I was a Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi "virgin", as I had never read any of their books before.  I was going into THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES  Blu Ray movie tabula rasa.  This can be a good thing, as there are no expectations, and a bad thing as I have no real background as the viewer.

All the actors did a good job with all the blue screen work they had to do, while interacting with the fantasy creatures created by powerful computers.  They also portrayed a regular family with brothers/sister interaction very well.  I particularly liked Sarah Bolger playing the character of Mallory Grace and how she deals with her younger brothers.  Everyone that has an older sister can relate here.

From the voice acting standpoint, the CGI characters came to life.  Hogsqueal, who at first I thought was too simple for the story, came around a bit in the end.  The humor of the character does lend itself to some entertaining moments throughout the film.  Mulgarath , the ogre, was the main villain in the story, but at the end of the day while he seemed so very evil, it did not feel like the character had been built up enough that I felt he had the chance to take over the world. 

This is really where the issues come into play.  The movie felt very rushed, and I am sure it had to be due to the fact it was covering 5 books in the span of a single movie even if the books were not huge volumes.  We are rushed in without too much background and this causes our investment in the characters to be rather small, leading to a low level of concerns for their fate.  The story should have been paced over two movies to give the character time to develop on the screen, which I can only assume they did in the book, or there should have been a warning that reads, “read books first for true background before watching”. 

The strongest part of the movie stems from the special effects, which are pretty darn special.  Mulgarath, the Troll in the tunnels and the goblins themselves are extremely well done and mesh with the environment seamlessly.  The battle scenes draw you in and bring what you only thought you could render in your imagination on the screen.  These are the scenes that up the excitement factor for the movie and make us sit up and take notice.  Mulgarath, with his morphing from one character to the next is truly a marvel of special effects.

The two things from the Blu Ray Extras that stood out (don’t know if they are also on the DVD) were the making of the fantastical creatures in the ILM computer labs as well as the interviews with Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi.  There are other interviews with the rest of the actors and then some deleted scenes as well, what one has come to expect from the extras section.

Overall, a rather rushed effort that is really too scary to lend itself to a young child’s viewing.  Maybe being a well versed fantasy reader had an effect on my review, or maybe reading the books may be necessary to fully enjoy it.  The special effects save this movie for a lower score from this reviewer, and everyone should see them in glorious High Definition at some point.

My first experience with Tad Williams was when I picked up his novel, "City of Golden Shadow." I found the book's opening, in which one of the main characters experiences scenes from World War I, to be marvelously descriptive and quite riveting. Though I found the culmination of that book series to be rather disappointing, I moved on to more of Williams' books. I read his "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" saga, which I found more enjoyable, but was once again disappointed by the ending. I then tackled "Shadowmarch," which was so bogged down I could hardly finish it. After all of these lengthy works, I wanted to try something that would give me more of what I liked about Tad Williams without the sheer weight of pages. That led me to try, "The War of the Flowers."

In this standalone novel, I was soon rewarded with exactly what I had hoped for. Williams' gift for wonderful descriptive scenes was again present as I began reading. The scenes and events involving Theo and his mother stand out as some of the most poignant I've ever read.

The premise of the book is interesting, if not completely new to fantasy readers. Theo, the main character, finds himself transported to the land of Faerie and encounters danger and adventure as he is caught up in the affairs of the ruling houses, named for flowers. I found the title misleading, as actual war in the sense of pitched battles and combat heroics is not a major element of the plot.

The book is not so much about fantastic elements, though these are certainly present, as it is about interaction between its well-developed characters. Many are dark, with sinister aspects hinted at and revealed slowly by the author. Theo begins as a sympathetic loser, but grows as the story progresses. Love interests abound throughout and feature prominently in his fate. There are some aspects of "Romeo and Juliet" here, in fact, though with a less tragic outcome.

There is some social commentary as well, though I perceived it to be understated, perhaps even underdeveloped. The inhabitants of Faerie, in an interesting twist for a fantasy novel, are discovering all the problems of industrialized society, class inequality, exploitation, and greed.

Unfortunately, the excellence of the early parts of the book begins to wane by the middle to late chapters. This is a common problem with many of Williams' books, in my opinion. The mysterious elements in the plot begin to be explained -- but the details seem overly contrived. I was disappointed with some of the plot twists, and others I found predictable. In a few cases, I felt as though I was left hanging with no explanation at all.

These complaints would have been forgivable but for the end of the story. It almost seemed as though the author had lost interest in the book chapters ago, and just needed to get it wrapped up so it would be finished.

In fairness, I enjoyed reading this book, flaws and all. Tad Williams once again succeeds in creating another world for the reader to explore, though at times the writing is frustrating. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a short -- if 700 pages may be called short – introduction to the style of Tad Williams. His best and worst are both present in this novel.

“Storm Dragon”, book one of the Draconic Prophecies, by James Wyatt is set in the Dungeons & Dragons world of Eberron. James Wyatt is one of the creators of the Eberron world. . Eberron is a change of pace from other D& D fantasy worlds, in that it has slightly higher technology with magical airships, artificially created warriors called “warforged”, and other elements. In some regards I suppose it is like a steampunk D&D world. Not being familiar with the details of the Eberron world I thought that a story by Wyatt, one of its creators, would be ideal for getting an overview of the world as we built into the story. That didn’t happen though. A familiarity with the world is needed to avoid getting lost in the dizzying assortment of names, places, and historical details. Is having some world background woven into the story an unreasonable expectation? Perhaps, but I admit to having that expectation coming into the book.

The other item that dominated my perception of “Storm Dragon” was how slowly events built up and the story finally gained steam. When the plot elements all come together though, much like one of the storms that main character Gavin Lyrandar can magically conjure, things really get going. That takes very nearly the entire book though, as things unfold slowly. Patience is required as we see Gavin Lyrandar and Haldren ir’Brassek get broken out of an inescapable prison in Eberron. Gavin is a man driven mad by obsession with a Draconic prophecy. As a result, he may know more about it than anybody. There are those who seek to fulfil the prophecy for their own gain, and they see Gavin’s knowledge as a key to it. Alliances are forged, broken, and reforged throughout the course of the novel. In many cases character motivation was passed to the reader in the form of riddle-like prophecy text. The constantly shifting alliances made it very difficult to determine who was key to the agendas throughout the story, who was a pawn, or even who the heroes of the story
would be.

