Catching Fire
By Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press
ISBN13: 978-0-439-02349-8
ISBN10: 0-439-02349-1
Review copy purchased by reviewer

Reviewed By: Lauren Lapinski

Picking up almost one year after The Hunger Games, Catching Fire brings us right back into the life of Katniss Everdeen, who updates us on all that has happened since the end of the first book. We see how many things have changed for her since winning the Games and the perils she now faces. Containing less violence and fighting action than The Hunger Games, Book 2 picks up the slack with political intrigue as Katniss faces the consequences of her actions against The Capitol and President Snow.
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Boleyn: Tudor Vampire
by Cinsearae S.
Published 2010
ISBN: 1451559496
Review copy provided by the author

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

This book has everything for the reader who loves horror, romance and historic fiction. It’s about Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII’s second wife, for whom he created a whole new church just so he could divorce his faithful first wife, Katherine of Aragon, to marry her. The author supposes that when Henry got tired of Anne and had her convicted on a slew of made-up charges, among them witchcraft, she was not beheaded like a noblewoman, but hanged like a commoner. Or, as the blurb on the back cover of this fascinating book states, “The slightest tweak in history makes all the difference in the outcome…”
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Paul is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion
By Alan Goldsher
Published by Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, to be released June 2010
Advance Review Copy with Uncorrected Proofs provided by the publisher
ISBN: 1439177929

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

Do you like zombies? Do you like the Beatles? Both of them are currently enjoying a long run of popularity that makes them seem immortal. But wait a minute–what if they were immortal? I mean, what would happen if someone decided to cross the current literary obsession with zombies with music lovers’ long-running obsession with the Fab Four? Well, someone did!
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The Hunger Games
Written by: Suzanne Collins
Published by: Scholastic Press
ISBN13: 978-0-439-02348-1
ISBN10: 0-439-02348-3

Reviewed By: Lauren Lapinski

With constant predictions of the human race and the world coming to an end in the year 2012, many of us fear what the near and distant future hold. Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games takes place sometime in the distant future in the ruins of North America, now known as Panem. In this dystopia future, an event is held each year known as the Hunger Games, where children from age 12 to 18 are selected by lottery to compete in a televised fight to the death with only one surviving victor. The heroine, Katniss Everdeen , enters the Hunger Games after her younger sister’s name is selected from the lottery and she volunteers to take her place.
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The Narrows
By Alexander C. Irvine
Published by Del Rey, a division of Random House Publishing Group, 2005, released in paperback 2010
ISBN: 9780345466983
Advance review copy provided by the publisher.

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

This book should have been a delightful revisionist historic fantasy. Set during World War II in Detroit, the protagonist, Jared Cleaves, is a young man working in one of Henry Ford’s factories (Building G, near the center of the Ford River Rouge factory complex) manufacturing golems for the war effort. So why did I find it such a long, tedious read? Well, first there’s Jared’s rah-rah attitude about the war; he’s deferred from the draft because of a childhood injury to his hand that left him unable to hold a gun. He’s depressed because he actually wants to be at the front, shooting Nazis and getting shot at, to prove his manhood.
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Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
By Jane Austin and Ben H. Winters
Published by Quirk Books, Philadelphia, PA 2009
Distributed in North America by Chronicle Books
ISBN: 9781594744426
Review copy courtesy of the publisher

Review by Ida Vega-Landow,

Once again we are entertained, or afflicted, by a smartass who has decided to “improve” Jane Austin by adding an element of horror to one of her classic romance novels. As if “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” by Seth Grahame-Smith wasn’t bad enough (and by that I mean good enough to be skewered on “Mystery Science Theater 3000″, if it were still on the air, and if anybody brave enough to film PP&Z could be found), we now have “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters”, in which the course of true love not only seldom runs smooth, but frequently has blood-stained water. You see, in this alternate version of Miss Austin’s novel, dear old England has been afflicted by “The Alteration; which had turned the creatures of the ocean against the people of the earth; which made even the tiniest darting minnow and the gentlest dolphin into aggressive, blood-thirsty predators, hardened and hateful towards our bipedal race”.
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Jack London’s Dog
by Dirk Wales, Illustrated by Barry Moser
Published by Great Plains Press, Chicago 2008
ISBN: 0963245937
Review copy provided by publisher

