Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: July 2013

Numbers Don’t Lie: A cocktail of laughs and what-ifs

Numbers Don’t Lie by Terry Bisson

In 2005, Tachyon Press published three of Terry Bisson linked novellas in one volume, called Numbers Don’t Lie. This short, fun book follows Irving, a Brooklynite lawyer, and his genius best friend Wilson Wu on a series of adventures.

Wilson is a six-foot-tall Chinese American polymath; he is a math genius, he’s studied meteorology, botany, Chinese herbs, pastry-making, law and the care of camels at a caravansari in the Gobi. The three stories collected in Numbers Don’t Lie were published separately in Asimov’s.

Iron Gray Sea: Significant events occur

Iron Gray Sea by Taylor Anderson

Iron Gray Sea (2012), the seventh book in Taylor Anderson’s DESTROYERMEN series, begins with the sinking of a battleship and then a wedding. The remaining Destroyermen are all together to witness the marriage of Captain Matthew Reddy to Lt. Sandra Tucker, but soon they must disperse again because they and their allies are still fighting all over the world on several fronts, and they are spread thin.

Their own technology is advancing rapidly but, with the help of the Japanese,

Darker Than You Think: A mighty gripping read

Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson

Jack Williamson’s Darker Than You Think is a one-shot horror-novel excursion for this science fiction Grand Master, but has nonetheless been described as not only the author’s finest work, but also one of the best treatments of the werewolf in modern literature. It has been chosen for inclusion in David Pringle’s overview volume Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels (“a relatively disciplined and thoughtful work,” Pringle writes, in comparing it to the author’s earlier space operas) as well as in Jones &

14: Entertaining until the end

14 by Peter Clines

Nate Tucker needs a new place to live and it needs to be cheap. When a co-worker recommends a place that’s inexpensive and close to work, Nate thinks it’s too good to be true. That’s because it is. After Nate moves in, he starts to notice some weird stuff going on — glowing mutant cockroaches, the light in his kitchen that turns into a black light no matter what kind of bulb he inserts, the elevator that never works, all the padlocks on apartment 14. There’s a lot of strangeness going on in Nate’s new home,

Homeland: Fun For Your Inner Fourteen-Year-Old

Homeland by R.A. Salvatore

R.A. Salvatore’s brooding, noble hero Drizzt Do’Urden is almost inarguably the most popular character in the FORGOTTEN REALMS universe (which is to say, the Dungeons & Dragons tie-in novels). It has become a general joke through the years that half the new D&D players of the world incorporate something of the dark elf warrior into their first characters, and — tellingly — when Suvudu did their initial fantasy character popularity contest some years ago, Drizzt beat out such classic characters as Aragorn,

July 8th, 2013. Tim Scheidler´s rating: 3 | R.A. Salvatore | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Thousand Names: A promising start

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

The Thousand Names is incredible. Yes, right out of the chute I am saying that I loved this book. It’s not going to be for everyone because it’s in this new Blackpowder genre that I am only recently getting acquainted with. Basically, it’s a mix of Napoleonic era military technology and aspects of magic. The exact mix depends on the author, but it certainly can create some fun interesting props to tell a story with. When you add that level of technology….

July 5th, 2013. John Hulet´s rating: 4.5 | Django Wexler | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Flight of Dragons: Fires the imagination

The Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson

I loved this book as a kid, and not just because it had naughty boobie pictures that had nothing to do with the text. Dickinson takes the position that Dragons actually existed, then goes from there to ask questions like: why are they not in the fossil record? How could a creature that is generally depicted as huge and armoured supposedly fly? What’s the deal with the fire-breathing? Why are they often depicted as speaking and/or telepathic creatures? How come the accepted method of killing them is by a dude with a magic sword?

July 5th, 2013. Terry Lago´s rating: 4 | Peter Dickinson | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

A Discourse in Steel: E&N aren’t the next F&GM, but they are still entertaining

A Discourse in Steel by Paul S. Kemp

A Discourse in Steel is the second novel in Paul S. Kemp’s EGIL AND NIX series about a couple of “retired” graverobbers who just can’t seem to stay out of trouble. I thought the first book, The Hammer and the Blade, was a fun story that didn’t quite meet the standards of Fritz Leiber’s LANKHMAR series which is an obvious influence. I was happy to give Egil and Nix another chance to charm me,

The Princess and the Bear: A simple evocative YA story

The Princess and the Bear by Mette Ivie Harrison

I was about three chapters into The Princess and the Bear when I realized that it must be a sequel. The narrative seemed to assume that I knew more about the characters and their situation that I actually did, and after a quick flick to the back of the book (where there was an interview with the author) this was confirmed. The predecessor to this is The Princess and the Hound, the reading of which probably would have given me a greater understanding of the background that this book draws upon in the crafting of its story.

Firestorm: The plot doesn’t get very far

Firestorm by Taylor Anderson

Firestorm (2011) is the sixth book in Taylor Anderson’s DESTROYERMEN series about the WWII navy warship USS Walker that was hurled into an alternate Earth during an electrical storm. (If you didn’t know that, you should probably stop here and go back to read the first book, Into the Storm, and the subsequent volumes before continuing on.)

In Firestorm, our heroes are spread out across the world trying to stop evil in its several guises.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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