Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

With Memories of Ice, Erikson adds another great title to the Malazan series. This third installment continues the grittiness and maturity of the first two and adds some interesting characters to the mix. As in all of the fantasy that I enjoy, no one is safe, regardless of their seeming importance to the story line so you will likely lose a character that you like, but that's what keeps the suspense real. I love Erikson's ability to build life into his characters and indeed the story is driven by them rather than having them simply respond to events on a plotline. Overall it was a great read and a wonderful contribution to one of the best series in fantasy today.

As far as criticisms are concerned, there are only a couple from my perspective. One is that the author's writing style, while having a distinctly mature and gritty feel, can be stylistically difficult to follow at times. Not impossible by any means, and not enough to significantly diminish the impact or enjoyability of the book as a whole, but complicated nonetheless. The only other thing that I found irksome is the repeated and heavy overuse of the expression 'growled' as in "Go away", he growled. It seems everyone in this book is constantly growling. Again, little thing but you will almost certainly notice it as it is VERY prevalent.

Overall I would highly recommend this and all of the Malazan books. And if you like the feel and story of these, give R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series a try as well, you won't be disappointed.

The saga continues - I love this guy's writing and thoroughly enjoy just about every word he writes. Don't often read "slowly", but these books I do. Start from the first book and read them all.

These books aren't for everyone. There's a lot of good. But then there's also a lot of bad. Whenever I read Erikson, I feel like i'm fighting a dragon. His prose is convoluted and his story even more so but not in a great way. It's a tad irritating to have to read 3 commas and 2 dashes in every other sentence. He tries really hard to sound sophisticated in favor of keeping things simple and explaining things. I've all ready gotten past the hard parts like having to remember 20 generic names like Gruntle, Picker, Spindle, Fiddler, etc.

The number of plot holes is astounding. For example, the Moranth Munitions are incredibly powerful. How come none of the Moranth flew some of the munitions to Capustan? Because then there would be no siege to write about. Anomander Rake can literally breathe darkness upon a mob of Tenescrowri and wipe an entire line down the ranks. Why didn't he fly to Capustan in his Soletaken form (bring Caladan Brook with him)? Both of them probably could've wiped out the entire Pannion Domin army by themselves! There are many, many more. I know every story will inevitably have plotholes. But the ones in these books are so blatant it just makes it kind of eyerolling to read.

There's no balance of power at all in the books. It seems Erikson just writes whatever he wants, introduces new powers or limits them according to whim. The Hounds are supposed to be so powerful, yet Fiddler admitted he could slay all of them with a rigged crossbow bolt. I'm not even sure why they have regular infantry. A K'Chain Che'Malle can take down 20 Grey Swords by themselves, yet three Seguleh can kill one easily, but they can be controlled by Lady Envy just as easily. It just makes no sense a lot of the time. One second, an ultimate force arrives, then another one, then another. A girl appears and she becomes all of a sudden the leader of the T'lan Imass, then another is the leader of the whirlwind. No ones powers are really explained and they just seem to be able to do anything when it's necessary. Kalam can pull out a rock and magically warp anywhere along the Imperial Warren. What the heck is the imperial warren and why dont' they do that more often instead of traveling by horse and foot?

Some of the parts are really overly dramatic. Anomander Rake just finishes wiping out a line of Tenescowri. I'm guessing thousands have just died. He then feels the need to use Dragnipur to slay the 6 insane witches for some reason (plot device for Whiskeyjack to intervene?). The commander comes up and kills the 6 insane witches and he feels guilty. The character development feels forced. I felt the exact same way when I read the part about Itkovian and how he 'eased' all the souls burdens.

All of a sudden Paran is the master of the deck and he has to decide whether or not to let the Chained God in. Seriously, what the heck is the deck and why is it so powerful? Who made the deck and how does it work? Who selected Paran? I'm guessing it's because he escaped Dragnipur, but some details would be useful. Perhaps Erikson mentioned what the deck was in 2 sentences in Gardens of the Moon. Forgive me if haven't been taking notes.

Everyone talks the same. Except for perhaps the eccentric characters, like Kruppe. Everyone refers to everyone else by rank whenever they address them. They all say, "Damn Bastard." They all use "... [adjective]" profusely. In fact, he must do that once in every paragraph, no matters who's talking.

Erikson has potential. The world does feel epic. Some of the characters are really very intriguing. But this is a first series, and it shows. I'm not sure if everyone is just impressed superficially by his prose. If someone could explain to me if i'm missing something, that would be great. I will probably continue the series, but I will not be expecting that much. My desire to find out what happens just isn't as great as it was when I read Gardens. The novelty is gone, and you realize that Erikson is just going to continue writing without really making the story grow other than adding new characters, new enemies and changing things according to his whim when he needs a plot device to bridge events.

Memories of Ice was an intriguing look into yet another peril facing the people of Erikson's fantastic world. The Pannion Domin presents an immediate and deadly threat to the Malazan Empire as it devours the continent. This story follows the bravery of the last remaining Bridgeburners, their brave sergeant Whiskeyjack, and the hesitant Cpt. Ganoes Paran. A tangent of the story focuses on the fall of the god of war and the ascendancy of its replacement. The novel does not have a boring spot but the ultimate battle climax at the end is pristinely done. This is a must read for fan's of Erikson, but if this is the first Erikson novel you've picked up, you are missing out on some important background presented in Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates. Read as much Erikson as possible!

