separate from social and parental expectations. The art is lovely, and the character design and costumes really stand out from crowds of cutesy little girls and bishie guys that that populate most manga.

Violet has three remarkable talents: she can draw, she has an eye for design and she can sew amazing clothes from scraps and leftovers. She would love to become a fashion designer, but in her small, Depression-Era town the closest she can get is working in a thread factory. When she is in an accident and loses her dominant hand, her life seems over. She can do none of the few things that made her life bearable, so she decides to become the second person to throw themselves off the Golden Gate Bridge. She gets on a bus, but her bad luck seems to follow and she is stranded in another little town, where she meets a pair of musicians who just might give her a reason to live. Although the beginning of the book was a little trite, it quickly became an amazing book, one of the best I've read in a while. The writing is exceptionally smooth and beautiful, making for an almost effortless read. The characters felt real and solid, and their interactions genuine. The plot was quick-moving but not rushed. Violet is an inspirational heroine, while remaining far from perfect. The ending was a bit muddled, but the few slight flaws didn't detract significantly from the whole story.

Setsuna is struggling with his life, his unreasonable temper and feelings for a girl who, although she is his blood sister, he rarely sees. He feels like he is a terrible person, but can't seem to change! It turns out that the problems may not all be his, as he is the reincarnation of an angel who defied God and was cast out. He is trapped in a battle of good and evil spanning lifetimes, but he can't tell which side he's suppose to be on. The back of this book made it sound more like an examination of good and evil and the grey area most of us are in, however it is definitely a "battle of Good Vs. Evil" book. This is very typical of fantasy and an overly common plot. There really wasn't anything in the initial book that made it stand out. Even the art is very typical (might even go so far as to say unoriginal) for early 1990's manga. This style might be more eye-catching in today's market, as it is different then most newer manga.

Do you like pirate stories? If so, you should read this. Even if you don't care for traditional piratical tales this might be worth a try, as not all of these are typical novellas. You've might get space pirates, living creatures as ships, enchanted puppets as crew members, and magical powers, plus the traditional sea monsters, peg legs, scars, swords and pistols. This collection was very entertaining and the general quality of writing was very high. Plots could have used a bit more work, many stories felt squashed or like I was only getting a fragment of a whole story. These short story collections are a great option as we get into the new school year, as each tale can be read quickly and then the book put aside until later when you have time for another adventure. They are also excellent for finding new authors to try.

Santiago has had a reoccurring dream about leaving his simple life as a shepherd and traveling to Egypt's pyramids, whee he digs in certain spot for treasure. A dream interpreter tells him to go and see what he finds, and what the treasure might be. It seems like foolish dream, until the day he finds himself setting out on an adventure that will change his life and the way he thinks. This story was amazing. The writing is simple and elegant, with a steady, slow-moving plot that will cause you to lose track of time as you are drawn into Santiago's adventures, wanderings and discoveries about himself. The story is very introverted and personal, fans of drama and action will need to look elsewhere. The characters, even the ones we barely know, feel so solid and realistic that it is hard to picture that they are mere figments of the author's imagination.

Louis is a 200 year old vampire. He has lived many lives, known many people and other vampires, struggled with balancing his remaining human thoughts and tendencies with the necessities of vampiric life and seen history being made. Now he is going to share his story with the world. I have to admit to being disappointed with this book. It is not that the plot or characters are poorly crafted, indeed, they are quite interesting. However I had a strong dislike for the writing in this book. It was extremely melodramatic and Rice clearly had an absurd love of wordy, overused, cliche terms and descriptions. When there were not enough ridiculous, but well known, terms already in the English language, she seemingly spliced them together, resulting in some completely foolish words when used as descriptions for vampires. (When Louis called himself a "supermortal" I groaned aloud and hit myself in the forehead with this book. Luckily it's not very large, so no harm was done.) Having read Lestat, which is not a masterpiece but not bad either, I guess you can tell what an advantage 10 years of practice gives. I recommend those interested in Anne Rice's works skip this one and just start with Lestat. You don't need the torture.

Young Edmond Dantes is doing quite well for himself; he is likely getting a position as captain on a ship and is shortly going to marry his beloved and beautiful Mercedes. His life takes an alarming turn on his wedding day, when he is arrested on false charges and thrown in jail. After spending 14 years locked in and nearly forgotten, he manages to escape. He swears vengeance on all of those who ruined his life. To accomplish this he will need money, power and a title. This book was a fascinating read and most of the characters were memorable and interesting. The characters were complex and realistically flawed. This very character driven and the goal of the novel seems to be to examine the human mind and morality in general. The pacing is steady and plot even. My only real issue with this book is that the writing was very stiff, slow and detailed (more so then many other novels of the period) and holds the reader up rather badly. This style of writing would be fine for a novel with more plot points to mentally chew over in the back of the mind, but it doesn't work as well for this one.

CAUTION! SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS! After Alucard and Anderson's epic battle comes to a bloody end, readers receive indisputable proof of the demise of a beloved character and the simultaneous introduction of a confusing new bad guy. The Hellsing Agency is going to step up to a new level of violence if they want anyone to come out this mess alive- or undead in a few character's cases. This book has the typical lack of plot, but bored readers who skip chunks of the dark, crowded pages may be missing something. There is some interesting verbal sparring going on this volume and even some signs that Alucard may actually have a personality. Shocking, I know! If you have fought your way through the difficult going of previous volumes and found your interest flagging, this might be the book to revive some of your interest.

Bobby was a classic city boy. He spent his time playing basketball, hanging with his friends, and trying not to get caught graffitiing. All that changes when his girlfriend Nia tells him that she's pregnant. Bobby is determined to do the right thing for his kid and his girl, but how does a 16 year old, who can't even figure out what to do with himself, figure out how to make those kinds of choices? This short book is a very compelling read. It alternates between what happens after the baby, named Feather, is born and while Nia is pregnant. It doesn't come off preachy or as a morality tale of why teen pregnancy is evil. Bobby's no nonsense, "just the facts" attitude is conveyed well, but so is the fact that he really cares for his daughter and her mother.

CAUTION! SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES! After Kitty and Ben's dramatic escape from a vampire-worshiping, werewolf-sacrificing cult based in Las Vegas, they go home hoping things will settle down. However the leader of the cult set a fire demon on their trail, and now the unusual duo of radio host and lawyer must figure out how to stop it, preferably before it Denver goes up in flames. This series is not great literature, but it is very entertaining. I like the main characters, and there is good, steady character development in each book. The writing is smooth and an easy read, with a fast-moving plot.

At the birth of Sarasa and her twin brother Tatara a prophecy was made that one of them was "the child of destiny" and would lead their oppressed people to freedom. Everyone has assumed it will be Tatara and so he has received training to be a warrior. But when their village is raided and Tatara killed, Sarasa takes his place by pretending it was she who was killed. Can a girl who was ignored much of her life lead an army? The art in this manga is very simple and sparse, reflecting nicely the harsh, dessert way of life these characters lead. It isn't particularly beautiful and is awkwardly drawn at times. This manga's strength isn't it's art, but it's fascinating and gripping story. The plot sucks you in and doesn't let go. It is fast moving and a definite page-turner. The panel layout isn't fancy looking but pushes the reader onwards smoothly and simply, meaning you don't ever stop and struggle to figure out what panel comes next.

To most of the world Shawn is practically dead. He has been paralyzed since he was an infant and is unable to move any part of his body, he can't even control his eye movements. For all anyone knows he is brain-dead and that is what most people believe. But trapped inside his own body is a smart, sarcastic and witty teenage boy who's life may be in danger. His father feels that his son is suffering and is contemplating ending his son's life. This was an interesting look at the issue of euthanasia and what can or should be done for people who are not able to communicate their own wishes. The writing was solid and the characters were interesting. The plot is rather slow moving to start, but picks up speed. This book is slim and a very fast read. I recommend to anyone who is interested in a book from an unusual point of view.

This manga is a collection of short stories set in Victorian England told from the point of view of maids, including the title character, Shirley. Each maid has a different view of the world and of her employers, giving this book a different feel then most Victorian stories which deal with the upper class. Although this collection of stories feels rather fragmented at times, I highly enjoyed it. The stories are sweet and entertaining, nothing too serious. The art is simple and elegant, in keeping with the overall feel of the stories. The outfits are quite historically accurate, no corsets as outerwear or ridiculous things like that!

