The Science Fiction Book Club Reviews Revisited: May 2001

[james_davis_nicoll]

Lists courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.

Contents for anthologies and omnibuses from the Locus Index
to Science Fiction www.locusmag.com/index/


MAY

OTHERLAND: SEA OF SILVER LIGHT by Tad Williams

I missed this.


WIZARDBORN by David Farland

And this.


EVERGENCE (3-in-1 of THE PRODIGAL SON, THE DYING LIGHT and A DARK
IMBALANCE) by Sean Williams & Shane Dix (Alternate)

I only read the first, which struck me as a blatant series set up novel. If you've seen the first episode of _Blake's Five_ the first volume may seem familiar.


THE YEAR THE CLOUD FELL by Kurt R.A. Giambastiani (Alternate)

I missed this.

[Sadly I have since lost my innocence of this book, which is basically the Manos Hands of Fate of alternate history.




BORROWED TIDES by Paul Levinson (Alternate)

The reviews of this have not been kind enough for me to track this down.


ASCENDANCE by R.A. Salvatore (Alternate)

I missed this.


THE MASK AND THE SORCERESS by Dennis Jones (Alternate)

And this.


DARK OF THE GODS (Meisha Merlin's 2-in-1 of DARK OF THE MOON and GOD STALK) by P.C. Hodgell (Alternate)

It's been so long since I read these that only a few details of the first book (young protagonist from a race with serious issues with its god, cosmopolitan setting) remain to me. I liked it a lot at the time, though.


THOR VISIONARIES: WALT SIMONSON by Walt Simonson (Altiverse)

I missed this.

[Simonson's run on Thor was pretty good, as I recall]


DRAGONLANCE: DRAGONS OF A LOST STAR by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
(Altiverse)

And this. Does it take an ash stake and a crossroads to put paid to this series?


STAR WARS(r): THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO ALIEN SPECIES by Ann Margaret Lewis (Altiverse)

And I missed this.

Comments

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

DARK OF THE GODS (Meisha Merlin's 2-in-1 of DARK OF THE MOON and GOD STALK) by P.C. Hodgell (Alternate)

It's been so long since I read these that only a few details of the first book (young protagonist from a race with serious issues with its god, cosmopolitan setting) remain to me. I liked it a lot at the time, though.

Well, the latest one is up as an eARC on Baen's site.

The incest involved still gives me the wiggins.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

The Three-Faced God isn't what one would describe as a caring entity, concerned for the psychological health of its worshippers, now is it? Never mind its, what was that marvellous line back on rasfw back in the day? Neelakantan Krishnaswami, right, "Er, the Destruction aspect of the One True God is using Jame as a drinking straw to blow bubbles into the soda pop of creation", that was it.

Someone like that is going to have a very troubled social life.

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

Hodgell's tales of Jame and her brother and people, at the end of the chain of worlds they've run through trying to escape Perimal Darkling, I find strangely compelling and rereadable.

--Dave

[paullev.livejournal.com]

so, you believe everything you read in reviews? :)

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

The Williams was the last in a quartet about virtual realities gone Wrong. The Farland was the third in his Runelords series, which started off going one direction and sort of went off at tangents and stayed there every few books until now it's working on some sort of alternate-universe basis? I haven't read the last two, though I do have them.

If you take a look at the Wikipedia page for the Dragonlance series, you will be shocked and astounded (and, depending on how you feel about the series, possibly repelled as well). There have been more Dragonlance books published than some _publishing houses_ manage to put out during their entire career. The latest pub date on the List of Dragonlance Novels page is 2011 ... but I fear it may just be that the page hasn't been updated recently. Shudder.

--Dave, more than Laurell K. Hamilton _combined_, for instance