The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore
The Crystal Shard, although technically preceded by THE DARK ELF TRILOGY according to the new reading order, was actually Salvatore’s first Drizzt novel and in fact his first novel, period. The Crystal Shard does have a lot of the usual first-novel bugs (mechanics sometimes don’t work out the way they should, dialogue is frequently hamfisted), but it also has something that I feel began to fade out of THE LEGEND OF DRIZZT after a while: ambition.
July 24th, 2013. Tim Scheidler´s rating: 3.5 | R.A. Salvatore | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
Athos is a planet of men. No women are allowed — they are evil and they ruin good men. Since there isn’t a lot of immigration to Athos (their advertising campaigns just don’t seem to be very effective), they need to create baby boys to keep the population from dying out. Dr Ethan Urquhart is one of the men who’s responsible for using stock ovarian cultures to create and incubate male babies in uterine replicators. When the ovarian cultures begin to give out, Ethan orders new stock,
July 24th, 2013. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Lois McMaster Bujold | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Oz Reimagined edited by John Joseph Adams
Oz Reimagined is a collection of tales whose characters return as often, if not more often, to the “idea” of Oz as opposed to the actual Oz many of us read about as kids (or adults) and even more of us saw in the famed MGM version of the film. As its editors, John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen, say in their introduction: “You might not even find yourself in Oz, though in spirit, all these stories take place in Oz,
July 23rd, 2013. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Charles Coleman (C.C.) Finlay, Jane Yolen, Jeffrey Ford, Jonathan Maberry, Kat Howard, Ken Liu, Orson Scott Card, Rachel Swirsky, Seanan McGuire, Simon R. Green, Tad Williams, Theodora Goss | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea by Mira Grant
I’m a traditionalist when it comes to books; I prefer paper and ink to Kindles. But even I have been forced to admit that there are distinct advantages to using a machine for reading. Amazon has been promoting inexpensive novellas exclusively for the Kindle for a few years now — a story length I’ve always thought ideal and criminally underutilized. These nice long stories make good reading while one is awaiting the next novel in a favorite author’s series. Because the setting and characters are familiar,
July 22nd, 2013. Terry Weyna´s rating: 3 | Mira Grant | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Trained from childhood as a thief and con-artist par excellence, Locke Lamora employs a silver tongue and quicksilver mind to divest the rich of Camorr of their excessive wealth. No sooner do Locke and his associates initiate their latest scheme, however, than they find themselves at the mercy of the mysterious Gray King, who intends to use them as pawns in his bid to take over the city-state’s underworld. As the Gray King’s diabolical plan unfolds, Locke finds his skills tested as never before as he struggles not only for his own survival,
July 20th, 2013. Rob Rhodes, Greg Hersom, Kat Hooper, Marion Deeds, Terry Weyna, Tadiana Jones and Skye Walker´s rating: 4, 5 | Scott Lynch | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
Witchblade: Witch Hunt (issues 80-85) by Ron Marz (writer) and Mike Choi (artist)
This admission is really hard for me to make publicly, so I’m gonna just trust that you won’t laugh, that you’ll be nice to me (at least to my face), and that you’ll reserve judgment for a few minutes while you read this review. Okay. Here it is. You ready? I love WITCHBLADE. There. I’ve said it, and I’m very uncomfortable. I feel like I just shouted, “I watch porn”
July 19th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Hollis Kessler has just finished college, and now he’s coasting. He has neither purpose nor direction and can only tie everything he sees into a pop culture web of references. When he sees a woman, for example, he and his friends will immediately tell her what famous woman she resembles. The first woman they see looks like Denise Crosby, who played Lieutenant Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Hollis and his friends otherwise spend most of their time together gossiping about what jobs and internships their peers have gotten while waiting for something more interesting than their web of pop culture references.
July 19th, 2013. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 2 | Lev Grossman | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Thuvia, Maid of Mars is the fourth of eleven JOHN CARTER novels from the pen of Edgar Rice Burroughs. It first appeared in April 1916, as a three-part serial in the magazine “All Story Weekly.” This is the first Carter novel that does not feature John Carter himself as the central character; he only makes a brief cameo appearance early on. Instead, the action mantle is taken up by Carthoris, Carter’s son, but fortunately, Carter Junior turns out to be just as good a swashbuckler as the old man.
July 19th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Edgar Rice Burroughs | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sojourn is the last book in Salvatore’s DARK ELF TRILOGY, the prequel novels he wrote to establish Drizzt’s origin story after the success of his earlier trilogy ICEWIND DALE. While the first two DARK ELF novels, Homeland and Exile, are charming enough little stories to entertain on their own merits, Sojourn is the point at which the story begins to suffer for the necessity of ticking certain narrative boxes to get Drizzt where he needs to be by book four.
July 18th, 2013. Tim Scheidler´s rating: 2.5 | R.A. Salvatore | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi
The Sagan Diary was a prize and an experiment. As John Scalzi explains in the introduction, this novelette was written for Bill Schafer, editor of Subterranean Press, who won it in a charity auction. Schafer wanted a story set in Scalzi’s popular OLD MAN’S WAR universe. Scalzi wanted to challenge himself, so he decided to attempt a woman’s internal monologue. Fans will immediately realize from the title of the book that the woman is Captain Jane Sagan, a cyborg who features prominently in OLD MAN’S WAR.
July 18th, 2013. Kat Hooper´s rating: 1.5 | John Scalzi | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 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…