"Avoiding second-volume sag with plenty of charisma, this outing proves to be a satisfying read that takes the baton neatly from the first and leaves readers ready for more. (Science fiction/fantasy. 12 & up)"
Following the events of Hunter (2015), now that she's become an Elite, Joy knows she's in for more high-stakes danger and will be facing more dangerous Othersiders than before.
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"Captivating, dynamic, well-paced, and thrilling. (Science fiction/fantasy. 12 & up)"
Joyeaux Charmand is a young Hunter, chosen from her village to join the Hunter corps of Apex, protecting its Cits from the Othersiders—fantastical, menacing creatures—and also protecting the secrets and people of her village back home.
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"Combat classes, propagandistic emails and the disappearance of students create a bleak read more reminiscent of The Hunger Games than Hogwarts. (Fantasy. 12-16)"
Boarding school students prepare for war, but the enemy may already be among them in this tense teen fantasy, third in the Shadow Grail series.
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Lackey and Mallory (The Phoenix Transformed, 2009, etc.) begin another speculative allegorical series with the chronicle of Elven Queen Vieliessar of Farcarinon.
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"Harmonizing with an Irish jauntiness, Lackey and Edghill jam each page with a spirit-crushing good humor that solves one of Life's Great Mysteries about grinding out sorcery series: know your elfin addicts."
Lackey, well known for using various collaborators for her Heralds of Valdemar and Bardic Voices series (Brightly Burning, 2000), joins forces with Edghill once again (Beyond World's End), this time for the fifth installment of Lackey's Bedlam's Bard series.
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"A promising start, with plenty of solid period detail and a splash of feminism, but disappointingly developed, with a thin, poorly motivated plot and a showdown that just hangs out to dry."
Snow White variant set in Edwardian London, from the author of Brightly Burning (2000), etc. Dr Maya Witherspoon, her Indian mother dead, her English father mysteriously killed by snakebite, sets up a practice in London, having fled the vengeful fury of her aunt Shivani, a magic-powered devotee of Kali.
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"Only Valdemar experts will be able to place this installment chronologically—or want to."
Another of Lackey's fantasy yarns set in Valdemar (Storm Warning, 1994, etc.), a magical kingdom where magic-powered Heralds bond for life with horselike Companions, now facing war with neighboring Karse.
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"Fluffy no-brainer evidently aimed at a younger—much younger—fantasy audience."
New fantasy, with few and tiny pages, from the author of The Black Swan (p. 496), etc. Beautiful 15-year-old Ariella of Swan Manor likes to don workaday clothes, run off into the forest, and use her magic gifts to heal sick and injured animals.
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"Lackey's popular, and this one will have its adherents: decorously embroidered and pleasant but, well, feathery."
Another reworking of an Old Russian folk tale (like Firebird, 1996), this one having also inspired the famous music and ballet Swan Lake.
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"A pleasant enough diversion aimed at the younger sections of the audience; pity that Lackey didn't inject some modern rigor and logic into the proceedings."
Reworking of an Old Russian folk tale from fantasist Lackey (Sacred Ground, 1994, etc.).
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"More parsimonious editing and greater attention to detail in the formative stages would've helped considerably with this workmanlike, predictable yarn and its remarkably obtuse bad guys: the authors, notwithstanding their individual accomplishments, strike no sparks together."
When the irresistible armies of the Emperor Balthasar threaten to invade the peaceful, Goddess-worshipping port of Merina, its rulersDowager Queen Adele, Queen Lydana, and princess Shelyradecide to avoid bloodshed and simply submit.
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"A dreadfully slow start—the first 100-plus pages could have been collapsed into a few paragraphs—but thereafter modestly appealing and involving, if lacking real bite."
"Newcomers to Lackey's fantasy universe are best advised to sample one of her solo novels, but the many fans who follow the series will probably find little to object to in this collaboration with husband Dixon. (12 b&w illustrations by Dixon, not seen)"
The second in a prequel trilogy set roughly a thousand years before the main action in Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series (Storm Warning, 1994, etc.).
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"Non-fans and browsers will simply yawn and pass on."
From Lackey (with Bill Dixon, The Black Gryphon, 1993) a starter for yet another sword-and-sorcery trilogy set, like her Mage Winds books, in Valdemar, though only experts will know where, chronologically, this one fits in.
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Contemporary mystery/fantasy wherein Lackey (The Black Gryphon, etc.) combines an insurance-fraud investigation with Native American magic.
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"Dedicated Darkover fans will probably find deep meaning in some of the apparently slight episodes, but for a newcomer to the series, almost any of Bradley's solo novels would be a better introduction."
Bradley (Black Trillium, 1990, etc.) here joins forces with the prolific Lackey (coauthor, The Elvenbane, 1991, etc.) for the long-awaited story of the rediscovery of the lost colony of Darkover, settled by a ship from Earth, but unable to sustain high technology after losing contact with the parent civilization; now, after centuries of isolation, a second wave of exploration from Earth arrives.
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"Overall, then, despite shallow characters and a lack of real tension (we never doubt that Shana and friends will succeed), an entertaining adventure."
A collaborative effort from fantasy grande dame Norton and relative newcomer Lackey (the paperback Magic's Price), this tale of magic and intrigue offers a mixture of standard genre elements and an engaging plot.
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