A Look Back

This blog is only two months old, but it has seen significant readership expansion in the past three weeks. Thank you to everyone who has linked here and who stops by from time to time. Thanks especially to Pat's Fantasy Hotlist for his recent shout-out of this blog and others. Pat is the Godfather of fantasy review bloggers, so recognition by him was an honor. I also owe a lot of visits to David Anthony Durham's weblog. Thanks, guys!

With that in mind, I'd like to post a look back on my first three debuts, which I featured before many of you knew this blog existed. I loved every one for different reasons, and I want to make sure that they're not forgotten.

Lisa Shearin, who wrote Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Canada, UK), discovered this blog practically the instant it was born. She told her friends, who came leaping to her defense when I had some quibbles with the plot. It made it all great fun. Lisa writes to her weblog every weekday, and she often includes out-takes from her novel "from the cutting room floor."

Magic Lost, Trouble Found is the story of a Raine, mediocre detective-sorceress who did something that every AD&D player knows not to do: she put on a magical amulet without having it thoroughly checked out, first. To be sure, her friend had it on first, so she thought it was safe, but the amulet liked HER much better than her friend. And after that, it got QUITE possessive.

The plot takes place over three action-packed days. Three is also the number of the fascinating guys that she works with or against during this time. However, the book ends with Raine still delightfully uncommitted. If you want a fast read, a heroine that makes you smile, and a tense plot, pick up Magic Lost, Trouble Found. For all the posts I wrote about this title, click here.

Emily Gee does not appear to be very active on the Internet, but she just occasionally pop into her MySpace page. Just the same, I enjoyed her novel, Thief With No Shadow (Canada, UK) very much.

Thief With No Shadow is a deeply personal fantasy, with a scope that only touches the remnants of two families. It is about a young woman named Melke, her brother, the crimes that they commit during times of desperation and its ramifications. By the time the story opens, the crimes have already been committed. The rest of the novel deals with their attempts to make amends. In this world, crimes can become curses that are passed from generation to generation, and supernatural creatures are horrific and wholly alien. Gee does a great job making you wonder how on earth the characters are ever going to find a way to solve their problems. You can find all the posts that I wrote about this title here.

Jennifer Estep showed up when I put a post up about her debut, Karma Girl (Canada, UK), in one of my debut round-ups. She has a very fun website and an active blog.

Karma Girl is a laugh-out-loud take on superheroes. Estep called it a comic book for women in one of her comments, but I think men would enjoy it as well. When Carmen's fiancé cheats on her, she takes revenge on him by exposing his superhero identity -- along with his ubervillainess girlfriend. From the on, she's on a tear, exposing every superhero that she can. She seems to have a special gift for rooting out secret identities.

Then, when she exposes a member of the Fearless Five, she attracts the wrong sort of attention. A troupe of ubervillains decide that she needs to work for them. They give her a month to expose the leader of the Fearless Five, the sexy Striker. You can find all my posts on this title here.

I'd love to know if you read any of these books, or if you intend to add any to your reading lists.