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Showing posts from April, 2011

Pale Demon by Kim Harrison

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Having driven around the area of Las Vegas and down to the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago, and having travelled many times through Central Australia to Cooper Pedy and Alice via the Oodnadatta Track, I felt the searing desert heat lift from the pages of the book and through to my skin. Yes, Harrison certainly captured the heat. I must admit I thought what are you doing here people! Well, I know they were following the storyline. Me, I was experiencing the way the desert sun sapped every ounce of energy, every drop of moisture from you and the recollection of murmured prayers to keep the Holden moving, air conditioning turned off to lessen pressure on engine. ‘…we do stupid stuff for each other just because we like you.’ Get ready for the ‘Great American Family Road Trip … full of unhappy people heading west’ across the searing landscape from Cincinnati via Las Vegas to San Francisco . Rachael and the gang are off to the annual witches’ convention to have her reinstated,

Northlight by Deborah J. Ross

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                                                         … ‘another Kardith’s leap?’ I quite enjoyed Northlight. Enough that I bought Ross‘s other novel Jaydium in order to explore her writing further …and of course I am a Darkover fan. For some reason I was left with the feeling that the characters in Northlight had more going for them than what was in print. (Very post modern) Don’t get me wrong. The characters are forceful, they are fully present, and I liked them, yet somehow their potentials are not as realized as I felt they could be. Or maybe it’s the novel’s ending that is not as fully realized for me. Ross‘s evocative use of language is excellent. Having just come through a snow filled, minus temperatures winter, I particularly appreciated her sketch of the landscape where, ‘the smaller tributary snak[ed] in from the northwest. Where it dumped into the Serenity, colder than winter snot.’ A post apocalyptical story (I’m seeing early Andre Norton-ish here) situated on the worl