Memories of Ice continues the same dragging on style that was introduced in Deadhouse Gates. Characters don't talk like real people, instead referring to each other by rank over and over again. There are so many passages that simply serve to show how cool some characters are in combat, others that repeat ad nauseum how some characters feel only one emotion. These all could have been cut out and the story would remain the same. Adding insult to injury is how some characters act unbelievably stupid for no reason whatsoever with childish dialogue and pointless expositions about the history of the gods of race A. Unfortunately there are so many gods and goddesses that no one will care about the gods of race A.

People in Erikson's world rarely simply say things or smile like normal people. Rather they growl, scowl, grin, and grunt. The mark of a poor writer. Some of the prose gets really pretentious and flowery at times, the magic descriptions are still vague, ("waves of sorcery," etc.), and really, if you want good writing you're not reading fantasy anyway. But this series is notorious for it.

Characters are ludicrously overpowered as usual; the Seguleh and the Kell Hunters (Sorry, the K'Chain Challe'Malle. Wow, someone's making really big and ancient sounding names to try and sound important!) can literally move at the speed of light, Lady Envy and her minions are unkillable, not to mention Rake can kill hundreds of people instantly with his dragon's breath and Caladan Brood and cause earthquakes with his hammer. Normally I wouldn't say Erikson substitutes uber powers to characters in favor of their development but 500+ pages in and the only thing I know about these gods and demigods is that they can pwn, well, the criticism suddenly becomes a lot more legit.

Despite Erikson's anthropology degree, he doesn't portray alternate societies in a positive light. The Barghast are shown to be savages and nothing more; the only reason they're presented as spiritual is because they were simply being forced to by the demigods and gods. One Barghast character can without exaggeration be summed up as, "Me so horny. Me love you long time." The Tellann Imass (looks a lot better than T'lan Imass doesn't it?) are just war mongering idiots. Great reading we got going here.

The few characters who aren't overpowered are either boring or stupid; the majority of the Bridgeburner characters here are the equivalent of crazies in a mental hospital and their antics which are supposed to amuse will really only appeal to equally twisted people. The ludicrous names like Gruntle and Picker get tiresome after a while. The other normal characters dwell constantly on their brooding psuedo-existential monologues, which only serve to bore and snore because anyone who pays attention to the story will only be reminded of the characters' thoughts, not informed.

Looking for a book to pander away from the typical fantasy mold? This isn't it, contrary to what Erikson's apologists will tell you. Women are under classed here even more than typical fantasy books. There's a lesbian scene as well as a rape scene, one woman is cursed to age rapidly as compared to the other curses in the book, and another foreign culture character starts a relationship with another character that is, "Hey, wanna do it?" "Sure thing sexy lady!" There are also lots of prophecies, destines, wizards hiding secrets, dark gods, and whatnot. It's not that typical fantasy is bad, but myths need to be dispelled.

Things take a really long time to get anywhere too. By 100 pages, you have a clear conflict, a set of protagonists and antagonists, and stakes. It's enough to interest anyone. Naturally what should follow is events that build up a resolution to these conflicts. This happens but it takes about 600 pages to do so and most of that is fluff. By the time of the resolution, you've lost interest. Instead there's conversations which really have no relevance. Example: Murillio and friends are talking about how witty Kruppe is with past events they've done together, referencing names and places you won't know or care about. Erikson's character development is forced because he's telling you that things and characters are cool, instead of just showing why we should care about anything that happens in this world.

On the plus side, the world can be beautiful. There are some interesting descriptions, particularly the Seer's tower in Outlook. The world is beautifully twisted, which is probably one of the few reasons I continue to read these books. There are tons of originally designed races, places, and characters, namely the demigods and gods, who, despite their one-dimensional uberness, are pretty cool. Sadly that novelty fades quickly but it's nice while it's there. Interestingly enough I'm interested in buying Midnight Tides simply so I can see Silchas Ruin, who I'm only interested in because he's Anomander Rake's brother. That's all.

So while Malazan is surely pretty and has an interesting backstory, its problem is that its [...].

Hehe... this is one of the most awsome mangas ever. Its about a little boy who wants to become a pirate. His hero is shanks and fights several enmey who are powerful... buggy, captain kuro, arlong, krieg, crocodile, mr 1-5, lucci, and enel...( i may have forgot some.) Anyways, he finds new abilities and funny ways to fight enemy pirates... BUY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

One piece is one of the most popular Shonen Jump mangas, and Eiichiro Oda is still managing to make new volumes of the series. After re-reading this volume, I have came to the conclusion that this is a series that I want to be a fan of. Everything was well plotted. Luffy reminds me a little bit of the young Goku of Dragon Ball. There is quite a bit of humor, but it didn't really make me laugh. It did, however, make the scenes better.

Luffy wants to be the king of pirates, and he has to get the treasure of One Piece. But first, he must get a crew. This is where Zoro comes in. A bounty hunter arrested for saving a little girl from Captain Morgan of the Navy's son's dogs. After Zoro joins the crew, Zoro saves a shipwrecked crew of Captain Buggy, who is also a rubber man. Did I mention that Luffy ate the devil's fruit and now he's like rubber? No? Whatever.

This is an excellent volume. It's one of the best Shonen Manga up to date, but probably not the best. The scenes are better than those dry, desert lands like Trigun. There is humor, and it moves pretty fast paced except when Luffy tries to rescue Zoro and does.

Eiichiro Oda, One Piece: Romance Dawn (ViZ, 1997)

Now, come on, what can be cooler than pirates? Oda kicks off his popular manga series in a way that kind of surprises me: we get the backstory of Monkey D. Luffy, King of the Pirates, before we actually get to the plot. (Well, okay, there's a page or two that sets up the hidden trasure for which the series is named.) A truly pleasant surprise, that-- a manga that actually goes in chronological order! Romance Dawn is the story of how Luffy became a pirate in the first place, his amusing beginnings with his first boat, and the recruiting of his first partner (Zoro). If you've been watching One Piece on Cartoon Network, it's definitely worth digging into the manga-- especially if you wandered in halfway through, like I did. *** ½

One Piece is by many considered to be one of the most popular manga and anime series in the world, and whoever says that is right. This graphic novel holds the first eight chapters of this marvelous manga.

