Author Archives: Kelly Cipera

Elves have dotted folk tales and myths throughout history in many different cultures and they have appeared in many modern fantasies as well. What attracts us to these creatures of magic and mystery? Here I give you the top five reasons why we so Read More

In this first of three installments, we are introduced to Samuil Petrovitch, a smartass Russian physics genius with a shady past who accidentally puts himself in the middle of two warring crime syndicates in a post-nuclear Armageddon London. That could Read More

One of the most popular genres in recent years has been Urban Fantasy. In this installment of Defining the Genre, I discuss its definitions and major themes as well as how it fits in with other subgenres of Fantasy. Read More

High Fantasy is probably one of the most recognizable subgenres of Fantasy. It may go by a few names — Epic Fantasy or the Hero's Quest — but in the end most people can name at least a series or two from this subgenre. Read More

The Windup Girl is a superb book, certainly one of the best I have read in a long time. The writing style is vivid, lush, exotic. Read More

A medieval story of witchcraft and torture, a historical murder mystery written by a descendant of the family featured in the book — I have to admit I was interested. I don't usually like to buy into hype, but the price was right. Well, sometimes you Read More

First things first: if this book even looks remotely appealing to you, read Oryx and Crake first. The Year of the Flood is less of a follow-up to the post-viral-apocalypse than a parallel of the first book. You could read it independently, but there are Read More

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer had all the ingredients, seemingly, to make a fun off-kilter story that would have you chuckling in mirth and turning the pages, but overall this whole entire story was a ginormous let down. Read More

Overall, this is a fun book to read with some extreme gore in parts and a few eye-roll moments. If you're a fan of this genre, you will definitely enjoy it, but if not, this probably isn't the book you want to pick up next. Read More

Anyone who has read my reviews in the past knows that I profess not to be a huge fan of the vampire trend going round, yet I've read quite a few books lately in that genre. Ms. Stein's books seem to be the true exception as far as my personal enjoyment Read More

I really wanted to love this book. For the first half I did, then it was just "OK, I like this, but is it over yet?" Now, this could just be me and my attention span for fantasy, but as far as fantasy goes, this has a lot going for it. Read More

Moon Town has amazing art coupled with a story that is immediately interesting to any fan of science fiction. If you start reading one webcomic this year, this should be it. Check out what creator Steve Ogden had to tell me about Moon Town, his style, Read More