Royal Airs is the second book in Sharon Shinn’s ELEMENTAL BLESSINGS series. I loved the first book, Troubled Waters, which was a light romantic fantasy that told the story of Zoe Ardelay, a young woman who was brought to the royal court of Welce to be the fifth wife of its king. She discovered that she had power over the element of water and, using the personality traits that her water spirit gave her, she successfully navigated the dangers of the court and found true love.
December 31st, 2014. Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 2.5 | Sharon Shinn | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The original HYPERION duology was a great success for Dan Simmons. It won him numerous awards and accolades, not to mention rave reviews and huge sales figures. The setting so fertile, Simmons indulged further, producing additional books typically called the ENDYMION duology. No less imaginative and visual, the pair, Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, nevertheless take Simmons’ universe in a new direction: where Hyperion focused on mythological quests for power from a base of Keats’
December 31st, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3.5 | Dan Simmons | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
More Than This by Patrick Ness
Patrick Ness casts his line with five words, and we are hooked: “Here is the boy, drowning.” Seth is sixteen years old when we meet him, and about to die. He is out at sea with the icy tide dragging him out further and further in a terrifying opening for Ness’s Young Adult novel, More Than This. And then his shoulder blade “snaps in two so loudly he can hear the crack.” Seth drowns.
But impossibly,
December 30th, 2014. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4 | Patrick Ness | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, the foremost husband-and-wife writing team in sci-fi history, produced their novels and short stories under a plethora of pen names, as well as their own, and for the past half century it has been a sort of literary game to puzzle out which author was the primary contributor to any particular work. This has apparently been far from a simple task, as either writer was perfectly capable of picking up the other’s thoughts in mid-paragraph and carrying on.
December 30th, 2014. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | C.L. Moore | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Stephen King’s Under the Dome is long. I mean, long. The manuscript weighs in at 8.6 kg and Time magazine quoted King himself saying he’d be “killing a lot of trees” with his next novel. But when you read the book’s premise, and begin to understand what King had set out to do, it begins to make sense…
Under the Dome opens in Chester’s Mill, a small Maine town which is suddenly and inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world by a dome.
December 29th, 2014. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3.5 | Stephen King | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison, Scot and David Tipton, illustrated by J.K. Woodward
“The City on the Edge of Forever” is almost universally considered one of the best, if not the best, Star Trek episodes. Famously penned by Harlan Ellison, and nearly as famously changed quite a bit, IDW Comics has come out with a comic of Ellison’s original Hugo-winning teleplay. Done in five installments via collaboration between Ellison and Scot and David Tipton, and illustrated by J.K.
December 29th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Harlan Ellison | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
How do you fight an enemy that can read your every thought, and another that has been designed and bred for war? In 2029, according to Will McIntosh’s novel Defenders, that’s the most impending question humanity needs to answer if it wants to survive.
Having achieved critical acclaim in 2013 with Love Minus Eighty, McIntosh’s newest novel is a fast-paced and visceral exploration of morality and war. Earth has been invaded by the Luyten,
December 29th, 2014. João Eira´s rating: 4 | Will McIntosh | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Lone Wolf and Cub (Vol. 5): Black Wind by Kazuo Koike
Black Wind, Volume 5 of the Lone Wolf and Cub, series does some good work in moving forward the main story arc by giving us further insights into the events that brought about the downfall of the Ogami clan especially in regards to the motivations of the insidious Yagyu clan. It’s always interesting in these stories to see how Ogami is both something of a selfless hero and at the same time a remorseless killer truly willing to follow the ‘demon’s road’ of Meifumado and abjure normal human feelings and values no matter their cost to himself and others.
December 27th, 2014. Terry Lago´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Vacant is the fourth book in Alex Hughes’ MINDSPACE INVESTIGATIONS. I absolutely loved the first three books, Clean, Sharp, and Marked (read my reviews) and this has been my favorite series for the past couple of years. Marked was my favorite book of 2013. However, I didn’t like Vacant as well and I hope (and expect) that this is just a minor setback in the series.
December 26th, 2014. John Hulet´s rating: 2.5 | Alex Hughes | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Lone Wolf and Cub (Vol. 4): The Bell Warden by Kazuo Koike
The Bell Warden, Volume 4 of Lone Wolf and Cub, is still obviously chock full of action and bloodshed as Ogami continues cutting a swath through Tokugawa-era Japan on his path of vengeance. The main story arc doesn’t get a significant push forward here, hence the slightly lower rating from previous volumes, though we do get a lot of details on Tokugawa-era Japan and more than a few interesting things in the stories Koike &
December 26th, 2014. Terry Lago´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no 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…