“And, since he hadn’t known which one was the sleeping princess, he’d kissed hundreds of unconscious women. To no avail.”

Princesses are in short supply in Rebecca Lickliss’ playful reinterpretation of fairytales. Prince Athelstan is having a truly difficult time finding a proper princess to marry—the scarcity of princesses is also making things difficult for his tomboyish cousin Vevila—as one of the few available princesses above the age of 2, she’s quite sought after, regardless of her wishes. Accompanied by a trio of wizards, Athelstan and Vevila set off on a quest that will poke gentle fun at a collection of fairytales from Cinderella to Rumplestiltskin.

Vevila is the scene-stealer in this light, humorous read. She’s clever, resourceful and sassy—and she knows that her ‘happily ever after’ means being true to herself.

I read this book in one day—I wish the sequel were already published because I want to know how this story will play out—this is definitely one of the most intriguing series I’ve come across!

Our hero from Shadowfall has cleared his name of murder—he’s even assumed a leadership role—but that doesn’t mean that everyone is behind him. The land of Myrillia is facing uncertain times and no one quite knows whom to trust. As an attempt to strengthen ties among the Nine Lands, an elaborate ceremony is planned for Tylar’s re-induction as a ShadowKnight. Hinterland begins with the preparations for this event—and at least one group will take advantage of the ceremony to launch an attack. Who’s cooperating with whom and can the Citadel withstand the siege are only two questions driving the plot. There’s also the problem of a certain artifact—it’s been imbued with dark graces and corrupts those who come into contact with it. What do you do with such an artifact? It needs to be kept away from those who would use it to corrupt others—but it’s not safe to be around—and what the heck do the Wyr want with it?

As with the first book, Clemens manages multiple characters and plotlines well. Hinterland takes Tylar, Dart and their companions into the wilds where the Rogue Gods roam—a dangerous place. Will the artifact’s place of origin reveal the means to save Myrillia from the dark forces at work?

Anxiously waiting for the next installment!

Millenia ago, there was a war between the gods. Something during the war not only shattered the kingdom of the gods, but also shattered the gods themselves. This sundering caused each god’s individual self to separate into three distinct parts—aether, naether and physical.

The physical aspects of the gods landed on Myrillia—crazed by the sundering, the gods wrought havoc among the Myrillians until it was discovered that binding themselves to the land would end their madness. 100 gods chose to bind themselves, often bringing blessing and prosperity to their respective realms. The others roam the wilds, still maddened, still wreaking havoc.

Shadowfall begins with the murder of one of the 100 gods—something that was thought impossible. The only witness is a crippled, disgraced, former knight—as he comforts the dying goddess, she bestows a powerful blessing upon him—a blessing which heals his crippled body—a blessing which makes him the only murder suspect. He will be chased across the land by practically everyone as he attempts to find and kill a creature powerful enough to murder a god.

I was caught up in this story from the first page–I read it in two days. Other reviewers have criticized the character development but I think it’s well-done—I engaged with our protagonists right away. I am particularly interested to learn more of Rogger’s history as the Godslayer Chronicles continue—and of course, I’m anxious to see how Dart’s character will develop. I love animals so I quickly became attached to Pupp, Barrin and Hern (even though Barrin & Hern are minor characters and Pupp isn’t technically an animal).

I’m intrigued by the reverse trinity aspect of the gods—and I have to comment that the Myrillian Balger is bad enough, so I’d hate to meet his naethryn aspect! As far as the humoral graces of the gods and the Hands chosen to collect them—it’s an interesting concept, if somewhat icky.

Shadowfall has lots of action and intrigue with a hint of romance—recommended! If luck is with me, I will check out Hinterlands, Book Two of the Godslayer Chronicles from the library today. I’ll also have to check out something by James Rollins (aka James Clemens).

For more on the author, please visit his website http://www.jamesclemens.com/ .

