War for the Oaks, by Emma Bull

I quite enjoyed this book! It's a fantasy set in modern day Minneapolis (well, almost modern day - this book was written in 1987). It concerns a rock musician Eddi, who is drawn into the ongoing battle between the Seelie and the Unseelie courts (that's the light and the dark side of Faerie). It turns out that in order for the immortal Faerie battle to have any real consequence a mortal needs to be involved, and the Seelie court has chosen Eddi to be their mortal representative. This rough description does not really do the book justice. It's filled with interesting characters and situations and great dialog. It's funny, fun, and exciting. Music plays a large role, and the scenes where music is involved are wonderfully and vividly written. Highly recommended for fantasy lovers, and if you've not read much urban fantasy, this may be a good place to start.

8.6 out of 10

Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow, by David Gemmell

Lord of the Silver Bow is the first book in David Gemmell's Troy trilogy. The events in the book take place some time before the Trojan war, which we are all familiar with. Rather than giving the story any mythical sense, Gemmell has taken the sources we have and immagined how things could have been in reality, though admittedly with a fairly heroic bent. Many familiar characters make an appearance - King Priam of Troy, Hector, Paris, Odysseus, and many others. The main character is the less familiar Aeneas (also called Helikaon). As far as I can tell, Gemmell has used the historical sources we have as a framework or basis, but has not limitted himself to these "facts" - he seems to feel free to change elements for the purpose of his story, which makes it stand very well on its own. It's nice not to know exactly where things are going all the time.

The story is a little grim at times. As a result the book lacks some of the fun quality of some of Gemmell's other work. Still the characters are vivid and real, the plot exciting, and the action great, if sometimes brutal (as you'd expect from Gemmell). This is not my favorite of his, but it's solid enough.

I'll give it 7 out of 10.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling

I am a little bit of a Harry Potter nut. I've immensely enjoyed every single one of the books so far, and found the seventh and final book no exception.

There's a lot that happens, and with the exception of a slightly drawn out mid section, with a little too much teenage angst and bickering, it's all good. Lots of action, plenty of moments worth cheering about, and a number of genuinely sad moments as well. The final climax is great. Though some people might find the epilogue a little bare of details, I thought it a fitting conclusion and quite satisfying enough.

Rowling has done a fantastic job of resolving just about every plot and sub-plot introduced in all the previous books, and an even better job of bringing resolution to so many of the characters that we have grown to love over the series. After finishing it, I sat back and just enjoyed the satisfied feeling - much like basking after finishing a very tasty feast. Sure there were some bitter moments, but they just serve to heighten the sweetness of the whole.

One other thing I have to mention is how phenomenal the audio books are (for the entire series). You may or may not be aware that there are two audio book editions: one for publication in the US and Canada (read by Jim Dale) and one for the UK (read by Stephen Fry). While many people enjoy the Jim Dale version, I cannot say how much I enjoyed Stephen Fry's rendition. He's by far the best audio book reader I have had the pleasure of listening to. If you get a chance to check it out, I highly recommend it!!

As a stand alone book, I think I'd rate it a little lower, just because of the weak-ish middle section. However, because of it's place in the series as a whole, I'll give this a 9.5 out of 10.

Keeping It Real, by Justina Robson

I really enjoyed this book! It's a little bit of a crossover between the fantasy and the sci-fi genre, which is cool. The basic premise is that at some point in the future (2015) a massive supercollider explodes warping the fabric of reality and creating gates/connections between 6 worlds (one each for the elves, demons, humans, dead, faery and elementals). The story takes place a while after this has happened, and there has been some integration of some, at least, of these worlds.

The main character is a cyborg woman named Lila Black, who is assigned to body guard a rock-star elf (Zal), who has been receiving death threats.

There's lots of excitement and tons of cool ideas, as well as some nice character work. And it's all packed into a relatively short 340 odd pages.

I love the world that Robson has created and look forward to spending some more time in it in the next 2 books of the Quantum Gravity trilogy.

8.5/10

The Wizard of Karres, by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and David Freer

The Wizard of Karres is a follow up to The Witches of Karres, but written 38 years later and by different authors. Lackey, Flint and Freer do a wonderful job of capturing the spirit that made the first book such an enjoyable read, and have done an even better job putting together a fun, well paced, interesting story.

While it is not entirely necessary to read Witches first, I do believe the knowledge gained of the world and characters makes The Wizard of Karres more enjoyable.

Don't be fooled by the titles, these books are much more light-hearted space operas than they are any witches and wizards and magic sort of books. The "witches" and "wizard" in question merely have some psionic powers unavailable to the rest of humanity in these books.

7.5 out of 10

Master of Whitestorm, by Janny Wurts

I remembered enjoying this book when I was in grade 10, so I thought I'd give it another try. It wasn't as good as I remembered it.

The book is set in a fairly standard fantasy world - a number of different realms, wizards, elementals, mythic beasts - you know the deal. It follows the life of one man, and takes place over pretty much his entire life. As a result, the book is not as cohesive as I would have liked - being more like episodes than a continuous flow of events. Some of the episodes are entertaining, especially the earlier ones, but as the book goes on it does not really hold together, and has little that makes you want to continue reading it.

I'd give this one 6.0/10

Witches of Karres, by James H. Schmitz

Sigh, I'm getting behind in my records again. So this will be short.

The Witches of Karres is a kind of fun sci-fi in the ridiculous mode - not quite as zany as Hitchhiker's Guide, but maybe just a touch of that, but with a more standard storyline. Nothing really outstanding about it, but it's entertaining.

6.9/10