Then there was the prophecy itself. It was the driving force that was shaping the world events in the story. But I still wasn’t clear what the prophecy was. It seemed a tale of Armageddon or of a war among gods on Eberron. These seemed to be, at least as I interpreted them, world altering events, yet something that some power hungry people thought that could bring to pass for their own personal gain. The role of “the bad guys” in the story seemed to be clear if they wanted to destroy the world in order to rule it. Their objectives and the exact outcome they thought they could achieve were extremely hazy, still very far into the book. While I like not being spoon-fed by a plot and being able to make my own interpretations and guesses until the author let’s me know whether I’ve been right or wrong, I was having to do too much of this to be able to settle comfortably into the book for the majority of it. While the bad guys were clear whether or not the expected hero of the story would actually play that role was in doubt for an unsettlingly long portion of the book.

That may have been by design as the clouds broke and questions were clearly answered in the climax of the story. However, it made for a frustrating read at times because I felt just as in the dark about which characters I should grow attached to in the story as I was at the beginning. I’m a sucker for a hero, especially when I’m reading fantasy. I want to find that character and travel along with him or her, even if that’s a misdirection to be revealed later in the story. But in this case I had a hard time finding anything redeeming in any of the characters for the longest time so I had nobody to invest in. For the majority of the story the character I liked most was Cart, the warforged. As a constructed warforged, he had a loyalty and innocence to him. Perhaps it is all my years of watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the obvious comparisons to the android Commander Data, but it was most interesting, especially in the early parts of the book, to watch Cart strive to interact with his companions as humanly as he knew how to, but still fall short of that.

Still though, it was apparent that Cart was a secondary character in this story. Perhaps he has previously had, or will get, his own book. But this one was not his. It was obvious that this book was Gavin’s. I was expecting to see the classic journey of the hero, ala “The Hero of A Thousand Faces”. So I waited for the character to develop, and his story and growth to occur along the way.

I waited a long time and was very near conceding that it wasn’t going to happen and this book wasn’t going to hit the mark for me. But then things all came together. Gavin found himself, both in character and as a character in the book that I found interesting and drawn to. Gavin had one huge moment of catharsis where all the bitterness and resentment of his life and particularly 26 years of imprisonment was washed away. But I thought he found a bit too much forgiveness, just a bit too quickly, especially toward the person who was responsible for having him sent to prison. That’s an awful lot of instant forgiveness. It seemed forced to me so that the plot could proceed along. Gavin also had a tearful reunion with a family that he had been “excommunicated” from for 26 years that was also too conveniently resolved. Again I thought it farfetched that 26 years of history could be undone that easily and painlessly. “Storm Dragon” comes in at a comfortable 344 pages, so these couple elements that were forced and rushed could have been expanded out in a less abrupt fashion in just a few extra pages. It didn’t seem like these pivotal moments of character growth and revelation had to be glossed over for the sake of the length of the book. I don’t claim to be the editor or publisher, so perhaps I’m entirely wrong there.

For all the slow build-up, “Storm Dragon ended very strongly over the last thirteen chapters. Better late than never in the “bringing it all together” department. The climax was a large battle sequence that was riveting and was the biggest page-turner of the book. I’ll even look past the fact that there was a beholder at the end that seemed to go down pretty easily. The end left us with questions and a setup for the additional books in this series, but it provided a happy ending for our main characters who had managed to step forward and take the title of “heroes” by the time the book ended.

I give “Storm Dragon” a “rising 6” on my scale. It walked a tightrope and teetered on the brink for me at the beginning. But James Wyatt pulled through and brought it home for me at the end. Looking over the whole book I have to give it a 6, but my opinion was definitely on the rise after the last 13 chapters. They saved the book in my opinion and were a solid springboard from which to launch the rest of the series.

However, to have more than just a average reading experience while reading “Storm Dragon” a reader will need to have two things, an appreciation and some familiarity with the world of Eberron and the patience to let the story come together.

When I reflect on Shannara, we are going back to the baby steps of a love affair with Fantasy that if not taken when they were, I would have probably found myself not inundated with advanced copies for a site I co-own dedicated to the subject of Speculative Fiction itself. It was not my first venture into Fantasy, but it was perhaps the first series I continued simply because it was Fantasy. Later in life I’d realize I was already a fan of the fantastic and it could be illustrated with books I read before – be it from Tolkien, Stevenson, Lovecraft, or others but I think then it was just about adventures then and Shannara offered another place I hadn’t been before, and at that age being someone who was used to and loved travel even then it was not only enough – it was optimal. I was as a child lucky enough to had already seen places and found myself at a place where so many rarely left their own state. Be it the Coliseum, the Parthenon/Acropolis, Pisa, The Sistine Chapel, Pompeii, Ercolano, the real Oktoboer Fest, Carnivale, Mardi Gras, Big Ben, Venice – Vesuvius or Fuji, the Pyramids, the Louvre a ride on The Orient Express and countless German and French castles and cathedrals and rugs from Turkey later – when I sat in history classes I always felt a chapter ahead, it was a review for me, not an introduction. Later, I’d I found myself in the dirty south of the U.S. which at the time was something not unlike exile from meaningful culture. Later, I’d recognize a highly functionable and welcome order to it all but at the time I think I was substituting that sense of wonder lost, with a maze of wonder at the library. I’m not at all sure if there were books I didn’t like then, in fact there may not have been even ‘good’ or ‘bad’ they were just all part of one large journey for me, some legs were just more memorable and some more staying power - better than I remembered - when I made the journey back, but if not, it does not taint what came before. To me I was just chillin’ with Huck one week, fishing with Ahab the next, sharing riddles in Hed after that, blew trees in the Shire a month after, all while walking through Shadow with my bud Brand who was babbling about chaos, and all because years before I wanted to go beyond where the wild things were. You see, Allanon and me, well, we go way back; before Bremen found him hiding all shook - we were already tight, even before me and Jessica used to have mélange sessions. I’d tell you my last name is Creel, but that’s another shadow, one me and only the Grimpond talk about but what you need to know is that when I wasn’t being a hell raiser as a youth, I could be found plotting my next secret vacance in my room, or what looked like plotting otherwise, why was I so quiet? Nobody complained, least of all me, because I was in my comfort zone – and I had been there before, and in fact I could fuck around and tell you how to get to Varleet from the Vale on a budget right now – like I said I’d been there before.