Romance Dawn

Chapter 1: Romance Dawn
As a young boy, Monkey D. Luffy met a band of pirates known as the Red-Haired Pirates, which inspired him to sail the seas in search of a legendary treasure known as One Piece. Read his backstory in this chapter and how his inspiration to be a pirate was sparked.

Chapter 2: They Call Him "Straw Hat Luffy"
Found in a barrel on a pirate ship, Luffy befriends a lowly cabin boy named Koby and helps him get over his fears of his ugly pirate captain, Alvida. Luffy decides to help Koby with his dream of becoming an officer in the navy by sending Alvida packing.

Chapter 3: Enter Zolo: Pirate Hunter
To get Koby to enlist in the Navy, Luffy and Koby sail on a dinghy to a place known as Naval Base island. There, they meet Helmeppo, a sniveling Naval officer and the son of a naval captain and the pirate hunter Zolo, who Luffy wants in his pirate crew. Unfortunately, Zolo declines the offer seeing as pirate hunters and pirates don't mix, not to mention the fact that he's tied to a stake for a whole month for attacking Helmeppo's rabid dogs.

Chapter 4: The Great Captain Morgan
Helmeppo announces that he would execute Zolo in three days, breaking the promise he made to Zolo that if he could live his month scentence, he would set him free. Luffy responds to this by punching him in the face, sending him home to his father, which happens to be an evil naval captain known as Axe-Hand Morgan, who has no care for Luffy until Luffy accidentally breaks a statue of him that took three years to build.

Chapter 5: The King of the Pirates and the Master Swordsman
Koby tries to free Zolo while Luffy looks for his swords. Just as the navy is about to kill Koby and Zolo, Luffy shows up to save the day! We also learn Zolo's backstory.

Chapter 6: Number One
Luffy manages to free Zolo and give him his swords, so the two prepare for a fight with the Navy. Luffy fights Morgan with his incredible stretching powers, and the fight is going well. Zolo reveals his intentions: to be the greatest swordsman to ever live. Just when Luffy is about to defeat Morgan, Helmeppo stops Luffy by threatening to shoot Koby in the head. Luffy is about to punch Helmeppo just as Morgan is about to cut Luffy in two, but Zolo makes short work of an already injured Morgan and Luffy plasters Helmeppo in the face with his famous Gum-Gum Blast. Zolo joins Luffy's crew for freeing him.

Chapter 7: Friends
Luffy and Zolo recuperate after the battle with Morgan at an eatery. The Navy shows up and tell Luffy and Zolo to leave the island. Koby wants to join the Navy still, so when the Navy says for Koby to leave too because he's Luffy's friend, Luffy tells Koby's entire story and how he worked with a pirate to seemingly ruin Koby's chances of getting in the Navy. Koby stops him by punching Luffy in the face, so the two fight until the lieutenant points out that the two are obviously not friends. Koby joins the Navy because he won't travel with Luffy, and Luffy and Zolo sail off.

Chapter 8: Nami
Luffy accidentally gets himself caught by a bird he tries to catch for food, whn Zolo chases after him, he runs into three drowning pirates from the Buggy pirate crew, which hop aboard. Luffy runs into a girl named Nami when the bird drops him, who specializes in robbing pirates.

Awesome start to an awesome series. The only major changes I can find is changing Zoro to Zolo, but that never really bothered me that much.

So yeah, I would suggest buying this.

My boys, ages 6 and 7, love this book. The art work is fantastic, and the story is great. We have read it many times and sometimes we just look at the pictures, which are so full of detail.

I would highly recommend it.

I grew up with this book and it is still relevant. The shipping was fast and the book arrived in perfect condition.

I have all the same things to say as everyone else. I loved this as a kid, my copy was all torn apart, the artwork is stunning, etc., etc.

The story is lovely and teaches a lesson. My 2-year old likes this story because of the illustrations and the COLORS. He likes to name the colors of the goblins. Of course, he does not really understand the story, which is good, because it might be a bit scary for little kids. By the time he does understand, it won't be scary anymore, and he will already have gotten a couple years of enjoyment out of the book just based on the pictures and colors.

I completely recommend this book for all children's libraries and collections.

My children (when they were young) and I LOVE this book. The pictures are beautiful, colorful renditions. The story is one that interests young children, but doesn't frighten them. While this is not the original, full-size art book, it is a very nice printing that can be read and enjoyed many times. I have purchased many copies as gifts and all were appreciated.

I found the story disturbing and no amount of beautiful artwork is going to change that. The goblins plan to steal the rainbow colors, but the flowers beat them to it. Then the flowers lie in wait for the goblins to drown them with the rainbow colors. The rainbow is saved and turns the flowers into colorful creatures as a reward.

Make your own choice, but we are not keeping this book.

I thought Season of Mists was my favorite The Sandman volume until I read Brief Lives.

Brief Lives absolutely has it all--drama, action, comedy, romance, and philosophical ponderings. It focuses upon Morpheus rather directly--unlike other volumes where sometimes he exists within the stories only peripherally--as he helps his sister Delirium track down their brother known as Destruction.

