To determine whether the heart of humankind is pure and good, two godlike beings engage in an otherworldly wager during Mexico’s annual Day of the Dead celebration. They tether two friends, Manolo and Joaquin, into vying for the heart of the beautiful and fiercely independent Maria, with comical and sometimes dangerous consequences. Dark Horse presents
“Can’t they make their own damn show?” I say. “Come on,” Kingston says. “Faeries are proud. The Summer King would never stoop to imitating his enemy.” “Besides,” Mel says, “The name Cirque du Soleil was already taken.” I’m a sucker for cinematic scenes in books. I love it when an author’s description makes me wonder just how cool
By 1:00 A.M. her work was done: three chickens sacrificed, one each on altars of silver, iron, and stone; a stack of profit and loss statements dispatched by nightmare telegraph; a prayer litany chanted balancing on one foot; a proposal drafted, suggesting an Iskari family shift their faith from the high-risk personal resurrection market to
Continuing the theme of Back to School, this week’s review is for Charlie N. Holmberg’s debut novel The Paper Magician. The new twist on magic-users caught my attention (every magician specializes in one man-made material: metal, glass, paper, plastic, etc.,) so I picked it up after only a brief look at the description: top-in-her-magic-class Ceony is heartbroken when
Warning, great big spoilers. Even though I graduated *ahem,mumble,cough* years ago, I still get a flood of memories around back-to-school season. Many are positive, some less so. By far the best memories involve Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall trilogy; my sixth-grade English teacher read the first two books out loud to our class over the course of most of
Talking stags, on the other hand, were nearly always bespelled royalty, and fairies, who could theoretically choose to look like anything, nearly always picked white cats or black horses. Fairies are very beautiful and very vain and they haven’t got the imagination to fill a thimble. And they never learn from their mistakes. I’ve followed
‘We didn’t want to disturb you, Doctor. You’re an important man.’ The Doctor rolled his eyes. ‘Important? I’m not important. I’m the least important man in this town.’ He waived his stick at the assembled townsfolk. ‘It’s you lot who are important…” To celebrate the return of Doctor Who, I’m going to review a second collection of Doctor
‘Be careful, Aggie! Remember, ‘The Doctor is a Master of Deceit”.’ ‘Aggie?’ said the Doctor thoughtfully. ‘I wonder what that’s short for.’ The girl’s nostrils flared proudly. ‘My full name is Agony-Without-End-Shall-Be-The-Doctor’s-Punishment.’ ‘Ah,’ said the Doctor. ‘You know, Leela, just between ourselves, I’m starting to feel that I’m not entirely welcome here.’ Rejoice! Season 8
Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child. –Robert Heinlein, 1973 That quote is featured in the introduction to this book. If it offended you, well guess what, it was supposed to. Harlan Ellison has made a career out of, if