You could make an argument for establishing a new sub-genre called something like “assassin fantasy,” given the number of novels currently on the shelves with heroes in that grim and surprisingly popular profession. So when the cover of Shadow’s Son, Jon Sprunk‘s debut novel, shows a man wearing a hood and flashing a set of matching knives, it’s not hard to predict the main character’s occupation before even opening the book.
And yes, right in the opening scene,
June 7th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 3 | Jon Sprunk | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Suburb Beyond the Stars by M.T. Anderson
As a reader, I find M.T. Anderson a bit all over the map. I tend to see his strongest work as aimed at the older crowd, while his children’s novels tend to leave me a bit cold. That was the case with The Game of Sunken Places, a children’s fantasy involving two boys playing a Game of high stakes involving trolls, ogres, etc. M.T. Anderson hadn’t done enough with the relatively “humdrum” concepts and his plotting and characters were a bit muddled.
June 7th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | M.T. Anderson | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Kid vs. Squid by Greg van Eekhout
Kid vs. Squid, by Greg van Eekhout, is definitely a children’s fantasy. It comes in at a slim sub-200 pages (with pretty good-sized print) and doesn’t take much time with detailed description, rich character development, or intricate plotting. That isn’t a complaint; it’s just to say that Kid vs. Squid knows who its audience is, and while it won’t dumb things down or talk down to its readers, it also won’t stretch them.
June 7th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Greg Van_Eekhout | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Tale of the Thunderbolt by E.E. Knight
Tale of the Thunderbolt is the third installment in the VAMPIRE EARTH series. Each book has so far followed the story of David Valentine, post-apocalyptic warrior extraordinaire. In this third volume, Southern Command has sent David on a mission to bring back a secret weapon that lays hidden somewhere on the Haitian side of Hispaniola. David has been undercover for over a year in preparation for this mission, and has done things for the sake of humanity that he dares not speak of.
June 6th, 2010. Justin Blazier´s rating: 3.5 | E.E. Knight | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS by Rick Riordan
Rick Riordan’s five-book series takes the world of Greek mythology, complete with gods, monsters, titans, Mt. Olympus, heroes, etc. and weaves it into the modern world under the premise that as the gods are manifestations of Western culture and move as the culture moves. And so when Athens was the pinnacle, Mt. Olympus was in Greece, but now that the seat of Western power has moved to America, Mr. Olympus is on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building. We all move through a sea of mythical creatures but we don’t see any of them thanks to the cloak of the Mist,
June 6th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Rick Riordan | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Slaves of the Mastery by William Nicholson
Slaves of the Mastery picks up several years after the events of The Wind Singer and in plot and structure is similar to its predecessor, though not as original in thought or imagery. Once again, the book examines a dystopic setting. In this case it is The Mastery, a city-state of slaves and masters, one of whose leaders has raided the Manth city and taken its inhabitants, including the main characters from book one, into slavery. The book once again focuses on the Hath family (including this time Pinto,
June 5th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | William Nicholson | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Child of a Rainless Year by Jane Lindskold
Mira Bogatyr Fenn is fifty-one and unfulfilled, having sublimated her artistic talents for reasons she doesn’t quite understand. Her adoptive parents pass away, and Mira finds herself drawn to the Victorian house she inherited from her long-missing birth mother, and realizes there’s more to her mother’s disappearance than she ever suspected as a child.
In Child of a Rainless Year, Jane Lindskold leads the reader into the mystery slowly, letting the weirdness accumulate until Mira can no longer deny it,
June 5th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Jane Lindskold | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Leviathan Wept: And Other Stories by Daniel Abraham
Leviathan Wept is a collection of short fiction by Daniel Abraham, author of The Long Price Quartet, one of my favorite fantasy epics of the past several years. I’ll admit up front that I’m not usually gung ho about story collections. I find they tend to be uneven just as part of their nature (i.e., it’s hard to get a collection of all excellent stories) and I just have a personal preference for the depth and richness of the novelistic form versus the short form.
June 4th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Daniel Abraham | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Knights of the Sea by Paul Marlowe
I was first drawn to Knights of the Sea by the hilarious cover art. Now, having read the book, I can say two things: First, the art is accurate! Every element of the cover design — wolf, capsized boat, ghostly damsel, and lemon — is present in the plot. Second, the book is just as funny as the cover, and in a very good way.
In the previous The Wellborn Conspiracy book, Sporeville, Elliott Graven made a powerful enemy in the dastardly Professor Strange.
June 4th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Paul Marlowe | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Enchanted Castle by Edith Nesbit
Like most children’s fantasy adventures, The Enchanted Castle begins with several displaced children, removed from their usual situation due to unfortunate events, and finding their independence in new surroundings. In this case, Gerald, Jimmy and Kathleen find themselves staying at Kathleen’s school over the summer holidays in the care of her French teacher. But adventure is on the way, as soon they find a secret path into a beautiful garden where a young princess lies asleep in the centre of a hedge maze.
June 4th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Edith Nesbit | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…