Destruction is part of The Endless. The other members of The Endless are his brothers and sisters Destiny, Death, Dream (Morpheus), Desire, Despair, and Delirium. He long ago abandoned his post and family, choosing instead to exist on his own terms. Addle-brained Delirium unusually makes up her mind and decides she wants to reunite with her favorite brother. She is very surprised when she manages to enlist the aid of her brooding brother, Dream, especially after all her other brothers and sisters refuse to help her.

Dream accompanies Delirium on quite a journey as created by Neil Gaiman who makes brilliant use of legend and mythology, both preexisting and self-manufactured. They finally find Destruction, but things don't go exactly as expected and incredible possibilities are revealed.

I love this volume so much because something happens to Dream that hasn't really occurred in the previous volumes--he changes. While always dynamic in dialogue and appearance, Dream was not a character who seemed to evolve. I enjoyed Lord Morpheus just as he was, but now that Gaiman introduces a changing Dream, a Morpheus who suddenly empathizes with mortals and family members, he becomes all the more fascinating.

Furthermore, the afterward by Peter Straub was absolutely riveting. Brief Lives was enthralling on its own, but Straub's afterward analyzing the volume makes it, and the intricacies of Gaiman's artistry, all the more impressive.

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

Dream is sulking, until his sister Delirium motivates him to help her look for Destruction, their brother who has abdicated his Endless responsibilities.

On the way, through the various people they meet, and reflected in his servants and helpers, we see Dream's thought processes begin to change and mellow, even more so after he finally gets around to dealing with his son, Orpheus, after such long neglect.

This is one of my two favorites in the 11-volume "Sandman" series, which has proven Gaiman to be a genius storyteller. Three centuries ago, Destruction -- one of the seven Endless, who existed even before the gods -- abandoned his responsibilities, left his realm, and went off to do his own thing. Essentially, he ran away from home. Not that the world has lacked for destruction since then, but he's not behind it, anyway. Delirium, who has roughly the persona of a three-year-old combined with a drugged-out-flower child -- but is a very sweet person for all that (well, . . . not "person" . . .), misses her big brother and tries to find one of her siblings to help her look for him and convince him to return. Dream (the Sandman) finally agrees to accompany her, but for his own reasons, and the quest brings in a number of innocent bystanders (who suffer, as bystanders do), as well as an assortment of ancient but now out-of-work deities. A number of neat ideas are tossed out casually, too, like the notion that a few thousand people still exist on Earth from the very earliest days of civilization, or even from the dawn of the species.

Bernie the lawyer, killed by the collapsing wall of a derelict building, tells Death, "I did okay, didn't I? I lived fifteen thousand years. That's a pretty long time." To which Death, a pragmatic sort who resembles a Goth girl, replies, "You got what everybody gets, Bernie. You got a lifetime. No more, no less." Great stuff.

Read this series! I read these when they were published as individual comics and revisiting the series has been a joy. Read them in order if at all possilble. I wish Gaiman had the time to write another graphic novel series.

Did anyone other than myself get addicted to this series due grossly in part to Gaiman's amazing work with his novel "American Gods"? I thought "American Gods" reminded me of King's phenomenal work with Roland in his gunslinger world - and finally, Gaiman expanded on this work with the next chapter of his Sandman stories in "Brief Lives". It seems that I continually go up then down and further up again with this series, and this is one of those chapters that shot me further up into the sky than imaginable. With a fair swoop of his creative pen, Gaiman brings us family, voyages, and the truth about those pesky little creatures roaming our world known as Gods. They do exist. They roam our world. They were here before the birth of this planet, and finally, Gaiman exposes them to the world. They are merciless, they are wealthy, they are strippers ... they are us. Again, nobody could do it like Gaiman does and he proves it with his greatest heroine creation "the Sandman" and with the series entitled, "Brief Lives".

For the past several episodes, Gaiman has been dropping hints that Sandman had a missing brother that left the family a long time ago, there was sadness, but most were moving away from any sort of emotional scarring. Well, I should say "most", because little sister Delirium cannot seem to forget about her big brother. She wants to find him, and while most of her other siblings turn her away, Sandman jumps in headfirst in hopes that he can eliminate the worries about loosing a woman that he has been with for some time. He needs to shake her feelings, so he travels with his sister to find their brother, Destruction. As they travel, they meet up with old friends, Gods, which assist with their journey. These friends of the family assist with unlimited spending cash, a chauffeured vehicle, and a path towards their final destination. While our travelers decide to stay in the "real world", they learn more about the dying breed of Gods and, my favorite, that Death does not show favoritism.

Just as we prepare ourselves for a two part episode, an unexpected guest (who is actually expecting them) welcomes our travelers into his home, only to share his disappointment with his current state of the world as well as his position. In a rather emotional ending, Gaiman twists his words together to point the finger back at our current society as well as the state of this series. He even takes Sandman closer to his family, and asks him to perform a deed that was unexpected as this journey began. In one quick collection of stories, Gaiman has successfully given us back the power, the force, and the drama that reminded me of how this series began. Since the first collection, I didn't quite see that same emotion until I read "Brief Lives". In a short 150 pages, the raw force of the series was sparked back. The family dynamics, the power of the unknown, and the idea that our world - planet Earth - is just the backdrop to a much larger grandiose story that will constantly boggle our mind and expand our universe - was exactly what made this "Brief Lives" the best collaboration.

Overall, I would like to say that if you read just one collaboration in this series YOU MUST READ "Brief Lives". I fell in love with this entire family all over again this in one short collection. We had a chance to see their lives, their human nature, and their need for each other. I loved being back with Sandman, in which I missed him with the prior collection. He is the star and full supporter of these graphic novels. Gaiman, I believe, realizes this as he receives most of his praise for those in which he blows our minds with simple stories with amazingly sharp characters. There was not one flawed scene in this entire collection. I could - and will - read this again. For those seeking Gaiman's best work, and what makes him stronger than the words that he prints - I would highly suggest "Brief Lives".