In this lush cyberpunk manga there are a class of people known as "clovers." These people have the ability to manipulate and control technology and metal, for example building a machine that can perform teleportation or creating a gun apparently out of thin air. The government has ruled that clovers with strong powers are dangerous and must be kept in isolation. They must never grow attached to anyone or discover that they can turn their powers against normal humans. I'm sure you can imagine how well that plan works. I have tried about a half dozen mangas by this group, and disliked most of them. This one, however, was very good. The art has a great sense of space, is very consistent and smoothly transitions between places, times and viewpoints. The character designs are a bit bland, but the interaction between them feels very realistic.

At age 7, Bryce met Julianna. For years now she has loved him, meanwhile he can't stand her. She wants to be friends (and maybe more), he just wants her to GO AWAY! Come 8th grade, as Bryce's attempts to chase her off finally seem to be working, he starts to wonder if maybe she isn't that bad-maybe her even likes her a bit. But at this point Julianna's had it with his attitude and trying so hard to get him to like her- maybe she's just going to walk away. I only found this book mildly entertaining. I really didn't think much of Bryce, and I found his behavior very childish most of the time (more so than seemed realistic for his age.) Julianna was a Mary Sue, the kind of perfect (yet out-there) girl that every tween girl thinks is cool and wonderful and wants to be. Yet she felt really flat and personality-less, like she was just a cardboard template for tween girls to put themselves into so they can imagine being her. (Face it, this book is not meant to be sold to guys!) The concept is sound, and the writing is alright for teen chick-lit. It's just the lack of any interesting characters that made it frustrating. Every character in the book is a huge cliche.

Christie's second anime convention seems like it shouldn't result in much drama before she gets there. On arrival it turns out she traded last year's insanity and crazy friends in for some new types. Rather then a super-possesive boyfriend, her comic's artist is her roommate, but she has plenty of her own issues. And although she's kicking herself for it, Christie keeps hoping she's gonna run into the great guy she met last year. Will this year's con end up in shambles, or will Christie manage to make this convention without tons of drama? This is by no means great lit, but it is highly entertaining! Cliches and convention horror stories come together and make for a read that makes it impossible not to laugh. Many of these incidents will strike a chord with readers, even if they haven't attended an anime convention. (I particularly loved the wall maps that read "Don't know where you are? Neither do we. Good luck!")

42 year-old Stella is bored and tired of her job, her house, her friends, her whole life. So when her son goes to visit his father she decides on a whim to go on vacation to Jamaica. She wants to take a break from herself, and life's complications. She wants to dance, swim, tan and flirt without forming an attachment. But things get complicated when she falls for a guy half her age. She struggles with feeling that it is wrong to be with someone young enough to be her son, and desperately tries to fight her emotions off. But will she succeed, particularly when a handsome young man is trying to convince her not to? I really enjoyed this story. I was a little apprehensive at first because, like Stella, I am not usually comfortable with romances with large differences in age between the two parties. However this is definitely a story about true love, not lust, and both age and discomfort about the age difference are just two more hurdles this couple have to figure out if they can get over. This book is not for those who want elaborate sex scenes and mushy declarations of undying love, both parties in this book are too sensible and the story is grounded in reality, not fantasy. The only reason the book lost a star was because of the tendency of the author not to use punctuation when Stella was feeling emotional. Although this conveys the "stream of consciousness" feeling well, it made it very difficult to read. Right near the beginning there is a sentence that takes almost an entire page! I can see that scaring away a lot of readers.

This comic picks up where the popular TV show Angel left off. The show ended with a last stand-style battle that we didn't get to see the result of. The result is not pretty. A good chunk of California has been relocated to Hell, some of our heros are dead and others not what they seem to be. Everyone is concentrating on staying alive, and worrying about saving the world is getting put off until a later date, which makes it a prime time for the forces of evil to make their move. I knew not to expect too much from having looked at the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, but even then this was a disappointment. Mostly I keep wondering "Where's the plot? Surely they didn't forget to invent a plot?" Apparently they did. The art is pretty wobbly too, I didn't even recognize some of the characters, I had to figure out who they were by looking for a place where someone addressed them by name. The line art is so messy and rough (it looks like a first draft, IMO) it is practically painful to look at, and the drawing of faces is so...blobby and misshapen. The characterizations are the only thing that worked out. I was very irritated by the fact that a third of this slim book is drawings and a script for the comic of all ridiculous things. Talk about padding your book with filler! Recommended for die-hard Angel fans only, no one else needs this torture.

Kate has had leukemia since she was a tiny child. Anna has been Kate's donor every time she needs transfusions or bone marrow, but when the girl's parents want to take one of Anna's kidneys and give it to Kate, Anna puts her foot down. She hires a lawyer, and sues her parents for the right to decide what will happen to her own body. The characters are great, the writing effortless to read and the plot interesting and fast moving. It was great, until the ending. It was a complete deus ex machina cliche and really stupid to boot. The bad ending completely ruined the rest of the good reading experience for me.

Alucard returns to England, and is faced with not only the invading Nazi army but a crusade lead by the Roman Catholic Vatican. He and the last few members of Hellsing are trying to figure out how to end this, when Father Alexander Anderson shows up and wants a showdown between himself and the famed vampire Alucard. This volume is snooze-worthy until right near the end, when Anderson decides to take drastic measures against Alucard. That gets interesting, but we only see the very start of it, as most of the action will take place next book. The art in this volume is actually quite nice for Hirano. It is still too packed and jumbled, but the basic lineart and composition are improved. I do have to admit that this manga series makes the best use of heavier and lighter lineart I have seen.

Mary Boleyn arrives in court as a recently married 14 year old girl, and quickly catches the eye of the king. He family sees a chance for fame and fortune, and try to set her up as his mistress. They succeed and Mary falls for her new lover more and more. But this dream-like state doesn't last. As Henry VIII looses interest in her, Mary's family decides they can't let this golden opportunity escape. They need the other Boleyn girl, Anne, to take Mary's place, and Mary must help her sister keep it. I admit to being disappointed in this book. I didn't buy that Mary would stay such a simple, naive **coughfoolishcough** girl when she was so enmeshed in these tangled plots and the whole character felt really faked and unbelievable. This dislike of the narrator's seeming stupidity made for a difficult read. I did like Anne, although her behavior was generally outrageous at least she had a personality. Most of the other characters I struggled with, they felt very flat most of the time but had sparks where I cared enough about what was happening to convince me to grit my teeth and keep plugging away at it. There were a few supporting characters, such as William Stafford, who I really liked. The writing was very bland, although most was not outright bad. The author frequently wrote in a very modern voice and used words that felt wrong for the time period. (The repeated use of "sexy" was driving me up a tree!) The dialogue often felt stilted, and again seemed too modern. For die-hard fans of historical fiction about the Boleyns or Henry VIII this might be a fine read, but I think many historical fiction readers will find themselves frustrated. It might also be a good book for people who don't read historical fiction, as it has such a modern feel.

For as long as she can remember, Chass (but that's not her real name) has been on the run with her mother. They change identities frequently and rarely stay in one place for long. Her mother won't tell her about her father. She won't say why they are always on the move. She won't even tell her daughter what her real name is. This fast-paced book was an entertaining read. It wasn't really very good, it is very shallow and for the most part I didn't care what was happening to the paperdoll-like characters, yet as a casual read when you know you are likely to be interrupted a lot, it is fine. It is also a very fast read (likely due to the fact one requires few brain cells to process it) and can be finished in a couple hours. The general air of melodrama was bugging me by the end though, and fact that the plot twists were totally obvious.

At school, John is pretty normal. He has a few friends, a girl he'd love to ask out (but doesn't think he will), struggles with algebra and plays badly in band. What no one knows is that to him, none of this is real. What is real is going home to face the man who is not his father, hoping today is a good day and no one will get beat up. What is real is wondering why his mother doesn't seem to see any of it. What is real is knowing that, really, no one knows anything about him. I'm not sure what I think of this book. On the one hand John is a witty and likable narrator, the characters felt realistic and the pacing is not bad. But I felt no connection to the story. I really just didn't care about any of the characters or what was going to happen. I repeatedly put the book down for days (unusual for me) and had to force myself to get back to it. Perhaps this is due to John's own feelings of isolation, but it made for a difficult read.

CAUTION! SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS CONTAINED IN THIS REVIEW! At Hellsing HQ the battle against the invading vampires is not going well. Pip, Seras and a handful of mercenaries are attempting to hold off the entire invading force, with little success. When the Nazi's play their trump card, a woman with the ability to make humans see whatever horrors she wants them to, the fight turns tragic for a couple people. This volume started terribly, with dull action scenes, but improved when Zorin started using her mental attacks. It is quite fascinating to have a look at what these characters fear most, and gives us a little character development (a thing sorely lacking in this series.) Sadly, it didn't last, and then it was back to boring, crowded action scenes I usually just skim. The art is still heavy, and rough at spots, but improved a bit in this volume.

