Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: July 2010

Why You Should Read… Clive Barker

So we come to our fourth week of extolling the virtues about some of our favourite authors. Today we welcome Sharon Ring, from Dark Fiction Review. Sharon is on Twitter as @DFReview and can also be found on Facebook. She would like to talk to you about Clive Barker.

Will this be five hundred words of preaching to the converted? Surely everyone who reads genre fiction has read at least one Clive Barker book? I think, for anyone new to genre fiction, a stroll through some of Barker’s work should be more or less compulsory.

July 30th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | Clive Barker | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker

Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker by Syrie James

Syrie James, author of two straight historical novels, dips her toes into the paranormal pool with Dracula, My Love. Using Bram Stoker’s classic novel Dracula as a framework, James tells the story from the point of view of Mina Harker, and adds a twist: What if Mina wasn’t just ensorcelled by Dracula, but truly loved him?

I figured this would be a hard sell for me.

The Alchemist and The Executioness: Two linked novellas

The Alchemist and The Executioness by Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias Buckell

The Alchemist and The Executioness caught my eye as soon as it went up at Audible. (Both novellas are now available in print from Subterranean Press.) Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell offering linked fantasy novellas that take place in a shared world? Bacigalupi’s story read by Jonathan Davis? What could be more promising? (It turns out that had I been familiar with Katherine Kellgren,

A Wild Light: A strange but wonderful dream

A Wild Light by Marjorie M. Liu

Reading the Hunter Kiss series is rather like having a strange but wonderful dream. You’re sometimes confused about exactly what is happening and why, but the vistas are breathtaking, the emotions are intense, and when you wake up, the only words that come to mind are “What a ride!”

In the hands of a lesser author, confusion can be a dealbreaker that leads to the book hitting the wall. But Marjorie M. Liu is not a lesser author. Her poetic prose and beautifully drawn character relationships keep you reading even when you — and Maxine — aren’t quite sure of what’s going on.

July 29th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Marjorie M. Liu | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Wait for Dusk: Ignore the cover and snap this one up

Wait for Dusk by Jocelynn Drake

Okay, I can’t help it. I have to start with this awful cover art. Not only do Mira and Danaus have no legs, the cover isn’t an accurate representation of the contents. Yes, there’s sex in Wait for Dusk. No, it’s not as predominant as this cover would imply. A more fitting cover would have shown Mira with a fireball in one hand and a big bloody knife in the other.

Having read the first four DARK DAYS novels,

July 29th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Jocelynn Drake | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |

Black Dust Mambo: Voodoo & hoodoo

Black Dust Mambo by Adrian Phoenix

Kallie Riviere, a hoodoo rootworker, attends an annual witches’ carnival looking for some fun. She thinks she’s found it in the form of sexy nomad Gage, but before they can do the deed, Kallie passes out in the bathroom while Gage goes to bed alone. In the morning, Kallie finds Gage murdered, the victim of a hex that was laid on Kallie’s bed.

Before long, she has Gage’s disturbingly attractive clan brother knocking on her door looking for answers, the Hecatean Alliance (the witch organization behind the carnival) wanting to take her into protective custody,

July 28th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Adrian Phoenix | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

By Midnight: Dull and unimaginative

By Midnight by Mia James

April is deeply upset when her father takes a job at a small paper in London, and moves his wife and daughter from Edinburgh to do so. At first she is just miserable because she misses her friends and has to start a new school, Ravenwood, where many of the students are either stunningly beautiful or frighteningly clever. But then the deaths start, and April realises that she might be in danger as well. Suddenly there is no one she can trust — not even the beautiful and mysterious Gabriel,

July 28th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 1.5 | Mia James | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

20 Heroes: Scarlet

Thirteenth in our Heroes series, by our own Robert Rhodes. Art is courtesy of Mates Laurentiu.

“Are you sure, then?” Mathias asked her. “I know this is the life I’ve led you to, lass.” He shifted his crutch, the wood slanting beside the ghost of his right leg. “Are you sure it’s the life you want?”

Scarlet finished buckling the saddlebags. She turned and took in his weathered face, the cottage and garrison wall behind him. Now or never. She looked down and smiled.

“Of course not,”

July 27th, 2010. Rob Rhodes | 20 Heroes | 6 comments |

The Sweet Scent of Blood: Too confusing

The Sweet Scent of Blood by Suzanne McLeod

Genevieve is the only sidhe fae in London and has a traumatic past involving vampires, which we readers learn about in flashbacks throughout the story. She works as a spellcracker, removing hexes from objects. There are two ways she can remove a spell. She can “crack” the spell, thereby destroying both the spell and the object, or she can absorb it into herself, which carries its own problems. As the story begins, a celebrity vampire stands accused of murdering his girlfriend, Melissa. The vampire’s father hires Genny to examine Melissa’s body for evidence of magic.

July 27th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Suzanne McLeod | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Bird of the River: Kage Baker’s last novel

The Bird of the River by Kage Baker

Eliss is a teenage girl living an itinerant life with her drug-addicted mother and young brother. Her mother, formerly a successful diver, now has trouble keeping a job because her drug habit has damaged her lungs, but she’s given a chance on the Bird of the River, a huge raft-like boat that travels and trades up and down the river on year-long journeys. Eliss shows some talent as a look-out, spotting blockages and snags upriver, and even her young brother Alder, who is half Yendri and has experienced discrimination before,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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