The SF Site: Featured Reviews Archive

The reviews are sorted alphabetically by authors' last name -- one or more pages for each letter (plus one for Mc). All but some recent reviews are listed here. Links to those reviews appear on the Recent Feature Review Page.

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Renegade's Magic by Robin Hobb
reviewed by Dustin Kenall
If America has an existentialist fantasist, her name is Robin Hobb. Her writing, unique in a genre overpopulated with adolescent sword-and-sorcery epics, avoids tired retreads of the quest format perfected over a century ago through the prose-poetry of Lord Dunsany and the mythopoeic majesty of E.R. Eddison. It earns mention in the small but elite company of writers whose methods -- ranging as wide as the multilayered complexity of Robert Jordan, the bracing realism of George R.R. Martin, and the philosophical literacy of Philip Pullman -- are producing a renaissance in the field. Rather than offering mindless escapism, Robin Hobb's works utilize fantasy conventions to explore weighty concepts such as identity and fellowship, rights and duties, and permanence and change.

Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb
reviewed by Donna McMahon
In Gernia, first sons are their fathers' heirs, second sons are soldiers and third sons enter the priesthood. It has always been that way, and it would never occur to Nevare Burvel to question his destiny as the second son of a second son. His father was a hero two decades earlier when the King's Cavalry conquered the nomadic tribes of the grasslands, and now he expects to make his own career on the new frontier -- the mountainous forest lands that will give Gernia access to another coast. Still, he doesn't expect his father to send him for training with an old enemy -- a fierce Kidona warrior.

The Golden Fool by Robin Hobb
reviewed by William Thompson
Like a spider slowly spinning its web -- a strand spun here, a thread strung there -- Robin Hobb's story slowly evolves until, almost unaware, the reader is ensnared. Since Farseer, it has almost become almost a signature, tales that increasingly are pinned upon foundations gradually laid, plot lines whose long development are not immediately apparent. There is a lingering on detail, a charting of the author's world and a fascination with its characters that in its emerging evolution creates a physical and social landscape more complete and less intrusive than is typical of epic fantasy, without recourse to gaudy display or dependence upon flashy magic and over-wrought swordsmanship.

Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb
reviewed by William Thompson
She may well be the best author today writing traditional high fantasy. A large statement, perhaps, but taken within the context noted, readily defended. Unexcelled in the depth of her characterizations, and the equal of any when it comes to the creation of an alternate society, her work is as much about the study of human character as it is about fantasy or the trappings of a mythical world. Nor, as an author, is she dependent upon mere action through which to drive her words, allowing her stories to naturally unfold around both the mundane and more singular events occurring in her narratives, with a sureness of grip upon her plot lines that has much improved since her writings as Megan Lindholm and her first Farseer novels.

Mad Ship by Robin Hobb
reviewed by Wayne MacLaurin
Wayne found there isn't a character in Mad Ship that is flat or inanimate. Everything the author puts to paper comes alive, whether it's a struggle for power aboard a ship or the haunted demons of Paragon's tortured soul.

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
reviewed by Wayne MacLaurin
Oh boy... pirates, talking ships, magic, sea serpents, slave revolts, dashing heroes, bloody battles and lusty maidens... Ship of Magic has all of this and a whole lot more.

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
reviewed by Katharine Mills
This is a series about growing up, and Hobb doesn't spare us the painful moments. Katharine thinks that's what she admires most about this series. A hero who invariably triumphs over all challenges is a sure sign of a second-rate writer. Hobb isn't afraid to let FitzChivalry fail, yet his failures do not diminish him.

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