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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Precious Dragon by Liz Williams
reviewed by Peter D. Tillman
The book opens slowly and somewhat confusingly, as the auhtor has to set three or four parallel story-trains into motion. Unlike the first two D.I. Chen books, you definitely shouldn't start here. Even readers who've read the first two book may be doing a bit of head-scratching (and toe-tapping) until she gets all her balls into the air. But then -- wow!

Precious Dragon by Liz Williams
reviewed by Rich Horton
In the third of a series of fantasy/SF/detective novels, the story involves a young chorus boy who makes money on the side as a rent boy. Someone who hires him has a nastier desire -- they send him magically to hell. This attracts the attention of Inspector Chen of the Singapore Three police force and his colleague Zhu Irzh, a demon from Hell, but at first they can't do much -- missing rent boys, alas, are only too common. But Chen and Irzh have another assignment -- they are sent to Hell on a bureaucratic tour of sorts, complete with a companion: a warrior woman of Heaven.

Snake Agent by Liz Williams
reviewed by Rich Horton
The story opens with an investigation into a recently deceased young woman, the daughter of a rich man, who seems to have gone to Hell by mistake. Or so her mother says. But before long Singapore Three's police inspector Chen's investigation bumps into some political roadblocks. It seems highly place interests, in both worlds, are involved in something unsavory.

The Poison Master by Liz Williams
reviewed by William Thompson
Alivet Dee is an apothecary, in part because, aside from cooking, tutoring and prostitution, only science and alchemy are available as an occupation for lower-class women. Somewhat of a prodigy, a promising career has become side-lined by her efforts to earn the unbonding fee necessary to rescue her twin sister from servitude to the Lords. Fortunately her skills have gained her patrons like Genever Thant. Though he possesses an unsavory reputation, he pays well for drugs that please his clients. But when one of her concoctions accidentally kills a wealthy heiress, she is forced to flee and go into hiding.

Empire of Bones by Liz Williams
reviewed by Donna McMahon
Jaya Nihalani is having hallucinations, and she doesn't welcome them. Strange visions caused her rapid rise from a poor conjurer's daughter to a wealthy guru and then to a revolutionary Bandit Queen. But all that's over now. Her guerrilla movement has been crushed and Jaya is crippled with premature aging, the victim of a new disease called Selenge which is decimating the untouchable caste in 2030's India. But the visions, unexpectedly, are real.

The Ghost Sister by Liz Williams
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Four explorers from the exquisitely controlled planet of Irie St. Syre have arrived at the failed colony of Monde D'Isle to understand what went wrong and to bring their religion of Gaianism to any survivors they might discover. What they find should push that missionary position completely out of their minds, but 3 of the 4 are a stubborn and single-minded lot. It is only Shu Gho, the team's tag-along author who will come to know the people of this "cursed" planet.

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