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

This is the most charming children’s book I’ve ever read since The Chronicles of Narnia, which the movies do not do justice to! It’s a fictional account of what might have happened to the dog named Jack that author Jack London knew during his brief sojourn in Alaska during the Gold Rush of 1897. This is the same dog on which London based the character of Buck, the domestic dog who goes feral in his classic novel “Call of the Wild”. Dog lovers will adore this book, which gives such loving insight into a dog’s point of view about the behavior of humans. Even a cat lover like me will find it easy to get into Jack’s character and sympathize with him.
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The Never-Ending Sacrifice
By Una McCormack
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2009
ISBN: 1439109613
Review copy purchased by reviewer

Review by Kathryn Ramage

“The author is supposed to be chronicling seven generations of a single family, but he tells the same story over and over again. All the characters live lives of selfless duty to the state, get old and die–and then the next generation comes along and does it all over again!”

“That’s the whole point, Doctor. The repetitive epic is the most elegant form of Cardassian literature, and The Never-Ending Sacrifice is its greatest achievement.”

–Dr. Julian Bashir and Elim Garak, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, The Wire

The classic Cardassian novel, The Never-Ending Sacrifice by Ulan Corac, opens with a dedication “For Cardassia,” and exemplifies the Cardassian ideal of unwavering dedication to the homeworld and placing the needs of the State above personal considerations. As noted by Dr. Bashir’s and Garak’s discussion above, the plot is extremely repetitive and some readers, particularly human ones, might find it a dreadful bore. Fortunately, Una McCormack’s novel of the same name is neither.
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A Touch of Dead-Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories
By Charlaine Harris, published by Ace Books a/k/a The Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin Group
Copy purchased by reviewer
ISBN: 0441017835

Reviewed by Ida Vega-Landow

For those of you who can’t get enough of Sookie Stackhouse, this slim volume contains five short stories about our mind reading heroine by her intrepid creator, Charlaine Harris, the Southern belle with the macabre sense of humor. This book is for those who wonder what Sookie does between books—I myself have often wondered when and how she found out about her cousin Hadley’s death before she went to New Orleans to settle her estate in “Definitely Dead”—and whether Ms. Harris can tell a complete story about Sookie without it being book length. Happily, she can do so, with the humor and solemnity we’ve come to expect from the creator of the Southern Vampire series.
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Book Review: Shoujo Art Studio
By Yishan Li
Published by Watson-Guptill, imprint of Random House
ISBN10: 0823099733
ISBN13: 9780823099733

Review by Linda Yau

How many readers of shoujo manga would also enjoy the process of learning how to create this form of art? I imagine there would be a sizable number of people willing to take a few lessons or two. Now then, how about reading Shoujo Art Studio: Everything You Need to Create Your Own Shoujo Manga Comics and beginning from there.
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Avalon: Web of Magic – All That Glitters (Book Two)
By Rachel Roberts
Illustrated by: Allison Strom
Published by Seven Seas
ISBN-10: 1-933164-67-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-933164-67-0

Review by Kris

Before I jump into the synopsis and review of this book I have to thank the fans of this series. When you read the comments posted after my review for Avalon: Web of Magic – Circles in the Stream (Book One) you’ll see that I got thoroughly spanked because of my idiocy and ineptitude. I did make some mistakes and I am very sorry for that. Emily does follow some of the dogs that she is taking care of into Ravenswood when she runs into Adriane. When I initially read the book I thought she wanted to ask the girl who brought in the cat if she knew what was hurting or killing the local animals. Another thing I made a mistake on was the fact that Ozzie was never a magical creature and his spell didn’t backfire. It was the Fairimentals (very magical creatures made of air, earth, water or fire and live in the magical world of Aldenmore) who disguised Ozzie as a ferret to protect him. When I read these books, I read them all together so many things mushed together in my brain and I misrepresented some of the story. So I must apologize to both the author and the fans for my mistakes and I hope I get this review right, and if I screw it up again don’t hesitate to straighten me out! Also to the one reader who was upset I didn’t mention Stormbringer, I had planned on doing that in my review for the third book, so have no fear, she’ll get her time to shine.

