Seven Spells is a young adults novel aimed at pre-teens. It is about two children in foster care – Monnie and Bim – who lead unhappy lives, being passed around from home to home. They discover a mysterious letterbox with mail for them in the junkyard, and in the mail are magical trinkets. Each trinket comes with…
Author: Adrian McCauley
A published author of short stories and articles, I review sci-fi and fantasy books and graphic novels. I live in Oamaru, New Zealand - a small coastal town famous for many things, including it's strong Steampunk culture. I am married, a father of two and among our various pets I have a three legged cat.
Debt of Bones by Terry Goodkind
The Sword Of Truth series is one of the biggest fantasy franchises there is. The first entry in the series, Wizard’s First Rule, is the highest paid first book from a Fantasy author, and the series has sold over 26 Million copies worldwide in 13 languages. Debt Of Bones is a novella that explores one of…
Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Let’s start by adding that this is not the last book of the Earthsea cycle, it is book four of a six book series. It is also the first time I have swum in the waters of Le Guin’s masterpiece, and I was worried I would drown. My previous experience with Earthsea was the Studio Ghibli…
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Published in 1937 to critical success and several awards, The Hobbit has endured generations as a beloved classic children’s story. One of the first true fantasy novels, it is (with The Lord of The Rings) undoubtedly the most influential piece of literature on the fantasy genre, setting the tropes and cliches that endure within the genre…
Doom 3: Worlds on Fire by Mathew Costello
Matthew Costello has authored/co-authored under 30 novels and over a dozen video game scripts, including Doom 3. Set as a prequel to the genre-defining Doom franchise, Doom 3 explores the events leading up to Doom. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, it is easily summarized: experiments on a military base on Mars unwittingly open gateways…
The White Fox by Brian Parvin
The White Fox is an exquisite journey of love and danger set in the future, long after mankind nearly destroyed the world in ‘The Great Burning’. Our titular character, the nameless white vixen, is an exile from her tribe, following her destiny in the search of green and fertile lands to fulfill prophecy. Exhausted and…
Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin
Another Fine Myth is the first book in Asprin’s fantasy comedy Myth series, of which their are currently over twenty books. Our main character, Skeeve, is a thief who becomes a magician’s apprentice in order to enhance his thieving abilities. During his training, his master summons a demon but is attacked by an assassin and…
Thieves’ World: Beyond Sanctuary by Janet Morris
Thieves’ World was originally an anthology of short stories created by Robert Lynn Asprin in 1978. The concept was that a setting was provided and rules were established, and then writers given the privilege to establish their own characters and stories within this shared world. Lynn Abbey, one of the co-editors of the original anthologies, revived…
Stress
Apparently the Human Digestive Tract is, on average, 9 meters long (30 feet.) The diagram above shows that, when other organs are taken into consideration, digestion seems to be the main function of the body. We eat, just so we have enough energy to digest the next lot of food. If this was an economic…
Douglas Adam’s Starship Titanic by Terry Jones
‘The Ship That Cannot Possibly Go Wrong’ is a novel based on the game Starship Titanic (written by Douglas Adams,) but due to timing constraints he was unable to write the novelization himself, so he approached the next best person – the voice actor of the parrot in the game – Terry Jones. This is the one-and-the-same Terry Jones of Monty…
Adrian McCauley 