David B. Coe / D.B. Jackson is the award-winning author of nineteen fantasy novels. As David B. Coe, he writes THE CASE FILES OF JUSTIS FEARSSON, a contemporary urban fantasy series from Baen Books, including Spell Blind, His Father’s Eyes, and Shadow’s Blade. Under the name D.B. Jackson, he writes THE THIEFTAKER CHRONICLES, a historical urban fantasy from Tor Books that includes Thieftaker, Thieves’ Quarry,
September 30th, 2016. Kate Lechler | D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe | Expanded Universe, Giveaway! | 15 comments |
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
There are two main storylines in Throne of Glass (2012). In one, a deadly assassin is unleashed from prison to travel to the capital and take part in a royal tournament for hired killers where the competitors often meet mysterious and gruesome ends (because, you know, assassin tournament). In the other, an extremely flaky girl tries on lots of expensive dresses, goes to parties, gushes over how pretty she looks today, and flirts with attractive men who like to pamper her with expensive presents.
September 30th, 2016. Tim Scheidler and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2 | Sarah J. Maas | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Ascension Factor by Frank Herbert & Bill Ransom
The Ascension Factor (1988) is the third book Frank Herbert wrote in collaboration with Bill Ransom and the fourth in THE PANDORA SEQUENCE, a series introduced in his novel Destination: Void (1966). It’s a series plagued with problems and tragedy. The Jesus Incident (1979), had to be extensively rewritten at the last moment after a copyright issue threatened to block its publication. The Lazarus Effect (1983),
September 30th, 2016. Rob Weber | Frank Herbert | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
We have finally chosen our winner for Mark Lawrence’s Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off (SPFBO), in which 300 self-published fantasy authors contributed their work to be reviewed by 10 fantasy review blogs. This last round was really tough, containing some of the best of the 30 books we were given. In fact, we had planned to have our winner declared last week, but we needed a little more time for comparison.
In the end, we chose the book that has been at the top of our list since our first round — The Shadow Soul by Kaitlyn Davis — but it just barely edged out three of the books in our last round!
September 29th, 2016. Kat Hooper | SPFBO | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 5 comments |
Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History by Sam Maggs
If you know a young woman who’s interested in the contributions of women to various STEM/STEAM fields, or perhaps were one of those young women at one point in your life, you’ll be pleased to learn that Sam Maggs’ latest non-fiction work, Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History, is an entertaining and surprisingly thorough look at the ways in which women have positively changed the world. The women featured in this book succeeded despite opposition from society as a whole,
September 29th, 2016. Jana Nyman´s rating: 5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski
Based on internal chronology, Blood of Elves (2008) is the third book in Andrzej Sapkowski’s WITCHER series. Its format differs slightly from the previous two books, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny, which are actually story collections. (But don’t think that just because they’re not novels they aren’t necessary; to have the requisite background information you really do need to read both of them before reading Blood of Elves.)
As much as I loved The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny,
September 29th, 2016. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Andrzej Sapkowski | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
This week’s word for Wednesday is anfractuous, an adjective, meaning winding or circuitous. The 16th century word comes from the Latin noun anfractus, meaning a bending.
Awards:
The MacArthur Foundation Fellowships were announced this week, and 23 Fellows were named. The group includes a civil rights lawyer, historians, art historians, linguists, poets, microbiologists, video artists and writers. Of the 23, ten are women. (Thanks to File 770.)
Tor.com lists the British Fantasy Award winners here.
Books and Writing:
Ruth Franklin has published a new book about Shirley Jackson,
September 28th, 2016. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |
The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney
Reading The Wolf in the Attic, by Paul Kearney, was like reading two different books. One of these books was a solid three-star read. The other was very familiar and ultimately unsatisfying, and would probably get a 2.5 star rating from me. I’ll explain at the end of the review how I came to the overall rating I chose.
Kearney’s other work is described as second-world epic fantasy and he is compared to David Gemell.
September 28th, 2016. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Paul Kearney | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle
Peter S. Beagle is a well-known author of many fantasy novels, including the classic The Last Unicorn. However, I don’t often hear mention of his debut novel, A Fine and Private Place (1960), written when he was only 19 years old. Given his age it’s a phenomenal achievement — the prose is polished, filled with pathos and humor, and the characters’ relationships are deftly described. And yet I couldn’t get into the story at all,
September 28th, 2016. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 3 | Peter S. Beagle | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Last year I tried twice (unsuccessfully) to finish The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Retrospective of His Finest Fiction, giving up in defeat. Many SFF readers are baffled and frustrated by his stories, because they are packed with metaphors, literary references, hidden themes, and require extremely close reading to understand and appreciate. I did get a lot of supportive feedback from various readers who encountered the same difficulties, including a very knowledgeable person named “Aramini”.
When the 2016 Hugo Awards were announced, Marc Aramini’s Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe,
September 27th, 2016. Stuart Starosta | Gene Wolfe | Short Fiction | Author Interviews | 2 comments |
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…
Gentlemen, I concur! (Forgive me for jumping into your convo)
The cover is amazing. I love how the graphic novel (and the review!) hewed close to the theme of "good…