Yukari's parents have always pushed her hard to study and go to a good college, and so that is what she does; she studies all the time. Even though she doesn't have a clue what she want to do with her life, she is determined to do what is considered useful. But when an eccentric group of young fashion designers ask her to be their model for a school fashion show, she is forced to confront the idea that sometimes you have to make your own decisions- and your own mistakes- as well as figuring out that sometimes the people who seem very different from yourself can become people you care about. This sweet shojo manga is very well drawn and the deceptively simple plot moves along at a smooth, quick pace. The characters are great, very realistic and interesting. This is very much character driven, and the emphasis is on the relationships (and not just romantic ones) between the characters. It is almost impossible to put this book down, so make sure you have time to read the whole thing!

Vampires are not a problem for humans- unless they go rogue and kill humans. Hunters take rogues out, and that was Nicholas' job until he went rogue himself. Now he is on the run, but when he sees a girl being attacked by another rogue he steps in to save her. Jo falls for her beautiful savior, but he is in jail with a death sentence now that the authorities have caught him. Can Jo prove that he didn't commit the murder that earned him rogue status? or will the man she loves die? I am not even going to start on the love at first sight bit, or Nicholas' mental abilities ripped straight from Twilight. (Seriously, they are almost identical, right down to the bit where the love interest is the only girl in the world Mr. Handsome Vamp can't read the mind of.) Let's just stick with the dreadful, dragging writing and characters made out of tissue paper. Stiff dialogue and poor descriptions only added to this books problems. Then there is that issue of a book needing a plot... something the author appears to rather struggle with, considering the tendency to wander off into some unknown place where plots apparently don't exist. If you are looking for something mind-numbing that you can half read while doing something else, or just for a laugh (or cry) at the drivel that can get published this book is a fine read.

Manny is trying to find a place in the world. He wants a way out of the life he has now; the one where he has to dodge his abusive father and stop him from killing someone, his brother who can't keep a job, his sister who sneaks out of the house to see boys against the household rules, and his mother who compulsively cleans everything as if it makes anything better. This book just utterly failed to grab me. The characters were flat and hard to care about, for all their troubles. The writing was dull and it was hard to keep reading. The pacing was wobbly. Although this book is only 216 pages long, it felt like it took forever to read.

Austin is a high-school football star, is popular with the girls and has a mother who cares about him, even if she is a bit distracted. So why does his life seem so dreadful? Why is it so hard to drag himself out of bed in the morning? And why is the one girl who he thinks might be able to help him save himself ignoring him and playing hard to get? This was a very realistic look at the kind of person who suffers from depression, but keeps fighting to hold onto a normal-looking like at the same time. As I have been one of those people, it encourages me to see to a teen-oriented book that deals with depression in a more realistic way then the books that involve someone coming visibly unhinged to their friends and family. The writing was solid and smooth. The characters were real and gripping, with an unusual amount of depth for a story under 200 pages.

CAUTION! SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS CONTAINED IN THIS REVIEW. England is under attack from masses of vampires, and the Hellsing Agency's big gun, Alucard, is busy out at sea. The remaining few people in the Agency are struggling to survive a vampiric assault unlike any seen before. There is some very witty writing in this volume. There sadly are also a lot of totally mindless action scenes. The art had some wobbly moments, and is very crowded, but otherwise it is pretty solid.

Christie's first anime convention is not going well. Her driver was insane, her roomies are aggressive and now her boyfriend keeps flirting with skimpily-clad cosplayers! When she finally falls apart and ends up throwing herself at a guy who seems nicer than her good-for-nothing guy, the drama in Dramacon really heats up. I don't normally like rom-coms, but this was just hilarious! Every convention horror story and cliche rolled into one makes for a fun read. The characters are great and very realistic. The art in this manga is solid, if not exceptional.

Sophie was the eldest of 3 girls, which everyone knows means she is doomed to be unlucky. She is pretty sure that it is just her bad luck turning up again when she is cursed by the evil Witch of the Waste and turned into an old woman. However when she becomes a cleaning lady for the famed Wizard Howl, she thinks perhaps she might be able to find a way out of the curse and maybe even out of her bad luck! I had seen the anime that was based on this book before reading it, so I basically knew what was going to happen. Even so, it kept me on my toes with interesting plot developments and laughing at the absurdity of some parts and Sophie's dry (but witty!) humor. The characters were great, and more fleshed out and interesting than in the anime. The writing is quick and light, but drags you in and won't let you go until you finish the story.

George was taught medicine by his grandfather long ago, and he has always used it help others. But when a stranger turns up on the Reservation and starts using bad medicine to hurt people and make trouble, George decides he has to fight back. When he kills a white man in a fight after the fellow tried to steal his prize horse, George must go on the run from the US government while still trying to protect his friends and neighbors from an unknown attacker. This was a very interesting story, and a definite page-turner. I found most of the characters interesting and the creative ways that George eludes the Government were entertaining to read. I really liked the character interaction and dialogue, they felt very realistic. My one complaint was that both the Native Americans and the US troops and government were rather stereotyped.

CAUTION! SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS CONTAINED IN THIS REVIEW! An enemy ship is drifting out at sea, and all the crew have been turned into vampires. They are lead by Rip Van, a vampire with a great deal of battle experience. The Hellsing Organization decides to send Alucard to deal with this problem. The trouble is how to get him onto the ship. More than half this volume is taken up by an "epic battle sequence" which is... really boring. I can only think of one scene in this book that was interesting or even amusing. This is definitely a new low for the series.

When she was 16 Esme Lennox was placed in a psychiatric hospital. Over time and generations she stayed there, forgotten by all but her sister, who now suffers from Alzheimer's and can't properly communicate with anyone anymore. But when the hospital closes Esme has to be moved, and Iris is contacted. Suddenly she is responsible for a Great-Aunt she never knew she had, and who is regarded as crazy, although not a danger to others. I read and finished this the day I got it. I was just going to read a few pages and see what it was like, but I simply couldn't put it down! The characters are very well-constructed and full of little details that make them come alive. Every now and then the wildly changing viewpoints and skewed memories threw me for a loop, and a quick re-read was needed, but I enjoy a book that it takes brain power to keep up with. The plot is not very elaborate, but it has a simple beauty to it. I highly enjoyed this book, and definitely recommend it to readers who like strong characters and lifelike character interaction.

Edward and Alphonse are brothers who are also Alchemists; they can change and mutate matter into other forms. However they broke one of the most basic laws of their profession by attempting to raise the dead, and in punishment Al's spirit was confined to a suit of armor and Ed lost an arm and a leg, which he has replaced with metal prosthetics. The two brothers set out to find the Philosopher's Stone, which they hope will provide enough power to change them back to their true forms. The characters are quite basic at this point, and the plot seems rather thin. The art is also basic, blocky, definitely not "pretty" and a bit rough around the edges. On the other hand, the character interaction is very good, and the characters themselves show promise. The plot may improve, and the setting is good.

Caution! Spoilers for previous books in the series contained in the review! This volume begins with Alucard, Seras and Pip battling their way out of South America in order to return to England and confirm that the group of Nazis-turned-vampires are, in fact, the ones responsible for the recent attacks on the Hellsing Agency. We also get to meet the series's apparent bad guys for more than momentary scenes, and get a first feel for the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. Vol. 3 was an improvement, but this one slid back down the slope. Moments where I care what is happening to the characters are EXTREMELY sparse in this volume, and quite frankly the whole "renegade Nazis" plot is overdone and simply not interesting. The characters are in desperate need of some character development, even just through interaction with other characters. The artwork also got rather sloppy, and the panel layout (which has never been strong) was very dull and had little ability to "pull" the reader along into the plot. Pacing is still wobbly and uneven.

What if a little girl named Alyss fell into our world and told her story to a man named Lewis Carroll? What if he wrote her story down as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and had it published? What if and adult Alyss had to return to Wonderland to fight the evil queen Redd? How could she return and would she be able to find a place in the land of her birth? The answers to these questions are the basic premise of the book. If that didn't seem like enough of a plot to keep going for over 350 pages it is because it isn't. The plot drags horribly and the amount of filler tangents that have little to add to the book far outweigh the true story. The writing is very poor and sloppy, heavily overusing certain words and lacking any kind of pacing. My dreadful reading experience makes me wonder if I am reading the same book so many folks are raving about!

CAUTION: POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS BOOK IN THE SERIES CONTAINED IN THIS REVIEW! Sir Integra Hellsing has summoned a meet of the twelve powerful people who run the British Empire from behind the scenes to discuss worrisome vampire attacks that don't fit with typical vamp behavior. While the leaders discuss what to do and Alucard and Seras re-arm and relax, a pair of vampires who have carefully plotted an attack on Hellsing HQ put their plan into action. Still a definite lack of plot, although I can start to see a hint of one by the end of the book. I think this volume is still in the introductory stage, as we meet more characters and get to know them a bit. Alucard and Seras are hopelessly cliche at this point, but Integra and Walter (her older butler/bodyguard/vampire hunter) are just getting more interesting. The art has some wobbly moments and is rather badly crowded. The panel layout is still poor, but flows a bit better than the last volume. The story's pacing felt off, sluggish at times and then badly rushed.

Fablehaven is a magical preserve for magical creatures and well hidden from the public. When the caretaker of Fablehaven is pressed into service as caretaker of his grandchildren, they soon figure out that it is not a normal place. But how much will Kendra and her little brother, Seth, discover? And are the risks of knowing too much worse, than the risk of not knowing what exactly is going bump in the night? This entire book felt like an elaborate rip-off of the Spiderwick Chronicles. I kept thinking, "yep, read that scene" as I went. I won't even bother listing what disappointed me, I'll just mention the one thing I liked: The writing wasn't half bad, and I liked the use of sayings that aren't overused in fantasy lit. The descriptive writing was very well done, and I could imagine the scenes vividly without the descriptions killing the pacing.

Yukiteru has always kept a diary on his cellphone, but when a god who controls time starts a "game" it undergoes some massive changes! The game is kill or be killed, as each person involved must battle the others using their special future diaries that tell what will happen in short increments to track the others. The last one alive becomes a god, and plenty of folks will literally kill for that kind of power. I really found this quite boring. I simply couldn't like any of the characters and they seemed so thick about the possible uses and manipulations of the future diary! I kept thinking "Ooh! Try X, I bet it will do Y!" and the main characters just kept running around on foot, sobbing about how they're gonna die and not even slightly trying to accomplish anything useful. If you enjoyed "The Hunger Games" you may want to consider giving this a go, however if you have read any sci-fi or other futuristic books or films you will likely be sorely disappointed by the seeming refusal to use the hugely useful tool they have been handed.

Hellsing is a secret British agency devoted to eliminating vampires. The leader, Sir Integra Hellsing, a descendant of the great hunter Dr. Van Hellsing runs the operation with an iron fist and looks good doing it. Her primary weapon against the undead is a pinnacle of genetic engineering, an all-powerful vampire named Alucard, who is bound to the family's service. Scrappy, newly-vamped Seras Victoria is still learning about the ins and outs of hunting the undead, but Alucard believes that in time she will be a valuable addition to the team if he can just get her to mind his orders! I admit that I was quite prepared to detest this manga, as I normally can't stand the recent, fangless "noble and harmless vampire" that has invaded so-called horror stories. Fortunately Alucard and Seras are neither of these: they are cruel, strong and bloodthirsty, the last only kept in check by loyalty and a supply of willingly donated blood. This manga is the first in the series and it has some definite flaws going on, most noticeably an extreme lack of plot other than "Let's kill stuff in the bloodiest way possible!" Panel layout is less than interesting, and the author apparently has issues with the concept of leaving some white on the page. Alucard is every vampire stereotype rolled into one, but the other characters seem promising. The author did a great job on the facial expressions, which often seem overly-exagerated in manga. These are much more realistic. The author also clearly put a lot of time into character design, right down to the pins on the outfits and maker's seals and notes on the weaponry. This is definitely a start that encourages me to give the next few a go.

This book is a collection of 3 novellas (short stories). The first, "Dark Nocturne", is about a young man who has set out to a distant village to discover the origin of a strange, haunting song his father sang on his deathbed. He, D and several other wanderers end up in the middle of a heated conflict over the succession of the designated singer of this song. The second, "An Ode to Imagined Fall", focuses on a pair of lovers, one of whom has been chosen as a sacrifice to a powerful vampire. An old woman decides she wants to stop this gruesome tradition before she dies, and hires D to discover the vampire's hiding place and kill it. The last tale, "Legend of the War Fiends", tells about two warriors who were created by feuding vampires only to kill the other. Neither has any wish to be a murderer, and they hope D can discover a way to stop it before one of them is killed. I found the amount of detail and emotion in these short stories amazing, as most short stories don't seem to have enough room to really develop the characters and plot fully. Kikuchi's writing had the same flaw as normal: a tendency towards purple prose. However, it rather suits the series! Each of these short stories had an individual feel to it, and they each had specific things that they did well (for example, the character interactions were exceptionally witty and well done in "Dark Nocturne") but they held together well as a collection. The pen-and-ink illustrations scattered through this book are lovely, and have exceptional composition and attention to detail.

In Kira's village, anyone who can't work due to a birth defect or injury is killed. Kira was born with a twisted leg, and her mother fought and won permission to allow her to live. With her mother's death it seems Kira might be killed after all, unless she can prove to the Council of Guardians that the skills she does have are worth enough to offset those she lacks. This interesting novel is very hard to put down! It definitely makes you think a lot about how much it makes sense for a community to try and support those who can't help themselves, and how seemingly less than useful talents sometimes need to be looked at in a different light. The characters are very real and I admit, I got rather attached to some of them. The plot is slow-moving, but steady and interesting enough to keep your attention. The ending felt very abrupt and rushed, which was very disappointing considering the high-quality of the rest.

CAUTION: SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS VOLUME APPEAR IN THIS REVIEW. The boy Dr. Tenma sacrificed his career to save has grown up- and become a serial killer. Horrified by deaths he blames himself for, he sets out to discover why this happened and see if he can stop this dangerous young man. This series showed promising plot in the initial volume and has truly stepped up to the plate with this one, introducing fabulous new characters and a new mission for our Doc. Now the question looming for Vol. 3 is, what happens when we start to swing? The art in this series is not pretty, it is too harsh and focused on the ugly parts of life we all try to ignore, but is very polished and it is clear the artist has put a lot of work into it.

Sam has all the normal teen obligations and worries, but now he also is a single father. Max's mother couldn't deal with being a teenage mother, but Sam wouldn't let her but the baby up for adoption. After a while Sam feels like he is slipping, he can't possibly handle all of what people expect him to do! Although this seems like it should be an interesting twist on teen pregnancy novels, it definitely fell short. The characters were poorly fleshed out and extremely contrived (I was rolling my eyes at a good bit of the backstory.) The plot... well, it never actually turned up, so we basically just watch Sam and a couple teen single mothers take care of their kids and whine for all 150 pages. I was sorely tempted to bash my head on the table while trying to finish this book. Save yourself the pain and don't try.

Thomas Jefferson may have written a document freeing America but he still kept slaves. Harriet, despite being his slave, has always lived an oddly comfortable life. She never had to do a lot of work, and is well-educated. This is likely because Jefferson is her father, although her mother refuses to confirm it for her. He offers her the same deal he has offered a number of other young slaves (who look suspiciously like him), her freedom at age 21. But if she chooses to leave, it means she will never again have contact with anyone she knows and that she will have to abandon her heritage. The plot and characters of this book very well done, but I wish I could say the same about the writing, which is very amateur. The word choice is limited and highly repetitive. The author also overuses special punctuation, mostly "!" and "..." The writing was stilted, and felt overly picked over for ways to make it more "interesting" by the addition of superfluous words, details and punctuation.

Miracle's mother was hit crossing the street, and thus Miracle was born from a dead woman. She has been raised by her father, a distracted author, and her grandmother Gigi, a professional psychic. She has always believed what Gigi says is true, so when her father disappears and Gigi says he melted, she believes it. She also believes he's coming back, and will do anything necessary to help him do so. I couldn't put this book down. The fast-moving plot and some interesting characters made it difficult to remove your eyes from the text. The writing is unobtrusive and smooth, making it easy to get lost in Miracle's confused world. On the other hand, I didn't care for some of the characters, mostly Gigi, who I felt were stereotypical and dull. The ending also felt rushed and sloppy compared to a lot of the rest of the book.

