Lucas Blogs About Books

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that it took me three books to catch on to the whole "number of feathres on the cover indicates which book in the series this is" thing. So, what's this book's deal? All right, so the deal with Malice of Crows is that it's the third book in Lila Bowen's The Shadow series. Like Lamont "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?" Cranston the Shadow? Like the Orson Welles radio show or the Alec Baldwin movie? No. The Shadow is a series of fantasy/horror western novels about a Durango Ranger named Rhett Walker (who's gone through a number of previous names, but we'll get to that later). Rhett himself is a shapeshifting monster, that is to say that he looks human but is functionally immortal (unless someone manages to stab him in the heart) and can turn into a bearded vulture (aka a lammergeier) at will. However, to other monsters, Rhett just looks like a normal human (monsters can spot eacho...

What do any of these pictures have to do with each other? So, what's this book's de–Hey! The title of this blog post and the title on the cover are different,   though slightly similar. What gives? Well, you may have noticed that the cover also says, "Three Novellas," so I figured I could write up each one independently. And turn one book into three posts? Well, since the first two novellas are each more than one hundred pages long, I'd say they'd be better served by being reviewed separately rather than together. Also, you gotta generate content somehow. I'll allow it. How kind of you, Hypothetical Reader. I'm nothing if not understanding. See, it's a reviewable item, I think. Anyway, this book's deal is that it's a novella, originally published in the 90s and now collected as part of a new book by Nebula and Hugo award winning writer Connie Willis. It's a sci-fi western about a couple of human surveyors mappin...