Archive for the ‘Rosemary Edghill’ Category
Just Reviewed “Arcanum 101” at SBR
Folks, if you’re looking for a short, but really good, urban fantasy novel — better yet, one written by such masters of the craft as Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill — look no further than Arcanum 101: Welcome New Students. (My review over at SBR is available here.) This is a fun, fast read that does many good things — it introduces two good characters, Tomas Torres, a fifteen-year-old pyrokinetic (read: fire-starter) from the barrio, and teenaged techno-shaman Valeria Victrix Langenfeld (always called “VeeVee”), who’s been raised with magic, accepts it as her due, and has more talents than she knows what to do with. Both end up at St. Rhiannon’s School for Gifted and Exceptional Students — St. Rhia’s, for short — and both are attracted to each other within moments of their first meeting.
As this is a young adult story, their romance is PG-rated. I appreciated this, because it seems most unlikely that a young romance needs to become explicit right away — especially while in a school setting.
Overall, I enjoyed Arcanum 101 thoroughly, and think if you enjoy urban fantasy, anything written by Mercedes Lackey and/or Rosemary Edghill, or better yet, all of the above, you will enjoy it as much as I did.
So what are you waiting for? Go read my review — then go grab the e-book!
Just Reviewed Rosemary Edghill’s “Vengeance of Masks” at SBR
Folks, if you haven’t read Rosemary Edghill’s writing yet, you should. She’s one of the best writers working in any genre, and her books never disappoint.
That’s why I find it so hard to believe that she had to self-publish the entirety of her interesting, surprising, different SF/F hybrid novel THE VENGEANCE OF MASKS, especially as this novel contains many elements that are traditional in dark fantasy epics — which means there are cognates out there (in other words, if you’ve read any of Cathrynne M. Valente’s dark fantasy, or Michaele Jordan’s, or Jane Lindskold’s, or most especially Jacqueline Carey’s, you will enjoy THE VENGEANCE OF MASKS.)
I’ll tell you what — if you aren’t reading every single thing Rosemary Edghill writes, if only to figure out why and how she puts stories together, you are missing out. (Big-time.) And when you consider that she writes cracking-good adventure stories, great and realistic romances (even under uneasy and often off-putting situations), and that she never disappoints, it is beyond me why she doesn’t have a far greater readership.
That said, her novel THE VENGEANCE OF MASKS is excellent, as I said in my review tonight at Shiny Book Review (SBR). Constantly surprising, always engaging, and compulsively readable, this is one novel that should be bought, read, and re-read as it is excellent in every particular.
Seriously. Go to Lulu right now and buy THE VENGEANCE OF MASKS. Then read it, enjoy it, and recommend it to your friends — because trust me: if you like dark fantasy and/or sword and sorcery epics and/or science fiction/fantasy romance, you will love THE VENGEANCE OF MASKS.
Just Reviewed Kowal’s Alternate Regencies; Fun Stuff
Folks, as it’s July 5, 2012, and I’d promised the Shiny Book Review faithful a new review or two, I just reviewed both of Mary Robinette Kowal’s alternate Regencies, SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY and GLAMOUR IN GLASS. Check out my review of both books here.
Now, what is it about the Regency period that makes for such great fantasy material? In addition to Kowal’s two novels, I’ve seen several other really fine writers do some interesting things with either the Austen canon (not merely PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, which I viewed as kitsch, but Sarah A. Hoyt and Sofie Skapski’s excellent A TOUCH OF NIGHT, which incorporates Weres — shapechanging into animals — into PRIDE AND PREJUDICE without a hitch) or with the milieu itself (the two books by André Norton and Rosemary Edghill that comprise CAROLUS REX, THE SHADOW OF ALBION and LEOPARD IN EXILE, are both excellent).
I think the main reason novelists in and out of the romance genre have returned to this milieu is because of how unusual it seems to us in modern-day society. The Regency era was much more formal in its speech than present-day English-speaking society, at least when it comes to middle class people and above. The fashions people wore were much different. The way people thought then has diverged just enough from today that it makes for fascinating reading . . . yet it’s not so far in the past that we have no referents whatsoever.
So my guess is, there’s a mixture of familiarity in what we see in the Regency period — comfort, if you will — and unfamiliarity, and that’s what these excellent novelists see in it. Because if you’re writing fantasy, and you can come up with a great way to incorporate a fantasy element into this interesting, turbulent time, why not do it?
At any rate, if you love Jane Austen, love Austen pastiches, love Austen-inspired works, or simply love the Regency Era with fantasy idea as a whole, you’ll get a kick out of Kowal’s two alternate Regencies as they’re fun, fast, faithful reads that don’t cheat the reader. But do yourself a favor, please: read these other great books I’ve referenced, too, even if you have to go to the library to read the Norton-Edghill collaborations. (You’ll be glad you did.)
Just Reviewed Lackey/Edghill’s “Legacies” and “Conspiracies” at SBR
Folks, if you love urban fantasy as much as I do, you really need to grab hold of these novels and don’t let ’em go until you’ve read ’em.
Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill have created a magical academy out in the middle of Montana called Oakhurst that’s both familiar and terrifying. They get all the “teen stuff” right — the “teen speak,” all the emphasis on technology, wanting to eat junk food (and hating healthy food, for the most part), “teen angst,” etc. — and they also manage to get in there a great many hints at mysteries that go back to the Morte d’Arthur . . . really nice work, and I enjoyed both Legacies (book one) and Conspiracies (book two) immensely.
So go read my review already, then go grab the books!
Just Reviewed Candace Camp’s “An Affair Without End” at SBR
Tonight’s SBR review was for Candace Camp’s AN AFFAIR WITHOUT END. This was one of the most fun Regency romances I’ve read in quite some time, a romance that reminded me in some ways of Rosemary Edghill’s excellent TWO OF A KIND (now lamentably out of print), possibly because the dialogue was outstanding, the detailing was very fine, and the art and craftsmanship of Ms. Camp was fully on display.
So without further ado, here’s the link:
http://shinybookreview.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/candace-camps-affair-is-one-fun-regency/
Enjoy!
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** P.S. I am hoping that Ms. Edghill will be able to put all four of her fine Regencies back out there soon, though I’ve heard nothing about it. I will keep you posted if I hear anything, however; those novels are so much fun, and are so well done, that they deserve to be widely read as often as possible. (Aside from this book by Ms. Camp, I’ve read nothing by any contemporary author that comes close to Ms. Edghill’s art, craftsmanship, dialogue, and knowledge of the Regency time period.) Ms. Edghill also has two collaborations with the late SF grandmaster André Norton, that are best described as “alternate Regency/fantasy.” The first of these was THE SHADOW OF ALBION with the second being CAROLUS REX; these two, too, are well worth seeking out.
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