I just finished reading Jeff VanderMeer’s Authority, the second book in his SOUTHERN REACH trilogy. When I reviewed the first book, Annihilation, Kat (our tyrannical managing editor, in case you didn’t know) butted into my review because she didn’t like what I originally wrote and she made me change it. I’m expecting her to do the same thing here, so if you see any bold red text, that will be her. She likes to talk in bold red.
May 13th, 2014. Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Jeff VanderMeer | Audio | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
For his 37th work of fiction, H. Rider Haggard, the so-called “father of the lost-race novel” and an expert at writing historical adventure tales as well, decided to go back to the Dark Ages. Red Eve, which Haggard wrote in a six-month period from 1908-1909, was ultimately published in 1911, and turns out to be yet another winner from this wonderful storyteller.
In it, we meet Hugh de Cressi, a merchant’s son who is in love with “Red Eve” Clavering,
May 13th, 2014. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | H. Rider Haggard | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Heavens Rise by Christopher Rice
New Orleans may be the best setting for a horror novel ever invented. Cypress trees and the dark water of interminable swamps are a spooky background for Christopher Rice’s story about rape, snakes and mind control in The Heavens Rise, one of the nominees for this year’s Bram Stoker Award for best novel.
Niquette Delongpre — Nikki — is a gorgeous teenage girl, the toast of her high school. She and Anthem Landry have been an item for three years before Marshall Ferriot figures out a way to break them up and move in himself.
May 12th, 2014. Terry Weyna´s rating: 3 | Christopher Rice | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Master of the World by Jules Verne
First published in French in 1904 and in English in 1911, The Master of the World is another of Jules Verne’s adventure novels with an SFF twist. It’s a sequel to Robur the Conqueror, though it’s not necessary to have read that book first (I didn’t). The story is set in 1903 and, as so many of Verne’s novels do, features fantastical machines and gadgetry. It should be of particular interest to those who love steampunk and to Verne’s fans who want to read one of the author’s last novels.
May 12th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Jules Verne | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Although Robert Silverberg had been a prodigiously published author prior to 1967, that year is often spoken of as being something of a watershed time for him. Before then, the author had written no less than two dozen sci-fi novels, starting with 1954’s Revolt on Alpha C not to mention dozens upon dozens of short stories (over 80 in 1958 alone, according to a certain Wiki site). But in 1967, a new maturity and literary quality entered Silverberg’s works, to the surprise of both his fans and fellow writers.
May 12th, 2014. Sandy Ferber and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Robert Silverberg | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata
James Shelley, the main character of Linda Nagata’s Nebula-nominated novel The Red: First Light, is the high-drama leader of a Linked Combat Squad or LCS. It is Shelley’s opinion, shared at length with his squad, that “there has to be a war somewhere,” and that these wars are consciously orchestrated by the cabal of defense contractors who grow mega-rich off military contracts.
Shelley and his squad are linked to each other via communication implants;
May 9th, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Linda Nagata | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross
Krina Alizond-114, a metahuman, is worried because Ana, one of her sibs, has gone missing. It’s not that Krina cares much about her sisters — they’re all just the spawn (and, anagrammatically, the pawns) of their scary overbearing mother and, besides, metahumans don’t have all that mushy emotional stuff that so frequently hijacked the thought processes of the “Fragile” race of homo sapiens that created them. The problem is that together Ana and Krina hold the key to a vast fortune and, if Ana disappears,
May 9th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Charles Stross | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Generally, the first time we humans do something, we don’t do it well. My college roommate’s first time doing laundry on his own?
“But my mom put bleach in all the time.”
“No. No, she really didn’t.”
“ I can make that yellow light at the top of the hill.”
“No, you can’t. And it’s good practice to shift on a—”
Acceleration. Horns. Squealing. Maybe a scream.
“See? Told you I could make it.”
First time… well, we’ll stop there.
May 8th, 2014. Bill Capossere | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 10 comments |
Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson
Unwrapped Sky, the debut novel by Rjurik Davidson, has an evocative setting, an intriguing set-up, and an often lyrical and lovely prose style, but an off-putting distance between the reader and its characters/material works against these strengths, leaving more of a sense of “what could have been” than I would have preferred.
A clear denizen of the New Weird or Urban Weird, Unwrapped Sky introduces us to Caeli-Amur, an ancient city rising out of the dark ages brought about from the legendary God War and its ensuing Cataclysm,
May 8th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Rjurik Davidson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I’m a big fan of C.S. Friedman, so I was eager to get my hands on her latest novel, Dreamwalker. This is Friedman’s first Young Adult offering and while it doesn’t match the level of elegance, intelligence, inventiveness, and beauty of her adult novels, it’s better than most of what’s available on the YA shelves.
Jesse Drake is a high school student who stands out only because of the fractal-like art she produces. Her art is inspired by her dreams in which she visits other worlds.
May 8th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | C.S. Friedman | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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