Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Day: May 16, 2009


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The Hidden City: Lovingly written, but very depressing

The Hidden City by Michelle Sagara West

A lovingly written yet very depressing novel, The Hidden City is unlike any fantasy novel I have encountered. A tragedy with no pretensions to the contrary, this new novel by acclaimed author Michelle West visits pain upon its protagonists for over 600 pages.

The Hidden City is the beginning of a prequel to the events in West’s earlier books in The Sacred Hunt and The Sun Sword series. It relates the events leading up to the war for House Terafin.


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The Adamantine Palace: Missing the hero?

The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas

The Adamantine Palace is classic fantasy with all the major ingredients: magic, dragons, knights, castles and all the trimmings. There is, however, one missing element: the hero. Stephen Deas writes a really interesting, very complex first novel, kicking off the Memory of Flames series, but I can’t figure out who the hero is.

The point of view in The Adamantine Palace switches among five major characters. At times Deas takes us behind the eyes of a few other characters,


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The 13th Reality: A rousing adventure

The 13th Reality by James Dashner

The 13th Reality, the first volume of The Journey of Curious Letters by James Dashner, was a complete delight.

Tick (short for Atticus) is your ultimate unlikely hero. He has a birthmark on his neck that he hates so much that he wears a scarf year-round. The school bullies call it the “barf scarf” and when we meet him, he is in the midst of being bullied. That very day, he receives the first in a series of curious letters,


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A Glory of Unicorns: Not quite what the introduction promises

A Glory of Unicorns by Bruce Coville

Bruce Coville (the compiler and editor of this anthology) promised in his introduction no sappy unicorns, tells us that unicorn love is hard and demanding, and unicorns themselves neither safe nor sweet. However, four stories into this book I found that was exactly what the book was delivering — sweet, dreamy, dear little unicorns. Contradicting his own words Coville brings us the story of ‘The Guardian of Memory’ in which unicorns have names such as ‘Arabella Skydancer’ and ‘Manda Seafoam’ and are entirely domesticated,


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The Iron Dragon’s Daughter: I could have enjoyed this book…if I was on acid

The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick

Some people don’t like to admit that they didn’t “get” a book, but I’m secure enough with myself to say that I didn’t get this one.

The Iron Dragon’s Daughter started off well. Jane is a human changeling who works in a Faerie factory that makes flying iron dragons for weapons. Jane and the other child slave laborers (who are a mix of strange creatures) are entertaining and bring to mind Lord of the Flies and that scene in Sid’s room from Pixar’s Toy Story.


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Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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Recent Discussion:

  1. That list of anticipated books is certainly odd, although it does align with the type of books ReacTor and Locus…

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