The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Here we go, folks: The Way of Kings, at over 1000 pages, is the first volume of Brandon Sanderson’s projected ten-book series, THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE. At one book per year, we probably won’t see the end of this series before 2020, especially given that Sanderson is first planning to finish up Robert Jordan’s WHEEL OF TIME. So, if you’re looking for a new series to read, this one has some advantages and disadvantages: on the plus side,
August 31st, 2010. Stefan Raets and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Brandon Sanderson | SFF Reviews | 21 comments |
Queen of Shadows by Dianne Sylvan
Having enjoyed Dianne Sylvan’s nonfiction in the past, I was thrilled to see she had an urban fantasy coming out. I wasn’t sure if Queen of Shadows would live up to the high expectations I’d set up in my head, but I was definitely curious to find out. My expectations were met and then some. Queen of Shadows is my favorite book of 2010 so far.
Ironically, this makes it a little hard to review. When a book reaches in and grabs me emotionally the way this one did,
August 30th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Dianne Sylvan | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Note: You may also find this book published with the name Clarges.
In Clarges, a city in the far future, humans have conquered death. Unfortunately, there’s just not enough room for billions of immortal people to live forever, so they’ve passed the fair-play act which divides society into 5 phyle which must be maintained at certain population ratios. Those who choose to participate in fair-play must register in Brood, the lowest phyle, and receive 82 years of life, after which an “assassin”
August 30th, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Jack Vance | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
OK, HUNGER GAMES fans, you’ve been waiting a year for this book, and the last thing you want is some @#$% reviewer spoiling the plot. So, I will do my best to give my impressions of Mockingjay with as few spoilers as possible.
When a series becomes this popular and sparks this much speculation among readers, the author’s task is extremely difficult. How to surprise a fanbase, when that fanbase has spent many months trying to guess what will happen in the final installment (and almost certainly guessed right on a few counts)?
August 29th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter, Bill Capossere, Jason Golomb, Terry Weyna and Skye Walker´s rating: 4 | Suzanne Collins | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
I am really pleased to welcome to FanLit today Black Library author extraordinaire Graham McNeill. I love his books — seriously! Hmm, maybe he should be my own subject for this here Why You Should Read… He brings us an interesting take on the Why You Should Read, dealing as it does with Rich Burlew, writer of the online webcomic The Order of the Stick.
You should be reading Rich Burlew for the same reason you need to watch Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire.
August 27th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
This, the fourth and final installment in the THE CIRCLE OPENS quartet is itself a sequel to Tris’s Book in the original CIRCLE OF MAGIC series. There, the reader was introduced to four immensely powerful but untrained young mages: aristocratic Sandry, stoic Daja, street-rat Briar and outcast Trisana, called “Tris” for short. In a departure from her usual action-adventure stories, Tamora Pierce concentrated on character for this particular series, describing how this disparate group of youngsters was brought to the safety of the Winding Circle temple in order to learn how to control their abilities.
August 27th, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Tamora Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Cursed (UK) or Frostbite (US) by David Wellington
Cursed (Frostbite in the US) is the tale of Cheyenne Clark, a twenty-something we meet while she is struggling through the Northwest Territories of the Canadian Arctic. “Most people’s lives change very slowly, more slowly than the seasons. Some people are born into the life they’re going to lead and nothing much ever comes along to force them to change. For Cheyenne Clark, change came about in the space of thirty very bad seconds.
August 27th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4 | David Wellington | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan
From the celestial heights the arbitrary acts of life seem patterned like a fairy-tale landscape, populated by charming and eccentric figures. The glittering observers require vital doses of joy and pain, sudden reversals of fortune, dire portents and untimely deaths. Life itself proceeds in its unpredictable infinite patterns — so unlike the measured dance of stars — until, for the satisfaction of their entertainment, the watchers choose a point at which to stop.
That’s a quote from Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint,
August 26th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Marie Brennan | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The steep fall in the quality of the PERN series can’t be laid solely at the feet of Anne McCaffrey’s son Todd McCaffrey, as Anne’s later books in the series themselves widely varied in quality, ranging from downright bad (a few) to mediocre/adequate (most) to not-great-but-pretty-good (a few). But at least one could kind of justify the existence of most of them, as they wrapped up characters we’d grown to love, or gave us the backstory of how the whole setup began, or kept us in the familiar and beloved setting but gave us new situations.
August 26th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 1.5 | Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Here we are once again in the middle of the week — I do love Wednesdays! And this Wednesday for me signifies just a couple more days in work before a well-earned vacation. Don’t worry, I have something slightly different planned for the WWW post during my absence which will be scheduled to go up regular as clockwork *grin*
1) 200 SFX Features
Over here in the UK we have a magazine called SFX (I’m pretty sure it is delivered to foreign climes as well!) and it covers all manner of genre topics. They are celebrating the 200th issue with a nice little feature on their website: showcasing a number of their articles,
August 25th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | World Wide Wednesday | 5 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…