There - I have drooled enough. Time to read it again.

Grade: ***** out of *****

A book that is a literary puzzle, an adventure of sorts, and full of sneakiness and tongue-in-cheekness. I have read quite a lot, and when I read this, I had trouble trying to work out who was who in quite a lot of cases. I suppose this is a lot of the appeal, though, being like a really, really hard cryptic crossword, at times.

The first third of the book is very promising. Unfortunately, the book runs out of steam when Lucius enters the picture. I found that storyline completely uncompelling and the resolution is rushed. the latter third of the book is no better--it is filled with cliched moralizing and an unsatisfying deus ex machina conclusion.

Silverlock is a fun, roller coaster ride through literature. It chronicles the journey--inner and outer--of an American cynic as he travels through the world of literature. Some of the fun is tracking down the literary characters, from Beowulf to Don Quixote to Becky Sharp. Part of me regrets not having been born in the 1950s to relish Silverlock fully; the Internet makes finding the sources of the characters effortless. Hopefully, readers take the next step and read the original sources to expand their understanding and appreciation of literature. In my opinion, the novel posits that literature is an evolving, cumulative organism. Modern (American) literature is built on the foundation of the stories that came before. The novel shows that someone can find meaning in the stories he or she encounters, and sharing those experiences--and possibly using them to invent new stories--is one of the joys of life. Anyone with respect for literature and the history of speculative reading should give Silverlock a try.

_This is truly a book for book lovers. It starts with a middle-aged Chicagoan with a degree in Business Administration and a life that that has ceased to hold any meaning or charm for him. He boards a freighter as a passenger in order to try to put a little interest and excitement in his life. Well, he finds it. The freighter is shipwrecked after several days of running before a storm and the main character, Silverlock, finds himself cast adrift without a life boat. As he says- if he had cared to live, he would have died. As it is however, he doesn't struggle and exhaust himself- he merely surrenders himself to his fate and the currents. Fate soon finds him....

_What Silverlock finds is the Commonwealth. This is a place where all the great stories from myth, legend, and literature actually exist, somehow, side by side. This requires a suspension of belief, but given the excellent story telling that isn't too difficult. That seems to be what the Commonwealth is all about- it is the Commonwealth of story telling, or imagination.

_It is more than just a survey of great characters and stories, however. Silverlock comes across as pretty unsympathetic at the beginning, but through experience and suffering in his travels from east to west he grows immeasurably in character. Perhaps the Commonwealth is a mask for purgatory, where lost souls are given a second chance at growth and redemption. In any case it is more heaven than purgatory for the reader.

_Save this book for special quiet times when your spirit needs a recharge. I know that I do.

I suspect that this is one of those polarizing books: those that love it REALLY love it; others will be, at best, blandly indifferent or outright bored. I hew more closely to the second camp.

The book has notable adherents and in recent years has been hailed as a bit of a neglected gem, but I found it only moderately diverting. It was written in 1949 and so it's a bit dated (and its attitudes toward women are not the most advanced, but then again, the protagonist is by his own admission a cad and a bounder), but that's really not much of a problem.

The novel is your typical Pilgrim's Progress type of thing, and is divided into three parts, which turn out to be Chance, Choice, and Oracle, or as I see it, Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell, based on the decreasing level of quality (and the not-concidental Dantean shenanigans toward the end). It starts out strong, but the charms grow old fast, and the overarching quest in the middle section simply is not very gripping. In the final third, the book becomes unbearably didactic and wearisome, and then, rather suddenly, the words "The End" scroll across the screen.

On a side note, I found myself often contrasting this book to Stephen Donaldson's "Chronicles of Thomas Covenant". Both feature (anti-)heroes thrust into a strange land and both deal, to some degree, with large philosphical concerns. (In fact, Donaldson acknowledges having read this, and having plucked the titles of a couple of his novels from one of the songs within, but purports to find the book sub-par.) The major contrast, of course, is that Covenant believes nothing of what he sees, but Shandon easily rolls with all that he finds, no matter how fantastical, to an extent unbelievable of someone from mid-20th century America.

Filkers and others who enjoy making songs out of poems will like "Silverlock", as will those who excelled in high school English classes and who can pick out some of the myriad allusions. I suspect most others will find this to be much less than advertised.

I would, at any rate, recommend picking up an annotated version to get details on some of the more cryptic appearances of characters from myth, fable, and literature.

My son has been reading this series. He loves the story line - he's 11, but reads on a college level. So, I would say this is appropriate for that age group, and interresting enough to hold the attention of an older reader. The sory line seems interesting enough for an adult reader wanting a quick read too.

This book is really awesome. This book starts when a runt silverwing bat named Shade wants to find his father. His father, Cassiel, disappeared after he wanted to see a human building. So, Shade, Chinnook, Ariel, Freida, and a lot of other bats go to find him. On their trip they get stuck in an indoor forest, where humans put exploding metal bands on bats and birds because they use the explosive bands to blow up building for war. Shade and Chinnook have to escape from exploding and then they run into Goths forest, and then they have to save the world from eternal night. Goth is a vampire bat. One of the coolest things about the bats is their echo-vision. Shade uses his echo-vision and makes himself look like a vulture to the vampire bats. The best part of this book is when Shade and his family and other silverwing bats and some rats enter the bone room. I like when they crawl into the bone room because it is really creepy and full of bones.
My favorite character was Throbb, but he dies in Silverwing. My favorite character in Sunwing is Cassiel because he says things that can be funny. The thing I don't like about this book is how there are too many things to do with forests. In the beginning they run into a human forest and it takes them 6 chapters to get out of that forest. Later in the book they run into Goths forest and it takes them 3 chapters to get out. But sometimes they do interesting stuff in the forests. My least favorite character is Goth because at the end all he does is roar. I want every body to buy this book! But, you must read Silverwing first to understand Sunwing.

