Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: October 2009

Thoughtful Thursday: Death of a Genre

That’s it. It’s done. With the publication of a new version of the classic Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte sporting a cover to make it look like a Twilight novel, and a cover blurb proclaiming it to be Edward and Bella’s favorite book, I hereby declare Twilight dead. Or undead. I don’t care, it’s just over.

Fantasy has always been cyclical. I read an interview with Midori Snyder in which she said that she wrote the Oran trilogy (which you should all go read. Right now. I’m serious about that.) because at the time she came on the scene as a fantasy author,

October 8th, 2009. Ruth Arnell | Thoughtful Thursday | 18 comments |

Imager’s Challenge: Nothing new

Imager’s Challenge by L.E. Modesitt Jr

I really looked forward to L.E. Modesitt‘s return to the Imager series. The first book, Imager, was typical Modesitt fare, but it felt like he was trying out some new stuff. In Imager’s Challenge, I felt like we went right back to where we were before Imager.

After the events of Imager, Rhennthyl, the main character, had been through the typical Modesitt transition.

October 7th, 2009. John Hulet and Stefan Raets´s rating: 2.5, 4 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Heroes Die: Testosterone-driven guilty pleasure

Heroes Die by Matthew Woodring Stover

Science has discovered inter-dimensional travel and the other-dimensional world of Ankhanna, which we call Overworld. And like all most discoveries, it’s not long before someone figures out how to cash in. Big corporations create the ultimate reality entertainment by sending “actors” to Overworld on adventures for the masses to experience via cyber linkups for the elite who can afford them or by just watching through good ol’ fashioned video. Harri Michaelson, as the ruthless Caine, is by far the most popular “actor” on Earth and the most famous assassin in Ankhanna.

October 6th, 2009. Greg Hersom´s rating: 4 | Matthew Woodring Stover | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Ballad: Now is a good time to read Stiefvater’s Ballad

Ballad by Maggie Stiefvater

“James Antioch Morgan,” the king of the dead said, and when he sang out James’ name, it sounded like music. “You will be called to make a choice. Make the right one.”

James’ eyes glittered in the darkness. “Which is the right one?”

“The one that hurts,” Cernunnos said.

No one walked away unscathed from the events of Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception. James bears physical scars, along with a persistent torch for Deirdre, who only sees him as a friend.

Canticle: Rising intensity

Canticle by Ken Scholes

Canticle, the follow-up to Ken Scholes’ Lamentation, shares some of the same flaws and strengths as the first novel, including a rough start, but like its predecessor overcomes its flaws to turn into an engrossing, if not action-packed, novel.

Canticle picks up a few months after the events of Lamentation. It’s Scholes’ concerted effort to recap those events that makes the opening somewhat flawed,

October 5th, 2009. Bill Capossere and Robert Thompson´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Ken Scholes | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Quatrain: Sensitive, beautiful writing with a touch of romance

Quatrain by Sharon Shinn

Quatrain is a collection of four novellas, each one set in a different one of Sharon Shinn’s worlds. Ranging from fantasy to science fiction, the stories take place in radically different societies, but each novella is a different look at a person trying to find their own place in a world that is not to their liking. Each main character ends up examining their own priorities and their desire to find love and happiness in less than ideal situations. The varied responses to those dilemmas are as different as the characters and the worlds they are set in.

The Children’s Book: Dense, complex, ambitious, challenging

The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt

This is an immensely difficult book to review, simply because the vast majority of casual readers probably won’t automatically enjoy The Children’s Book. It is a dense, complex, ambitious, challenging novel that is not so much a story as it is a detailed portrait of a family, a community and an era. Stretching from 1895 to 1919 and set predominantly in the Kent countryside, A.S. Byatt‘s saga contains no central character or predominant plotline; instead it chronicles the historical,

The Ebb Tide: Engaging, Beautiful, Thin

The Ebb Tide by James P. Blaylock

19th-century London. A quiet evening among more or less renowned gentleman, including the gifted scientist-explorer Langdon St. Ives, at their favorite tavern is interrupted by word that a map to a missing mysterious device has been found. In no time, as chronicled by St. Ives’s cohort Jack Owlesby, the group sets off to claim the map and device, racing against the shadowy figure of St. Ives’s nemesis, Ignacio Narbondo (now known as Dr. Frosticos).

The first new tale of St. Ives in nearly two decades,

October 3rd, 2009. Rob Rhodes´s rating: 3 | James P. Blaylock | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Something From the Nightside: Fast fun urban fantasy

Something From the Nightside by Simon R. Green

I picked up Something From the Nightside on Jim Butcher‘s recommendation and I enjoyed it for what it was: not high literature, but a fast fun read.

John Taylor is a private detective with a gift for finding things. He takes a case about a missing girl that forces him to confront his past and enter the Nightside. John Taylor has a serious reputation in the Nightside and he thought he had left that world behind years ago.

Act of Will: Like a Shakespearean comedy

Act of Will by A.J. Hartley

A.J. Hartley is best known as a writer of best-selling mystery-thriller novels, as a distinguished professor of Shakespeare in the English Department at University of North Carolina, and as editor of the Shakespeare Bulletin published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Dr. Hartley’s theater expertise is readily apparent in Act of Will, the first book of his first fantasy series.

It’s Will Hawthorne’s 18th birthday and he is finally a man. Today he hopes to be promoted to playing male parts and penning plays for his acting company.

October 2nd, 2009. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | A.J. Hartley | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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