Bold Wurg

Jim Butcher’s latest entry in the Dresden Files may be his pulpiest, yet. It was certainly worth a review.

Dan Simmons’ dystopic vision is straight out of Glenn Beck’s nightmares. My review of it? Straight out of BookPage.

George R.R. Martin finishes off the epic editing fail that was A Feast for Crows/A Dance with Dragons. I review the result for BookPage.

The 20th anniversary edition of L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s classic fantasy series was as good a time as any for my first exposure to the world of Recluce, and my review of it for BookPage that resulted.

I read H. Beam Piper’s original Fuzzy books as a teen. I didn’t expect much when I sat down to read and review this reboot by John Scalzi. I was pleasantly surprised.

It seems a lot of grandmasters have been turning out new works in 2011 (Pohl, Wolfe, Matheson). I reviewed Frederik Pohl’s latest for BookPage.

Gene Wolfe is still turning out genre-defying fiction. Home Fires, his latest, wasn’t his best, but it still made for a pretty good read, as described in my review for BookPage.

Steven Erickson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series is the most momentous, immense and truly epic fantasy series of the last thirty years. (Sorry, George R.R. Martin.) As impressive as the series is for its unbridled fecundity, Erickson’s achievement of actually finishing the 10-book arc in 11 years is itself an epic achievement. Not surprisingly, I jumped at the chance to review The Crippled God for BookPage.

I wasn’t aware of Patrick Rothfuss until I had the chance to review The Wise Man’s Fear, the second book of the Kingkiller Chonicles, for BookPage. (I read The Name of the Wind, book one of the series, as well.) Well worth it, on both counts.

I reviewed this anthology for BookPage more out of a sense of obligation to the popularity of Weber’s universe than due to its craftsmanship. But then again, writing a review that is honest yet not so critical it makes a reader wonder why the book is being featured in the first place can be more difficult than writing one for a book one loves.