Tina Connolly gives us a third book in the world of Ironskin, and continues to follow the women of the Rochart family with Dorie, Jane Rochart’s stepdaughter. In Silverblind, Dorie follows in the tradition of her stepmother Jane and her aunt Helen, fighting for the underdog, struggling to determine the right course of action when circumstance seem to pit humans against the incorporeal fey. In this book, we get a few more magical critters, too, including wyverns and a basilisk.
November 14th, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Tina Connolly | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Drawn Blades by Kelly McCullough
Drawn Blades is the fifth book in Kelly McCullough’s FALLEN BLADE series. This review will contain spoilers for the previous books.
Aral Kingslayer has finally emerged from his mental paralysis after the death of his Goddess, Namara. It has taken eight years, a lot of alcohol and the death of some friends for Aral to reach this point. With a new-found set of ideals, Aral is ready to start making a difference.
Siri Mythkiller was the First Blade of the order of Namara before its fall.
November 14th, 2014. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Kelly McCullough | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Poison Promise by Jennifer Estep
I’m not sure that I should continue reviewing Jennifer Estep’s ELEMENTAL ASSASSIN series. My goal has been to get the entire series reviewed for this website because that’s one of our visions for Fantasy Literature, (get everything reviewed), but it occurs to me that it might be pointless. This series gets high marks at GoodReads and Amazon, so why would anyone who’s interested in Poison Promise, book 11, be reading my reviews when I’ve been kind of down on these books for quite a while now?
November 14th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Jennifer Estep | Audio | SFF Reviews | 11 comments |
Let’s skip the highty-flighty, atmospheric float of intros and get right to the point. Iain M. Banks’ 1996 Excession is gosh-wow, sense-wunda science fiction that pushes the limits of the genre as far into the imagination — and future — as any book has. The AI ship-minds, post-human world-is-your-oyster humanity, and incredible roster of engine speeds, galaxies, drones, weaponry, biological possibilities, planets, orbitals, etc., etc. of previous books have been topped. Banks took a look at the savory milieu of the Culture, cocked his head and asked: “How can I up the ante?” The titular ‘excession’ is the answer.
November 14th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4.5 | Iain M. Banks | BSFA Award | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Peripheral by William Gibson
Reading William Gibson is like learning a new language. At first you struggle. It’s a bit boring, although you can tell that’s just because you don’t understand, that there are exciting things happening under the surface. Then, one day, you’ve learned enough vocabulary and grammar that it starts to click and you can converse.
His latest novel, The Peripheral, which I listened to on audio, read by Lorelei King, follows two interlocking story-lines. One is from the perspective of Flynne,
November 13th, 2014. Kate Lechler, Marion Deeds and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | William Gibson | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone
With each book in THE CRAFT SEQUENCE series I feel more and more out of joint, but intrigued at the same time. Max Gladstone continues to play with concepts like gods and souls in ways that feel very familiar and completely alien all at once. Throw in a lot of reverse gender and religious stereotypes and the world this series depicts is something new and wildly different.
Kai is a priestess working for the ruling order/corporation on the island of Kavekana. The whole feel of the island is very Polynesian for me,
November 13th, 2014. John Hulet and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Max Gladstone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L’Engle
The fifth and final book in Madeleine L’Engle’s TIME quintet is An Acceptable Time, a story about Polly, the daughter of Meg and Calvin, the kids we first met in that now-classic children’s science fiction novel A Wrinkle in Time. (Polly is also featured in a different L’Engle series about the O’Keefe family, and An Acceptable Time is the fourth and final book of that series. Slightly confusing, I know.)
One autumn while Polly is visiting her famous grandparents at their house in the country,
November 13th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Madeleine L'Engle | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
On this day in 1933, Hugh Gray took the first known photos alleged to be of the Loch Ness Monster, who appeared again this past week in a photo taken by a Nessie-enthusiast.
Writing, Editing, and Publishing:
On Sunday, the World Fantasy Award winners were announced. Congrats to all the winners!
From SFSignal, Scarlett Amaris and Melissa St. Hilaire discuss the process and the pros and cons of collaboration on their dark fantasy novel Saurimonde.
November 12th, 2014. Kate Lechler | World Wide Wednesday | 4 comments |
FU MANCHU by Sax Rohmer
The FU MANCHU novels that English author Sax Rohmer wrote over the course of nearly half a century are much beloved today, although their notoriously un-P.C. content has made them the subject of dispute for many years. It has been a while since I have read the 13-book series, and have decided to place all my old thoughts on these books in one place for the FanLit reader who may not be familiar with these works. This overview, by no means in depth, can serve as your one-stop shopping destination for all things Fu.
November 12th, 2014. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Sax Rohmer | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Many Waters by Madeleine L’Engle
Many Waters is the fourth book in Madeleine L’Engle’s TIME quintet. The previous three books, A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and A Swiftly Tilting Planet have all focused on Meg Murray and her strange little brother Charles Wallace as they travel through time and space. Many Waters is completely different. In this story, Meg’s twin brothers Sandy and Dennis mess with a computer in their mother’s lab and get blasted back to the time of Noah before he built the ark.
November 12th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Madeleine L'Engle | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
I believe you are missing the point of this book here. I don't believe the purpose is to tell a…
I love it!
Almost as good as my friend: up-and-coming author Amber Merlini!
I don't know what kind of a writer he is, but Simon Raven got the best speculative-fiction-writing name ever!
[…] Its gotten great reviews from Publishers Weekly (starred review!), Kirkus, Locus, Booklist, Lithub, FantasyLiterature, and more. Some of whom…