Dr. Tenma was an up-and-coming young doctor with exceptional talent working for a top notch hospital. But as he starts to see the corruption among the management, who treat those with power as important and neglect the welfare of those they can't boast the treatment of, he starts to buck the system. The turning point of his career (and unknowingly, his life) is when he treats a boy who was shot in the head instead of the patient the hospital assigns him. But the act of saving that boy causes evil events in the future. The plot of this manga is fast-paced and holds no punches, emotionally sending the reader around the block as it changes mood page to page. The characters feel very real and solid, as if they have a life outside the main story. Although one book isn't really enough to tell how well-done the plot is, it is very promising. The art is not beautiful. It is simple and more like american comic book art then most elaborate manga artwork, yet it suits this story and reflects the cold, harsh setting and bleak life of these people well.

Russel dates girls to keep his cover. Kevin can't let his team find out that he's checking them out. Min says Terese is just a friend. But being gay and alone is hard for these teens, so a couple who find out about each other start the Geography Club. No one in the school is interested in that, so they can meet in secret and talk about problems the rest of the school doesn't face. I had some issues with the main character, Russel. He made decisions and choices that meant I really couldn't respect him as a person. I also found him very shallow and overly concerned with appearances. The other characters and the plot were well done, but my growing dislike of the weak MC meant I enjoyed the book less and less as it went on.

Missouri is in the midst of a drought, and during the Depression that becomes the straw that broke the back of the Wynn family. Sadie and her family leave to Texas, where her father can get work as a fisherman. Sadie hates this new life, where she lives in a one-room shanty, spends hours cleaning shrimp for a few cents and her disabled father is stared at everywhere he goes. Is it possible she will ever be able to call this place home? I really enjoyed this book. The writing is simple and lyrical and the characters are interesting, with just enough flaws to make them seem real. My only real complaint is that the pacing of the story was very uneven, sometimes rushed and sometimes dragging into the land of boring.

When a fisherman turns up dead, possibly murdered, his tiny home island is shocked and horrified. Blame quickly falls on a Japanese American man whose family had feuded with the dead man's family for many years. As the murder trial runs, everyone in the town thinks back on the history of the people of the island and the relationships that occurred, trying to understand why this happened. I found this book boring, to be honest. The writing was dry, the characters distanced, uninteresting and hard to care about and the whole book had an air of taking itself far too seriously, and trying too hard to be "literature" rather than mere fiction.

When Lia's great-grandmother dies she leaves her mother a house called Graymoss. The house has been haunted for generations and no one can live in it. Lia's mother refuses to believe the house is really dangerous and wants to move into it. Lia will have to use the original owner's diary and a worn copy of a collection of Edger Allen Poe's stories to figure out how to drive the evil from the house. The first of Nixon's book that I read and the one I still think is the best. The characters are solid and fleshed out, the plot avoids the tendency of many of her books to hit dead stops where nothing interesting happens, and, as a bookworm, I enjoyed the fact that most of Lia's sleuthing is done from home or the library using books in order to figure out how to chase the ghost out, rather than a Nancy Drew-ish method.

Gareth is a little black cat...who can time travel. He and his owner Jason go on 9 adventures, from Ancient Egypt to the 13 Colonies during the American Revolutionary War. Along the way they meet many different people and many different attitudes towards cats! When I was little I thought this book was the cat's meow (pun intended) but not so much now. It seems quite flat and the historical fiction is heavy on fiction. Only a few characters were still interesting. A good book for the younger set, but critical thinkers and readers will want to look elsewhere.

When Roberta was a little girl, her mother was murdered and no one ever caught the culprit. It isn't something she thinks about a lot, it's the past and it can't be changed. She spends her time working with her father at his video game arcade in a run-down mall. When a number of hate crimes occur at the mall and fingers start to point, particularly at the violent and frequently racist games, Roberta decides to try and help keep her family and friends from getting caught in the cross-hairs. But is it possible these crimes are somehow connected to her mother's death? From the back of this book I was afraid I was going to get a Nancy Drew-ish "kid-decective" story. I was very glad that it wasn't. Instead it is an almost introspective book, there is a lot more time spent on how things affect people and their livelihoods than on clues and mystery.The characters felt realistic and solid, with a good number of flaws and issues of their own. The plot is well-paced until the end, which was a bit rushed. The writing was a bit flat now and then, but for the majority of the book it is well-done.

Young Griet is a maid working in Vermeer's household. Although she begins only doing menial tasks and cleaning Vermeer's studio, in time she starts to work secretly as his assistant, culminating with her modeling for his painting Girl With a Pearl Earring. This popular book is one person's imagining who the girl in this painting was and her connection to Vermeer. I have to say I was a bit disappointed. I had heard so many singing this book's praises, but I don't think it was all that special. It is certainly well-written and the characters are interesting, but for me it lacked the special *spark* that makes a great book different from one that is just very good. I didn't feel much of an attachment to any of the characters, and that made it difficult to care overly much about what was happening to them. This book was enjoyable and entertaining, but not perfect.

Benedick and Beatrice have always despised each other. Every time they meet insults fly and tempers flame, while their friends listen with worry. However, as a challenge some of their friends decide to do a little matchmaking, and see if they can bring an end to this "merry war." But a pair of innocent lovers, Hero and Claudio, get caught in the tangle of lies, tricks and disguises, giving a villain a chance to split them. An excellent and amusing comedy! The swift bickering and not-so-subtle insults are well-done, not heavy-handed. It is a very approachable Shakespeare story, and there is less slang then many, so it is a good intro for someone interested in reading Shakespeare. It is also quite short, the play itself is less than a hundred pages. I also recommend the movie version with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, it captures the feel of the story nearly perfectly.

A groups of travelers are attacked and brought to a strange castle whose master is trying to resurrect his son, Shibito. When he finally succeeds his son has no knowledge of his past life, so he appoints one of the travelers, an pharmacist with few skills outside of his job, to keep an eye on him until he regains it. When Shibito leaves the castle, can a mere pharmacist keep him from from indulging in mindless violence and help him discover his past? This book is the first of the series, and the first half is terribly boring. It just throws new characters at the reader with little introduction or plot. The second half however shows real promise and the start of an interesting story. The characters seem like they could be quite interesting and the plot (while rather derivative of Frankenstein in this book) has a lot of potential. The artwork in this manga is wildly inconsistent; some is truly beautiful and some parts look like rough sketches. I was really bothered by this. If you can create nice artwork, why settle for poor work? The fight scenes were kind of crowded and there was a sense of excessive dramatics during them.

Every morning, very early, Emmett gets up and lights a fire. He makes coffee and uses this quiet morning ritual as a time to think about everything and anything. His family, people he has met, past events, future hopes, his pets, work; all of these are things that he thinks about and the subject of this book. For a book with almost no plot this is remarkably engrossing! I spent most of a day on a camping trip being "anti-social" and reading in the tent because I couldn't seem to put it down for long. The characters feel so real and the chance to delve into this person's mind was fascinating. Reading this celebration and embracement of the ordinary and less than ordinary parts of life makes you realize just how special these little things can be!

Kirby is an incredible dancer. Brendon can play music without having been taught. Nancy can do tricks with her mind: knowing what is going to happen and knowing what someone is thinking or doing. All of these powerful skills were left to the children by their grandmother, but can they handle them or will they only harm themselves and others? I first read this book when I was a kid, and still enjoy it now. The characters can be a touch cliche but are interesting none the less. The writing and the plot are a bit simple but enjoyable.

Nola has always had vivid dreams and an active imagination, the escape provided by them is the only thing that have kept her from taking her own life as a way out of her abusive relationship. What she doesn't know is that she is a Creator, one of a handful of humans whose dreams and imaginings actually exist in another universe. But that world is under attack, and with only a couple Creators willing to believe in the thing their mind comes up with, the people of this other world must find a way to contact Nola and enlist her help to repair their universe. This book has been sitting in my "to be read" stack for over a year and I finally got around to reading it. I can't believe it took me so long! It was a wonderful read. The characters were very real and the creation and manipulation of one world through the dreams of another, although not original, is extremely well-executed. I kept making myself slow down and stretch the book out because I didn't want to leave the two fascinating worlds. As a semi-lucid dreamer (I admit to sometimes losing control or simply letting it go because I want to see what happens) I found the idea of writing a book based on a series of controlled dreams very interesting.