When discussing Shannara or Terry Brooks work in general – those that even take the time to do so anymore - many find it difficult to isolate a specific topic, having to express their stance on him and the fact alone should speak on his presence in the field. I myself am not gifted enough to buck that trend and as I type this I find myself unable to think in the box. I don’t love or hate the works of Brooks - but no different than any other writer at times I have loved and hated them. It is this relationship, this passion that defines fandom for me. Writers evolve and more importantly readers do as well and it’s not a shift that occurs one or in one direction. If we rightfully view the works of Rowling as an anomaly in regards to its measure of success in book sales – not just fantasy sales – then Brooks sits among the most successful who has ever done this and while to some that is somehow proof of impropriety against art itself, such stances prove to cause only minor chinks in the armor in one of the few writers in this field’s history that I think has a legitimate claim to being a generation’s introduction to the form – even if, irrefutably, largely borrowed beyond anyone’s attempt at shielding with the worst of paper-arguments ‘nothing new under the sun’. For myself, while presently – and for some years - my tastes have moved away from what Shannara has to offer but while I have aged and expanded upon my reading and bear with me, lore, of this corner of fiction that offers a perspective in a larger picture beyond the lines that are often the topics of heated and too often-linked discussions I try not to lose, replace, or dilute the veracity of my experience at the time. Addendums certainly - but no subtractions. The relevance of these statements to this review is due to the relationship that Dark Wraith of Shannara has with previous Shannara material, and more importantly, chapters I’m not only very familiar with, but chapters that I will always be familiar with. While it is The Heritage of Shannara arc that represents the best Brooks has shown in Shannara, and aside from his Word/Void work (in particular Angel Fire East) my favorite in his body of work, it seems to in his first three books in particular that fall into a timeline that sowed and cultivated the fanbase noted above. The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara are not classic books, but they attempted to capture and perhaps even remind of classic tales in a form many had been waiting for, whether they were conscious of it or not. It is within these three books that the most resonant of threads could be found to truly test the waters of a market and platform I feel very strongly about: the OGN – the original graphic novel. With the success of King and Hamilton projects in sequential art, I’m interested in seeing more of and how others will follow suit and Brook’s attempt will be an interesting gauge due to that existing fanbase noted above.

When Dark Wraith of Shannara showed up at the door in January I must admit some measure of curiosity. I am perhaps a bigger fan of comics than I am in any other form of reading and I think that’s telling for anyone who is aware of how much time I put into a site like Fantasybookspot.com I love getting my VanderMeer, Erikson, Mieville, Zivkovic, Martin, Jonathan Carroll and Jeffrey Ford books – and releases by Saramago, Ishiguro, and McCarthy are close to spiritual experiences bound up and sold on shelves; Speculative fiction is close to my heart, but more than anything, I love my sequential art – I love my comics. It also presents a very low risk investment in my time, I tend to commit to my novels even if I don’t see anything of value hundreds of pages in – a habit that I think is the only plausible explanation on why so many people are familiar with books like The Fifth Sorceress. I have my own preferences and I get perhaps unequal opportunities to explore them and this format allows for a shot of Shannara I otherwise wouldn’t indulge in, and this is something I consider a fortunate circumstance.

Dark Wraith takes place some three years after The Wishsong of Shannara and utilizes principle characters from that book. This was an auspicious discovery for me as my favorite denizen of the Four Lands was introduced within those pages and the opportunity to see further adventures of Slanter was more appealing than I would have wagered. Wishsong, more than the other books really offered a group-quest that lingered due to the number of characters and the finality of where some of those paths led in how they would affect the survivors. It was also the end of the first arc and to the reader a geopolitical era and tone in Shannara that would be come forth from the Heritage arc. Because of this, I think it was the best place to mine further adventures and also a minefield due to a chance of pulling on strands knotted close to hearts. When finishing the 160 pages, I saw both of my thoughts play out. In familiar fashion a member of the Ohmsford family is recruited to continue their legacy as Allanon’s chosen champions and protectors of the land and this time –as promised - it will fall on Jair, burdened with his charge and a promise, he once again seeks out the Mwellrets who (in Wishsong) failing in their attempt and I guess strangely upset at being freed of being enslaved by the power of the Ildratch (because, you know, their evil) have plotted a new course of action: restoring the Druid Keep of Paranor to the land to unlock the knowledge within its walls. It should be said that there is not a tremendous amount attempted here, it’s a straightforward read that offers little in regards to searching for invisible thought bubbles mid-page but I think if it is aiming at the age-group I think it is, this wasn’t unforeseen or unintended. I was reading Brian K. Vaughn’s The Escapist (in collected form) at the same time and there is more going on, more weight on several individual panels and single lines in it then can be found within the entirety of Dark Wraith, but it offered this real interesting dynamic as when I was getting most disinterested in Dark Wraith I’d pick The Escapist up and it was almost telling me to take it (Dark Wraith) for what it was (anybody – and by that I mean everybody should – who had read The Escapists understands). What drove me nuts from the beginning was something that actually makes a substantial amount of sense in regards to character and story – a boy emulating someone he looked up to and able to manifesting what is most likely semi-fantasy even on its own but when augmented with legitimate need becomes something more. In comics nothing is guaranteed, especially death, and while there isn’t a true resurrection within the pages, given the nature of the original character, it’s close enough to want to reflexively argue otherwise – and that isn’t even a problem in itself or abnormal, but it did create this major and what looks to be the central element in any works to come after that if you find yourself not behind puts a very tangible ceiling on how much one can enjoy the story (and possibly further adventures). The death of Garet Jax (Wishsong of Shannara) is one of the really great deaths in the history of fiction – largely because it ended the existence of one of the most heinous, no-dimensional characters ever conceived. Garet Jax was a weapons master – unequaled, the best there is or ever was, yada, yada, yada.. He was also a walking deus ex machina – a mortal force of nature that would solve the majority of the quest’s problems by skillfully, hitting shit - sometimes hard. When he wasn’t (actively) being cool, we were being told how kewl he was by others. Let me say this about Brooks – he is consistently able to bring conclusions that satisfy and he does this by surrounding the inevitable saving of the day with a recognition of sacrifice and acceptance that does resonate and finds a corner in our memory that doesn’t fade. He showed this many times; with Amberle (Elfstones of Shannara), Allannon; he showed this with a debt and bond of two races being acknowledged by an injured Elf and Dwarf – and what these instances do is bind the allegiance of generations of Ohmsfords through representatives of the land – it is the people who become what they fight for, what they are loyal to, and through them the Four Lands and taken to the end the reader themselves. The death of Garet Jax, while welcome by me and clearly writing that was on the wall from the novel’s beginning was still one of those great moments in this child’s reading history. The ambiguity of the event, a mystery of whether or not the mortal demise of a man unequalled was in fact the reward he searched and trained for or was his sacrifice a delightful, if sobering, reality check. Say what people want to say, but these are terrific books for younger readers and Brook’s ability as a closer pays off. Like I said there is no true resurrection, thus it seems like I’m shadowboxing a bit, but the usage of the Wishsong that transforms Jair into Jax is strikes me as an element that would have been high on my list of not basing a story or a series of forthcoming stories on. The other underlining theme of Jair struggling to keep his promise of abandoning the Wishsong that he made to his sister and coincides with the familiar ‘power corrupts and eventually enslaves’ forms the apparent meat of the story that will take new readers for a tour and returning visitors a spin down memory lane. This is really an admittance of not caring for the fundamental premise and it was difficult for me to shake that as I read on as nothing really evolved from the transformation that made me not think just seeing Jair and Slanter reuniting to get by on wits, luck and experience would be more fun. I realize that some could consider it the sweetest thing imaginable, but for me it just strikes me as a decision that sounds better and perhaps even exciting as an idea thrown out there and dismissed after a second thought than it looks on paper and brought to fruition. What we are set-up for is basically a condition that allows Jair to handle any imaginable situation by being someone else and the balance is supposed to be given by Jair’s personal regret of lying to his sister in the course of saving his own life. That just cannot last for any length of time as the fundamental conflict for people who are used to reading even the least competent of fiction - indeed it got old just within these pages alone. We knew it was going to happen, we knew what going to happen when it did, we knew what Jair was going to ponder later and while it is passable – if not memorable - once it is a cycle that has to stop now and cannot carry another story. The backdrop of an adventure; the where, who, and when of it will not matter if these continue to be the bookends of the tale. I don’t know, I was looking for something to occur that even if not perceptible by the new reader, that was an attempt at really grabbing prior visitors – to let us know these graphic novels are projects that go beyond what we may want to read, but reads the afficianado has to read, filling in the gaps in the puzzle or introducing new ones – calling back to what some may hold dear, maximizing the fact that there is a fanbase that’s reading, waiting for that single moment of recognition that goes beyond bearing a name, when we look up and see familiar stars when we stop reading about wonder and start breathing it and Dark Wraith of Shannara never took that step for me. It was like following familiar tracks but upon catching up you find that they just belong to those wearing the same brand of shoes – the occupants, strangers.

