Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: June 2010

Malice: Don’t buy it for the graphics

Malice by Chris Wooding

The children’s fantasy/sci fi novel Malice is set in two worlds: modern day London and Malice, an eponymous comic book whose chief villain, Tall Jake, takes kids into the dangerous world of the comic if the right ritual is performed. In an attempt to better convey this two-setting concept, Malice melds a graphic novel/comic with a young adult/middle grade novel, with mixed results for the author (Chris Wooding) and illustrator (Dan Chernett).

The graphic aspect of the novel is by far the poorer stepchild here.

The Serpent and the Rose: Nothing new

The Serpent and the Rose by Kathleen Bryan

Averil is the daughter of a duke of Lys, trained from childhood in the magical arts on the Ladies’ Isle. Gereint is a fatherless farmboy who possesses a powerful, untamed streak of wild magic. As the sinister king of Lys and his advisor, both practioners of dark magic, unleash a plot to remove the realm’s nobles and awaken an ancient evil, Averil is summoned back to the mainland, while Gereint chases after a band of Knights of the Rose, hoping that their Order can train him.

June 18th, 2010. Rob Rhodes´s rating: 3 | Kathleen Bryan | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Hero and the Crown: This award-winning YA has aged well

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

Aerin cannot remember a time when she did not know the story. The tale of how her mother, a witchwoman from the north, had ensorcelled her father, the king, and bewitched him into marrying her so that she could bear a son to inherit the kingdom. When Aerin was born, her mother turned her face to the wall, and died of grief. Rejected by many of the royal court for her suspect lineage, and feared by the average person for the same reason, Aerin struggles to find her place in the court,

The Magician Trilogy: Should be on every child’s bookshelf

THE MAGICIAN TRILOGY by Jenny Nimmo

The Magician Trilogy by Jenny Nimmo are some of the best children’s fantasy novels out there — and so inevitably they are virtually unknown. Set in the mountains of Wales, the books chronicle the experiences of Gwyn Griffith, a young boy magician dealing with the gift and burden of inheriting magical powers from his legendary ancestors. Before immediate comparisons are made with that other boy-wizard, rest assured that The Snow Spider was published several years before Harry Potter hit the scene.

In the The Snow Spider,

Thoughtful Thursday: Mad Lib Cover Art

I’ve been waiting for Kelly to post her review of the book that I will feature in this week’s Rename That Cover feature since I saw it when we passed it around the FanLit offices.

Apparently there is a new trend in cover art: covers that are so bizarre that you feel compelled to read the book just to find out what in the world is going on. I mean, seriously, it’s like they played a game of Mad Libs and made it into a cover art. “Okay, I need an animal, a fruit,

June 17th, 2010. Ruth Arnell | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 15 comments |

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: Curse you, David Mitchell!

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

Let’s just admit it at the outset. As someone who tries to write, I hate David Mitchell. Hate him with the white-hot intensity of a thousand blazing suns. It’d be bad enough if he were just a great, you know, writer. Plain old everyday writer of some kind of novel: literary fiction, sci-fi, adventure, pastiche, historical. But no. He can’t just pick one. He has to be brilliant at them all. In one novel, no less (Cloud Atlas,

Black Magic Sanction: Another great installment

Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison

I love the Hollows series. Kim Harrison has taken us on some really great adventures and still manages to keep things from spinning completely out of control. The characters are well developed and the plots typically balance the heavy romantic themes with plenty of story and action to keep things exciting. Black Magic Sanction is another great installment.

Rachel Morgan continues to evolve in Black Magic Sanction. Her training in using “Black Magic”

June 17th, 2010. John Hulet´s rating: 4 | Kim Harrison | SFF Reviews | no comments |

World Wide Wednesday: Kings and Football!

Well, the Internet has been ablaze with news and chatter this week! Lots of interesting tidbits to bring you, so let’s get started immediately if not sooner…

1) The Way of Kings

Just about every major book blog brought to you the extract of Brandon Sanderson‘s The Way of Kings from Tor.com. The Speculative Scotsman has a bit to say on the subject, and links through to virtually every pertinent piece of information. I am most definitely excited about this major fantasy release!

June 16th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |

Wings of Fire: I thought I didn’t like dragons

Wings of Fire edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon

I don’t like dragons.

This is probably not the first sentence you’d expect to find in a review of Wings of Fire, an anthology devoted exclusively to dragon stories, but I thought it best to get it out of the way right from the start.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with dragons. They’re just terribly overused, one of those tired genre mainstays that people who typically don’t read a lot of fantasy will expect in a fantasy novel because they were practically unavoidable for a long time.

June 16th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Anne McCaffrey, C.J. Cherryh, Charles De_Lint, Elizabeth Bear, George R.R. Martin, Holly Black, James P. Blaylock, Jane Yolen, Jonathan Strahan, Lucius Shepard, Margo Lanagan, Michael Swanwick, Naomi Novik, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Patricia McKillip, Peter S. Beagle, Roger Zelazny, Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le-Guin | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Embers: Well-executed A-plot

Embers by Laura Bickle

In her debut novel, Laura Bickle introduces us to Anya Kalinczyk, a woman as troubled as her home city of Detroit. Like many of her sister urban-fantasy heroines, Anya has a tragic past and uses it as a reason to push people away. She works as an arson investigator with the Detroit Fire Department and moonlights with a ghost-hunting team. Anya is a Lantern, which means she has the rare ability to consume ghosts and demons. She also has a familiar spirit, Sparky, a fire elemental who takes amphibian form but acts more like a large dog.

June 16th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Laura Bickle | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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