Fantasy/SF Book Reviews
Page One of TwoBones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick
Eos, February, 2002Hardcover, 352 pages
ISBN: 0380978369
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
Paleontologist Richard Leyster has achieved his life's dream:
to work at the Smithsonian, studying dinosaurs. He has just
made a once in a lifetime fossil find that he knows he can
study for the rest of his career, when a mysterious stranger
named Griffin walks into his office with an ice cooler and
an exceedingly odd job offer. Leyster tells Griffin to get
lost, but eventually succumbs to curiosity and looks inside the cooler.
Inside is a just-killed stegosaurus head. Leyster eventually
hooks back up with Griffin, and becomes privy to the
greatest secret on the planet: a mysterious species has given
humans the gift of time travel and the government is
sending scientists back in time to study evolution.
Leyster puts up with all the secrecy and multitude of
government red tape and rules just to have the chance
to see dinosaurs in their natural habitat. Although
Leyster enjoys his work immensely, several things
about the time travel job just don't add up. And when his colleague
and sometime lover
Dr. Gertrude Salley starts mucking about with things, some
very disturbing temporal paradoxes take place,
leaving Leyster with more than one possible future:
and some of these futures are very unpleasant, indeed.
Michael Swanwick has given us a dinosaur tale that is both compelling and thought-provoking. Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards, Michael Swanwick writes stories which intrigue and provoke. Swanwick takes such timely issues as creationism, evolution and the environment and wraps them in a tightly-constructed thriller. Dr. Leyster, the outspoken and reckless Dr. Gertrude Salley, and the many versions of the mysterious Griffin are all well-drawn and interesting characters which make for very entertaining reading.
A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton
Ballantine, March, 2002Paperback, 468 pages
ISBN: 0345423402
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
Perennial bestseller Hamilton could have rested
on her laurels with her well-received Anita Blake
vampire hunter series, but instead she's created
another fantastic world that her readers are sure to love.
Merry Gentry is an actual faerie princess
of the Unseelie
Court, which is a dark and violent place. On the run
from her homicidal Aunt Andais, Queen of Air of Darkness,
Merry, aka Meredith NicEssus, lives in L.A. and makes a
living working as a
private detective for the Grey Detective Agency. The Agency
specializes in supernatural problems, and the team's latest case
is no exception. Someone is using illegal magic to seduce and
murder fey women and steal their power. When Merry's cover
is blown, she is forced to go back to the Unseelie Court to see
her Aunt Andais. But Andais has a better torture planned for Merry
than just some whips and chains. She's going to make her the
heir to the throne -- as long as she can stay alive and produce an heir
(notoriously difficult for faerie women).
Now out in paperback, A Kiss of Shadows is the first entry in what is turning out to be Hamilton's second bestselling series. Merry Gentry is smart, sexy and is at her best when her back is to the wall. She is surrounded by powerful, handsome men and their mutual attraction leads to quite a bit of sexual escapades. Laurell Hamilton's takes the urban fantasy genre and gives it new life with this thrilling and erotic series.
Fantasy/SF Book Reviews
Page One | Page Two
Return to the July 2002 issue of The IWJ.
More from Writers Write