Fantasy Book Review

What do you get when one of the fantasy genres literary mainstays over the past three decades recommends a book and suggests that he hasn’t read anything so “enthralling” since “when [he] first read Phillip Pullman”?

The Golden Acorn by Catherine Cooper was recipient of the Brit Writers' Award Unpublished 2010, an award that attracted 21,000 entries across its 8 categories and offered the largest prize ever for unpublished writers, £10,000. After reading it, we here at Fantasy Book Review found it to be a charming and magical book that fully deserves the accolades that it is currently receiving.

August 2010 sees the release of three Steven Erikson novellas, bound together in one edition and titled The First Collected Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. All three are set in the world of the Malazan Empire and follow the exploits of the mysterious necromancers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach.

When I first stumbled across this book I was only killing time in the bookshop, and was intrigued by the title and the cover. I wasn’t expecting much. I wasn’t even planning to buy it. I certainly wasn’t expecting that I would be unable to put it down or get it off my mind until I had read both book one and two. The story follows the life of a prophecy, and a fisherman named Asher. His mother has died and his father is growing old fast without her, so he plans to make his fortune and buy a boat for him and his Da thus escaping his older brothers. Heading for the richest city in the kingdom of Lur, he reaches Dorana, as far from the coast as he has ever been.

Yann Martel’s award winning novel Life of Pi, published in 2010 as a young adult edition by Walker/Canongate, is a unique and often surreal tale of the animal kingdom, shipwreck and faith. First published in September 2001, the UK edition won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 2002. One boy, one boat, one tiger... After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan - and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

Joseph Delaney’s The Wardstone Chronicles are a series of books that have maintained the very highest standard for nearly a decade. 2010 sees the publication of The Spook's Nightmare, the seventh instalment, and it is a worthy addition to what is arguably the best ongoing fantasy series accessible to older children.

Anselm Andros has always thought he had a normal life - confidante to his mother, Maria, confessor to his stepfather, Leo, a man haunted by the secrets of his past, and support to his sister Jasmine. But when the political landscape of Malonia starts to shift, this unassuming family begin to unravel. Even though they have spent the past fifteen years leading a quiet life, Maria and Leo's actions are forever linked to the turbulent history of Malonia and its parallel world, modern-day England. The voices from the past still echo in the present and Anselm must pull all the pieces together - whatever the cost.

The Awakening is the first in the Vampire Diaries series. The television series is only very loosely based on the books, the differences are surprising. This means that even if you have seen the show, the book can still surprise you.

Reading Lucinda Hare’s debut novel The Dragon Whisperer is like riding a dragon. You have to hold on tight during the twist and turns, take time to stop and enjoy the breathtaking view (in the form of David Wyatt’s wonderful illustrations), prepare yourself for the sudden lows, enjoy the soaring heights and make sure you’re not on the wrong end of that fiery breath!

It is the gods, however, that stand out in this novel. The reader learns more about Aphrael, and gets to meet her relatives, including her very stupid cousin. The other god characters highlight the difference between the orders of the Church Knights. The troll gods are introduced as thinking individuals, and are the comedic high points of the novel with their unusual very moral way of looking at situations. They are also responsible for the most horribly described punishments in the Tamuli series; the very thought of them will make you wince.