It is, I know, awfully hip to say one loves the purity of black and white, and in the sense of seeing older works brought back in a collected or archive format with specific creators/pencilers I agree, but for the most part I’d be disingenuous in saying I prefer non-color. It certainly is appropriate and even optimal in some cases and this happens – I think – to be one of them. Jair himself echoed my thoughts early in the story, as an Ohmsford will once again find themselves on the banks of the Silver River on the way to a greater journey:

The black and white art helps creates this distance even when standing at what amounts to a figurative bridge in-story and for the most part I really took to the art. It is impossible for the visuals we created in our imaginations to be rendered as we saw it but there were no choices that troubled me terribly and even some that played out well and I think balanced the idea of a book for younger readers that still gave the sense of aging for those familiar with the novels and you can see this with Kimber who is a full blown tuttin now and apparently doesn't require clothing any longer. She lives in the cut, not a trailer park, still it is very alive. For the most part, the art exceeded expectations for me and managed find that middle-ground that was part of the contrast we’d see between the first two novels arcs.

Interestingly enough, I feel that the Dark Wraith of Shannara serves as better appetizer for the uninitiated to take a look at the novels and not as much as a product that at the end demands attention by those looking for more Shannara. This was a rather disappointing development for me simply because aside from seeming backwards to me, but from a purely selfish standpoint, as a former reader of Shannara I fall into the secondary category! I think in some ways, it may be underestimating the sophistication of the Manga reader, but I admit the American Manga market is something I don’t have near a comprehensive knowledge of , having not lived on those shores during it’s apparent rise in popularity and my own Manga reads are chosen with heavy deliberation as though I am a huge comic book fan and half-Japanese – I’m not what I’d call an avid fan of Manga. That said, it does give a gist of what occurred in the novel that will not leave the reader with the feeling of an incomplete tale, and that with just about everything else noted really brings us to the bottom line with this release. It’s damn well put together in terms of being friendly for anyone to pickup and comprehend – be it strictly Manga, strictly graphic novel, strictly comic book, existing Shannara fans, people who may have just read Wishsong of Shannara, or any combination of the above, but I finished not at all inspired to read on (the implication of further adventures and a continuing story is implied in the end – and by the time this review sees light possibly even announced) to any but the most loyal of fans and to me would be better suited as a nice online web comic project for fans to read between novels. I was reminded I once liked these characters but they were built with a shelf-life that I thought correctly optimized them already and nothing in these pages suggests otherwise. I think Brooks himself may have initially been aware of this (at the time) and avoided it with his early work by continuing tales in the setting with successive generations. What bothers me the most is that if you are like when you see a new project like this announced, you tend to reread source material to warm up for the event, but this 160 pages ends up not paying that off, indeed it doesn't seem to event attempt to.

The most interesting reading for me came after the story itself in the ‘making of Dark Wraith of Shannara’ segment that is also followed by a sketch-book of the artist, Edwin David. It’s rather brief but has some interesting insight on the collaboration between Robert Place Napton, who adapted (if I’m reading this correctly) Terry’s outline, David and Brooks. Visually I think Dark Wraith of Shannara is a success, the story itself does nothing for me, andI wonder how much could have been done about it, even though its really not relevant in terms of allocating opinion. It is what it is – no matter how it got there. Now in truth, I did find the story flat, a bit uneventful, it never approaches possessing any degree of suspense or a payoff and it reads very much like a preliminary outline put straight to paper. The story itself is just uninspired and felt more like a story that occurred without leaving any evidence it passed. It was like having that feeling that you just read a book but experienced a synopsis and when this occurs what happens is you get an opinion of a project that once finished, doesn’t deviate from whatever (preconceived) you had coming in. I found that upon completion I could describe (if asked) what happens in two - not unusually long - sentences in a manner that would make reading the actual 160 pages an absolutely redundant experience. I don’t like making comparisons out of thin air, as I said before at the same time I was reading this, I also happened to be reading the collected (hardcover) of Brian K. Vaughan’s The Escapists and while I can tell somebody what it was about as well (perhaps with two especially long sentences in this case) it would not in any way diminish the experience of the read itself – it had life beyond summary. There is nothing for the reader to bring to or take away from the story that they didn’t possess before. It just goes through the motions, and one feels like such a venue could be used to get dirty in the Four Lands and really what we are left with what seems more chum thrown to potential new readers than something those of us with the soil of the Westlands still stuck in our boots or seen the pride of Callahorn first-hand can get excited about. It is in a word, unnecessary, and when putting a brand that means something to many on a book, it’s the one quality you can’t be. It should be said I stopped reading Brooks after the Voyage of Jerle Shannara arc and there perhaps may be call-backs imbedded from material beyond that, that may add dimension to this graphic novel that I cannot be aware of but not once did I feel like I ever went back. One could, I suppose, possibly compare it to The Hedge Knight, which was material that chronicled activities that took place prior to the timeline in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and what you got was not a mind-blowing or essential addition, but still it was a piece, and with Dark Wraith and as someone familiar with the material and the legacy of the Ohmsfords it just doesn’t feel like a progression or even just a continuation of that, and if it tripped and fell flat, it somehow managed to do so without ever walking.

