Category Archives: fantasy

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Posted on by

Wicked by Gregory Maguire has become a mini-cottage industry for the author. There is the extremely popular musical, two (and soon to be three) sequels and other novels based on a similar premise (reworking of well known fairy tales). While the basic concept of reworking older, well-known characters isn’t new (Phillip Jose Farmer did itfor years), Maguire works with secondary characters (who aren’t fully developed in the source material) and works his stories around them.

Continue reading →

Spellwright by Blake Charlton

Posted on by

Spellwright by Blake Charlton has an interesting premise. The characters are decently written and motivated, but I just couldn’t get into the book. There is a reason why you don’t see a lot of fantasy reviews here, because I’ve just lost my appetite for the fantasy genre. There are occasional books that pique my interest (such as this one), but the fantasy genre has lost my interest. But how is Spellwright?

Continue reading →

Peter and Max by Bill Willingham

Posted on by

Peter and Max by Bill Willingham is a novel based on Willingham’s Fables comic book series (which if you haven’t read, then you should).  The basic concept is that the characters that the fables are based on are real and have had to relocate to our Earth from their original homelands due by The Adversary who has taken over all their homelands. The comic book series is the ongoing adventures of these Fables (Snow White, Prince Charming, Big Bad Wolf, Beauty and the Beast) in their hidden neighborhood known as Fabletown. Peter and Max is the first prose novel based in this world and ABC is working on a TV series.

Continue reading →

The Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross

Posted on by

The Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross is the best use of science-fiction, the real world and fantasy since Magic Kingdom For Sale/Sold by Terry Brooks. Unfortunately Stross has the same problem that Brooks did, the longer the series goes the worse it gets. Stross does do some interesting and new things in the book which make it start off wonderfully for a couple books. Then the rot slowly seeps in and drags the series down.

Continue reading →

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief movie review

Posted on by

We took the kids to see Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief this weekend. Based upon Rick Riordan’s series about Percy Jackson, this is likely the first in a series of movies if it does well. Not having read the books, I can’t really judge how faithful the transition to the big screen is. But I’ve heard that the movie is only loosely based on the first book in that it omits some characters from the book and borrow somethings from the second book. Overall it’s a decent tale.

Continue reading →