Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: May 2013

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall: Hard SF done right

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

In recent years, I’ve hesitated to pick up a hard science fiction novel. The quantum physics one must be familiar with to enjoy the novel is so far beyond me that I feel I need a physics course or two as a prerequisite. It’s hard to appreciate a novel when you haven’t the faintest idea what’s going on.

Trust Nancy Kress to write a hard science fiction novella that is so clear, so precise and so well-written that the reader is never left behind.

Tunnel Out of Death: An ambitious novel that falls short

Tunnel Out of Death by Jamil Nasir

As a consumer of media, I’m usually OK with works that aren’t particularly focused on plot. Some of my favorite books and films are uber-quiet stories where “nothing happens.” Heck, I’m really looking forward to the new Terence Malick film, even though it appears to have the same narrative quality of a screensaver program. Character-driven works, works where the images sweep you away, works where the ideas make up for lack of story — I’ve enjoyed all of them. Unfortunately though, Jamil Nasir’s newest,

A World Without Heroes: Appealing characters, imaginative world

A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull

Jason Walker, an eighth grader, was having a fairly normal day — playing baseball with his friends and working at the zoo — until he heard music coming from the hippopotamus tank. When he leaned over the rail to listen more closely, he fell in and was swallowed by the hippo. Instead of ending up in the hippo’s digestive tract, though, he ended up in a parallel universe named Lyrian. Rachel Woodford, a smart home-schooled girl around Jason’s age, was on vacation with her parents in Bryce Canyon when she followed a strange butterfly through a stone arch and ended up in Lyrian,

Limbus, Inc.: Five horror novellas

Limbus, Inc. edited by Anne C. Petty

Limbus, Inc., is a set of five novellas by Benjamin Kane Ethridge, Jonathan Maberry, Joseph Nasisse, Anne C. Petty and Brett J. Talley all set in the same universe, involving the same mysterious employment agency. The stories vary in quality, and have a frame that is used inconsistently It’s a cool concept, but it loses something in the translation from idea to page.

On a Red Station, Drifting: An intricate view of an alternate world

On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard

Linh was a magistrate on the 23rd Planet when war came. She escaped to Prosper Station on a ship full of refugees, waiting until all of the others’ papers were checked before introducing herself to the authorities. “Magistrate” is a position of considerable power in Linh’s universe, and when her identity is verified by reference to the station computers, she is taken to Quyen, the woman who runs the station. The two women take an instant dislike to one another, thus setting the stage for everything that follows.

Raven Girl: Haunting artwork enhances this “new” fairy tale

Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger

Audrey Niffenegger’s Raven Girl is a slim book that straddles categories. I thought it would be a graphic novel. It isn’t, quite. At 75 pages, I’d call it an illustrated novella. Niffenegger, in her Acknowledgments, calls it a new fairy tale. It certainly has fairy tale aspects, especially a “happy ending” that arrives almost out of nowhere, but it goes beyond traditional fairy tales. The book, Niffenegger tells us, was based on a story she created for the Royal Ballet in London, for a new ballet.

May 13th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Audrey Niffenegger | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Mister X: Condemned

Mister X: Condemned by Dean Motter (writer and artist)

The City of Dreams had become The City of Nightmares . . . was it too late to awaken it?

Mister X: Condemned makes for a perfect introduction to the critically acclaimed Mister X series that first appeared in 1984. Since that time, other writers and artists also have been allowed to play in this futuristic world that Motter created, but if you want an affordable, quick introduction written and drawn by Motter,

May 10th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |

Zodiac: The Eco Thriller: An accomplished blueprint

Zodiac: The Eco Thriller by Neal Stephenson

Sangamon Taylor is a professional asshole, he is known as the granola James Bond, and he knows how to use your child’s aquarium to filter PCBs from his body. Zodiac: The Eco Thriller is Neal Stephenson’s second novel as well as a clear blueprint for its successor, the cyberpunk classic, Snow Crash.

Sangamon Taylor works for GEE, an activist group that tries to act as a check against the toxic waste Boston industrialists dump into Boston Harbor.

Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero: Did Not Finish

Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero by Dan Abnett

It’s 2010 and Queen Elizabeth XXX is on the throne of a magical alternate England. When the throne is threatened, Sir Rupert Triumff, discoverer of Australia, comes to the rescue.

I’ll make this short. I didn’t get very far with Triumff: Her Majesty’s Hero. The story is a comedy of the sort that has no appeal to me. It’s written in a self-consciously long-winded style where extensive detailed descriptions and explanations of every minor person and place keep interrupting the plot in order to provide background trivia and to crack jokes.

Famous fantasy duos

Abbot and Costello. Woodward and Bernstein. Ben and Jerry. Siskel and Ebert (a moment of silence). Bert and Ernie. Thelma and Louise. Holmes and Watson.

The world is rife with famous duos (the Dynamic Duo). But what about the fantasy/science fiction worlds? Who are our famous duos? Our favorites? When you think of paired characters, whom do you think of? Frodo and Sam? Merry and Pippin? The City and the Stars? Rendezvous and Rama? Oh, wait…

Well, you get the idea. Tell us who your favorite SFF duo is and why we should all agree. Or at least,

May 9th, 2013. Bill Capossere | Thoughtful Thursday | 17 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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