This book is as good as the first one, and is as enjoyable as the first as well. But, don't read Firewing, you'll hate it. I did.

Sunwing was one of the BEST books I've EVER read! It has lots of fiction in it but, it also has a large amount of true facts in it also. I truly reomend this book. And it has a bunch of action and adventure in it. And I think people who like animals such as, bats, mice, owls etc. will LOVE this book completley.

Jacob Milette

My daughter is 9 years old and not into traditional girl stuff. She enjoys stories that feature animals. She has firewing and one other in the series qnd has enjoyed them all.

Hi, how are you all? Well I know this book is wonderful! Acually i never read the book charmed but i did read the book so little time, which is by the same author. That was a very good book. So if that was a good book that she wote then this should be good also. The book is very intersting and tells you alot of information and some good heads up and tips. Kids my age would like the book, i would belive..... I might not be giving alot of information right now but the more information you want is right inside the book. So i would suggest to read the book and i think you will injoy it! I also think Charmed is a good book to read too.!.!.!.!.! Well i hope i at least helped you out a little bit. And i hope you read BOTH books because reading is good for you , and just enjoy them! Thank you for taking your time out to read this.

I have a penchant for time-travel stories, as they are striking, interesting, not to mention compelling. This book is inevitably one of them. Phoebe being abducted into past by a time-demon during the times of the Salem Witch Trials was huge (amazing)!! I'm not going to reveal details of the story, but what I don't get is that how on earth could the Charmed Ones use their powers in the past, and how the Law of no coincidences is oblivious to the author.


But as this is not the tv show, I suppose authors are able to use their imagination freely. My fave bit of this book is how Piper and Prue was under the evil influence of the root tea Prudence drank, given by Hugh, and they acquired amazing powers, which included being "evil" themselves and coming in handy to rescue their sister. I especially like the fact that Prudence did not succumb to the tainted root tea to nearly kill her own descendant, as the power of good always prevails!!! Also, its nice to involve the Charmed Ones' ancestor to this book, as readers somewhat know more about certain witches from the Warren line. Rosalind Noonan did a good job portraying each sister's characters, and how all their different and unique personalities combined together can pack a huge wallop. True to the series, with dry humour added and the Power of Three situation makes Whispers from the Past all the more enjoyable. And the fact that poor Phoebe, despite "stuck playing cinderella", she was determined to stay focused on the path to solving the problem, is also rather warmth-evoking.

In a nutshell: If you like Charmed, there's no doubt you will like this book. Not as excellent as Soul of the Bride, but close. One of my all-time faves. Well worth it!!!

Finally, a Phoebe episode [well book] that any Charmed fan can get behind. It's a time travel piece and a family get-together. Need I say more?

Fantastic addition to the Charmed series :) Not as good as 'Soul of the Bride' but up there with the best of the books.

I always love a good time-travel story if it's: 1) Well-Written, 2) Believeable. This book gets it on both counts.

The evil piper/prue angle was kinda amusing *ducks* The new powers they got were awesome too (though Piper's was kind of an extension on her stopping tme power)

This book does have a couple errors (Girls using their powers in the past to get home) but considering these books aren't written as fast as the series is ('least most of them seem that way)... we need to give the author's a break. We can't expect them to keep up with the pace/storylines of the show.

Considering SOME of the storylines 'Charmed' has taken, maybe the creators should look to some of these books for plot ideas.

I hope Miss Noonan puts in another contribution to the Charmed series again sometime.

This was the very first Charmed book I read and it was solid. I have now watched every episode of every season and there were no holes in it. I love all episodes that the sisters go back in time or forward or relive memories etc. If you are like me, then you will love this book too!

David Eddings' Belgariad series is one of the masterpieces of modern fantasy literature. I fell in love with his books many years ago, and re-read them to this day. His characters are lifelike and amusing, and written in a very human manner. Every time I read, I feel like I am visiting with old friends. Although Eddings writes conflicts into his story, he writes with an assurance that success will come which parallels the great epics of history. His novels, though not thrilling, are relaxing and enthralling in a more stoic fashion-- you will care about the characters and want to see them succeed.

I would recommend this book to the starting fantasy reader, or the reader of modern fiction who hasn't yet delved into the genre. Eddings' personal style and lovable characters have turned me into a dedicated fantasy reader, and I have not yet found his equal among the other authors I've read.

Eddings' series The Belgariad is one of my all-time favorite reads. It's the classic fantasy good-vs.-evil, coming-of-age, lost-kings-returning, quest-with-companions epic. These are common themes in fantasy, but Eddings' writing is so witty, and his characters so intriguing, that it never gets old. He seems very aware he is using some well established cliches, but puts new twists on them and even makes fun of them as the story goes on. I especially love Eddings' twist on the concept of prophesy: In this story, the prophesy is actually sentient, and does not hesitate to tell our hero, Garion, when he is being an idiot.
This series is funny, entertaining, engrossing, and complex. It was my introduction to the sword and sorcery genre of fantasy, and I absolutely love it.