Shades!

Which is all it ended up being, nothing substantial; looks good, and while the spark of Jair’s future with Kimber leaves the faintest ripples of interest, there is just not enough brewing here that could ultimately make it recommendable and I find any attempt at lauding it impossible without following it with "for what it is" – and that’s usually the worst of signs.

Jay Tomio
The Bodhisattva

Brandon Mull ups the stakes in this third installment of the Fablehaven series. Things are looking bad for Fablehaven. The artifact protected there is gone and all over the world secret refuges for magical creatures are collapsing in disarray.

Grip of the Shadow Plague picks up right where Rise of the Evening Star, book two, left off. After defeating one enemy and unveiling a traitor, Kendra and Seth plunge into the international world of magic. As Kendra travels to another refuge to locate an artifact of incredible strength, Seth faces another attack at Fablehaven. The creatures there are turning, not falling into evil like the fairies previously but actually turning into shadow - evolving into powerful and more threatening forms never seen before. Even those creatures known to be resistant to falling are changing and infecting those around them.

This is by no means a capstone to Mull’s series, but a continuation of the adventures of Seth and Kendra that lives up to the high standards he set with his first two books. Brandon Mull takes it up another notch with this one. Seth and Kendra face decisions that have no clear cut answer, carrying more weight and responsibility than before. There is a sense of growth and maturity in both characters, of the two of them coming into their own in regards to their talents and abilities. This is one aspect I truly enjoy about these stories. Seth and Kendra are not static characters, but are growing and developing as people.

Mull’s gifts as an author are obvious as he develops this story, carrying the tale forwards as he both widens the scope of the magical world and fills in back story that satisfies our curiosity and piques our interest. Once again Mull highlights doing the right thing, but for both Kendra and Seth the right thing isn’t so obvious anymore. Much like real life, issues are no longer clearly marked black and white and the repercussions for making a wrong move are devastating.

This is a book for young readers, but it will do more for them than just entertain. They will be encouraged to think and examine the situations, challenge them to agree or disagree with what the characters choose. Well-crafted, there are no weak points or shaky aspects to this book. From cover to cover, readers will fall into the world of Fablehaven and never want to leave.

There were high hopes, hell people were looking to take a ride back to their childhood (tweenhood?) where we could see one of our favorite fantasy books come to life on the screen. My first thought was, this would have been real cool as a live action movie, but I sure do love cartoons as well, so no hopes were dashed…yet.

The Good, the Bad, and the ugly CGI.

There really was a lot of good in this movie. I have heard of lot of comments based on the trailers and how people did not like the animation, but I thought the animation was real good. Yes it has a nostalgia feel to it (ala the Hobbit), but isn’t that the audience it is intended for? Regardless of the intended audience, the animated versions of some of my favorite characters are all well done and I enjoyed watching them.

The voice acting was also top notch with Michael Rosenbaum as Tanis, Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin, Lucy Lawless as Goldmoon, and star filled for the rest of the cast as well. The only iffy one was Jason Marsden as Tasslehoff, not that Jason was a bad voice actor, its just his voice just did not work for me as Tasslehoff.

Another positive was the fact that the script kept true to the storyline. For the die hard fans this is very important and I feel that in many movies things that a fan would find integral to the story are often left out or glossed over. Now, they can not put everything from a few hundred page book into less then two hours, but they did a damn good job.

Then...

There was a decision to make the dragons and draconians CGI (Computer Generated), and this is where the problems begin. To sum it up, they just do not fit in with the animated work. It is like you are watching two different movies that fell on the cutting floor one on top of the other. The other issue is during the battle scenes the CGI and animated characters interaction is “off”. Animation gets lost behind CGI, swords plunge through CGI characters from further away then they should. A scene that describes it all is when we see what are supposed to be monks on the road by Solace, well the monk robes are CGI, so guess what is under them? A spoiled moment for the audience. Reading some interviews, it seemed that Weis and Hickman thought the 3D would make it more exciting...no...it did not.

Another overall issue I had with the transition from the word to the animated were the little enjoyable nuances of the characters that gave them personality in the book. They are overdone in the movie, ruining that aspect of the characters. A few particulars that I will point out are Raistlin’s coughing from his time at the tower, the way Caramon reacts to Tika when they come back to Solace, and Flint being afraid of the water during the escape. These are all very subtle in the book and in the movie are taken to the extreme and therefore look rather silly. I also thought the violence was a tad bit overdone (people hanging from trees during Solace attack), but maybe I am just nit picking now.

Overall, cut out the CGI, tone down the quirks and we have a great animated movie. Problem is I do not see this happening for the next part of this classic saga turned animated movie. It is like the pearl still stuck in the oyster, pretty surrounded by ugly. Fans of the series would be better served by the Graphic Novels that Devil's Due put out, and people unfamiliar should read the books, they are classics.

From the back cover of the paperback book (blurb) -

Now the people know that the dragon minions of Takhisis, Queen of Darkness, have returned. But the races have long been divided by hatred and prejudice. It seems the battle has been lost before it begins.

The companions are separated, torn apart by war. A full season will pass before they meet again—if they meet again.

It is always a pleasant surprise to find out that book that you loved, got turned into a graphic novel. That said though, visiting a world that you know and love in graphic form, it has to live up to some healthy expectations for the reader. Devils Due and their team brought it to life, and everyone should be very pleased by their work. Dragons of Winter Night, has the dark feel one would think it should and it comes across in the artwork and layout.

