AUGUST 2007
Some reviews are surfacing in the UK for Heart of the Mirage. This from
Barbara Davies, giving it a five out of five star rating in this
month’s Starburst Magazine:
“those
looking for a 'sense-of-wonder’ fix need look no further. Larke doesn’t
conform to the cookie-cutter school of fantasy and has a talent for
world building and a fondness for unstable landscapes . . . It’s also
great fun”.
Back in 1999, she gave me a full complement of stars for Havenstar too. I think she remembers.
Natalie Baker for the online site The Bookbag says:
"I
had serious difficulty in putting the book down. It’s not just the
general storyline of Ligea’s changing attitudes, which is very strongly
written and allows for more shades of grey than many fantasy novels do,
but also a richly imagined and thoroughly believable world..."
Later on she says:
"...the
second book will be released in the UK in December, and the third next
May. Although it’s not so long to wait, I’m not sure I can hang on that
long – I might well break down and bribe some friends on the other side
of the world (Glenda Larke is Australian, although she is very
well-travelled and now lives in Malaysia) to send the books to me. And
if that isn’t a recommendation to read these books, I don’t know what
is. Highly enjoyable, this book’s got love, betrayal, skulduggery,
espionage, adventure, magic, heartbreak and plenty more besides."
Graeme
Flory, alas, didn't like some of my choice of words for two
"otherworld" animals, nor one of the characters saying "holy shit!" and
it seems to have spoiled much of his enjoyment of the book. (Sorry,
Graeme!) Still, he does say this and a couple of other complimentary
things:
“It is
nice sometimes to break out of the typical medieval Fantasy City and go
somewhere different. Larke accomplishes this by setting her tale in the
equivalent of Ancient Rome and the deserts of Africa and decorates the
proceedings with some stunning imagery in the process.”
Related links
Click here for The Bookbag
Click here for my blog, Tropic Temper
Click here for the first chapter
Click here for Graeme Flory's review
Click here to read the forum of the virtual minicon
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