May 3rd, 2013 by heather
Pros: Fascinating culture and events
Cons: Logical inconsistencies; characters held at a distance
Rating: 3 out of 5
Release date: May 7, 2013
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Robert Silverberg’s Tales of Majipoor
collects together seven stories set in his world of Majipoor. They span thousands of years of history, from sometime after the arrival of the colonists from Earth, through several pivotal historical events (and a few more personal stories), to an excerpt from the life of Lord Valentine.
Disclaimer: I haven’t read Silverberg’s other Majipoor books (this happens sometimes when you review books—publishers can send you books from series you haven’t gotten to yet). On the one hand, it’s useful sometimes to have a fresh perspective, mostly so that new or prospective readers have some idea of where they can and can’t jump into a series. On the other hand, there were setting details that I had issues with, and I freely admit that they might be addressed within the other books. This does mean, however, that this book doesn’t stand entirely on its own. Individual stories do, and they provide a nice glimpse of Majipoor, but the whole of the book leaves some world-building holes.
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Tags: aliens, anthology, Fantasy, Lord Valentine, magic, Majipoor, Robert Silverberg, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, SF, short stories
Posted in Fantasy, Science Fiction | Permalink | No Comments »
May 2nd, 2013 by heather
Pros: Interesting world-building and story
Cons: Some discordant tones
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Release date: May 7, 2013
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
The clockwork plague reduced some people to mindless plague-spreading zombies, while elevating others to empathy-free brilliant mad scientists called clockworkers. As the clockworkers fall deeper and deeper into plague-fueled fugues, they lose touch with their humanity, often hurting, torturing, and killing people in their mad quest to build ever-stranger devices. Thaddeus Sharpe has dedicated himself to hunting and killing clockworkers, often destroying their automatons and devices in the process. When a mysterious young woman, Sofiya, working for an even more mysterious man named Mr. Griffin, hires Thad to steal a device from a clockworker, things inevitably go wrong. Thad cares more about killing the clockworker and rescuing a young boy than he does obtaining the device, and soon he finds himself forced further and further into Mr. Griffin’s dangerous schemes.
Those schemes take him, the circus he travels with, Sofiya, and the boy he rescued (Nikolai) to the palace of the tsar, embroiling him in court politics, assassination attempts, and one great, horrific clockworker plan that threatens everyone.
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Tags: dark fantasy, Fantasy, steampunk, Steven Harper, The Clockwork Empire
Posted in Fantasy, Historical, Science Fiction | Permalink | No Comments »
May 1st, 2013 by heather
Pros: Magnificent characterization, pacing and plotting
Cons: Somewhat standard medieval setting (not wholly a negative; read review for more details)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Release date: May 7, 2013
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Celine and Amelie Fawe are orphaned sisters trying to make a living in a destitute peasant village. Celine pretends to have her mother’s abilities to read the future, and Amelie protects them both with sword and dagger. Then one day an old woman pays Celine a visit and offers her money to predict a particular future for a particular young woman—an offer Celine can’t refuse, since it comes from the prince who rules the land with brutal efficiency. When Celine finds herself compelled to offer different counsel, the sisters are forced to flee their home and seek safety with the prince’s brother, Anton.
Prince Anton is contending with a series of mysterious deaths of beautiful young women, and he offers Celine and Amelie a place to live and work in safety if they can use their supposed skills to find the culprit. Suddenly two poor sisters are tossed head-first into a world of power, ambition, and money, in which even the best of people must be hardhearted and swift to act. Danger is all around them, and Celine has no idea how to prevent more girls from dying.
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Tags: Barb Hendee, dark fantasy, Fantasy, Mist-Torn Witches, witches
Posted in Fantasy, Horror & Paranormal | Permalink | No Comments »
May 1st, 2013 by heather
I realized I’d fallen into the habit of giving a 5 out of 5 sometimes simply because I couldn’t point to any specific negatives in a book. Unfortunately this meant that good-but-not-stunning books occupied the same rating as “it blew my socks off” books, and that seemed unfair to the latter. I’m not about to go back and try to re-assess the ratings of more than a thousand items. So instead, I have a slightly different set of standards for a 5 out of 5 going forward, and it boils down to this:
If your book is exciting and interesting enough, and draws me in enough, to leave me babbling to my book-loving husband about it, then it’ll almost certainly get a 5 out of 5 (maybe a 4.5 if I have one or two minor quibbles with the content).
If I can’t find anything in particular wrong with it but it doesn’t move me enough to want to share my excitement, it’s likely to get a 4 out of 5 or, at most, maybe a 4.5. If I give your book a 4 out of 5, please do not take that as an insult. Not every good book can spin me up that much, if just because writing quality is subjective. A 4 means you’ve written a very good book indeed. But if you get a 5 from here on out, you can be sure that your book completely wowed me.
Tags: book reviews, books, review ratings
Posted in Notes & Upcoming | Permalink | No Comments »
April 26th, 2013 by heather
Pros: Fantastic character interplay; gorgeous world-building. I think I’m falling in love with Ritsuko and Mikani.
Cons: Occasional difficulty telling which of the partners is speaking
Rating: 5 out of 5
Release date: April 30, 2013
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Celeste Ritsuko and Janus Mikani solve murders for the Criminal Investigation Division. She’s the division’s first female inspector, and an orderly, meticulous detective. He’s a sloppy, charming pain-in-the-ass with an extremely useful—and very debilitating—sixth sense. The two of them have forged an unlikely and delightfully symbiotic partnership as they work to protect people from harm.