I thought the artwork was beautiful, and where it really seemed to shine was in the outdoor scenes and the artwork of the dragons. The characters were also depicted well for my personal tastes, whether or not they live up to what you envisioned them to be is something you have to look at for yourself. My favorite representation though was Kitiara, you can feel the evil bubbling below the surface, in her facial expressions. I always thought she was a great anti-hero to the group, and I can feel that in the artwork. I also enjoyed the depiction of Fizban as well; the humor of the character still shines through in the drawings. Overall the artwork had pretty big shoes to fill, if you go by the covers of the books done by Larry Elmore, and I think for the medium (a graphic novel can not be of the level of a single piece of canvas) the team of Kurth, Ruffino, Narvasa, Bradley, Rauch and Crowley, did an excellent job. They put together the perfect graphical companion to Weis and Hickman’s novel.

The adaptation by Andrew Dabb stayed pretty faithful and the overall feel and storyline stayed where they needed to be due to the restraints of the graphic novel medium. I personally find the graphic novel to be a nice companion to the book, but it still needs to stand on its own if one has not read the book. It worked for me on both of these levels as I had read this sometime in the 1980’s I believe. It does not hold the same weight as the book, but I do not believe it is supposed to. There is no way they can include everything and I found it to be a fun visualization after reading the books. Even if you are not familiar with the books though it is still very enjoyable just not of the same level I believe as someone that has read the books.

DDP always brings us something new for the fantasy crowd looking to dip their toes in the graphic novel and comic market. I think once you feel the temperature you will want to dive right in. Dragons of Winter Night, the graphic novel, is a great piece to own; visually telling what I consider a classic story in the fantasy book market

We revisit Kendra and her brother Seth as Brandon Mull takes the story a bit deeper in Rise of the Evening Star, the second book in the Fablehaven series. In the first book of the Fablehaven series, Kendra and Seth meet magic face-to-face at the refuge run by their grandparents. Here in the second book, magic comes to meet them in their very normal, non-magical lives at school and home.

Kendra is beginning to realize that when you touch magic, it also touches you. She has to face some realities in her life, such as how magic has changed who she is. Seth, who had a terrible time staying out of trouble in the last book, struggles again. But this time, he faces earning back the trust of his family. They do this while facing a mysterious creature that will frighten you to death, and a global conspiracy that is wanting to release magical creatures into the world. To tell you more would reveal too much of the storyline. Trust me, it’s worth it to read the book for yourself!

Brandon Mull has raised the level of danger and broaden the scope of the story in his second installment of the Fablehaven series. Risks are greater and the choices aren’t as clearly marked as “good” and “bad”. The players here aren’t just the inhabitants of Fablehaven, but includes others on a far-reaching global scale. The plot is twisty and at times very hard to predict, which is something I crave in any story.

Once again, this book will appeal to a variety of readers. The writing is superb, with a plot whimsical enough to keep the attention of young readers but deep enough to satisfy the older ones. As with the first book, Mr. Mull has added an addendum containing discussion questions that push young readers to look deeper than the surface of the plot.

Kendra and her brother Seth know next to nothing about their grandparents, mainly that they never want to spend time with their grandchildren. So when the kids have to spend two and a half weeks with the inhospitable couple, they are less than excited. Driving up to their house is daunting, as signs reading “Beware of .12 Gauge” and “Violators Will Be Persecuted” are boldly staked along the road. Looks can be deceiving, though, as Kendra and Seth learn over and over again in this delightful adventure about magic.

What if the magical creatures were able to survive the Industrial Revolution, two world wars, and several overseas armed conflicts? What if fairies, unlike hobbits, didn’t fade away or take a ship to some faraway land? Where would they go? They would go to Fablehaven, a refuge from the modern world that both protects the magical from humanity and vice versa. The grandparents are the “gamekeepers” of this refuge, tending after the magical creatures and maintaining the protective boundaries around Fablehaven.

Of course, no adventure is complete without the bad guys and this story definitely has it’s share. There is a troll and imps, a witch and a demon, naiads and even fairies that aren’t completely innocent. This is one theme of the story; that which is beautiful is not necessarily good. Other themes touched on are resisting temptation, fulfilling responsibility and following the rules. The children face consequences for their decisions throughout the book, some of which are very unpleasant. The storyline is deceptively simple, but artfully weaves these universal truths within itself so that the book does not read like one huge “Aesop Fable”.

In this day of a headlong rush to quench the thirst of young readers for fantasy fodder, finding a well-written book is difficult. This is one of the reasons Fablehaven is so rewarding. Enjoyable and whimsical, readers meet the usual magical species but the story overall contains a very modern practicality. In an unusual addition, the author has added discussion questions at the end to challenge young readers to do more than just read the words. Readers are asked to think about why the characters make their choices or if they would do the same. This adds to the flexibility of the book, making it just as valuable to the classroom teacher as to a librarian or parent. Best of all, young readers will enjoy reading for the pure pleasure of escaping to a world that just might exist after all.

I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book. Even though it is aimed at young readers, the writing is so well done I was still satisfied. I am very impressed with this debut novel from Brandon Mull. He has already published a second volume to the Fablehaven story. Stay tuned for a review of Fablehaven #2, Rise of the Evening Star. These are definitely books worth reading!

Dragons of the Highlord Skies is Volume II of the Lost Chronicles. Again it’s set between books 1 and 2 of the original DragonLance Chronicles. We get more of the viewpoint from Kitiara and the forces of Takhisis. Kitiara and Lord Soth occupy one sub-plot of the story, and a knightly quest occupies the other sub-plot.

We do get to see some of the Companions during the course of the book and that is always enjoyable since those characters are always the high point for me. I enjoyed the focus on the Solamnic Knights as well, and the interplay between three knightly friends and their differing interpretations of honor, duty, and even The Measure, by which they conducted themselves as Knights, was very well done. I often see depictions of knights that are one-dimensional. They’re honorable, loyal, duty bound, rigid and unyielding in their beliefs, and often stereotypically done. It was nice that to deviate from that in this book.

In Volume 2, Sturm was the Companion who stood out and shined for me. I was glad to see that, as I was disappointed with him in Volume I. That was addressed though. The character grew from that and was now more of the character that I remember him being in the originals. His nobility and honor shined through in this story.

The story did actually pick up where the previous story left off. So where I did expect to have to spend time acclimating to another snipped in time as we peered through the looking glass at a portion in time from the War of the Lance, I was able to get right back into the timeline of the story, since Volume I was still fresh on my mind. If it is for you too, that’s great. If it’s not, Weis and Hickman get you back up to speed in short order before they move on.

