Cast a Bright Shadow / Tanith Lee

Cast a Bright Shadow

category: fantasy, author:

Tanith Lee

book 1 of Lionwolf
original copyright 2004,
read in March 2011 (and before, in April 2009)

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10

This is a miserable book. You like a happy ending? Forget it. You like sympathetic characters? There are none. This book is simply a litany of woe.

It's also a dream-like fantasy. And I don't mean that to sound positive. Illogical and inexplicable things happen because -- we have to believe -- because the gods decide that these things will happen.

Book of Dreams / Traci Harding

Book of Dreams

category: fantasy, subadult, romance, author:

Traci Harding

original copyright 2003,
read in March 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10

I just can't make up my mind about Harding's books. They are generally girly, sweet, new-age-mystic and cheerful. They target young teen girls who like a happy ending in every chapter. I should, by rights, absolutely loathe them all. (The books, not the girls.) Yet I rather enjoyed each of the first two Harding books that I have read...

btw: To see my reviews for other Harding books, click on the "author:harding" link at the bottom of this review.

Now we come to Book of Dreams...

And Harding has gone just a bit too far... For me.

Playing God / Sarah Zettel

Playing God

category: science fiction, author:

Sarah Zettel

original copyright 1998,
read in March 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 9 out of 10

Right near the beginning of this book I thought, Surely these people can't be that altruistic!? Then it seems that they were. Then it was shown that they were not... An ideal plot twist that is a complete surprise -- but no surprise at all !

This is great science fiction...

First, there are the humans. They have the technology, they have the good intentions, they want to help the aliens. The aliens need help... or do they? Perhaps one character has it right, that the aliens should be left alone to solve their own problems. The alternative is to create a depressed, degraded, cargo cult culture.

Should the humans help, by protecting the aliens from themselves? The alternative is, to let the alien culture risk taking a path to its own self-destruction. Remember Knut the polar bear? It's that sort of dilemma...

Gene of Isis / Traci Harding

Gene of Isis

category: fantasy, author:

Traci Harding

book 1 of Mystique
original copyright 2005,
read in March 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

Actually... this book is a bit silly! But I enjoyed it :-)

To Ride Hell's Chasm / Janny Wurts

To Ride Hell's Chasm

category: fantasy, author:

Janny Wurts

original copyright 2002,
read in March 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

Strangely enough, I can't help but think of Bat out of Hell... Janny Wurts writes the way Meatloaf sings: with melodramatic passion, blood, sweat and tears... Way, way, over the top. Though Meatloaf has possibly less of the blood :-)

The hero is strong and silent. So tough, so experienced and skilful, he's almost a super-hero. The heroine is fun, tough, beautiful and regal. (Well, she is a princess.) The villains are sneaky, violent and very, very evil.

Yet they are all (except for the villains) likeable.