Tag Archives: Road Stories

Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold (The Sharing Knife, Book 4)

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Synopsis:
As Dag hones and refines his groundsetting skills, his farmer wife Fawn aches for a home of her own, and when they are forced to travel across malice-infested territories, their marriage is tested and their lives in jeopardy.

Review:
While I completely admire and love Bujold’s worldbuilding, character skills, and prose stylings, I was underwhelmed by the conclusion of this series. Possession has a ruminative tone that was disappointing after the epic promise of the first books, and I felt like the malice threat ended up being underdeveloped and underplayed. However, I do think highly of this series and the books are headed off to my BFF, rather than the thrift store. I think I might appreciate the series more if I could talk with someone about them.

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Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold (The Sharing Knife, Book 3)

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Synopsis:
Having awakened new, untold powers, Lakewalker Dag and his farmer wife Fawn embark down a river journey that will bring them into contact with dangers both human and not.

Review:
So far, Passage has been the least successful of the books in this series. While I enjoyed the texture and the details, I did feel like I was just treading water until the big conclusion. I do continue to be impressed by Bujold’s command of dialogue and characterization, and I like where the story is going.

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Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

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Synopsis:
One man’s harrowing journey up the Congo in search of enlightenment.

Review:
Blogging really wasn’t invented for talking about a book like Heart of Darkness. I am utterly incapable of coming up with anything approaching an instant reaction to this book. I need to sit with it for a long time, then read it again, then sit with it some more, then read it again. Then maybe I can talk about it. I promise to let you know if I come up with anything approaching a coherent thought about this tremendous work.

Upland Outlaws by Dave Duncan

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Synopsis:
A despotic sorcerer has torn the Impire apart through a ruthless program of magical slavery, and imperor Shandie’s small cadre of loyal supporters are forced to travel to the farthest corners of Pandemia in order to save the world.

Review:
Upland Outlaws is Part Two of the Handful of Men series, and I’m sort of running out of superlatives. I’m beyond grateful to Shari for introducing me to this fine author, who is helping me bide my time until A Dance of Dragons comes out. Continue reading →

Faery Lands Forlon by Dave Duncan

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Synopsis:
Inos might be queen of Krasnegar, but she’s been magicked to the other side of the world, and the same magic has sent stable boy Rap, the goblin Little Chicken, and boy thief Thinal to the land of Faery, where Rap discovers that Inos is a pawn in a deadly game between powers greater than any army or king.

Review:
Faery Lands Forlorn is the second book in Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word series, and it’s clear that none of these books is meant to stand alone. It picks right up where Magic Casement left off, and ends with another cliffhanger. Continue reading →

Magic Casement by Dave Duncan

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Synopsis:
A stableboy begins to exhibit mysterious powers that draw attention that could be dangerous, and he finds himself a prisoner on the goblin waste as the princess he’s sworn to serve comes ever closer to a danger that only he is aware of.

Review:
Magic Casement is a fantastic start to a four book series that I hope lives up to the promise of this first installment. My friend Shari saw that I had read Duncan’s Hero!, and said, “You finally read Dave Duncan–but you read his sci-fi?” And then she pressed these books into my hand, and I knew that I’d be reading these as soon as I finished War and Peace. I had originally planned to pace myself through the series, alternating with other books, but because Duncan employs the cliffhanger ending, I have no choice but to give myself over to Princess Inos and Rap for as long as it takes. Continue reading →

Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell

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Synopsis:
When a schedule-obsessed overachiever ends up in Southeast Asia with the grandmother she’s never met before, she’s forced to challenge her own assumptions and maybe even take a risk or two. Continue reading →

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Luck of the Wheels by Megan Lindholm

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Synopsis:
Gypsy teamster Ki agrees to ferry a most disagreeable boy to another town, and discovers a world of trouble when she and her companions find themselves in the middle of an uprising.

Review:
Luck of the Wheels, the fourth and final installment in the Ki and Vandien Quartet, is the best Lindholm I’ve read so far. Here, she pushes her protagonists as far as they can be pushed, taking the kinds of story risks that make her books so accomplished. She’s not afraid to enact events upon her characters that change them fundamentally, and she recognizes that our pain and suffering changes us in fundamental ways. Healing doesn’t mean erasure. Continue reading →

Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik

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Review:
The second in trilogy begun in His Majesty’s Dragon finds Temeraire and Laurence traveling by sea to China where Temeraire will take his rightful place as the dragon of an emperor–not a member of His Royal Majesty’s Navy battling against an ever-encroaching Napoleon.

Review:
Throne of Jade is a more than worthy installment in the tale of Temeraire, a dragon hatched from an egg given by China to Napoleon but seized by the English. When Temeraire hatched, the first person he saw was naval officer Laurence–and this was quite by accident, to the despair of the pilot who was next in line to bond with a dragon. Laurence has to leave the navy with his beloved order and ritual, for the less rigorous though no less disciplined aerial corps, and learn to pilot a dragon and his crew to fight the air battle against Napoleon in service of the British Army. Book one covered this coming-of-age story beautifully, and by the end of the book Temeraire and Laurence were as thick as thieves and devoted to fair Albion. Continue reading →

Cell by Stephen King

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Synopsis:
Cell phones turn the world into a post-apocalyptic nightmare, and a small band of survivors must try to figure out how to stay alive. Continue reading →