Jouglet is many things; spy, minstrel, advisor, manipulator and friend. This clever person's latest plan? To bring a poor knight and his sister up in the world. One will be done by convincing King Konrad to take the young knight under his wing, the other by a perfect marriage. But will Jouglet be able to keep from being caught in webs of complicated plots that fill the court? I am very critical while I read books. I constantly edit, change and adjust, I enjoy finding clearer ways to say things, better word choices and making minor plot and character changes. It is a rare book that I become so enthralled by that I can put aside these busy mental exercises, and become absorbed in the story and writing. This was one. The writing is smooth and well-paced, the plot (while convoluted and complicated) was not hard to follow. The characters felt real and solid, they also felt well-suited to the time the story is set in (fictional 1200's.) My main complaint is that the plot has an occasional tendency to feel rushed. There were also some supporting characters I would have liked to see more of.

When a ship comes in to port it is an opportunity for the local street urchins to steal something, from the ship or it's disoriented passengers. But the ship that sails into London is different than any that young Jack has seen. No crew disembarks, only one man and a lot of bats. Jack creeps on and finds a starved stowaway who tells him of an trip to the Americas that found something horrible, and now this evil has come to England. The two boys will have to find a way to stop it on their own, because no-one would believe their tale that vampires have come to London. I bought this for a few cents expecting it to be truly horrible. It actually wasn't. It was throughly mediocre and the writing is childishly simplistic and dull, but the plot was actually somewhat interesting. There was a lot of vampiric lore involved and many traditional vampiric weaknesses and strengths. It was a mildly interesting way to spend a bit of time.

In a classic Star Trek scenario, a group of alien pirates (although they are more like Privateers, as they have a governmental OK to do so) disable Voyager and steal the main processor. The crew of Voyager must creatively and carefully use the back up systems to navigate their way to an alien station. Then they must attempt to keep the ship running while starting to hunt down the location of their processor through both legal and non-legal channels. If this sounds completely familiar, you are right! "Concerning Flight" a season 4 episode, was almost the exact same plot, however that episode was done two years after this book was published. This book is packed with technobabble (and biobabble ;-) ), which I know some people can't stand. However, if you can't keep your ODN (Optical Data Network) conduits and EPSs (Electro-Plasma Systems) straight you will not comprehend a good bit of this book. This narrows it's audience down to a small, and quite OCD, portion of Trekdom. I personally loved it! I liked that the book didn't gloss over (as the episode did) the fact that it was the heart of the ship that was removed, and that the crew was struggling to keep everything from failing. I liked the fact that the ship's bio-neural circuitry was not ignored or treated as it was merely the same as pure tech. The characterizations were very well done, although both Kim and Paris were spotty at the start. One thing that quite confused me was that the Doctor was always referred to as Zimmerman. Pre-production and in a few scripts, that was the name was planned for the character, and for one episode of the show he considers, but rejects, giving himself that name. As this was one of the very first Voyager novels, I assume it was written when that was the planned name, and the change somehow slipped through Pocket Book's quality control. The writing was very good, and I highly enjoyed reading this. I highly recommend it to die-hard Trekkies, but would warn those who have only casually watched that this may not be the best place to start.

When young Jonathan Harker goes on a business trip to visit with a man named Count Dracula, he has no idea of the horrors he is walking into. Fortunately he escapes with his life, and joins a group of would-be vampire hunters, including the famed Dr. Van Helsing, in hunting down the fearful monster. This was always one of the books that I was intending to read one day. So when I found a copy at the thrift store that didn't have notes telling you exactly what you are suppose to think of this classic (I can't stand those, and almost all classic books have them), I bought it. One thing that struck me right away, was that this is the oldest book I have read that is told completely by diary entries, letters and other written communication. I had always thought it a modern literary device. I don't know why, as it is so popular for historical fiction, but it was interesting to learn otherwise. I really enjoyed this book. The writing was good and the characters fascinating. The plot was rather rushed at the end, but otherwise the pacing was good. It was also cool to somewhat see the origins of popular vampire fiction by reading vampiric classics, although it makes clear just how much of the modern stories are based off literature like this. Some people may be bothered by the multiple plot threads and large "cast of characters" so to speak. I personally enjoy the challenge of keeping all the people and events straight, and don't mind re-reading a bit in order to better understand what is going down.

Elric is emperor of the Melnibone, a race of people who have lived in violent decadence for so long they can't imagine anything else. Elric, sickly since his birth and only alive because of medicines and magic, is different. He has studied the other cultures and peoples of his world, and doesn't feel that following tradition is always the best option. This has made him unpopular among the more conservative people of his kingdom. When his cousin attempts to depose him and the women he loves is put at risk, he must decide whether he is going to stand for his "strange" beliefs or become like rulers before him, and conform with tradition. I really enjoyed this book, and plan to get the rest of the series from the library. I liked how introspective and cultural it was, a lot of high fantasy tends to ignore that in favor of epic battles. The author does tend towards purple prose at times, but as it is an epic fantasy, that is not uncommon and after a chapter or two doesn't distract you anymore. The characters felt very realistic and deep, even the supporting characters didn't feel like they were just invented for the sake of conveying some piece of information.

This book is the story of Odysseus's wife, Penelope. It goes from her childhood, through the events of The Odyssey from her point of view. Told in a mixture of songs, poems, plays and prose with a lot of flashbacks and -forwards, this book has a tendency to get disjointed. The writing is good, but very passive. It is hard to get really drawn in and it takes work to follow the storyline. The main character felt vague and distanced, it was hard to really empathize with her. She was very timid about many things and despite the fact that it is likely more historically accurate, I wanted her to grow a backbone. On the other hand she seemed to have no problem whining at the reader as a ghost about how awful her life had been and verbally attacking the people who had wronged her in her lifetime. I felt like I was dealing with a split personality here.

Nathan has been homeschooled for all his life, but now his is going to high school. Right on his first day he sees a girl who catches his attention. Lisa rides a motorcycle, ignores school politics and does whatever she likes. He is determined to get to know her, and eventually convinces her to stop ignoring him and they become friends. But can Lisa trust anyone enough to tell them her secret? This book is rather cliche and simplistic, but otherwise quite good. Both the main and supporting characters are very real feeling. The writing is solid, if rather uninspired at times. An entertaining and thought-provoking read for teens of both genders.

Antonia is a straight A student, wears knee length skirts and keeps her hair neatly cut. She is also practically raising her little brothers, because her mother is too depressed to even get out of bed. Jazz has purple hair she keeps as wild as possible, plenty of tattoos, doesn't care if the teachers hate her, and hangs out with a gang of other punks. Her family has a huge estate, with maids and servants to take care of their every need. Is either girl "normal"? That is the question readers must examine as they read this book. The characters are realistic and witty. The writing is simple enough for middle school students, but interesting enough for even an older teen to keep enjoying. The dialogue is very snappy and will make you grin.

Persephone is taking care of her grandmother and, despite the fact that werewolves and witches aren't suppose to get along, letting weres stay with her in confinement during the full moon to pay her bills. But when her friend is murdered and another witch offers her a lot of money to do in her killer, Seph takes the dangerous job. She ends up way over her head when the mark finds out and goes after her other friends. She has to overcome her grandmother's prejudices and bring in a group of weres to help her, including Johnny, the rather frightening tattoo-and piercing-covered singer of a Were band. Pretty uninteresting. The plot is cliche and the characters flat. The writing isn't too bad, and is at times witty, but this is a forgettable novel. There were two things I liked though. The way magic worked in a very natural and traditional way and that the romance part of this paranormal romance wasn't about sex! I have read way too many paranormal romances where there is little to no actual love or feelings, just lots of sex. That's not romance in my book. This romance was well set up, and there was attraction between the characters.

This book is about humans going to Mars. It tells of the first time that they arrived and were shot by the Martians living there, right through to the point where they decide to go back to Earth. It is a short story collection and can be a bit disjointed at times, as a number of the pieces were originally published in assorted magazines. The writing is good and smooth and most of the characters were likable, if rather superficial. A fun light read that takes its self too seriously for the amount of material and depth (or lack of such) actually present. I can see that it could be viewed as a social commentary, but I felt that most of the characters were overly distant and there was little "grab" either emotional or logical to keep you interested in these fictional beings.

Spock's niece, Teska, is to be married to a Romulan boy whose family believes in Reunification. To keep her travel secret she and Spock travel in the midst of a group of Rigelians. Things go well until they stop on Rigel V, where while several members of the crew stop for a drink Teska wanders off. She discovers a dying man who has been stabbed through the throat; she mind-melds with him in order to discover his killer and quickly she and Spock are involved in a murder case. However someone doesn't want Teska to prove who it was, and she and Spock are at risk. This was quite interesting. I found the discussions of possible genetic links between Rigelians, Vulcans and Romulans interesting, and have always thought the concept of Reunification fascinating. In the show we only really see Vulcans interested in it, so I liked seeing some Romulans taking active roles. Teska was very well-written, and a good combination of childlike behavior and careful Vulcan training. I felt the author made a bit too much of a big deal about Spock's mixed heritage and had him struggling with his control too much.He is shown as having the same level of control as a pure-blooded Vulcan most of the time, and I doubt one child to whom he has little attachment, would alter it drastically. I also felt that the author was really stretching to try and make Spock relate to Teska. They simply didn't have that much in common. The writing was otherwise solid, although a bit melodramatic at times.

