Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: April 2013

The Warlord of the Air: Political message doesn’t overwhelm the adventure

The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock

In 1971, Michael Moorcock published a trilogy called Nomad of the Timestreams. Titan Books is reissuing this series. The first book, The Warlord of the Air, introduces us to Oswald Bastable, a captain of the 53rd Lancers in 1902, who, through a bizarre occurrence is hurled into 1973 — a 1973 that is very little like the one our history books, or Wikipedia, tell us about.

Moorcock is an excellent writer, and in The Warlord of the Air he set out to create a late Victorian/Edwardian pastiche.

April 19th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Michael Moorcock | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Nine Tomorrows: You’ll wish there were twenty tomorrows!

Nine Tomorrows: Tales of the Near Future by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov may very well be the most prolific author in modern history. With over 500 books to his credit (506, to be exact… go to asimovonline.com for the full list, if you don’t believe me!), covering just about every subject in the Dewey Decimal System (except philosophy, I believe), the man was a real marvel. One of these 500 volumes, Nine Tomorrows, is a collection of short stories that Doc Ike first had published in various magazines during the period July 1956 to November 1958.

Technomancer: Doesn’t fulfill my criteria for good entertainment

Technomancer by B.V. Larson

When Quentin Draith wakes up in a bed in a private hospital he has no idea how he got there or even who he is. He does realize, though, that he’s being drugged and, therefore, somebody must be trying to control him. After he manages to escape, he learns that he lives in Las Vegas and blogs about supernatural events. And there’s a lot of weird stuff going on in Las Vegas these days.

Quentin soon discovers that the world contains an assortment of powerful magical objects and that he’s a rogue member of a community of people who are trying to collect them.

WWWednesday, April 17, 2013

The new teaser trailer for Catching Fire is out. I am loving that they don’t show the arena at all. People who haven’t read the books are going to be surprised!

Also, the final trailer for Star Trek: Into Darkness is out. MMMmmmm, such a pretty movie.

Are you behind on your reading? Well, here’s something else to make you fall even further behind: A serialized novel where each chapter is a different fairy tale! “Tickling Butterflies is an epic fantasy made out of 128 separate fairy tales that can be read independently (supposedly) but together weave one epic fairy tale about its main character,

April 17th, 2013. Ruth Arnell | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |

Big Planet: Disappointing compared to later Vance works

Big Planet by Jack Vance

Big Planet is an early work by Jack Vance, and like much of Vance’s early output is a little uneven in quality. The plot is fairly straightforward. Centuries before the events of the story take place, a huge planet is discovered in a neighboring solar system. Despite its size (around 25,000 miles according to a later novel set in the same setting) the planet is of low density, with earthlike gravity and atmosphere, but lacking in metals, making ownership of any metal object valuable.

April 17th, 2013. Steven Harbin´s rating: 3 | Jack Vance | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Princeps’ Fury: Regresses

Princeps’ Fury by Jim Butcher

Tavi and his companions are escorting the Canim back to their home across the sea. When they arrive they find that the Canim’s land has been invaded by the Vord. Back home in Alera, unbeknownst to Tavi, his countrymen are also being overrun by the Vord and Amara, Isana, Bernard, and the First Lord are on the front lines. Will the Vord conquer both Alera and Canim, or can Tavi and Isana negotiate alliances with a couple of Alera’s enemies so they can fight the Vord horde together?

I Travel by Night: Relish the work of a master of dark fiction

I Travel By Night by Robert McCammon

Trevor Lawson is a vampire, made by a scavenger on a Civil War battlefield. Now, more than 20 years since he was turned, he continues to fight his nature as hard as he can. It is becoming progressively more difficult for him to look at a crucifix or suffer even the indirect rays of the sun. But he nonetheless battles other vampires, even as the silver of his bullets burns his fingers as he loads his gun.

Those other vampires — the Dark Society — want him dead.

Mutant: Kuttner & Moore’s final novel

Mutant by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore

By the early 1950s, the great husband-and-wife writing team of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore had moved to the West Coast to acquire degrees at the University of Southern California, and were concentrating more on their scholastic pursuits than their (formerly prodigious) sci-fi/fantasy output. In 1953, the pair released Mutant, which would turn out to be their final, novel-length work of science fiction as a team. Mutant is what is known as a “fix-up novel,” consisting of four short stories originally published in 1945 and a final story released in 1953,

April 15th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Animal Man: One of the most important works in comics

Animal Man, Volume 1 (Issues 1-9) by Grant Morrison (writer), Chas Truog (artist, Issues 1-8) and Tom Grummett (artist, Issue 9)

The twenty-six issue run on Animal Man by Grant Morrison is one of the most important works in comics, but it must be understood in an historical and artistic context; otherwise, someone new to comics might just flip through it and see what looks like a slightly-dated comic with artwork that isn’t currently as exciting and flashy and polished and colorful as newer comics.

April 12th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |

SFF vacation brochures

It’s that time of year when humans are planning their summer vacations. Your task this week is to create a vacation brochure for any destination found in speculative fiction. You can’t upload images here, but if you want to use images, you could create your brochure elsewhere (e.g. Google docs) and submit a link. Here’s my vacation brochure for Arrakis, which I think would be a great place to take a Honeymoon:

Visit Arrakis!

Looking for a change of pace from frantic tropical vacations, with all that hang-gliding, drink-sipping, body-surfing, massage-getting madness?

April 11th, 2013. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 6 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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