When your car has just been repossessed, and you don’t know where you can scare up the rent, getting a second job is a very obvious thing to do. A second job as a Christmas coordinator is not so obvious. Especially for Merry Hopper. Abandoned by her parents on Christmas Day, she had never experienced…
Category: Book Reviews
Review: Scarlet
When Will Scarlet’s thane was exiled to Daneland, the king took his land. Deprived of his home, and his living, and his community, Will sought refuge in the forest. But the English crown laid claim to the forests, too. After being left hungry when the king destroyed his old home, Will was forbidden under penalty…
CSFF Blog Tour: Eye of the Sword
Trevin, newly made a comain for the king, was sent on a quest to find allies for the kingdom. And the missing comains. And an oracle. And a magical harp. And himself. He quickly got sidetracked into the right direction. On a ranging search, from the mountains to the edge of the sea, he found…
CSFF Blog Tour: Breath of Angel
It is one thing to wonder if angles are real; it is another to wonder if you should trust them. And it is something else entirely to wonder if you are an angel. Karyn Henley’s Breath of Angel begins in a temple, where everything is clear and the world is limited. When the novice priestess…
Review: Hood
There have been many stories of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, with his Merry Men and his noble thievery. But I would venture that there has been only one story of Robin Hood in Wales, with his flock and his raven hood. In Hood, Stephen Lawhead tells again the story of Robin Hood. Initially, you…
Review: Daughter of Light
It looks like a snowflake etched into her flesh, covering her palm, curling toward her fingers, white as snow. And it glows. There are several possible explanations of this. Witchcraft is only one. Rowen Mar covered up her mark with a sword glove, but she couldn’t extinguish the power that pulsed behind it. It was…
The Tremendous Issue
Last week I reviewed The Napoleon of Notting Hill. There was one criticism I had, when I first finished the novel, that I withdrew after further thought. I’ll share it now, but first a SPOILER WARNING: This post will focus on the ending of The Napoleon of Notting Hill. If you don’t want it spoiled,…
Review: The Napoleon of Notting Hill
In a drear future – or, we may say, a drear past that never was – democracy in England died. England sank into a dull despotism. Its army and police almost vanished; its King was chosen out of alphabetical lists. “No one cared how: no one cared who. He was merely a universal secretary.” In…
Children of Angels Blog Tour
If you, as a reader, have ever lingered in the Christian speculative fiction genre, you’ve run into Nephilim. Good Nephilim, bad Nephilim, Nephilim with superpowers, with swords, with psychological complexes. But did you ever see a Nephilim in school? Upon discovering that he had abilities not within normal human parameters – such as jumping multiple…
CSFF Blog Tour: Beckon
Just on the side of the road, as you enter the little town in the mountains, there is a sign: Beckon: You’re here for a reason. And I can see why they chose that. It certainly beats out: Beckon: There is something seriously wrong with these people. It’s a pity, you know, that the sign…