Shadow Queen

Author	Anne Bishop
ISBN	0451458508

Myth and magic combine in a superb dark fantasy of a world in danger of being destroyed by those who deny themselves and their heritage, and let evil loose in the world. In Sylvalan, a witch hunt is in full force. As witches and innocents are brutally murdered, magic is disappearing from the land, and the...

Author

Sarah Monette

4 stars--I really liked it.

It's the characters and the writing that keep me interested in these books, not the plot. Like with the last book, the pacing is strange, and Mildmay and Felix seem trapped in loops of self deprecation and anger that are repeated over and over. The plot is a slow burn,...

Author	Jude Fisher
ISBN	0756401100

With this thrilling fantasy debut, Jude Fisher has created nothing less than an epic masterpiece. Filled with magic and magical quests, war and deception, sex and romance, and painted on a canvas rich with different fantastic cultures and exotic landscapes, and with one of the most dynamic and charismatic...

Author	Glenda Larke
ISBN	0441012779

This review was originally posted on Young Adult At Heart
SUMMARY

Blaze Halfbreed has been sent on a mission to retrieve the Cirkasian Castlemaid from Gortham Spit, a barely hospital strip of sand where only the lowest of the low and the most desperate congregate. There she discovers the...

Author	Lynn Flewelling
ISBN	0007113102

Um...Ms. Flewelling...may I call you Lynn...okay, Ms. Flewelling...if you ever see this review, I want you to know that this rating/review is a reflection of MY FAILURE and not yours. I don’t think this is a bad book and I don’t think there are serious flaws in its execution. I think the...

Author	Morgan Howell
ISBN	0345496523

A delicate alliance between human and orc has been achieved. Now Queen of the Orcs, Dar works toward making that peace last. Her position has helped her to finally feel part of a community, to find a life to call her own.

But sudden, strange outbreaks of unrest and ominous signs throw both realms...

Author	Sarah Ash
ISBN	0553586211

Combining the best of fantasy traditions with her own unique vision, Sarah Ash brings to dazzling life a new saga filled with epic adventure and unforgettable characters. Far-reaching in scope and imagination, Lord of Snow and Shadows embarks on a journey like no other—into a shape-shifting world...

Author	Mark Anthony
ISBN	0553579347

Travis Wilder has been living in Castle City for some years when strange things start to happen: a disturbing meeting with an old preacher, mysterious signs on doors, the violent death of his friend Jack, an iron box with a dangerous content.. and at last Travis falls through a billboard into the foreign...

Author	Carol Berg
ISBN	0451459628

I have to give Carol Berg credit for her female protagonist. Seri is in no way your typical fantasy heroine. She's neither young nor blond, she's not virginal or a doormat. She's a middle-aged widow who's borne a child. She's cynical and she shows her age. I liked her because, unlike too many women in fantasy...

Author	Curt Benjamin
ISBN	0756400546

This first novel in a magnificent new fantasy series draws upon the rich legends, cultures, and traditions of the East to create an epic tale of kingdoms invaded, nobles enslaved, and a young man's desperate quest to find his family and to face the challenge of a destiny which may be beyond any mortal's...

Author	Patricia Bray
ISBN	0553588761

Sometimes the magic inside us isn't meant to be discovered. . . .

Orphan, exile, priest, Josan has been posted to a lighthouse on the farthest edge of the kingdom. As a member of the collegium, he once dreamed of making a real contribution to the Learned Brethren, but those dreams died after a mysterious...

Author	Tanya Huff
ISBN	0756400384

This book's comprised of two of Huff's novels. The first, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light is a modern fantasy set in Toronto. It's sort of a near-apocalypse story, as the conflict's due to an Adept of Darkness (a demon, in other words) infiltrating the city. He plans to access a gate which will unleash...

Author	Isabel Glass
ISBN	0765307456

Fourteen years ago Lord Challo Hashan was exiled from court, and his daughter Angarred grew up wild and unschooled. But when her father is killed, she has to go to court to demand justice for him, unsure who there is her friend and who an enemy. What is the magician, Mathewar, hiding? What about Lord Snoppish,...

Author	Rebecca Bradley
ISBN	0441007090

reviews.metaphorosis.com

4 stars

Tigrallef, happily reclusive scholar and memorian becomes a lot less happy when called to stand in for his more ... physical brother as the land of Gil's  official Hero. Woefully unprepared, he's sent off to Gil to track down a divinely powerful...

Author

Sean McMullen

The Shadowmoon is a small, unobtrusive wooden schooner whose passengers and crew are much more than they seem: Ferran, the Shadowmoon's lusty captain who dreams of power; Roval, the warrior-sorcerer; Velander and Terikel, priestesses of a nearly extinct sect; and the chivalrous vampyre Laron,...

Author	Mindy Klasky
ISBN	0451458354

Book #2 in the Glasswright series. Klasky has created an imperfect heroine in her Glasswright's series. Much of the Glasswrights Progress has Rani being forced along a path without her being able to do much about it. She is kidnapped along with Mair to a neighboring kingdom where the caste system is very...

Author	Lorna Freeman
ISBN	0451459806

An absolute gem of a fantasy novel. Criminally overlooked and underrated.

Also, some rather groovy cover art.

I sometimes wish I could shake some sense into people. While everybody busies themselves with high profile, well promoted and, let’s be honest, sometimes inferior books...

Author	Deborah Chester
ISBN	0441007961

This is one of those books that didn't quite stand the test of time since I last read it. I still like certain characters like Dain and Thum, but I think one of the problems with this book for me was that I found both Alexeika and Pheresa, the two female lead characters very irritating. While I maintain that...

Author	Alma Alexander
ISBN	0060765704

The great king Red Dynan has been slain in battle, leaving two of his blood to dispute the future of his leaderless realm: a ruthless illegitimate son determined to wear the crown—and Anghara Kir Hama, the rightful queen…a nine-year-old-girl.

The life Anghara knows has ended; everyone...

Author	Joanne Bertin
ISBN	0812545419

Dragonlord Linden Rathan, last-born of a race of immortal weredragons, has spent six hundred years alone, searching for his soultwin while his fellow Dragonlords watch over humanity's Five Kingdoms.

When the Queen of Cassori dies mysteriously, Linden and the other Dragonlords are called...