Such Wicked Intent by Kenneth Oppel
Such Wicked Intent is the follow-up to This Dark Endeavour and as such puts us two-thirds of the way through Kenneth Oppel’s YA trilogy detailing the early years of Victor Frankenstein. And as the book ends with a very well known scene from early in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, well, it’s clear we have just about fully plumbed those early years.
Which is too bad, because Oppel has, ahem,
October 16th, 2012. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Kenneth Oppel | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Kat Richardson’s GREYWALKER series perfectly unites the classic private investigator mystery with the paranormal fantasy. The mysteries are rigorous within the rules of the paranormal realm Richardson has invented; her background research is broad and utilized well; and her characters become deeper and more interesting with every new novel. The latest in the series, Seawitch, gives us insight into the character of Detective Rey Solis of the Seattle Police Department, who has been a pain in the side for PI Harper Blaine in the past,
October 16th, 2012. Terry Weyna and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Kat Richardson | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip
I’m a huge fan of Patricia McKillip’s work, but it’s taken me a while to get my hands on The Changeling Sea, and once read I found that it was a rather unique addition to her body of work. One of her earliest books (published back in 1988), and possibly her only work that was written specifically with a young audience in mind, The Changeling Sea is a slender novel with an extremely simple plot.
October 16th, 2012. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Patricia McKillip | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Bethany’s Sin by Robert McCammon
Robert McCammon originally published Bethany’s Sin in 1980. Subterranean Press is reissuing it just in time for Halloween. This horror novel covered familiar territory even in 1980, with its “perfect little village with a dark secret,” but McCammon’s good characterization managed to make it fresh, and there are a few twists along the way.
The book opens with an archeological dig in Turkey, where an unnamed woman makes an extraordinary discovery. The next section deals with an American soldier,
October 15th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Robert McCammon | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Silver Wolf by Alice Borchardt
It actually wasn’t until I finished The Silver Wolf that I learnt that author Alice Borchardt was the sister of vampire novelist Anne Rice (that explains why her endorsement is on the title page) but I doubt that this knowledge would have affected my reading experience. In hindsight, Borchardt follows in her sister’s footsteps by writing about a supernatural creature in an historical context, but that’s where the similarities end.
Set in the Roman Empire during its waning years,
October 13th, 2012. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5 | Alice Borchardt | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
Nature is the ladder we have climbed up by. Now we kick her away.
That Hideous Strength is the final volume of C.S. Lewis’s SPACE TRILOGY. This story, which could be categorized as science fiction, dystopian fiction, Arthurian legend, and Christian allegory, is different enough from the previous books, Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, that you don’t need to have read them, but it may help to vaguely familiarize yourself with their plots.
October 12th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | C.S. Lewis | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Today we welcome Phillipa Bornikova whose first novel This Case is Gonna Kill Me has recently been published by Tor. Phillipa has been the story editor of a major network television series, a horse trainer, and an oil-company executive. She lives in the Southwest. And she likes happy endings. Comment below for a chance to win a copy of This Case is Gonna Kill Me which Kelly has reviewed here.
Why do happy endings get such a bad rap? I’m not talking about sappy, unrealistic endings,
October 11th, 2012. Guest | Phillipa Bornikova | Thoughtful Thursday | 13 comments |
This Case is Gonna Kill Me by Phillipa Bornikova
One of the things I find most interesting in urban fantasy is when real-world problems intersect with fantasy problems in unexpected ways — the legal system being one of them. Thinking back to the early ANITA BLAKE novels, they dealt regularly with the weird legal issues that crop up when supernaturals are involved. Phillipa Bornikova continues in that tradition with This Case is Gonna Kill Me, featuring Linnet Ellery, a freshly minted lawyer who’s just been hired at a firm run by vampires.
October 11th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Phillipa Bornikova | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Existence is David Brin’s first novel in some time and while I’ve long bemoaned his absence, it’s hard to complain about the time he takes if this is what he ends up with. Existence is a big novel, bursting with ideas and filled to the rim with characters and plot. If not all of them play out fully; well, I’ll take that flaw happily considering the pay off here.
The novel is set in the next century in a world changed by a host of events,
October 11th, 2012. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | David Brin | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville
The fourth and final book in Bruce Coville’s THE UNICORN CHRONICLES was published nearly twenty years after the first came out, and it appears that Coville sought to make up for this delay by making The Last Hunt more than six times thicker than Into the Land of Unicorns.
It’s impossible to start The Last Hunt without having the first three already read, as the story dives straight into the action with no preamble.
October 11th, 2012. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Bruce Coville | Children | 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…