the james review » Book Reviews

Review: REAMDE

james m. toburen — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:20:15 +0000

Neal Stephenson's willingness to skip through time to tell his stories flaunts an authorial fearlessness. Snow Crash and The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer both envisioned possible futures, near and far, respectively. Anathem leapt even further into the future, in addition to occupying an entirely different dimension. Cryptonomicon explored a fictionalized history of the modern computer's origin during the events of the World Wars; the multi-volume Baroque Cycle followed characters fictional and historical at the beginning of the 18th century. Zodiac, The Big U, and (portions of) Cryptonomicon all reside somewhere near our own time...

Review: Ship Breaker

james m. toburen — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 06:30:27 +0000

After the huge success of Paolo Bacigalupi's 2010 debut novel, The Windup Girl, the science fiction world waited with baited breath for his sophomore effort. Could he repeat his early success? After all, The Windup Girl struck an incredible cord with fans and critics alike, winning both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Nebula Award for Best Novel. Time Magazine went so far as to declare the story one of the top ten fiction novels of the year. So when Ship Breaker was announced, fans lined up to discover if Bacigalupi could once again snag the haunting thread woven through The Windup Girl. So, has he?

Review: Clementine

james m. toburen — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:00:23 +0000

Seattle-based author Cherie Priest has established herself as a writer to keep a close eye on, first garnering fame for the Lulu Blooker-winning Four and Twenty Blackbirds, the opening novel of her Eden Moore trilogy. More recently, her series of steampunk tales have been earning her further attention; the stories of the Clockwork Century universe showcase an America that never came to be: the Civil War extended, both sides armed with strange new weapons, nimble airships roaming the skies. Boneshaker connected with fans and critics alike...

Review: The Heroes

james m. toburen — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:00:07 +0000

Joe Abercrombie has earned a reputation as a writer of gritty, intense fantasy that’s unafraid to deconstruct and reexamine the typical fantasy assumptions. For many readers, this falls firmly in the camp of being “a very good thing,” though individual mileage may vary (see here for an interesting blog post and an impressive thread of commentary responding to one critic’s unfavorable opinions on postmodern interpretations of the fantasy genre). His freshman effort, The First Law, offered up a fresh, violent, and often funny take on epic fantasy...

Review: Ilium

james m. toburen — Mon, 23 May 2011 15:35:51 +0000

Dan Simmons’s begins his second foray into the far future with Ilium, the first half of the Ilium / Olympos duology, and what a journey he has made! Ilium won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of 2003, and Olympos was also nominated in 2005. For anyone counting, Simmons has claimed that same prize for Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, and The Rise of Endymion, all three part of his acclaimed Hyperion Cantos. Each year, Locus magazine presents the Locus Award to the winner of their readers’ poll, and it isn’t difficult to understand why so many science fiction fans chose Ilium: Dan Simmons’s dramatic epic offers something to satisfy every speculative fiction readers’ tastes, cramming dozens upon dozens of literary references between scenes of nerve-racking action, intriguing puzzles, and visionary glimpses of astonishing technology.

Review: The Lions of al-Rassan

james m. toburen — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:30:23 +0000

As I mentioned in my review of Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay is well known for his “historical fiction,” using the geography and societies from factual history as the inspiration for his meticulously written, fantasy-based accounts. An analogue of a moment often overlooked in Europe’s history, The Lions of al-Rassan replicates the final decades of the [...]

Review: Warbreaker

james m. toburen — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:40:48 +0000

Brandon Sanderson’s first novel, Elantris, was published only five years ago, in 2005. Since then, this prolific writer’s impressive catalog of published novels has established him as a fantasy author to be reckoned with. His Mistborn trilogy is especially loved among fantasy readers for its knuckle-whitening action, meticulous world-building, and intricate system of magic. When [...]

Review: Boneshaker

james m. toburen — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:15:39 +0000

Cherie Priest has been writing for most of the last decade, her first published work being the Eden Moore series, a trilogy in the Southern Gothic genre which has received favorable reviews, including a Blooker Prize for the opening entry, Four and Twenty Blackbirds (originally distributed on Priest’s blog before being published by Marietta Publishing [...]

Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora

james m. toburen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:09:19 +0000

It seems every year a debut fantasy novels electrifies the speculative fiction community. Scott Lynch opened a planned seven volume series (The Gentleman Bastard Sequence) with The Lies of Locke Lamora, which arrived in a perfect storm of buzz, excitement, and positive reviews. So did Scott Lynch’s debut live up to the hype, and with the benefit of hindsight, does it compare favorably to other impressive fantasy debuts? I would say yes and no; unlike many reviewers, my reaction to The Lies of Locke Lamora was decidedly mixed. ..

Review: Anathem

james m. toburen — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:00:35 +0000

Neal Stephenson established himself in the early 90's as a science fiction author to pay attention to: the cyberpunk classic/parody Snow Crash was included on Time's magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer won the Hugo and the Locus award in 1996.