reviews

Arabian Nights Meets Game of Thrones Author: S.A. Chakraborty In the streets of 18th century Cairo, Nahri, part thief, part con-woman, works the superstitions of her world and the desperation of the people. For the right amount, she can tell your fortune, give you healing potions, remove (or place) a curse, and if you’re not careful, pick your pocket. Yet, for all her wiles, Nahri does have a heart and a mysterious power – she can truly sense and cure (some) ailments.  She can also speak a strange language known to no one else except her most definitely deceased parents. One day, [...]

Ravenloft Revisited Author: David A. Page A spin-off from the Dragonlance realm of Krynn, the dark domain of Ravenloft contains cursed lands, bound together in a never-ending hellscape. Ravenloft merges fantasy with horror and is (or really, was) its own series like Dragonlance and the Forgotten Realms. In Ravenloft, doomed places and their denizens find themselves suddenly on a demi-plane of horror – a place that is basically hell, ruled by fiends and sojourned by strange creatures from zombies to werewolves and more. The series contained twenty books and ran briefly in the 90s before shattering fans by concluding abruptly as its [...]

Traveling in chains... Author:  Octavia E. Butler I read a lot of science fiction when I was a teenager.  Mostly from the Golden Age when authors like Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke and Heinlein reigned supreme.  I have to admit that at the time I was reading it – late ‘70s and early ‘80s – the obvious fact that all of these authors – and the vast majority of their contemporaries – were white men didn’t really catch my attention.   I’m sure that wasn’t the case for Octavia Butler.  The fact that there were no black or female science fiction writers when [...]