Cherryh takes us into a future in which Earth has established colonies in deep space—some are stations orbiting stars, some are stations orbiting planets. Over the centuries, as colonies have extended further into “The Beyond”, conflicts have developed. No longer the only livable planet, Earth has lost its importance as an anchor to its colonies—Earth Company, aka “The Company” has lost its influence. The Union, a faction first formed on the outskirts of the colonies, is extending its influence Earthward, taking one station after another. The Fleet, once the enforcement arm of The Company, now acts largely according to its own directives.

The Company and the Union have been at war for some time—and The Fleet is quite willing to destroy inhabited stations in order to keep them from falling into Union control. Caught in the middle of the war are The Merchanters and of course the stations. The Merchanters regard themselves as separate from both Union and Company—they only wish to haul goods between worlds and stations without interference. The stations fear both the controlling Union and the ruthless Fleet.

Downbelow Station begins with the chaos caused by the arrival of too many refugees on an already-crowded station. It’s a bit slow-going at first as we are introduced to the various players—keep reading! The pace picks up dramatically once the battle for Pell begins.

As a work of political science fiction, Downbelow Station is quite good—Cherryh realistically illustrates the economic and ideological forces that lead groups of people to oppose one another—she avoids simplistic portrayals of good and evil.

Downbelow Station is the foundation for Cherryh’s Union-Alliance novels. Each novel in the ’series’ is complete in itself; however, together they are part of a story spanning 5,000 years. Downbelow Station received the Hugo Award in 1982.

For more on the Union-Alliance novels, please visit http://www.cherryh.com/www/univer.htm#Alliance-Union .

For more on the Hugo Award, please visit http://www.thehugoawards.org/

This book received excellent reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, BookPage and Kirkus-only Publisher’s Weekly seems to share my disappointment. The Music of the Spheres is an historical thriller set in England during the French Revolution. Someone is killing red-haired prostitutes and the murders might be connected with the Revolution, they might be connected with a group of astronomers known as the Company of Titius-or they might be connected with both.

The premise IS interesting and with a little more editing, this could have been a good read. I did figure out who the murderer was early on-I figured out who the mysterious Selene was early on as well-but that’s not what disappointed me-I’m disappointed in the overall character development. With the exceptions of the prostitutes (who are only with us for a few paragraphs), the characters simply didn’t feel real to me. Worse than the character development however, was the apparent attempt to include as many aspects of depravity as possible. Like anything else, if scenes of depravity are going to be written into the story, they should offer something to the storyline-in this case, they seemed to be included for shock value only. My biggest gripe is the detailed rape scenes of a boy-this boy has nothing to do with the storyline-the scenes just feel tossed in. I skipped over the scenes as best as I could—again, they had nothing to offer the storyline.

To quote PW, “This is a good example of a book where less would have been more.”

Hood is an interesting twist on the familiar tale of Robin Hood and his merry men. We still have our wronged nobleman turned heroic outlaw but the setting and it appears some of the characters will be quite different. Wales, not England, is the setting (the author has specific reasons for this choice). Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John and Will Scarlet are definitely included—but although there will be no shortage of villains, the locale makes it unlikely that we will meet the Sheriff of Nottingham in this retelling.

I’m always interested in retellings of legends and I am curious to see how this trilogy develops. As a fan of Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle, I have to confess I felt that Hood’s pace was too slow at times; I’m hoping that Scarlet moves along more quickly.

Hood is the first book in the King Raven trilogy; Scarlet is the second book and Tuck will be the third. For more information on the series or the author, please visit http://www.stephenlawhead.com/

Loving this trilogy!!! The concluding volume, Hero of Ages is scheduled for publication this fall and I’m looking forward to reading it.

The setting for this trilogy is a mist-haunted, ash-ridden, barren world. Like many fantasy novels, the society is feudal. For one thousand years, the Lord Ruler has led an oppressive empire in which he proclaims himself God, the families of those who originally supported his rise to power have inherited noble status—and the families of those who did not support him are kept in perpetual servitude.

