Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka (1983) – L. Neil Smith

L. Neil Smith ends his adventures with Lando Calrissian this week in the third book in the series that followed the young gambler, rogue and scoundrel. It would be a long eight years before any of us realised that the world could tell more, then, official stories. Smith’s novel wraps up all the story and…

Sourcery (1988) – Terry Pratchett

I head back to Terry Pratchett’s wonderful fantasy realm of Discworld for this week’s book. The fifth book in the series is as much a delight as the first, and gives us another day of the inept wizard, Rincewind. When the eighth son of an eighth son is born a sorcerer walks the lands for…

Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi (1983)- James Kahn

Following quickly on the heels of the novelisation of The Empire Strikes Back, Brian Daley delivered us one more Han Solo story, Han Solo and the Lost Legacy, which I read last year on vacation. Then, except for the ongoing Marvel comics series, it was all quiet on the Star Wars front until 1983, when…

Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (1978) – Alan Dean Foster

Back in 1978, we had just one movie, and a handful of toys available from Kenner, not taking into account a ton of tees, trading cards, and almost anything else they could plaster the name Star Wars on. People were clamouring for more adventures from Luke Skywalker and the rest of the rebel alliance, but…

For Your Eyes Only (1960) – Ian Fleming

This week’s 007 book, as I continue to make my way through the series, is a collection of short stories, a number of which either have names that would be used for the film series, and are filled with familiar names and sequences as we dig into different moments in the life of James Bond….

Equal Rites (1987) – Terry Pratchett

I head back to Discworld for this week’s Book Shelf, and delve into the third tale from the Terry Pratchett created universe. This story takes us in a different direction, leaving behind the characters introduced in the previous volumes, but gives us another hilariously magical tale. Young Eskarine is a girl, she is the eighth…

Fearless and Fantastic! (2018) – Sam Maggs, Ruth Amos, and Emma Grange

With Captain Marvel waiting in the wings, the timing for DK Canada’s latest super hero book Fearless and Fantastic! Female Super Heroes Save the World couldn’t be more perfect. More reference than guide book, the handy little tome gives us profiles of the well-known, and some of the lesser known, female super heroes that populate…

Rinkitink in Oz (1916) – Frank L. Baum

Before I ride out one last time with Roland Deschain and his ka-tet in the final volume of the I needed to buy a little more space on the blog (it’s a big book), I decided for another quick trip to Oz and enjoy the storytelling of Frank L. Baum, in Rinkitink in Oz, the…

The Subtle Knife (1997) – Philip Pullman

This week I returned to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy by diving into the sequel, The Subtle Knife. It picks up right after the first novel, The Golden Compass, as we follow young Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon on her adventures. She finds herself in a strange world, having passed into another realm, unlike…