Ronnie, Fleur and Claude have been best friends for a long time, that is why they call themselves the LBD (Les Bambinos Dangereuses.) They three of them want desperately to go to Astlebury Music Festival, but their parents say the 14 year olds can't go. Already depressed at having their hopes squashed, they are even more miserable when they find out their school isn't going to hold the June party normally held every year. Then they come up with a brilliant plan, get the school to hold a mini-festival! All they have to do is get the grown-ups to let them, and plan it. But that might turn out to be harder then they thought. I really liked this book when I was younger, I re-read it recently and still thought it was awesome teen chick-lit. (Which I don't normally go for.) The thing I like best is that the three girls are really friends, no backstabbing, snotty, bitchy, selfish behavior like in most teen chick-lit. I also like that the adults (although a wee bit stereotypical) are not evil monsters. The teens work side-by-side with the grown-ups to plan it, and are given a reasonable amount of responsibility. They also aren't perfect, they are believable and interesting.

This book has D escorting an odd group of travelers (a "people finder" who uses magic to get back those taken by nobles, her most recent rescue, a pair of mercenary brothers, each with wacky powers, and a farmer) across a desert no-one has crossed because it is possessed by a malicious spirit. They must try to stop fighting among another in order to find a way to escape the living sands. Very much an ensemble book. There is almost equal focus on each character. I was delighted to find out more about D, and to have him conversing with people. (As much as he does that anyway!) This was much more of a space western, where as the last two felt more fantasy. The dialogue was brilliant! There were so many spots where I was just laughing out loud because what the characters were saying was perfect for them. My complaints are that I felt the author made too big a deal about how good-looking D is in this book. I can see mentioning it every chapter or so to remind readers just how off-putting he can be to the humans, but it felt like every other page said it. It was also stated too plainly and baldly, there was little effort to make us see what was beautiful about him by describing him, it just kept saying that he was. They also over used the word "mumble." I know they wanted D to speak softly and mostly to himself, but ai ya! how desperately they needed a thesaurus! Those two things bugged me a lot, but otherwise this book was awesome.

While collecting space junk, the Enterprise comes across a Romulan space station, drifting in Federation space. When they go aboard in hopes of getting information they find that the crew died of hypothermia in temperatures that should have been perfectly safe. Several away team members start to feel cold, and see something out of the corners of their eyes. As the away team gets more and more jumpy, the Enterprise develops strange malfunctions and power deficits. The crew must figure out what is happening, before their ship also ends up floating and dead. Mediocre novel. The plot has been done to death (particularly when you find out what is causing the problems) and the Romulans were TOS stereotypes. Every now and then we got a hint of them being actual beings, particularly in the opening, but for the most part I was stuck rolling my eyes. By the time this book was published it was a well known fact in the Star Trek 'Verse that Romulans were not the pure evil, sneaky thieves they were shown as at first in The Original Series. I suppose it is too much to ask for those writing novelizations to have an understanding of the universe they attempt to portray. On the other hand, the characterizations of the crew were pretty good. Kirk was softened WAY too much in an attempt to make him more likable, but Bones and Spock's banter was great. The writing was pretty good, there were rough patches I thought an editor should have taken better care of, but all in all it was okay.

On her 14th birthday Cassidy gets a box of 5 old, gold coins from a strange man. She starts to have strange dreams, ones with a pair of women who tell her that she has a destiny to fight 5 evil spirits. Shortly she starts to feel ill and concludes that something strange is happening. She discovers that she is going to have to fight the spirits, and the first one is weakening her with a curse before trying to take her out. Pretty much as I remembered from years ago, a light teen fantasy. The author is an okay writer, not exceptional, but smooth and evenly paced. The plot is rather "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"-ish, and not particularly original, but fun. The characters are interesting, but not fully developed.

Lisa has had a dragon living in her spare room for a long time, that she can deal with. But when he turns in a (very good looking) human man and tells her that her life is in danger, things get weird. Turns out she has some kind of odd power that an evil black dragon trapped in the human world wants. She is going to have to take her eyes off the golden dragon's body and start paying attention to staying alive. I think this author should try her hand at urban fantasy rather than romance. The plot was interesting and I loved many of the supporting characters, who I wish had been given a chance to really play a part. The author definitely has an ear for snappy, witty conversation. But the romance was heavy-handed, I frequently found myself rolling my eyes and skipping pages. In order to keep the book a reasonable length, but make it a typical romance, plot was sacrificed in favor of mostly, poorly written sex scenes.

A group of men summoning a dragon for nefarious purposes, a young hero, raised far away by dwarves, coming to his first city, a group of rather incompetent guards; these are common enough cliches in fantasy stories, but Pratchett turns them on their head and makes them hilarious. Fooling with cliches and assumptions, he keeps you on your toes by throwing you for a loop when things don't follow along a standard storyline. This was the first of Prachett's books I had read, as I have always been daunted by the length of his Discworld series. I live in a rural area, and getting stuck in the middle of a series for an extended length of time because you can't get the rest of the books is not at all fun. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of this author's work though, as this was quite possibly the best comedic fantasy I have read. His writing is witty and sharp, with plenty of laugh out loud spots. (Per-maybe-haps best not read in public, as you get odd looks and people edge away when you sit there laughing and giggling over a book.)

Born in a dangerous world of warfare fought by both magic and sword, young Guinevere may have the abilities needed to change that. This makes her a target of those who would keep themselves in power. Raised by a runaway druid, shapeshifter who can go from man to wolf, a woman rescued from pirates and a she-wolf, her talents are considerable. She learns magic, weaponry, and discovers her destiny. This interesting take on the King Arthur stories is well-done. The writing is smooth for the most part and the characters are fabulously detailed and interesting. It is written in a more "epic," highbrow, reserved style (think Tolkien) which I know some people find annoying when they are use to more "modern" writing with high, dramatic emotion and lots of fight and sex scenes. The plot is tight, with few troublesome, wandering digressions. I have placed an interlibrary loan to get the sequel.

In "The Dragon and the Virgin Princess" Sacrificial Virgin Princess Rozlinda, which is mostly just a title, except every 8th year when the SVP must give a dragon a few cups of blood, is won by a man from another land. She believes they are to marry and try promote peace, he meanwhile, struggles to keep from falling in love with the bold princess because he knows he is bringing her back to his homeland to be fed to a dragon, a true sacrifice. In "The Dragon and the Dark Knight" Sir Kenrick takes a job to slay a vicious dragon. When he arrives to the dragon's island he learns that the dragon (who can take human form) and his quarter-dragon-blood granddaughter are only kind, solitary scholars, with a hoard of books and scrolls, not gold or weapons. He realizes that someone has framed them for horrendous crimes and decides to help them find out who. But he is distracted by the granddaughter, who fears she will never fit in anywhere due to her mixed blood, but who he is falling for hard. In another tale where dragons take human form, "Anna and the King of Dragons," Anna is an orphaned Dutch girl in Japan. She is rescued from a nearly deadly fall by a dragon, in exchange she agrees to bring some of her books to him, as he cannot travel much and he gives her a tuft of his fur to summon him. She shortly meets a warrior who acts as her body guard, and who she realizes she is falling in love with. She refuses to let him know, because she knows there would never be a place in a Japanese family for a red-haired white girl. When he proposes, she turns him down and sets off to go back home. But when she runs into trouble on the high seas, she uses the fur and discovers that the man she loves and the dragon who saved her are one and the same. In "Dragon Feathers" a widow moves into a new home, the perfect home. She learns, with the help of the handsome Joaquin, that the home was owned by the past protector of a dragon. Now she has the option of becoming the new protector. I enjoyed this batch of stories very much. The first three stories were superb, with excellent character development and good smooth writing. The last one was alright, but quite a let down compared to the others. It just felt bland and there was little connection to the characters. I liked that all the stories didn't have long steamy sex scenes/fantasies every few pages, it felt like there was an emphasis on actual love, rather then lust.