It took me maybe 20 pages to get into the story and get interested in the non-Kitiara characters. So maybe slow starting, but just long enough for the story to draw me in. I think maybe in the back of my mind some characters weren’t interesting right off the bat because in the back of my mind I knew how things were going to end. Their fates were sealed. But this series is more about the journey than the destination, since that destination was already written 20 years ago.

The one other thing I will note, just so I can review this book and not just say “Bravo! Bravo! Perfection! Write more books!” is this. I thought Kitiara’s climactic moment for this book built up wonderfully and dramatically throughout the book. Then right at the apex, boom it was over. I was surprised. I thought that could have played out for a couple more pages? “That’s it? Just like that?” I thought. I read it a second time to see if maybe I was just so sucked in and flipping pages at a furious pace that I just lost the overall sense of the build up and the payoff in the scene. I still had the same sense of abruptness the second time. But then maybe I’d build it up in my mind over the course of the book (because I really was sucked in. I like Lord Soth, what can I say) so however it played out couldn’t match my imagination. So maybe that scene was a bit of a victim of its own success. I’m not sure on that. But my feeling was “Great scene, could have been a couple pages longer in its resolution.”

The locations that we saw on Krynn were rich and vivid as they always have been. Weis and Hickman took great care in establishing the history of the world, and making it clear that there was a deeper history than the pieces that we were seeing at that moment. That creates depth, which makes the reader (or at least me) care more about what’s happening. You’re not just seeing a dusty library that the characters are walking into, will then use to suit their needs, then move on from. Or a generic icy castle, which must be taken because the heroes of light will defeat the villains of darkness.

It seemed to me that Weis and Hickman took great care to maintain continuity with the original series and to continue that same standard of excellence. I have too high of a regard for them to ever think that they’d just “mail it in” so to speak and let the DragonLance name alone sell books, but I suppose things like that have been done before. There was one thing at the end of the book that made me smile in regards to the level of attention that they paid. In the Author’s Notes (of the Advanced Reading Copy at least) they addressed a point from the previous book, which some readers have apparently been pointing to as a continuity error. They knew exactly what they were doing they said and the point noted was done deliberately. It was a catch that I admit that I didn’t make. But even in having readers catch that point, they’d intended to use that as a subtle plot point to make the reader learn a little something that they hadn’t known before. It’s almost as if they knew they’d be leaving us in suspense for 20 years then come back for an encore performance.

As an encore, I for one give it a standing ovation.

The next book will be Dragons of the Hourglass Mage. I don’t think I need to tell you who is central to that story. It will be a long year waiting for that book. But I sure hope it’s me who gets to review that one as well.

Courtney Crumrin is a young girl who has just been forced to move to a new town by her daft parents who have run up enough debt to rival any teen with a credit card. The town in question, Hillsborough, is an old community where the socially inept and rich come to live and procreate. There is one house in Hillsborough though that doesn't come from money and is revered more than any other, the house of deranged Professor Aloysius Crumrin; who is coincidentally Courtney's great-uncle and the owner of the house she will be spending her foreseeable future in.

The foreseeable future however, happens to be much different than what Courtney counts on as her Uncle Aloysius turns out to be a wizard of some esteem and his personal chambers are filled with the types of books any curious onlooker might peruse. This might alarm most children, but Courtney is anything but average.

Things get interesting when a local group of wealthy thugs decide to beat up and burglarize Courtney on her journey home after a harsh first day of school. After another attempted raid Courtney decides she's had enough and takes a detour home through the woods where she meets a new friend by the name of Butterworm who decides he would rather eat his new friend than introduce himself.

Courtney decides to turn the table on Butterworm and the local thugs with the help of a few certain tomes from her Uncle's personal library.

Courtney Crumrin and the Night Things(CCATNT) is a simple black and white graphic novel that may be overlooked because it doesn't have the brilliant colors or grandiose logos of normal superhero fare. What it does have though is a magnificent depth of character and setting thanks to the immaculate pencils and script done by Ted Naifeh. The cast of CCATNT are rendered simply as they are, somber and often times spiteful. Blending perfectly with the looming mystery that is the magical underbelly of Hillsborough.

The dialog and narration penned by Ted Naifeh is perfect from start to finish. The cynicism is thick and so is the sarcasm but it treads on the line of humor more than hate and it is never preachy. This is one of the greater strengths of CCATNT, there are so many messages sent in the book from and to Courtney that as a reader almost anyone can find something to love about it; it's audience is widely encompassing.

Kelly Crumrin, a San Fransisco based writer, said it best in the foreword when she stated:

Kelly goes on to describe what inexorably draws people, namely children to certain stories and what makes the stories themselves stand the test of time.

That is what makes CCATNT such a compelling story. To put it simply Ted Naifeh has crafted a dark, humorous, and beautifully real story about life as an early teen with a drab family and the struggle to fit in and make friends.

~Jason Fahey

In Kelly McCullough's debut novel Webmage, the old gods haven’t died or faded away; they’ve gone underground and embraced the digital age. The Greek gods of old are still controlling destiny—only now they use a computerized system housed on a server called the Fate Core to do it. Disdainful of humanity and as impetuous as ever, Atropos-the Fate who cuts the threads- has coded a spell to eliminate free will. Excellent coder that she is, her program has a flaw. That’s where protagonist and hacker extraordinaire Ravirn comes in. As one of the Fates demigod descendants, Ravirn has spent his time flunking out of different colleges and cracking security systems with the help of his familiar, Melchior, a goblin who transforms into a laptop. When Atropos needs help to succeed with her latest scheme, she turns to Ravirn and his excellent debugging skills--skills he isn’t willing to employ once he realizes it will mean the end of the world as he knows it. Fate is not pleased with Ravirn’s choice. From that point, on things really start to get dangerous, and interesting.

Ravirn, Melchior and the Fates are just a few of the colorful characters readers will encounter. Nor is our “reality” the only one to be experienced. Alternate dimensions, fairy Rings, computer viruses, and close encounters with the Furies, Chaos and other members of the realms mix with dorm life, midterms and familial obligations to shape author McCullough's twisted, modern fairy tale.

Ravirn’s world is a fully realized one, and our antihero is both charming and flawed. He’s a young person adrift in the world without a set purpose, until the Fates force him to use everything he’s got and then some. Ravirn’s characterization gives readers something to really connect to. Melchior, love interest Cerice, and all the other secondary characters are colorful, and really balance out the story. McCullough handles the romance well, never detracting from the primary plot. My biggest quibble with Webmage is all that techno-babble gets annoying at times, especially if you happen not to be one of the “wired”.

