Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: August 2013


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Between Two Thorns: Boring, but there’s hope

Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman

Between Two Thorns is the first book in Emma Newman’s SPLIT WORLDS series set in Bath, England where some humans live in a secret world called Aquae Sulis (aka “the Nether”) that’s parallel to Mundanis, the “Mundane” world we know. The people who live in the Nether keep themselves hidden from us and shun modern dress, manners and technology. Their society is just like early 19th century English society except that they are influenced by their fae House Lords and are also under the authority of the Arbiters who police their use of magic.


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Shadowland: Appealing YA fantasy

Shadowland by Meg Cabot

Suze is a mediator — she can see the ghosts of people whose souls have not been able to move on. She helps them resolve their earthly issues so they can go wherever they’re supposed to go. She doesn’t know what happens to them after they go — just that it’s her job to facilitate their departure.

Because of her weird ability, Suze is not a normal teenager. People find her a little strange and she has trouble making friends and fitting in. Now she’s moving away from New York,


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Man in the Empty Suit: Did Not Finish

Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell

The protagonist in Sean Ferrell’s Man in the Empty Suit has seen and done it all. Thanks to his ability to travel in time, he’s cruised all the way up and down the course of human history. There’s not much that’ll get him excited anymore. Every year, he travels to the year 2071, the 100th anniversary of his own birth, to celebrate his birthday with dozens of younger and older versions of himself. It’s the world’s most exclusive party: only he and other versions of himself are invited.


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Magazine Monday: Nightmare Magazine, August 2013

Matthew Cheney’s “How Far to Englishman’s Bay” leads off the eleventh issue of Nightmare Magazine. Max, the protagonist, impulsively decides to close up his bookshop and permanently leave his home on the day he turns 50. Max drives miles away from his home, finally deciding he’s lost and stopping to ask directions. It’s here that his story has its denouement in an odd bit of horror that seems unrelated to what went before, all the detail about his leaving, its effect on a friend, giving away his cat, gathering snacks — a full half of the tale.


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Ink and Steel: Rewards for the patient reader

Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear

A blend of history and fantasy is what typifies Elizabeth Bear’s body of work, as does her reliance on folklore and literary references to craft her tales. The more you know about her favoured subject matter, whether it be Shakespeare, Elizabethan England, Faerie, or Arthurian legend, the better you’ll be able to enjoy her books, for Bear doesn’t suffer fools and seldom slows down to explain precisely what’s going on. Ink and Steel requires your utmost attention if you’re to follow it,


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Llana of Gathol: A veritable packet of wonders

Llana of Gathol by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Llana of Gathol is the 10th of 11 JOHN CARTER OF MARS books that Edgar Rice Burroughs left to the world. This book is comprised of four linked short tales that first appeared in Amazing Stories Magazine from March to October 1941. Each of these stories is around 50 pages in length and is made up of 13 very short chapters.

In the first tale, “The Ancient Dead,” John Carter goes for a spin in his flier to get away from it all,


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Planetary: Spacetime Archaeology, Volume 4

Planetary: Spacetime Archaeology, Volume 4 by Warren Ellis & John Cassaday

This is it. The culmination of the PLANETARY series. Does it live up to the hype? Does the climax match the build up? Well, read on and we’ll see.

Issue 19 – “Mystery in Space”: There’s a strange artifact approaching earth from deep space and Elijah plans on seeing what mysteries it contains. Ellis pays homage to the Big Dumb Object in sci-fi and also draws on the ideas of generation starships, orbital habitats, and the remnants of precursor races.


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The Glass God: Sharon Li is no Matthew Swift

The Glass God by Kate Griffin

The Glass God is the second book in Kate Griffin’s Magicals Anonymous series. These books are set in the same magical London as the MATTHEW SWIFT books, but follow the character of Sharon Li, barista turned shaman turned “community support worker” for various magical beings in the greater London area.

While Swift, a sorcerer, is a loner and a one-person army of anarchy, that’s not how Sharon rolls. She is a shaman,


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The Mongoliad: Mostly successful

THE MONGOLIAD by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, and others

The series of books known as THE FOREWORLD SAGA was a grand experiment in collaboration and serialized storytelling involving more than half a dozen authors, including Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear. So far it includes three novels (individually titled The Mongoliad, Books One, Two, and Three) which relate the central tale set during a near-history version of the Mongol invasions of the mid-thirteenth century. Also available are several short stand-alone prequels and “sidequests,”


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Stray Souls: Griffin moves into Pratchett territory

Stray Souls by Kate Griffin

I am a big fan of Kate Griffin’s MATTHEW SWIFT books. I think her love of  London; the majestic, the beautiful, the historic, the grungy, the run-down and the shoddy, powers those books, as does a system of magic that grown organically from the city (or, as Swift puts it, “Life is magic.”) With Stray Souls, Griffin introduces another character and what appears to second series set in the same magical universe; the MAGICALS ANONYMOUS series.


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Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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