Jeremy was running from Mary Lou (who wants to kiss him, eww!) when he finds a magic shop and buys a dragon's egg. He hatches it, but then is stuck with a tiny, fierce dragon he has to keep secret. As Tiamat keeps getting bigger and bigger, he starts to worry that he won't be able to take care of her, let alone keep her hidden. This book was fun! Sure, it's meant for a younger audience, and the plot gets a little simplistic at times, but the writing is top notch. It is told in a wry, clever voice and is very descriptive, but never bogs down. The dragon was good mix of smarter than the average critter, but not too human-like. She definitely has her own way of doing things.

This collection of stories was rather disappointing. The ones that were excerpts felt very incomplete and most of the writing was flat and dull. My attention was wandering constantly. Maybe if these stories were new and not common knowledge to most enjoyers of fantasy, even kids, they would be more interesting. I was very disappointed with the art too. The anatomy was horrific! I could barely stand to look at the poor dragons, because most looked as if their joints had all been snapped in order to get them in certain poses, plus the proportions were so off I didn't think most would be able to move without breaking something. The coloring was fine, even nice, but when your line art is so flawed it is very distracting. I know I am probably more harsh a judge of fantasy anatomy then most folks, but I like my fantasy grounded in reality.

Maybe has lived on the street for a long time. She and a group of her friends live a day-to-day life; they worry about where to get the next meal from, how to get medicine when they are sick and whether they are going to freeze to death without warm clothes. But when they find a 12 year old girl called Tears, Maybe starts to wonder if maybe they can get off the streets, without giving up their rights to individuality and freedom. This story is well written, as you read it you find the characters matter to you deeply and when they get hurt, even die from the harsh conditions it will make you sad. When there is some small victory, a meal given kindly, a person you thought gone who turns out to be safe, you will smile. Reading this book is hard at times, because it seems so wrong that these kids and young adults have to live in these harsh conditions. Although I have never been homeless I can well imagine that the events in this book are very true.

The Enterprise arrives at a Federation outpost where a scientist thinks they may have discovered life inside an enormous volcano. Her crew soon figure out that it was mostly a front, what the scientists really want is someone to kick a group of Elasians off the planet. The Elasians claim that they discovered the planet long before the Federation and that it belongs to them, that they have a right to start mining operations looking for dilithium. The Enterprise's crew tries to figure out who actually has rights, however shortly they end up with a bigger problem: there is an intense power struggle between the rightful Dohlman of the Elasians, who is on the planet, and her aunt, the regent who has come to like having power. Then, as if trying to keep the three groups from killing each other wasn't hard enough, Rakatan Mons threatens to erupt. Just like an Original Series episode: overpowered leaders trying to kill each other, crew members who by any kind of sensible logic should have died being heroical, a natural disaster that is so hugely over-the-top that is seems quite unnatural. The only thing missing is an alien princess who falls for Kirk in two seconds flat. This is like a TOS episode in book form! The characters were absolutely dead-on. In almost all TOS books the author either changes the character's personalities to fit a more sensible plot (most frequently trying to make Kirk less of a jerk) or lets them overwhelm the plot until it vanishes. I think this is one of the very few books that completely captures the over-dramatic feel of the TV series. The plot would be ridiculous, if it wasn't so perfectly matching up with the series. The author has serious talent in making this work.

Henrietta was a typical, little, grey-brown New York City cat, until her owner and his family prepare for his new job as a foreign correspondent. The children insist on keeping her so she comes along. As she travels from country to country she has adventures ranging from eating luxury foods in Russia to running away in Cairo to partying it up with a group of the poor workers in Johannesburg. This excellent book will have you laughing out loud. Over and over my sister asked "What's so funny?" while I was reading it, because every few pages I would at least snort with laughter and sometimes have to set the book aside for a minute because I couldn't stop laughing. Anyone who has owned a cat or known a cat will be able to relate to the hair-pulling, crazy-making insanity that comes with the territory. Not only is this book funny, but the writing is good.

After Ash's mother died her father remarried. After he died she stayed with and worked for her step-mother, who treats her as little more then a slave. After a wander deep into the woods she meets Sidhean, a fairy man. After they meet several times she believes that she may be falling in love, and it seems he might feel the same. But when she meets Kaisa, a fiery, beautiful huntress who secretly teaches Ash to ride, her heart feels like it is being ripped apart. How will she ever choose between the two of them? This retelling of Cinderella was mediocre. Although the writing wasn't bad, it was rather bland and uninteresting. The characters were unoriginal. The plot was wobbly and unclear at points and felt rather loose, like there were many details that should have been filled in and sections that didn't lead anywhere that should have come out. A fun 2-hour read when you are bored, but not a great book if you want something serious.

After Light kills all the FBI agents investigating his case he figures he will be safe. But one of the agents had an ex-agent for a girlfriend, and she wants revenge. L has also agreed to reveal himself to a small select group of NPA members, in hopes of catching Light. Same serious flaws as the first: a boring plot, lifeless, stilted dialogue and even more stilted and boring drawing. None of the characters are anything more then paper cutouts and although the concept is interesting, the execution is dreadful! l seriously wonder how this series has become so popular.

After Alison Margrave died, several people tried to move in. Some died, the rest fled. But Leslie Barnes, a psychologist who starts having psychic flashes, is determined to move in. Mostly the house is perfect for herself and her little sister, a gifted musician, but parts of the house start to have awful, dark occurrences. Lights flash, things fall down the stairs, windows brake or won't stay closed. Her sister sees a cat, horribly murdered in the garage, that vanishes when she tries to help. Leslie sees a man who can possibly have access to her house wandering around. Soon Leslie is in the midst of a feud between a group who practice earth magic, both those dead and alive, and a man who was once one of them, before turning to dark magic. And they want Leslie to choose sides; to take Alison's place in the group or to stay with a man she believes she loves. Very fast paced and hard to put down! The writing was solid, although rambling at times. The characters were very realistic and interesting, nicely layered and full of issues.

After Ainvar's grandmother, his only family, gave herself up as a sacrifice, the chief druid took him in. Ainvar learned the secrets and ways of the druids and when his teacher died he became chief druid. When his childhood friend, Prince Vercingetorix or Rix for short, starts to try and gather the Gauls into an army to fight Roman invaders Ainvar agrees to help. Together they used magic rituals and swords to unite many of their people into the greatest army Gaul had seen. Rather slow and plodding, could have been tightened and shortened up IMO. The writing has a tendency to drag and a lot of the battle strategy and tech-talk was over my head, which meant I was losing my concentration while reading. The magic was really well done, the author writes from Ainvar's point of view and he completely believes in magic created by his rituals. I am still not sure if there was any magic in the book or if it was all suggestion and coincidence, that is how subtly it is worked in.

Tara*Star moved away and now she and her best friend Elizabeth have to keep in contact through letters. But it is so different from seeing each other every day. As Elizabeth's family starts to fall apart and Tara's refuse to act like actual adults, until the shocking day when they do, the two girls try to support one another. Will it work, or will they drift apart? This book is really interesting because the two authors each wrote letters as one of the girls. They have such different voices and it feels very realistic. The writing is top-notch on both sides and the plot and characters feel startlingly real.

When Light finds a strange notebook called the Death Note that claims if you write someone's name in it they will die, he assumes it is a joke. He tests it out on a criminal who is holding hostages and 40 seconds later the man dies of a heart attack. When Light realizes that he has the power to kill anyone in the world he decides to start killing criminals to make the world safer, but there is a line between helping and using the power of the Death Note for his own purpose, which becomes to create a utopia-like world in which he is god. I decided to give this book a go because it is so popular among Manga fans. I have to admit that although the premise is interesting, this is quite predictable, even dull. There is no real depth or interesting enigmas to the characters and the plot is very predictable with few interesting spots. The dialogue isn't interesting, it is flat and lacks any grace, wit or character. The art is static and although technically proficient, lacks life and an interesting layout. Perhaps the later books improve, but I doubt I will read them unless my sister checks them out from the library and I am very bored and have nothing else to read.

Florrie likes to be different. She likes to learn about the past. She supports small stores and tries to help everyone she can. She asks for her family to try and avoid franchises and chain store from her birthday to the end of the year, a total of 16 weeks. Her parents support her, but her brother is angry. Undaunted, she tries to recruit her friends and get into the media. A wonderful story about a teen who wants to make a difference in the world. It felt very realistic, with a mixture of setbacks and successes. I really enjoyed it and think other teens who like to read about someone who wants to change the world. It gives you some very interesting ideas for activism on your own too. Good, clear writing and interesting, layered characters.