Mixing magic, humor, romance, philosophy and techno-speak into the everyday, McCullough crafts a fast-paced, fantasy adventure that is unique and enjoyable to read.

We visit the realms again, but this time we venture to another unlikely locale when we follow some returning characters to the Plane of Fire. Kaanyr Vhok, fresh off the defeat suffered at the hands of the Menzoberranzan drow, is looking for a new conquest, and it seems a complex plan has been hatched. Kaanyr’s plan not only involves the human city of Sundabar, but he is venturing into the Plane of Fire for a scheme that can only have a devastating impact on the Forgotten Realms. We also get to see Aliisza – a fan favorite from “The War of the Spider Queen”. She had some interesting interactions with Phauran Mizzrym and the rest of the drow.

The first concern is the choice of Kaanyr Vhok and Aliisza as part of this story rather than bringing new players to the table. Though, Thomas Reid does introduce an interesting supporting cast: Myshik Moreume the blue-scaled hobgoblin with half-draconic heritage, Zasian the priest, and Tauran the angel of Tyr. Reid perfectly played Myshik in regards to how much stage time he is given and his actions in the book. Zasian is as well a great character; right when you think you know what he is about, Reid flips the script and he is really not at all what we thought. Tauran seemed to be the only weak supporting character, but then again, how much personality can an angel of Tyr really have?

The characters not only visit Sundabar, but we also get to see them visit the Plane of Fire. While on the Plane of Fire, the anti-heroes – in an attempt to keep cool – get to venture into the famous City of Brass after a battle with some efreeti slavers. From the crystal trees to the overall theme and look of the plane, Reid does a wonderful job at describing the locales and puts the reader right alongside the characters in their journey. Reid could have added to the story by giving a little more background as to the inhabitants that Kaanyr Vhok’s band met on the Plane of Fire, but there are only a certain amount of pages in the book, so this is understandable.

Reid refers to Vhok as "the cambion" far too often in his attempt to break up the monotony of using his name. This was very distracting to the flow of the story and effectively changed the enjoyment of the story by sheer annoyance. Reid seems to do this with other characters as well, but not to the extent that it is done with Kaanyr Vhok.

This book can be a little frustrating for the reader as they can feel a little left out until the end where things that seem out of place are explained. It is also going to be a stretch for some readers to connect with Kaanyr and Aliisza due to having rooted against them in the past.
Even though Reid’s first book in the story did not allow him to be the author we know he can be, he has the skill to be top notch. He really shines when he gets to create new characters. With that said, the supporting cast of this story could use a spin off of its own.

Overall, Reid brings us a good story and setting while introducing some well thought out and alluring minor characters. Kaanyr Vhok and Aliisza seemed forced into the story, as if they were only present for their name recognition. We could have had some new characters take their place, but WoTC does rely heavily on recognizable characters, which is understandable in a shared world setting. Let us hope we can understand why Vhok seems bent on Sundabar so quickly after his defeat at the hands of the dark elves and how Aliisza's piece of the puzzle fits. We can only assume it has some part of the greater plan at hand. Well, we can only hope that is true.

White Knight by Jim Butcher is the ninth book of The Dresden Files. This latest finds wizard Harry Dresden trying to solve several apparent suicides. Harry’s cop friend Karrin Murphy believes they were murder and calls in Harry to find out what happened to them.

If you aren’t already familiar with the series, I’ll give you a quick synopsis. If you are already familiar with these books, go ahead and skip this paragraph. Harry Dresden is a private investigator in modern day Chicago. He is also a wizard. Since he advertises that fact in the phone book, he gets all sorts of strange cases. In addition, he often helps out Karrin Murphy of the Chicago police’s SI division which handles ‘special investigations’, or rather, all the strange and unusual crimes. His brother is a vampire, his mother a faerie; and he counts angels, werewolves and witches among his friends. He is perpetually broke, lives with a giant cat named Mister, and an even larger Temple Dog named Mouse, has an angel’s daughter for an apprentice and the spirit of a banished black wizard for a lab assistant. Because he once used black magic in the past, the governing council over magic users which is called the White Council keeps him under close observation lest he slide over to the dark side.

This time around, someone is trying to frame him for the murders and somehow his brother Thomas is involved. During the investigation, Harry meets up once again with his first love Elaine, who happens to be in town to find an answer to the killings as well since Chicago is only the latest city that has record of these types of killings made to look like suicides. So, Harry must solve the case, prove his brother’s innocence, keep his apprentice safe, ensure the continuation of the Vampire Courts’ peace talks and protect Elaine.

All in a day’s work for Harry Dresden, Wizard. Of course his job is much easier since he has police back up, a magical Temple Dog, an evil but honorable gangster who needs a favor, a White Council Warden and the shade of a fallen Angel all ready to pitch in. Will Harry be able to solve the case? Is his brother truly innocent? Well, as the cliché goes, you’ll have to read the book to find out.

Butcher’s Dresden Files are very entertaining. Harry Dresden is a dynamic and well-rounded character and the supporting cast isn’t a bunch of cardboard cutouts either. Because this is an urban fantasy based on real life Chicago, Butcher doesn’t have to focus on his physical world building. He therefore puts a great deal of that energy towards his mythos. His mythical creatures all have full histories and complete biographies. While much of these may be taken from common mythology regarding vampires and ghouls and other things that go bump in the night, it is clear that Butcher has put his own stamp on each of them and keeping their stories as simple but complete as possible. He then adds in wonderful characterization, relationships and humor to create a series that is engaging and entertaining. It isn’t surprising to me that this series has been picked up by the SciFi Channel to be the basis for a TV series.

Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories are perhaps one of the best-known works in the eponymous "Dying Earth" sub-genre, alongside other greats like the Viriconium stories and Book of the New Sun (Gene Wolfe has in fact cited Vance as an influence on Book of the New Sun).

Tales of the Dying Earth gathers together all 4 of the Dying Earth novels penned by Vance: The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel's Saga and Rhialto The Marvellous. The setting therein is that of a far-future Earth where the sun has diminished to a faint red sphere struggling to warm the planet and science has all but vanished to be replaced by magic as the world slides ever-closer to an inevitable doom.

The first novel, The Dying Earth consists of several inter-connected stories following various characters and their adventures.

The following two novels (The Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga) follow the misadventures of Cugel the Clever, who after attempting to rob a magician famed for a cruel sense of humor, is forced to wander distant lands before he can return home.

The final book Rhialto The Marvellous follows the magician Rhialto and his fellows as they quarrel with one another in the course of overcoming various challenges.

Out of the four sto