I recomend all of david eddings books to any reader of any age.
David eddings is my idle in a short way of putting it... he has brought a new light to me and my writing since i was a child... His books have a certian amount of amusement in them. Yet the characters are all lovable. This is a book that i promise all will remember and read again... I love all of his books. his philosiphy is simple to understand, yet the writing syle is one that i still have not seen in any other books. He allows a certian amount of ammusement into them, yet keeping them serious. His books are like a good movie that you dont want to end. After reading one of them you want more and more. until you have devoured the very sould of his writing.

To put it short i dont know why i like them there just fun loving and honest to god books.

I have never came across a set of books that is so moving,very few authors have made me as emitional as this athor has with this set.I hope their will be a follow up,it would be nice to see how everything whent after all was said and done,peace doesn't last for ever. Highly recomened,own the full set,have read them so much I can almost tell the story myself.

This is, I believe, Eddings' first real foray into the realm of true Fantasy, and it doesn't disappoint. Eddings does well to develop characters over time and doesn't sacrifice depth for brevity. I've always enjoyed the sense of humor he brings to his works and the repartee that develops between the characters.

If you are looking for a great starter series in the fantasy genre or a more developed work, look no further. Those looking for the complexity and seriousness of high-fantasy should stick with Tolkien and Donaldson.

This was one of my favorite starting fantasy series, and continues to entertain after all these years.

Lee really gets you into this book. Set in a time when dying holds no consequence since you can come back and design a new body and when you can design your own dreams, one young jang girl rebels. Tired of the same thing she tries at first to move up a stage to an older person when that fails she tries at working. She tries all things from digging up artifacts in the desert to making a child and breaks the few rules that the society had set and ends up being thrown from civilization for killing another person against their will. Ready to experience new things she starts her own garden in the desert and oasis of freedom she was exiled to where she can live and be happy until others want that same freedom and the society she was desperate to escape from starts meddling its way back into her life.
Good book, had romance, adventure, fantasy, I loved it. It was long though (I read it in one sitting) so don't buy it if you'll just read a page every other day that really takes away from the story.

I've seen most reviewers class this as SF - but I'd put it in the fantasy section. Other reviewers have given you excellent information on the content of the collection of two novels. I read Drinking Sapphire Wine first as a teenager (my FIRST SF/Fantasy experience)and it's great as a stand alone novel. Reading Don't Bite the Sun gave me the background to understand the heroine/hero's (as you can switch body genders!) actions and why she/he chose instead of PD (where your personality is wiped and you "return" as a child to "utopia"). I identified with the main character, who's name is never mentioned in either novel, as she/he was a loner as I was and still am to most extent and saw the world in a different light than others as well as had a love for pets, archaeology and the desert. I admit to having read this book over and over and over and still enjoy it today as an adult, along with the Sliver Metal Lover these are my favorite novels from Tanith Lee's great volume of work. When I was a teen I indoctrinated my friends to these novels and we used the Jang slang in our everyday language and notes. My first copies were LOST by a friend who SAID they were stolen out of his locker - HA! I don't BELIVE it. He was either obsessed with me (which he outgrew and married a lovely lady) and wanted my property or didn't want to buy his own copies to read and read! Along with the SF of body and sex changes there is the background of human emotions, which have been squashed to only "good" emotions by hypnoschool, revealing some of the darker emotions of the characters and love which will endure the ages. Exiles from the four Bee's, the main character and her/his friends/lovers and followers and some desert animals struggle to make an existence outside the dome - which except for a little android sabotage (AGAINST their programing!), turns out to be a better life than in the cities and the main characters find true love instead of having love of the domes. Would I read this again - yes I have - over and over.

This is an amazing and original fantasy novel.

It takes place in either the future, or on another planet. Death has been illiminated along with sickness and old age. You change bodies, change gender, change anything, the whole world (which appears to consist of three domed cites in a large uninhabitable desert wasteland) is controlled by human like androids.

You go to school until roughly the age of five and then you're "Jang", or teenage for up to a hundred years afterwards. Jang are encouraged to kill themselves and come back in wacky bodies, have sex with dozens of people in both genders (though they have to get married first and annual it afterwards) and take tons and tons of drugs, mostly ecstasy pills. Also Jang are encouraged to steal, but since no money exists and paying consists of putting out emotional energy to power the domes in forms of excessive "thank yous", it doesn't really matter if they do.

Basically this society has no soul, no responsibilities. Androids handle everything. Death means nothing, so life means nothing. (Which is a very profound concept if you think about and not one I've seen used in fantasy before.) And one mostly female Jang rebels (in sort of a roundabout fashion) and changes all that.

It's a cool book and it reinforces ideas of the human spirit. I look forward to reading other books by this author (this was my first.)

Five stars

I was surprised that no one saw the connection between the theme of this book and the theme with Dostoevsky's "The Underground Man". Whereas Dostoevsky takes the idea that man is inherently lazy, selfish, and easily bored and illustrates it in subtle ways in what was the present for him, Tanith Lee basically magnifies everything Dostoevsky has to say in a way that you can't ignore it, and puts it waaaaay into the future.

For those of you who haven't read Dostoevsky, as it isn't common with teenage sci-fi lovers, Dostoevsky was basically a conservative in the 1800s when communism was just begining in Russia. Russian communists beleived that through communism, man would live in a paradise, with all needs met, and do work for the sake of work and his love for his neighbor. Communism placed way too much trust in the goodness of human beings. Dostoevsky knew that no matter what, humans would never be content with what they had, and "The Underground Man" was a sort of warning against this idea.