Then a daughter of one of the great Houses goes missing, and they’re under the gun to find her—or else. When she turns up murdered in a particularly unusual and gruesome fashion, traces of magic polluting the scene, Ritsuko and Mikani realize they’re hunting a madman. And if they don’t find him soon, losing their jobs will be the least of their worries.
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Tags: A.A. Aguirre, Andres Aguirre, Ann Aguirre, Apparatus Infernum, fairies, Fantasy, mystery, paranormal, steampunk
Posted in Fantasy, Horror & Paranormal, Science Fiction, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 1 Comment »
February 25th, 2013 by heather
Please note that our review policy has had a total changeover. Short version: due to repeated medication and health problems, I’m not going to be taking many review books any more since I can’t guarantee reviews. On those occasions when I do take them, I prefer for them to be in electronic form so there’s no worry that I’ll waste your hard copy if I can’t do the review.
Thank you for your understanding!
Posted in Notes & Upcoming | Permalink | No Comments »
January 31st, 2013 by heather
Pros: I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through!
Cons: A few threads could have used a little more wrapping up; dark material warning
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Xandra is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and royalty to boot. Great signs and portents heralded her birth, which is why no one can understand how it is that she can’t do the slightest bit of magic. Fleeing the increasingly dangerous attempts of her mother to bring out her latent power, Xandra ends up in Austin, Texas, where she’s perfectly happy running a hugely popular coffee shop. Everything’s going just fine—until warlock Declan shows up in town. Suddenly her simple life is blowing up in her face. She’s following compulsions that lead her to dead bodies and force her to relive the women’s last, horrific memories. The women bear a resemblance to her, and versions of her own mystical tattoo appear on their bodies. Sparks fly—literally—when she and Declan get close, but he walked out on her once, and she doesn’t particularly trust him now. To make matters worse, it seems that her magic has finally decided to show up, but definitely not in any way that anyone could have predicted. And if she doesn’t get a handle on it soon, the killer might get to her before she can figure out who he is.
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Tags: erotic romance, Lone Star Witch novels, romance, serial killers, Tessa Adams, thriller, warlocks, witchcraft, witches
Posted in Horror & Paranormal, Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | 2 Comments »
January 30th, 2013 by heather
Pros: Fun tale with some intriguing twists, enjoyable turns, and interesting characters
Cons: The “impulsive” bad guy was a little too predictable at the end
Rating: 4 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group
Eve has a difficult new case to crack. It isn’t particularly gruesome, but the victim was a mother, a wife, sister-in-law to a judge, and much beloved by those around her. For once, Eve can’t find any hidden enemies, resentful spouses. Yet everything indicates that this woman was specifically targeted, and her death wasn’t the mugging-gone-wrong it was supposed to look like. Investigating the murder takes Eve deep into the confusing world of accounting, investing, and big business, where she’s sure to anger some very wealthy, very well-connected players.
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Tags: Eve Dallas, in death, J.D. Robb, mystery, Nora Roberts, Roarke, romance, thriller
Posted in Romance & Erotica, Thriller, Adventure & Mystery | Permalink | No Comments »
January 30th, 2013 by heather
I’ve located a few old reviews that I don’t seem to have posted here, so I thought I’d go ahead and add them while I work on catching up with new ones.
Pros: Fantastic recipes, useful charts and tips, clear and easy instructions
Cons: So-so recipes, bad “…and next ten ingredients” instructions
Rating: 3 out of 5
Originally written: Jul 07 ‘00
This is one of my favorite healthy cooking cookbooks. My fiancee and I don’t often repeat recipes. We like variety, and we love to explore new tastes. However, there are a number of recipes in here that we’ve made over and over again. This cookbook isn’t perfect. There are a number of recipes in it that aren’t particularly appealing.
The potato skins with cheese and turkey bacon are very good. Particularly with the nonfat sour cream and the cheese, I actually quite liked the turkey bacon. This dish tasted surprisingly like traditional high-fat potato skins.
The honey-mustard glazed meatballs were sweet and wonderful, although we found that they didn’t tend to hold up as meatballs. They’d be better as a meat and sauce to go over mashed potatoes or bread.
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Tags: cookbook reviews, Cookbooks, Cooking Light, recipes
Posted in Healthy | Permalink | No Comments »
December 18th, 2012 by heather
Pros: Produces AMAZING food
Cons: A little awkward to empty and requires some arm strength; expensive
Rating: 5 out of 5
Also posted on Epinions.com.
My husband and I love to cook. So I got him a copy of the book set “Modernist Cuisine at Home” for the holidays, and he got me a few of the gadgets that go with it, like the Sous Vide SVK-00001 Supreme Water Oven
. I know, it seems like overkill—it seems like an expensive one-use item that’ll just take up needed counterspace. And yet, it’s totally worth it if you love to cook.
First of all, if you don’t know whether it would be worth it for you, then I encourage you to try one of the water bath recipes that doesn’t require an appliance (there are a few that go for a short enough period of time at a low enough temperature that you can do them with stuff you probably already have at home)—such as How to Cook Salmon Sous Vide in Your Kitchen Sink. Try it. If you don’t think the resulting salmon is THAT MUCH better than other preparations, then the SousVide Supreme probably won’t be worth it for you. When we tried it, we made one salmon fillet with the water bath/finish on the stove method, and made one using another standard cooking method. The difference was far greater than I’d imagined. The salmon was the perfect just-done temperature throughout; there was no dryness whatsoever; the flavor was divine; the texture was buttery-flaky; and the step of finishing it off in a pan of butter and seasonings gave it just the right touch of flavor and surface texture.
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Tags: cooking, modernist, modernist cuisine, sous vide, SousVide Supreme, water bath, water oven
Posted in Appliances Etc. | Permalink | 2 Comments »