Mistborn gets the trilogy off to a strong start—in the author’s own words, we have a gang of gentleman thieves, each of whom has his own distinctive magical power. What brings them together? A daring plan to overthrow the Lord Ruler. The author has stated that he wanted to create a heist story along the lines of Sneakers or Ocean’s Eleven—and I personally think he was successful—however, Mistborn is more than a heist story in a fantasy setting—much more.

.
The Well of Ascension keeps the momentum going. What’s going on with the mists? They seem to be lingering past sunrise—something no one remembers them doing before. They also appear to be killing people—but how? And the mist-figure that seems focused on Vin—what purpose does it have? Does a journal from the days before the Lord Ruler assumed control have the answers?

This is a fast-paced, action-packed trilogy with clever twists. I did not see the ‘ending’ of The Well of Ascension coming at all—the clues were there but I did not recognize them until it all came together. Sanderson’s character development is top-notch—I particularly love the characters of Vin and Tensoon.

I picked up this series because I wanted to check out the writing of the author who will be completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. We’re in good hands!

For more on Brandon Sanderson, please visit http://www.brandonsanderson.com/index.php

Loving this trilogy!!! The concluding volume, Hero of Ages is scheduled for publication this fall and I’m looking forward to reading it.

The setting for this trilogy is a mist-haunted, ash-ridden, barren world. Like many fantasy novels, the society is feudal. For one thousand years, the Lord Ruler has led an oppressive empire in which he proclaims himself God, the families of those who originally supported his rise to power have inherited noble status—and the families of those who did not support him are kept in perpetual servitude.

Mistborn gets the trilogy off to a strong start—in the author’s own words, we have a gang of gentleman thieves, each of whom has his own distinctive magical power. What brings them together? A daring plan to overthrow the Lord Ruler. The author has stated that he wanted to create a heist story along the lines of Sneakers or Ocean’s Eleven—and I personally think he was successful—however, Mistborn is more than a heist story in a fantasy setting—much more.

.
The Well of Ascension keeps the momentum going. What’s going on with the mists? They seem to be lingering past sunrise—something no one remembers them doing before. They also appear to be killing people—but how? And the mist-figure that seems focused on Vin—what purpose does it have? Does a journal from the days before the Lord Ruler assumed control have the answers?

This is a fast-paced, action-packed trilogy with clever twists. I did not see the ‘ending’ of The Well of Ascension coming at all—the clues were there but I did not recognize them until it all came together. Sanderson’s character development is top-notch—I particularly love the characters of Vin and Tensoon.

I picked up this series because I wanted to check out the writing of the author who will be completing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. We’re in good hands!

For more on Brandon Sanderson, please visit http://www.brandonsanderson.com/index.php

‘I Am Legend’ is a nightmarish vision of a post-apocalyptic world—I could not put this book down. Robert Neville appears to be the only survivor of a plague—but he is not alone. The plague has turned every other man, woman and child into vampires–or has it?

Robert’s tenuous survival makes this book a page-turner—but this book also raises serious questions—is survival without any kind of companionship enough?—what is normal?

I haven’t seen the recent movie version yet but hope to soon!

I loved this book! You’ll find it in the Children’s section of the library but don’t let that deter you if the 5th grade is just a distant memory. The Perilous Gard is based on the Scottish legend of Tam Lin—it is a rich work of historical fiction with touches of romance and fantasy. In the story, Kate Sutton is exiled by Queen Mary Tudor to a remote castle—when she arrives, she learns of a recent tragedy that haunts the household, Christopher Heron most of all. Ever cool and practical, Kate looks beneath the circumstantial ‘evidence’ and local folklore—and uncovers a secret kept by the castle tenants ever since Christianity began to force out the practice of druidic magic.

The Perilous Gard is a Newbery Honor Book. For more about the Newbery Awards, please visit

http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/aboutnewbery/aboutnewbery.cfm