Macaque Attack by Gareth L. Powell
For the first two books in Gareth L. Powell’s MACAQUE series, I felt like I was standing in the center of a seesaw or teeter-totter, trying to hold the plank level and balanced. With the third book, Macaque Attack, the totter tipped and threw me off. I can no longer maintain the suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy these adventures.
This review may contain spoilers of all three books, so be warned.
March 31st, 2015. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2 | Gareth L. Powell | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Lost City of Faar by D.J. MacHale
Note: The first paragraph of this review contains minor spoilers for The Merchant of Death.
The Lost City of Faar is the second novel in D.J. MacHale’s popular 10-book PENDRAGON series for teens. In the first book, The Merchant of Death, 14-year old Bobby Pendragon discovered that he is a Traveler — a person who represents a planet and is able to travel through space and time to visit other worlds.
March 31st, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | D.J. MacHale | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Carrie Vaughn opens Issue 169 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies with “Sun, Stone, Spear,” a story about as different from her KITTY NORVILLE series as it seems possible to get. Two young women, Elu and the narrator, Mahra, have decided to leave their home village; Mahra seeks adventure, while Elu wishes to be the chief astronomer of any village in which she lands — not a position she is likely to get in her home village, where there are four apprentice astronomers ahead of her. Their travel to a new village is one frought with danger,
March 30th, 2015. Terry Weyna | Carrie Vaughn, Cat Rambo | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Timeless is the fifth and final book in Gail Carriger’s popular PARASOL PROTECTORATE series which takes place in a Victorian London where vampires and werewolves and other immortal paranormal creatures are integrated into society. Alexia Tarabotti, our spunky heroine, is a “preternatural” — she has the rare ability to cancel out the powers of other supernatural creatures when she touches them.
Over the course of the previous books, Alexia met, fell in love with, and married Lord Conal Maccon, an alpha werewolf.
March 30th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Gail Carriger | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The High Lord by Trudi Canavan
Published in 2003, The High Lord is the action-packed third and final book of Trudi Canavan’s THE BLACK MAGICIAN trilogy. In The High Lord, Canavan brings us back to Sonea’s troubles and her “capture” by Akkarin, the High Lord of the Magician’s Guild. It’s hinted throughout book two, The Novice, that Akkarin might not be as evil and corrupted as his practice of black magic seems to suggest, but it’s in book three that we finally discover some of Akkarin’s motives and end goals.
March 30th, 2015. Kevin Wei´s rating: 2 | Trudi Canavan | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Story of the Amulet by Edith Nesbit
The Story of the Amulet is a sequel to Edith Nesbit’s famous story collection, Five Children and It, in which five siblings discover a wish-granting sand fairy named The Psammead. Each story in Five Children and It tells of a single day when the children ask the Psammead for something they think they want. Their wishes always backfire and give Nesbit the opportunity to humorously illustrate the adage “be careful what you wish for.” At the end of Five Children and It,
March 28th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Edith Nesbit | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Aurora, by Kim Stanley Robinson, has major issues with pacing, characterization, and to some extent, plotting. Which would seem to make this review a no-brainer “not recommended.” But if one can overlook issues of plot, character, and pace (and granted, that’s a Grand Canyon-level overlook), there’s a lot here to often admire and sometimes enjoy, and a reader who perseveres will, I think, not only be happy they did so, but will also find Aurora lingering in their mind for some time.
March 27th, 2015. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
David Walton’s new book Superposition is billed by the publisher as a “quantum physics murder mystery.” Clearly, Walton loves quantum physics and can explain its concepts in an understandable way. Choosing alternating first-person narrators was a stroke of brilliance, upping the suspense, at least in the beginning as the story unfolds.
Jacob Kelly is a physicist who resigned from the New Jersey Super-Collider (Yes! New Jersey has the biggest super-collider in the world in this book!). Now he teaches at Swarthmore College.
March 27th, 2015. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | David Walton | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
George R. Stewart’s Earth Abides (1949) won the International Fantasy Award and was selected as one of David Pringle’s Best 100 SF Novels, but I’m guessing many SFF readers have never heard of it. You may have heard of pastoral SF (ala Clifford Simak), and this book may be best classified as post-holocaust pastoral SF, perhaps even “bucolic SF” (similar books include Leigh Bracket’s Long Tomorrow and Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon).
March 27th, 2015. Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5, 4.5 | George R. Stewart | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Adventure of the Ring of Stones by James P. Blaylock
The Adventure of the Ring of Stones is one of several novellas written by James P. Blaylock that Subterranean Press has published. Each of these is a stand-alone steampunk adventure featuring Langdon St. Ives, the gentleman scientist/adventurer who stars in Blaylock’s LANDGDON ST. IVES novels. It would be helpful, but not at all necessary, to have read the novels Homunculus, Lord Kelvin’s Machine, and The Aylesford Skull before reading this novella.
March 27th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | James P. Blaylock | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
COMMENT Book #3 of this trilogy is very much a heist story, and I quite enjoyed it!
Pirate stories and heist stories... Do we ever get enough of them?
Very interesting, Ulrich! Thanks for clueing me in!
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