Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: July 2009

The Duke in His Castle: Slow build-up, big pay-off

The Duke in His Castle

The novella The Duke in His Castle starts out like a conventional fairy tale but it soon spirals into a plotty story with unexpected twists. Admittedly, the book didn’t hook me at first, especially with its rude protagonist (not quite the initial sympathetic hero but some readers will grow fond of him) and the bare-bones setting (everything takes places in a castle) but Vera Nazarian turns things around as the enigma surrounding our main character slowly unfolds.

There are two key figures in the story and both have distinctive,

Strange Brew: Something for everyone

Strange Brew by P.N. Elrod (ed)

The theme of Strange Brew is witchcraft. This anthology features nine well-known urban fantasy authors, each with their own spin on the theme. Some of these stories feature well-known characters. Others focus on characters who are secondary in the author’s series, or characters who are entirely new. Glancing at the table of contents and doing a little mental math, most of the stories are around 40 pages, give or take a few. (The longest is Karen Chance’s at just under 60.) As is always the case with anthologies,

The Night World 3: Three of the best stories in the series

THE NIGHT WORLD: Volume 3 by L.J. Smith

“Four to Stand Between the Light and the Shadow…”

Whereas the first Night World omnibus set up the basic concept for the Night World and the rules in place for its existence, the second began to give the sense that all the stories were interconnected rather than one-off stories. With each installment, more was learned about the history of the sub-world, the concept of soulmates, and (particularly in this final omnibus) the coming of the end of the world. Such was the case for the first nine books in this series,

Sadar’s Keep: Continues an excellent story

Sadar’s Keep by Midori Snyder

Sadar’s Keep continues the story that began in New Moon.

Three of the four young queens had been found by the end of the first book, and the army that is slowly pulling together around these young woman is starting to find some unusual allies. Midori Snyder focuses the story around the preparations for battle at Sadar’s Keep between the army of the uprising, known as the New Moon, and the Oran military. Sadar’s Keep is also the site of the battle between the current Fire Queen Zorah and her queens 200 years earlier,

Heart of Light: Romantic adventure + alternate history + fantasy quest

Heart of Light by Sarah A. Hoyt

Known for her diversity, the Portugal-born Sarah A. Hoyt has written dozens of short stories and several novels including the Shakespearean Fantasies series, the Musketeer Mystery books, and the Shifters urban fantasy series. She has also written a historical romance under the pseudonym Laurien Gardner, a collaborative novel with SF author Eric Flint, and co-edits the forthcoming anthology Something Magic This Way Comes (below).

In Ms. Hoyt’s Magical British Empire series,

July 10th, 2009. Robert Thompson´s rating: 3 | Sarah A. Hoyt | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Twilight Lord: Leave it on the shelf!

The Twilight Lord by Bertrice Small

Lara, Domina of Terah has been extremely happy caring for her family and husband. She has been reunited with her other children in Terah and they are learning to love their mother again. Nothing could be better.

But over in the Dark Lands, the Twilight Lord is planning her abduction because he has seen the future and Lara is to be the mother of his heir. After erasing her memory and bringing her to the Dark Lands, the Twilight Lord plans to make Lara his bride.

July 9th, 2009. Guest´s rating: 0.5 | Bertrice Small | SFF Reviews | no comments |

A Darkness Forged in Fire: We’re divided on this one

A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans

“Mountains shouldn’t scream, but this one did.” Those words start the first volume in The Iron Elves series by Chris Evans, a first time author. A Darkness Forged in Fire is one of the best new fantasies that I’ve read in a long time. Evans has a visceral writing style that makes the world come alive, interesting takes on standard fantasy races such as elves and dwarves, and one of the most terrifying landscapes I can remember.

July 9th, 2009. Ruth Arnell and Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5, 5 | Chris Evans | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Hunger Games: A cautionary tale

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Suzanne Collins has already proven her talent for storytelling with her recently completed Gregor the Underlander series. In that series, she showed she was able to create strong characters, move plot along quickly, deftly control the rise and fall in tension, and create moving scenes. While there were some weak sections in the series (sometimes the pace moved too quickly, settings often could have been more detailed, and a few characters could have been more richly drawn), by the end she had crafted one of the best YA series to hit the shelves the past few years — a thoughtful,

The Secret History of Moscow: Russian mythology makes an enchanting story

The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia

Much praise has been attached to The Secret History of Moscow and I can understand why. Ekaterina Sedia weaves an enchanting story drawing from both Russian mythology and history. I’m not really familiar with Russian myth (or history for that matter) but that didn’t hindered me from appreciating this novel. I expect that readers more educated in those areas will appreciate all the allusions Sedia includes in The Secret History of Moscow.

However,

Poison Ink: Smart, creative, entertaining storytelling

Poison Ink by Christopher Golden

Poison Ink is the first YA novel that I’ve ever read by Christopher Golden, and from start to finish, I couldn’t be more impressed. As usual, the first thing that stands out is the author’s top-notch writing. Which in this case encompasses his ability to convincingly adopt the personality of a sixteen-year-old female high school student; faithfully capture domestic, social and high school life — including different cliques, lunch ladies, texting, flirting, and peer pressure — and a gift for witty banter:

“My Clever plan for world domination failed.”
“So what next,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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