Stardust

"Stardust"
Neil Gaiman
Fairy Tail Fantasy

Summery
Tristan was a normal boy in the town of Wall, not such a normal town. The town of Wall is like many towns in England tailors, smiths, taverns and shop boys, but unlike normal towns the city of Wall has a secret.

Across a wall, for which the town is named, is a magical world filled with witches, monsters and princes. It is the duty of the people of Wall to protect the gap is the wall and not let anyone in but every nine years a festival is held where the normal world and magical one meet and trade.

Tristan is in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, or at least that's what he thinks. One day Victoria visits Tristan at the store he works at, and Tristan walks her home. During the walk he starts spouting about his love and promising her everything he can think of.

As they are walking and he is promising everything thing he can think off a star falls from the sky and Tristan says he will get it for her if she will marry him. She agrees and Tristan sets out in to the magical world to find a fallen star and capture the heart of the women he loves.

But life rarely goes the way you think it will and in this quirky fairy tale less then normal.

Review
Stardust is a fairy tale for adults. reading this book is like stepping back in to your childhood but with the understanding of an adult to see the world as it really is.

This book was made famous through its movie adaptation which did really well and is in almost every college girls collection of DVDs, but the movie and book are a little different. The book is darker and more mature. Where the movie is more of a Disney fairy tale the book fallows the traditional dark style.

I really love this book. Tristan is the unlikely hero you can't not hope for. This book takes the best of fantasy and puts it with an honors and noble main character. Although many made things happen to our characters and life is not easy this story brings hope to every reader who turns its pages.

I would recommend this to anyone over the age of 16. It is one of the best book I have ever read and I take the chance to read it at least once a year. Be warned that there are some parts of this book that are not appropriate for younger children.

I would give this book a 9 out of 10 and say that it is a book you will want to have for yourself once you have read it.

The Demon King

"The Demon King"
A Seven Realms Novel
Cinda Williams Chima
High Fantasy

Summery
The Demon King follows the story of two extra ordinary people as they come to grips with the realities that are about to face them.

Han "Cuffs" Alister, a retired thief lord, has spent every summer in the mountain with the clans who live there. One day, when he is out with his friend, Han runs in to three underage wizards in the mountains which was made illegal many years ago.

At arrow point Hans forces the wizards to hand over there amulet which is what lets the wizard control there power. After the wizards leave Han takes the amulet but with to sell it in town but will this amulet bring wealth to Han of disaster from an unknown enemy?

Princess Raisa ana’Marianna is the crowned princess in the Queendom and is about to turn 16 and become an adult. Once she turns 16 she can marry but any could be farther from her mind.

Raise wants to be like the first Queen Hanalea who healed the world after the Demon king, the last of the wizard kings, almost destroyed it. After the death of the Demon King new laws where put in place to keep the wizards from going anything like what the demon king did.

But will Raise be able to be strong like here sister Queens before her or will the plans of her enemies over power her and force her to do something which was band sense the breaking of the world?

Review
I love everything about this book. I have nothing bad to say about this book except for the stupid name that i think turns people off when they hear about it but i promise this book is one of the best. You will love the good guys, hate the bad guys and enjoy the adventure.

Although this book is written for young adults it is one that anyone can enjoy. my bother who is 18 and my father who is 59 both read it and loved it so much they each got there own copy so they could read it again.

The Seven realms books are in my top five best fantasy books ever written. The Demon King is on pare with the books "The Name of the Wind" and "Game of Thrones". If your looking for a fantasy book you could not do better then The Demon King.

I would give this book a 9.3 out of 10.

Warning: if you get the paper back version the quality of the binding is very poor so do not brake the spin or pages will fall out.

Enclave

"Enclave"
Untitled trilogy
Ann Aguirre
Post apocalyptic

Summery
Image a world were everyday you live in darkness. All you know is hardship and death. The strong service and the weak get left for the freaks to eat. This is the world that Deune was born in to.

More then anything Deune wanted to be a hunter. One of the few people who go out past the enclaves border and hunt for food and kill the man eating freaks that travel the dark of the underside.

At the age of 15 she takes on this role proving her strength but sadly for her before she can truly prove herself she is partnered with a boy who was once an outsider and who never truly found his place within the enclave, so now she must fight to survive not only the world but also a partner who might not have her back.

Will he be the death of her? or will he bring her to the light?

Review
This book promises a lot and for about 3/4 of the book I really liked it but at the end the author added in few new characters and killed off all the others she had taken time to have us get to know. Then 30 pages from the end she adds in a love triangle for what seems like no reason at all.

