Wen Spencer | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

SFF Author: Wen Spencer

John W. Campbell Award Winner Wen Spencer resides in paradise in Hilo, Hawaii with two volcanoes overlooking her home. According to Spencer, she lives with “my Dalai Lama-like husband, my autistic teenage son, and two cats (one of which is recovering from mental illness). All of which makes for very odd home life at times.” Spencer’s love of Japanese anime and manga flavors her writing. Her novel Tinker won the 2003 Sapphire Award for Best Science Fiction Romance and was a finalist for the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Fantasy Novel. Her Wolf Who Rules was a Top Pick by Romantic Times and given their top rating of four and a half stars. Other Baen books include Endless Blue and Eight Million Gods. The Elfhome series includes Tinker, Wolf Who Rules, Elfhome, Wood Sprites and Project Elfhome.

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Tinker: Imaginative setting with some issues

Tinker by Wen Spencer

Wen Spencer’s Tinker (2003), the first book in her ELFHOME series, presents a unique mix of urban fantasy and science fiction. The premise, which is the series’ best feature, is imaginative — due to a glitch with an interdimensional gate, the city of Pittsburgh (but not the rest of the United States) exists in Elfhome, an alternate dimension inhabited by elves. Once a month the gate is powered down and Pittsburgh returns to Earth for one day to get resupplied. Pittsburgh is so weird that it doesn’t really interact with the rest of the U.S.

Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Wen Spencer | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Wolf Who Rules: Pittsburgh gets weirder

Wolf Who Rules by Wen Spencer

Wen Spencer’s Wolf Who Rules (2006) is the second book in her ELFHOME series, blending urban fantasy and science fiction in an alternate Pittsburgh. In my review of the first book, Tinker, I explained that while I loved the premise and setting, I didn’t think Spencer fully capitalized on its potential. I wanted more weird Pittsburgh—the cultural oddities of a city stuck in an elven dimension were intriguing but underexplored. I found Tinker‘s plot overburdened with infodumps and the protagonist’s characterization leaning heavily into Mary Sue territory,

Elfhome: Tinker gets more confident

Elfhome by Wen Spencer

Elfhome (2012) is the third book in Wen Spencer’s ELFHOME series, and it’s definitely not where you want to start if you’re new to the series. You’ll need to have read Tinker and Wolf Who Rules first to fully grasp what’s going on and why the stakes are so high.

The story kicks off with Tinker recovering from a broken arm and being cornered by a persistent reporter who,

Wood Sprites: Takes a surprising and welcome turn

Wood Sprites by Wen Spencer

Wood Sprites (2014) is the fourth installment in Wen Spencer’s ELFHOME series. You’ll want to read the previous books (Tinker, Wolf Who Rules, and Elfhome) first.

Wood Sprites takes a surprising turn—one that, frankly, the series needed. Instead of following Tinker’s storyline, we return to Earth and meet two precocious nine-year-old twins,

A Brother’s Price: An amusing “what-if” story

A Brother’s Price by Wen Spencer

In a frontier land on some other world, a close-knit family of outlaws lives in the same sort of manner that you’d expect such a family to live in the American Wild West. They’re tough, they wear cowboy hats and ride horses, they speak coarsely, they curse and brawl, they shoot and hunt, they drink whiskey and smoke cigars, they protect their spouses… Oh, and I’m talking about how the women behave.

In A Brother’s Price (2005),

The Black Wolves of Boston: Complex and funny new series perfect for late-teens

The Black Wolves of Boston by Wen Spencer

Joshua is a teen runaway; a college-bound senior who survived a horrifying massacre of his classmates during an extracurricular project. Silas Decker is a vampire who lives in Boston, one who has the magical ability to find lost things – and people. Seth is the werewolf Prince of Boston. Elise comes from the Grigori family, who trace their bloodline back to the first angelic-human hybrids. She kills things — mostly, evil things. These four characters find their paths intersecting and tangling in The Black Wolves of Boston,

Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Wen Spencer | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Kari Sperring

Previous SFF Author: Charles Soule

SFF Author: Wen Spencer

Tinker: Imaginative setting with some issues

Wolf Who Rules: Pittsburgh gets weirder

Elfhome: Tinker gets more confident

Wood Sprites: Takes a surprising and welcome turn

A Brother’s Price: An amusing “what-if” story

The Black Wolves of Boston: Complex and funny new series perfect for late-teens

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