There was a time not long ago when a Druid hero would have held little interest for me. However, reviewing for AAR has somewhat redefined my reading tastes and I’ve discovered that categories I once avoided are full of books very much to my liking. There are at least a dozen authors whose backlists I…
There’s something so thrilling about reading a really good debut novel and, while Michelle Styles’ debut is not perfect, there is something quite compelling about it. The setting is one not often seen in historical romance and she manages to create characters who are strong without coming off like 21st century people in fancy dress….
Romans and Druids and Ghosts – oh my! Celtic Fire takes place in 117 A.D. Britannia. While the south of England is settled, the Roman conquerors are still fighting the blue-faced Celts along what would later become Hadrian’s Wall. Against this backdrop Joy Nash weaves a seemingly impossible romance between a Roman commander and a…
The Blessing Stone makes those sprawling intergenerational sagas and inscrutable epics seem like rank amateurs with the sheer scope of its coverage spanning over 100,000 years. Barbara Wood is an engaging writer, but her themes, played out in the history of a precious stone, are not. Her research is superb, some of her stories are…
When To Burn opens, our heroine, Melania, is hiding in a hypocaust (a system of flues that helped heat ancient Roman homes). Above her, Saxon warriors are making themselves at home after raiding her house and killing her father. She’s not having a good day. Wulfred, the leader of this band of Saxon warriors, is…
Harry Turtledove is known for his alternate history science fiction epics like Guns of the South, in which South African radicals provide the Confederate army with automatic weapons, changing the outcome of the Civil War. Judith Tarr mixes fantasy with history in her epics about ancient Egypt, medieval England, and other locales. Together these two…
Picture yourself at an airport. You are looking for a “brick” (a really big book) to bring with you on a lengthy trip, and you’re fed up with spy thrillers with the sickle & hammer on the cover. What you want is something that centers more on women without making you weep in public, but…
I’ve read every book, with the exception of one, that Anne Rice has written, including her S&M fantasies, and have thoroughly enjoyed most of them, even when they’ve “weirded me out”. At her best, the author creates entirely new worlds for readers to explore. At her worst, the author veers into self-indulgent pap. Luckily, she’s…