It began as an Internet debate on the blogs of YA authors Justine Larbalestier and Holly Black. Which one is cooler-zombies or unicorns? Justine announced that she was pro-zombie and anti-unicorn, and Holly stood up for the awesomeness of unicorns versus the nastiness of zombies. The discussion grew animated enough that Holly and Justine recruited […]
Category: fantasy
Dueling Reviews: Raiju: A Kaiju Hunter Novel by K.H. Koehler
January 30, 2014Colleen says: Kevin Takahashi is a 16-year-old refugee from San Francisco living in New York City with his dad. San Francisco was destroyed by a kaiju, or monster (think Godzilla). A shark had eaten so much polluted fish that it changed into a monster called a Karkadon and came ashore in San Francisco Bay, […]
The third and final volume in K. H. Koehler’s tale of steampunk, time travel and dragons is just as good as the previous two. As in the second volume, there is a reorienting chapter at the start, and then the tale continues. Sasha Strange, Lord Quinn, and now Dr. John Ulysses, struggle to survive long […]
K. H. Koehler has put together a great second stage to her tale of time travel, steampunk and dinosaurs. This volume picks up where Planet of Dinosaurs ended complete with a short summary to reorient the reader. In Sea of Serpents, Sasha Strange, Lord Quinn, and Toby, sort through their relationships to one another while overcoming adversity and […]
Time Travel Steampunk. This is a fun read from K. H. Koehler. The story begins in 1889, with the heroine, Sasha Strange, on the verge of being married off to the boorish brute Lord Sirius Quinn. To the chagrin of her father, Sasha is only interested in science and the freedom to explore away […]
Beauty by Robin McKinley
August 7, 2013Without a doubt this is one of my favorite books ever. A retelling of Beauty and the Beast without sexy candelabras or misogynist hunter jerks, told in a vivid tapestry of language. I could leave it there, but where’s the fun in that? Beauty is the nickname given to a girl who is not, especially […]
I Was a Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block
August 5, 2013Block is one of my favorites for off beat but surprisingly soulful tales. I had a pretty good idea what I was getting into in this one before I even noticed the handwritten notes about the book someone so kindly left on the inside cover. Barbie is the daughter of a former beauty queen who […]
Review: Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
June 21, 2013Green Angel is without a doubt a post-apocalyptic fairy tale. Green lives with her family on a farm until the day that they go into town to sell their goods and leave Green behind to watch the farm. Disaster strikes and there is no doubt that her family will never return. So Green tries to […]
Review: Black Unicorn by Tanith Lee
May 3, 2013Tanaquil was born in a fortress, to a powerful sorceress who rules the desert land. And it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. She’s a failure as a sorceress herself. Her mother’s magic leaks all over the castle making life one chaotic inconvenience. Speaking of which, she’s little more than an inconvenience herself, unable […]
Dark Visions by L.J. Smith
February 9, 2013From The Vampire Diaries author LJ Smith comes a more subtle supernatural tale. Kaitlyn has always been different, and alone. She thinks she might even be cursed, since there are times when her hands become not her own and draw terrible futures. Her “gift” gets her attention from the Zetes Institute, a research group who […]