The book felt like two halves of two books that did not go together. she could not make up her mind on were to stop the book and what was important to talk more about. The odd part was that the book is only 288 pages not that long at all but some how she created two books I would love to read just not half of each forced together.

On the good side the book is well written and really fun at the beginning. The world she creates is interesting and keeps the reader's attention. The action is captivating and the characters interesting to read about. The book is ready quick and easy to read.

This book has a lot of promise but falls short of being truly good. The author will be worth watch to see what she comes up next and I would like to try some of her other work.

Over all I would give this book a 5.5 out of 10. Its worth readying if you have nothing better to do but I would not give it to a friend.

Thief of Lives

"Thief of Lives"
Noble Dead Series
Barb and J. C. Hendee
High Fantasy

Summery
Thief of lives is the second books in the Noble Dead Series. In this story we find Magiere and Leesil once again running their little inn together, but sadly once again they are called to hunt the undead.

A message comes from the capital that there are undead hunting in the streets and that they will give a lot of money for her help. Both Magiere and Leesil don't want to go but after leesil burned down the larges warehouse in town the city is starting to go under without the extra money coming it to town.

After arriving in the Capital City to hunt the undead they find out that not only has one noble girl was killed but also poor people all over the city. As they start to hunt, Magiere finds out that her Dhampir half has more aspects to it then she thought, and new powers start popping up.

As time moves on it becomes obvious that they know the vampire that they are hunting... Ratboy has started a new family in the capital city and has hunting the humans that live there, but he may not be the only vampire stocking those streets.

Review
The second book in the Noble Dead Series keeps up with the first novel. It is well written and and pulls the reader all the way through. As it is written by both a husband and wife the characters feel real and sophisticated.

In this novel, unlike the first, the main perspective is the Leesil's and has more of a male feel to it. I believe this is true because of the fact that the husband was the main writer on this book unlike the first.

I would give this book a 7.5 out of 10 the same as the first. This book is worth every minute, and shows great promise for the series as a whole.

The Goblin Wood

"The Goblin Wood"
The Goblin Trilogy
Hilari Bell
Middle Fantasy

Summary
This book follows the story of a young girl, Mekenna, who is leading a goblin army to defend there homes, and a knight, Tobin, seeking to reclaim his honor after being wrongly accused of his brothers crimes.

After the death of Mekenna's mother, a Hedgewitch, she wondered the woods until she made friends with a few goblins and took up the cause to defend them. Years later Mekenna held the goblin woods against all who would try to drive them out but what she could not be prepared for was a an honest knight with a purpose.

Tobin was a hero of the barbarian war before his younger brother got in to trouble with the law and Tobin took the fall for it. Instead of going to jail or being executed a powerful priest gave his a task, find and capture the goblin witch.

With this, these two world come together and make for a very interesting and fun adventure.

Review
I really liked this book. The writer's ideas behind magic and goblin kind was fresh and original. Her thoughts on their society and their magic was both entertaining and interesting. I was pulled through the book and left happy at the end. The Goblin Wood has a lot to offer any reader young or old.

The plot and Characters are rich and fully thought out. I would love to read more by this author and see what else she has to offer.

The Goblin Woods is an easy read for children but is still interesting enough for people of all ages. I would say that anyone who likes fantasy books will like this one a lot, and its one I tell my friends they need to read.

I would give it a 7 out of 10.

Dhampir

"Dhampir"
Noble Dead Series
Barb and J. C. Hendee
High Fantasy

Summary
Dhampir follows the store of a young women and her partner as they find out who they really are and try to build a new life for themselves away from death and lies.

The story opens with the women, Magiere, pretending to be a hunter of the undead. She used her partner, Leesil, to pretend to be the undead and she would fakes kill him to steal money from ignorant peasants.

This was there last job before Magiere had saved up enough money to buy a small tavern by the sea, but before they can properly settle down in to their new life of honest trade, a group of vampires attack them and force them in the the life they always pretended to have.

A half-elf, a half-vampire, and an unusual dog most now fight to keep the home they just found.

Review
I really enjoyed this book. The main characters are powerful and strong and the lead female character is strong without putting down the main male character, which I really like because it shows that women can be strong without having to be around weak men.

One of the real strengths of this book is that it is written by a husband and wife combo. Meaning that the female parts are written by a women and the male parts are written by a man. This makes the characters more real and whole.

I read through this book the first time in high school and flow through it. Over the years I have read and reread it. This last week I read it again and still loved the whole thing. You will fly through this book and be bagging for more even before the last page.

Recently Vampire books have gotten a bad rap because of Twilight and other books like it but this is not a super natural book its a fantasy and it is great.

This book gets 8 out of 10.