Tag: book reviews

Publishers Weekly calls Worldshaper a “rollicking” contemporary fantasy in STARRED review

By Edward Willett in Blog, Books, Writing and Editing
August 19, 2018
2 mins to read
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Publishers Weekly, the bible of the publishing industry, has given my upcoming novel Worldshaper, Book 1 in my new Worldshapers series for DAW Books, its highest accolade, a STARRED review. Highlights: “This rollicking secondary-world contemporary fantasy opens with a bang…(the characters) grapple with the ethics of changing the world, the question of what makes people ‘real’ …

Five-star review for I Tumble Through the Diamond Dust

By Edward Willett in Blog, Books, Poetry
July 19, 2018
3 mins to read
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Jim Bennett, who reviews poetry for KBR (The Kindle Book Review) and is himself a poet, liked I Tumble Through the Diamond Dust rather a lot, giving it five out of five stars: “Willett writes speculative fiction, so these poems are unusual. They are also a lot of fun. Willett’s illustrator, Wendi Nordell, has added to …

Terra Insegura makes a top-10 books of 2009 list…

By Edward Willett in Blog
December 2, 2009
2 mins to read
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…from blogger and reviewer Shaun M. Duke at The World in the Satin Bag. He puts Terra Insegura at No. 6, just ahead of (ahem) Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Here’s his entire list, and here’s what he had to say about Terra Insegura: 6. Terra Insegura by Edward Willett One of the few science fiction …

A nice review of Marseguro…

By Edward Willett in Blog
June 30, 2009
1 mins to read
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…showed up today on the blog arch thinking. While she had some criticisms, it’s generally a good one. Some highlights: …Willett really shines at world-building. He brought Marseguro (the planet) to life for me and I enjoyed getting to know Earth of the Body Purified (which reminded me of Heinlein’s religious dictatorship of “If This …

A mini-review of Marseguro…

By Edward Willett in Blog
June 25, 2009
1 mins to read
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…has shown up at the blog Strategist’s Personal Library. Here’s the most important bit: All of the characters here have well thought out motivations and there’s excellent characterization. I liked that even the protagonists are flawed in some way. This isn’t black vs. white there are shades of gray. Lots of ethical decisions to be made …

Book review: Defining Diana by Hayden Trenholm

By Edward Willett in Blog
June 15, 2009
3 mins to read
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Defining Diana by Ottawa author Hayden Trenholm, published by Bundoran Press, is a near-future police procedural, a combination of mystery and science fiction that I personally find irresistible if it’s done well–and Defining Diana is definitely done well. I’ll let the back cover copy handle the set-up: Found naked and alone in a locked room, the …

Good review of Terra Insegura at SF Scope

By Edward Willett in Blog
June 4, 2009
2 mins to read
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There’s a very nice review of Terra Insegura by Ian Randal Strock at SF Scope. It begins: A little bleaker, a little less “gosh-wow” sensawunda (due to familiarity), a lot closer to home, Terra Insegura is the perfect balance to Marseguro: you’ve got to read this one if you read the first. It does stand …

Book review: Turn Coat, by Jim Butcher

By Edward Willett in Blog
May 31, 2009
3 mins to read
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I blame my brother. See, summer before last I was visiting him in Kincardine, Ontario, and discovered that he had several of the early Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher in paperback. I started reading them. But he was missing some. So then I ordered the omnibus editions available through the Science Fiction Book Club. And …

Book review: City of Glass, by Cassandra Clare

By Edward Willett in Blog
May 27, 2009
3 mins to read
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City of Glass is the third and concluding book in Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments YA fantasy trilogy (the previous two being City of Bones and City of Ashes), and the proof that enjoyed the first two quite a bit (aside from the fact I said as much on this blog) is that I bought …

Book review: Wicked by Gregory Maguire

By Edward Willett in Blog
April 28, 2009
3 mins to read
6 comments

Yeah, I know. Of all the superfluous book reviews in the world, another one of Wicked is probably the superfluousmost. After all, it’s a New York Times bestseller, with more than three million copies in print. USA Today called it “an outstanding work of imagination.” John Updike called it an “amazing novel.” The Los Angeles …

Book review: Storm from the Shadows by David Weber

By Edward Willett in Blog
April 27, 2009
4 mins to read
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I first discovered David Weber’s Honor Harrington series rather late, reading the first few installments in ebook form on my hieBook reader when they were made available for downloading at the Baen Free Library. I loved them, and moved on to buy the next few in paperback. Now I am fully addicted and purchase them in hardcover …

Book review: Thunderer by Felix Gilman

By Edward Willett in Blog
April 21, 2009
2 mins to read
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I’ve fallen a bit behind in posting my mini-reviews of the books I read, but I’m going to do my best to catch up in the next little while, beginning with Felix Gilman‘s Thunderer . There’s a long tradition of fabulous and exotic cities in fantasy fiction, from Gormanghast to Minas Tirith to Ankh-Morpork, but …