Anyways, Tanith Lee understood all of this, and in her book takes us into a future where everything runs on the power of human emotion, and the need for human workers has completely vanished. Because human emotion is vital to make the city run, humans are encouraged to indulge in their every whim, to unleash all their restraints and do whatever it is they beleive will produce emotions within themselves--happiness being the preffered emotion, for when one is happy one does not question or think or ask for more. Death cannot touch the citizens. You can do anything you want without risk.

Initially, the reader may be confused, because the psychology of the citizens seem reversed. They actually enjoy in some way feeling unhappy, but soon the reader realizes why--in a world where you are pampered and all your desires met, the only way one can really feel anything is to experience a bit of dissappointment.

Anyways. It's a fabulous book, a good introduction to these deeper questions of humanity for the seeking teenager, but I think readers of all ages might enjoy it, if one can only relax themselves into the story and put their faith in the author.

Here is a youthful, vibrant tale about a young, unnamed rebel who sets herself at war with her society. Frustration, exasperation, boredom and a jaded view of her world all come through in the colorful first-person narrative. Adolescents in particular will connect with this book. The feeling that there is something wrong with the world, and the urge to rebel, are particularly strong at that age. Thus this book is probably most relevant to misfit teenagers (like myself when I first read this book).

I don't know that older readers will connect with it on the profoundly emotional level which I first experienced. I was young, and more naive, and here was a book that was saying what I was feeling. It just felt right.

When I was older, I realized that there were flaws in the story for all its wacky grandeur. Another reviewer has been astute enough to point out that there could be more here. There is definitely potential for it. A morally bankrupt society bent on pleasure and run by robots--there's some big potential there for philosophical and political thinking. It isn't, however, all that political or philosophical, at least in a formal way. It's much more oblique, being told through the eyes of a "Jang" or teenager in that society.

What I'm trying to get at is that this story is more likely to resonate with young people because it is geared at them. There is stuff to entertain the older reader, but the book is more emotional than intellectual, and any possibilities for complexities may have been left out intentionally because it is written for a younger audience.

I would by no means excourage older readers from picking it up. It's a fun, zany read. But by all means, if you know any young people, it should be recommended to them as well.

Five stars to Biting the Sun, the love of my adolescence.

I was so glad to find this book again as I had read it to my sons when they were in grade school. This is a very fun book for children big and small! This was our very first Daniel Pinkwater novel and was the biginning of our lifelong love of his writings. Read this to your children - give it to them to read. ONE disclaimer - if they are already immersed in fantasy then they will have little appreciation of how subtly Pinkwater takes you from known to the absurd to the almost believeable.

Lizzard Music is the way I got my son Matt to read as a kid. He could read but wasn't at all interested in the boring books he got handed at school. It was like pulling teeth to get him to read. I gave him lizzard music and asked that he read for 1/2 an hour and that was the last I heard from him except for some laughing and every once in a while a "wow! mom this is great!". He didn't put the book down except to eat and sleep until he finished it and then made me go get more Pinkwater books. So basicly my son reads thanks to the humor of the genius that is Daniel Manus Pinkwater!!! Thanks Mr. Pinkwater from moms everywhere

A very appealing book, and a favorite from Pinkwater. Good for both boys and girls, especially those looking for something funny and original.

Manus Pinkwater is a pretty cool kinda guy. He has the unique feature of being as tall sitting as he is standing, and that makes me wonder if the convex dimensions of an author's backside are somehow related to the quantity of his imagination. You see, Manus writes far-out books. No, no, I mean...realllly far-out books. I think he passes the Twilight Zone somewhere in route to where he goes to pen his creative little novels. Lizard Music may take the cake among everything straaaaange he's written, however. This story puts your brain in a food processor and hits frappe. What's it about? Oh, you want to know that, don't you? Okay.

Lizard Music is about a ten-ish young man named Victor, who is left one summer in the early 1970's in the custody of his free-loving teenaged sister, Leslie, when their parents take a summer vacation. Not ten seconds after the parents exeunt stage left Leslie does the same thing, meeting up with some hippie buds and taking off in a van with the warning that Victor better NOT tell on her for this. Hey, Victor's more than happy to oblige. What ten-year-old wouldn't love being left alone with a full frige, a small stack of spending money, and no rules or supervision whatsoever? Victor has the time of his young life. He eats what he wants, he does what he wants, and he stays up as late as he wants watching previously forbidden monster movies. It's this last liberty, the late bedtime, that sends young Victor's life into some veddy odd places. One night, past midnight, Victor is up watching the TV station sign off after the late-late-late show has concluded and right in front of his drowsy eyes he sees the most peculiar program he's ever witnessed: a jazz group composed entirely of man-sized lizards performs a concert in the minutes before the station ceases its signal. That's not to say it's a cartoon or guys in costumes...these appear to be great big lizards playing jazz. The next morning Victor wonders if it was all a dream. (He had after all been hitting the candy and cola a little hard the last couple nights...) To get to the truth, Victor stays up another night to see if it happens again. It does...and something else does too. Let me just say Victor takes a trip that's even weirder than the one his sister is on with her fellow hippies. "LiKe FaaR OuT, dUdE!!!" Lizard Music is the sort of book no one but Pinkwater could have written, no one could possibly figure out before its conclusion, and that no one will quite know what to make of when they've finished reading its mind-altering text.

I remember the night that my grandmother gave me this book. My mom was in the hospital for what would have been her last round of chemo and I had been beaten up in school that day for tucking my pants into my argyle socks in a rather unsporting display involving football players, loose change, and vending machines. Pinkwater's book kept me sane through the sixth grade and then some. There are a whole bunch of physicists in my department who feel the same way. We are very much in debt to the Chickenman and some other friendly phantoms from Bughouse Square and Pinkwater's memory (real or not, we are smart enough as a collective to get back to them).