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.

Author & Fan Tribute Sites | Feature Reviews | An Interview with...

Pages | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Queen of the Amazons by Judith Tarr
reviewed by Alisa McCune
The novel is an incredible mythological journey that captures you and doesn't let go. The Amazons of legend are reborn here as a tribe of women in the time of Alexander the Great. These women live a nomadic, female-dominated society. Queen Hippolyta, the current ruler has just given birth to a child.

Devil's Bargain by Judith Tarr
reviewed by Alma A. Hromic
Sioned, Richard the Lionheart's illegitimate sister, is sent by her brother to the court of a rival claimant to the throne of Jerusalem, where she is framed for murder and accused of being an Assassin. One of the legendary kind, that is, the ones from Masyaf who owed their allegiance to the Old Man of the Mountain and whose trademark was a hashish cookie, the so-called Assassin cake, left by the corpse after he was dispatched.

Pride of Kings by Judith Tarr
reviewed by William Thompson
Loosely based around the historical events surrounding Richard I's reign, this novel focuses upon the role and actions of Richard's youngest brother, John Lackland, largely through the eyes of an Outremer-born, landless knight, Arslan, the bastard son of minor nobility and a mysterious, Eastern ifritah. The author stands the conventional historical view of John on its head, transforming the scheming, ambitious and rebellious younger son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine into a somewhat calculating, if sympathetic, hero who, despite his projected public and historical persona, defends Britain in Richard's absence against the machinations and a magically-wrought invasion by the French king.

Kingdom of the Grail by Judith Tarr
reviewed by Steven H Silver
The author has taken the epic Chanson de Roland and the historic Charlemagne and created a fantasy novel which explains Ganelon's treachery and Roland's death while mixing in the more familiar and popular grail legend from Arthurian mythology. Her representation of Charlemagne's court is a composite of the historical court and the Charlemagne depicted in the chanson.

The Shepherd Kings by Judith Tarr
reviewed by Jeri Wright
Invaders from the East have occupied the Kingdom of Lower Egypt for 100 years. With their war chariots, uncouth bearded warriors, and veiled women, the Retenu remain unwelcome overlords to the people they have conquered. Change is coming, however; the King of Upper Egypt plans to reunite the kingdoms as they were in days of old.

Pages | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |