Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: January 2010

Lex Trent versus the Gods: Imaginative YA adventure

Lex Trent versus the Gods by Alex Bell

Lex Trent versus the Gods, Alex Bell’s first YA novel, introduces us to Lex Trent, a thief, swindler, and all-round rogue. He has taken one chance too many and finds himself caught up in the Games, playing as a representative of Lady Luck. We follow his various trials and tribulations over the course of the Game.

Lex Trent versus the Gods takes a little while to really get started — setting the scene and allowing us to get to know Lex — but by the time you reach page 64,

A Time of Exile: Not as good as the first four books

A Time of Exile by Katharine Kerr

A Time of Exile, the first book in the second Deverry quartet, opens a number of years after the events in Daggerspell. Rhodry is getting older, but his Westfolk genes have given him long life and people are starting to mutter dweomer when they look at him. He stages his own death so that he is able to slip away from his life in Aberwyn. He meets Jill again when he heads into the lands of the Westfolk,

January 24th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 3 | Katharine Kerr | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Unseen Academicals: Comfort food

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Many Terry Pratchett fans will tell you that his DISCWORLD novels are really social satire masquerading as fantasy. With the more recent installments, this has become even more apparent, as they have often taken on a very specific subject or theme. The Truth: Terry Pratchett about journalism. Making Money: banking. Going Postal: well… the postal service. The most recent addition to the series, Unseen Academicals,

January 23rd, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 2.5 | Terry Pratchett | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Hand of Isis: Behind every great woman…

Hand of Isis by Jo Graham

I loved Black Ships, and I didn’t know if Jo Graham could top it. The answer, I am happy to report, is a great big YES!

Hand of Isis continues the story of some of the characters from Black Ships who have now been reincarnated as players in the Egyptian-Roman power struggle. You don’t need to read Black Ships first, but you’ll probably get more out of Hand of Isis if you do.

January 23rd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter and Ruth Arnell´s rating: 3, 5 | Jo Graham | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Dayhunter: Great setting, light plot

Dayhunter by Jocelynn Drake

I’ve just been to Venice and back, and I’m not even jetlagged…

In Nightwalker, Jocelynn Drake transported the reader to Egypt and London, and now, in Dayhunter, we’re headed for the canals. As the book begins, Mira and Danaus are summoned to appear before the vampire council in Venice. I loved following Mira to all her favorite haunts in the city; Drake does a great job of creating a tangible sense of place.

January 23rd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Jocelynn Drake | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Rosemary and Rue: Lots of pain

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

“All magic hurts,” says October “Toby” Daye, and she’d know better than most.

Rosemary and Rue begins in 1995, when Toby, a half-faerie/half-human P.I., runs afoul of some nasty faeries while trying to solve a kidnapping. Toby is cursed, rendered out of commission for fourteen years, and in the process loses the happy human life she’d been trying to build.

It’s been six months since Toby was released from her curse. She wants nothing to do with the fae,

January 22nd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter, Kat Hooper and Terry Weyna´s rating: 3.5 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | 13 comments |

Blood Price: I like the characters

Blood Price by Tanya Huff

Blood Price, the first of Tanya Huff’s Blood Books, is about Vicki Nelson, a private investigator, and Henry Fitzroy, a five hundred year old vampire and illegitimate son of Henry VIII. Clichéd urban romance story, right? Well, there are a few things about this novel that piqued my interest and guaranteed I’ll be reading the rest of The Blood Books.

In a genre that is crowded with books about vampires linked with strong female characters,

January 22nd, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 3.5 | Tanya Huff | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Dragon Revenant: Generic but enjoyable

The Dragon Revenant (US) or Dragonspell: The Southern Sea (UK) by Katharine Kerr

For the first time in the Deverry series, all the action takes place in the present day rather than flitting back to fill gaps in the past, and the plot and pacing are all the tighter for it.

Rhodry has been sold as a slave on the Bardek islands, and one storyline follows his new life, intersected with information about Salamander and Jill chasing him down. Behind all this we discover more about the politics and machinations within the Hawks,

January 21st, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4.5 | Katharine Kerr | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Eyes of a King: Would you like some gloom with that?

The Eyes of a King by Catherine Banner

“All those years, I thought I was unhappy. I don’t think anymore that I was,” Leo reflects early in The Eyes of a King, looking back on his teenage self.

Now, after 250 pages of military dictatorship, abusive teachers, missing parents, Leo being sick, Leo’s little brother being sick, kids getting drafted into the army, and heavy-handed foreshadowing of a tragic event that happens around the 225-page mark, and Leo brooding about all of these things? If this is Leo North when he’s happy,

Minion: Too talky

Minion by L.A. Banks

In the interest of accuracy, let me note that the edition of Minion that I have is the “Special Huntress Edition.” This is a sort of “director’s cut” that contains scenes not in the original edition of the novel. I have not read the first version and do not know which scenes are new.

Minion tells the story of Damali, a young African-American woman, and her friends, who together make up a rap band and, secretly, a vampire-hunting team.

January 21st, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | L.A. Banks | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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