Now on to the synopsis and review of Avalon: Web of Magic – All That Glitters (Book Two)!
» Continue reading “Book Review: Avalon: Web of Magic – All That Glitters (Book Two)”

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith
Published by Quirk Books, Philadelphia, PA 2009
Distributed in North America by Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA
ISBN 10: 1594743347

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

As a longtime lover of Regency Romance, I thought I would hate reading this satirical version of “Pride and Prejudice”, after Seth Grahame-Smith finished adding his touch of Gothic Horror to the well-loved romantic classic. Surprisingly enough, it turned out to be readable; not only romantic, but funny! Especially in parts where Grahame-Smith expands upon Austin’s sometimes overblown prose to the point where you suspect him of having watched one too many episodes of “Month Python’s Flying Circus”. » Continue reading “Book review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”

The Unit
by Ninni Holmqvist
Published by Other Press
ISBN: 978-1-59051-313-2

Review by Ginger Mayerson

Sometime in the not so distant future, in Scandinavia (I assume), laws regarding human usefulness based on age and station have been passed. Women over fifty and men over sixty who are childless or have no dependant family members who “need” them are moved into Units where they are useful for “humane experiments” and spare parts. The Unit is the story of Dorrit Weger who has just turned 50 years old and is obeying the democratically enacted laws of her land.
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Real World
By Natsuo Kirino
Vintage International, 2009
ISBN-10: 0307387488
ISBN-13: 978-0307387486

Reviewed by Budd

Natsuo Kirino, a well known author in Japan, releases her second English translation with Real World. Real world follows four Japanese high school girls as they assist a boy that has just committed matricide in his escape.
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Halfway to the Grave
Written by: Jeaniene Frost
Published by Avon
ISBN: 978-0-06-124508-4

Review by Lauren Lapinski

During this year’s New York Comic Con, I was fortunate enough to listen to Jeaniene Frost, along with a few other authors, talking about writing novels and changes they had to make to their own stories so it might capture an agent’s attention. She doesn’t disappoint since the first chapter starting off with her main character, Catherine, caught in a situation many of us wouldn’t want to be in. The character’s voice through out the story is very well done and is pretty much consistent for the whole book. The actions scenes are well written out and you can tell by reading the book that the author clearly did her research.
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Only the Ring Finger Knows novel 4
Story by Satoru Kannagi
Illustrations (all four of them) by Hotaru Odargiri
Published by Juné
ISBN 13: 978-1-56970-124-9

Review by Ginger Mayerson

Well, here we are again in the midst of the Yuichi/Wataru romance and it’s still just as annoying and frustrating as ever. Wataru is still stressed out, Yuichi is still mean, and I’m still rooting for Asaka to take Wataru away from Yuichi and make the poor little guy happy. Well, I doubt that’s going to happen because Wataru is an idiot and this is one of those first love/true love 4-evah kind of stories. And, unless Kannagi-sensi surprises me very much, Wataru will be thrashing around with Yuchi in this angstfest until the end of time. Kannagi seemed rather shocked when I suggested that Wataru could have sex with Asaka at least once. She’d probably faint if I suggested Yuichi’s older brother, Shohei, should seduce Wataru. Maybe I’m just embroidering this twisty story with some twisty ideas of my own because there’s so much angst and so little action and then what action there is is somewhat frustrating. However, I love these characters, I’ve stuck with them for six years and there’s only one more volume in this series of novels. So I think I’ll stick around and see what happens.
» Continue reading “Book review: Only the Ring Finger Knows, v. 4″

The Nymphos of Rocky Flats
Written by Mario Acevedo
ISBN-10: 0060833262
ISBN-13: 978-0060833268
EOS Publishing

Review by Budd

Felix Gomez was just your everyday soldier. Then, while fighting in the Iraq war, he is turned into a vampire. Now his guilt about the war keeps him from drinking human blood. Adapting to his life as a vampire, Felix becomes a private detective. His vampire abilities give him a distinct advantage. Felix’s next job is finding out why the women of Rocky Flatts have become nymphomaniacs. Oddly the Vanatori, a group of vampire hunters, shows up while felix is working this job and starts killing vampires in the Denver area. Felix’s vampire abilities are starting to fail him as he rushes against the clock to stop the Vanatori and solve the mystery.
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Iron Man: Beneath the Armor
By Andy Mangels
ISBN-10: 0345506154
ISBN-13: 978-0345506153
Published by DEL Rey

Review by Budd

Iron Man stormed into theaters in 2008 introducing him to a world that may have never known him otherwise. This history into Iron Man fills in the gaps and lets you know how the original story went down. This book is filled with interviews with a plethora of people who worked on Iron Man over the years.
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