The Children of the Sky is Vernor Vinge’s sequel to his iconic book A Fire Upon the Deep, which was first released almost twenty years ago (that sentence makes me feel kind of old…alas).  Another Vinge book, A Deepness in the Sky, is set in the same universe but is largely unrelated to the other two, and there have been various other related works as well.  Children is the first direct sequel though, set in the ten years following the […]

The Skin Map is the first book in Stephen Lawhead’s new Bright Empires series, which he describes as “the most challenging work I’ve ever undertaken.”  Lawhead is the author of such excellent fantasy series as the Pendragon Cycle and the King Raven Trilogy, so he certainly has the pedigree to take on a work of the scope that he describes on his website as the future of science fiction and fantasy.  Unfortunately, one is left not only wondering what is […]

Spin, the first book in an eponymous trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson, was published in 2005 and won the Hugo award for best novel shortly thereafter.  The second book in the series, Axis, came out in 2007 and the final book, Vortex, is scheduled to be released in May of this year.  My understanding is that this is a very good thing as I’ve read that Axis suffers from a strong case of middle book syndrome and Spin, despite some […]

Recently, Ana and Thea of The Book Smugglers asked me to participate in one of their features, the guest dare. Every month they dare someone to read and review a book they may not read otherwise (which is a fabulous idea and a lot of fun!). So today I’m over at their blog with a review of Dead Witch Walking, the first book in one of Thea’s favorite urban fantasy series, The Hollows by Kim Harrison. In return, I dared […]