Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: December 2008

Voices: Lots to think about

Voices by Ursula Le Guin

In this story of the Western Shore, we meet Memer, a 17 year old girl — a “siege-brat” — who lives in the occupied land of Ansul, a city of people who used to be peaceful, prosperous, and educated but who were overtaken 17 years ago by the illiterate Alds who consider all writing to be demonic. All of the Ansul literature, history, and other books were drowned… except for a small collection of books that has been saved and hidden in a secret room in the house of Galvamand and can only be accessed by the last two people in the Galva household — Sulter Galva (the Waylord) and Memer,

The Dragon Reborn: One of the better books in the series

The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (on audio)

In The Dragon Reborn, Rand finally starts to discover his new talents. Unfortunately, we don’t get to watch that happen. We only see a few glimpses of him learning to use his power. It makes me wonder if it was just easier for Jordan to show us the newly developed Rand rather than to explain how he got that way.

A couple of times here (and in later books) we’re told that Rand doesn’t really know how he wields the power — he just does.

Sea Witch: Sea witch words and punctuation marks we can omit

Sea Witch by Helen Hollick

I really enjoyed Helen Hollick’s trilogy about King Arthur, and I love pirates, so I had very high hopes for this historical fantasy. Therefore, I was extremely disappointed that I couldn’t even get past chapter five of Sea Witch. The story and the characters seemed promising, and I know from past experience that Ms. Hollick tells a good tale, but the writing was so badly done that I couldn’t continue. I had to keep re-reading paragraphs in order to understand what was going on.

December 21st, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 0.1 | Helen Hollick | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Empire of Ivory: Mixed results

Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

When last we left our characters, they were trapped with the Prussian Army running for their lives in the face of Napoleon’s Army. Returning home they are confronted by a disaster of cataclysmic proportions as an illness is rapidly decimating the dragon populace of England. Harrowing stuff…

Empire of Ivory takes quite a while to get going and is more compelling in its depiction of events than characters. The main character remains almost cardboard for most of the book, which leaves me uninterested in him.

December 20th, 2008. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Naomi Novik | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Dog Days: Lacks soul, personality, and style

Dog Days by John Levitt

I’ve been eyeing Dog Days curiously for a while now (insert obvious feline joke here), mainly intrigued by the blurb’s promise of a magical dog. Yes, that’s right, I freely admit it — my inner three-year-old wanted to see the magical doggie.

The magical dog is an Ifrit, which I found kind of intriguing. Besides that, though, Dog Days has little to offer. I don’t like the main character, Mason, one bit. To avoid making him a Gary Stu,

December 20th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 1 | John Levitt | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Rocket Science: Conspiracies and adventure in Kansas

Rocket Science by Jay Lake

At first glance, Rocket Science might seem like a very short read at under 200 pages, but Jay Lake makes every word count. Set in a post-World War II Kansas, the novel starts off with a mundane premise but as one progresses through the book, Lake slowly adds an additional element of conflict so that by the time you reach the end, Rocket Science is a great novel about conspiracies, betrayal, family, friendship, and adventure.

Lake’s language is simple enough,

The Titan’s Curse: The humor is the real selling point

The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan

To briefly bring you up to date: the five-part Percy Jackson series revolves around updated versions of the Greek gods and their half-blood children. With Olympus currently situated in New York, many of the gods’ children (who often don’t know who their godly parent is, having been raised by their mortal one) attend Camp Half-Blood where they can learn to control their abilities and fend off the monsters that they attract like magnets. Percy’s coming-of-age story involves him undertaking number of dangerous quests to defeat the growing power of Kronos,

Paper Cities: Diverse anthology

Paper Cities by Ekaterina Sedia

Bring up urban fantasy nowadays and most readers will probably assume that you’re talking about such authors as Laurell K. Hamilton, Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kim Harrison, Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon and so on, but in this new anthology from Senses Five Press, which is edited by Ekaterina Sedia, Paper Cities reveals that Urban Fantasy has actually been around for almost two hundred years and can be traced as far back as the Arabian Nights.

December 7th, 2008. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Barth Anderson, Ben Peek, Cat Rambo, Catherynne M. Valente, Ekaterina Sedia, Greg Van_Eekhout, Hal Duncan, Jay Lake, Kaaron Warren, Mark Teppo, Vylar Kaftan | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

A Shadow in Summer: A book worth re-reading

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham

The Cities of the Khaiem shine like jewels in the East, and the brightest is the port of Saraykeht. The realm’s profitable cotton trade flows through the city, quickened by the artistry of the poet Heshai. For in the East, a poet’s art can become incarnate as a powerful spirit-slave (andat), and it is on the shoulders of Heshai, master of the andat Seedless, that the weight of Saraykeht’s continuing prosperity balances… a weight outsiders would gladly topple.

In these delicate times, first-time novelist Daniel Abraham chronicles the poignant choices of a handful of characters seldom seen in the “fantasy”

Unclean Spirits: Daniel Abraham takes on urban fantasy

Unclean Spirits by M.L.N. Hanover

Jayné Heller is feeling pretty alone in the world. She’s estranged from her intolerant family. She has just dropped out of college, and her friends have moved on without her. The only dependable person left in her life is her black-sheep uncle Eric … and he’s just been murdered.

When Jayné travels to Denver to settle Eric’s accounts, she learns two things:
1. Eric was filthy rich and left it all to her.
2. He was killed by Randolph Coin, an evil magician.

December 1st, 2008. Kelly Lasiter and Robert Thompson | M.L.N. Hanover | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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