Fantasy Book Review

Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.

After the grand finale of Twilight, I’m sure most readers were pretty interested in finding out what the sequel, New Moon, had to offer. Would Bella Swann really want to become a vampire in order to spend the rest of her days with her only love, Edward Cullen? Would Edward allow it to happen? Would Victoria, the mate of the tracker vampire that Edward killed at the end of Twilight, come back to Forks for revenge?

After seeing and enjoying the movie Twilight, I had to get the book. If I was less of a glutton for punishment I probably would have heeded the warning signs. Every teenage girl I knew of swooning over the book and the Romeo of the story, Edward Cullen. I even had a 24 year old friend update her status with something along the lines of “After Edward Cullen I can never again want a human male.”

You just can’t beat a damn good horror book, particularly one that manages to scare and disturb you late at night, even though you are safe and sound in your own home. Adam Nevill’s Apartment 16 is one such book. The titular apartment is located within Barrington House, an upmarket block in London. It has been empty for fifty years - no one goes in, no one comes out. When Seth - an aspiring artist working as a night watchman - investigates a disturbance after midnight, his experiences change his life forever.

A winner of the 1997 Nebula award for best novel, Vonda N McIntyre’s The Moon and the Sun is a sumptuous work of alternate history. Set in 17th century France, at the court of the Sun King, the book’s attention to detail and flowing narrative help create an absorbing tale of fantasy, romance, science and history.

Maurice Sendak’s children’s picture book has become an acknowledged classic. A winner of the Caldecott Medal for the Most Distinguished Picture Book of the Year in 1964, Where the Wild Things Are is a timeless masterpiece that can be enjoyed equally by children and grown-ups.

In an Italian village, Geppetto, an old woodcarver, receives a piece of wood which looks perfect for his next project, a puppet. But when he sets to work something magical happens – the piece of wood begins to talk. When Geppetto is finished, the puppet turns out to be cheeky, naughty, and can walk, run and eat with as hearty an appetite as any young boy.

Cheats never prosper. At least that’s what everyone else would have you believe. But Lex Trent knows better. Lex knows that, with a bit of luck, the quickest route to success is to lie, swindle and cheat all the way to the top. Unfortunately Lex has taken his scams a step too far… Rather than see his neck in a noose, he’s forced to go on the run in a world of irritable Gods, fearsome magicians and strange beasts. But luck is still on his side, just.

When I am asked to pick my favourite Terry Pratchett book, The Fifth Elephant is always on my mind as a contender. Granted, it’s a contender insomuch as the Rock would be versus Ali, but it’s still in there! There are books that follow that outshine this book, but only in the way that one star outshines a slightly smaller star.

The Elenium consists of six books and The Diamond Throne is the first book in this series. David Eddings is an author who is both loved and criticized in seemingly equal measure but no-one can deny that he writes enjoyable fantasy tales. The Elenium continues in the next volume, The Ruby Knight.

I’ve made it clear that the earlier Discworld books by Terry Pratchett aren’t as good as the latter. But when does “early” become “latter”? It happens with book number twenty, Hogfather, and continues into the twenty first novel, and the fourth City Watch story, Jingo.