Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: June 2017

Archangel: A grand sweeping love story

Archangel by Sharon Shinn

Gabriel is about to become Archangel. He is required to lead the annual singing of the Gloria on the Plains of Sharon in just a few months with his wife, the angelica, at his side. There is just one problem: Gabriel isn’t married. Faced with this dilemma, he goes to the oracle to find out who he is supposed to marry, and is given the name of a woman, Rachel, but he has no idea where to find her. With the months slipping away before his voice raised in song is the only thing that can turn away the wrath of the god Jovah,

June 16th, 2017. Ruth Arnell and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Sharon Shinn | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom: …and all for the want of a slide rule

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom by Bradley W. Schenck

Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom (2017) is a sleek and shiny illustrated novel from Bradley W. Schenck, one that pays homage to the much-venerated Golden Age of science fiction while slipping a fair amount of modern social commentary beneath the chromed and bubble-helmeted exterior, and imparting the lesson that a well-equipped backpack will get you through most situations. Also, slide rules are important. Get yourself one if you don’t have one already, and if you do have one,

Our Dark Duet: Brings Schwab’s duology to a poignant and powerful close

Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

This Savage Song (2016), Schwab’s first book in her MONSTERS OF VERITY duology, introduced this world and its sharply drawn main characters Kate and August via a well and smoothly told story that ended with a great closing scene that whetted the reader’s desire for more of this story. In Our Dark Duet (2017), Schwab happily delivers with an equally-good sequel that resolves the narrative fully, though I for one wouldn’t mind if the author were to show us a few more nooks and crannies of this fascinating world.

Flame in the Mist: In this forest, there is no place to hide…

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

We meet our protagonist, the rather precious Mariko, being carried roughly through the forest in her palanquin. Next thing she’s the target of an attempted assassination. So begins our tale of magic, samurai and deception in Flame in the Mist‘s ancient, feudal Japan.

Mariko is on the way to the Imperial Palace to meet her betrothed when her convoy is attacked. At just seventeen years old, she has little say in such minor matters as her future husband.

WWWednesday: June 14, 2017

This week’s word for Wednesday is the noun aquatile. An aquatile is a creature that lives in water. I’m guessing it can also be used as an adjective. Can one have “an aquatile lifestyle?”

Books and Writing:

Likhain is an artist, currently on the shortlist for a Hugo in 2017. File 770 printed the Artist Guest of Honor speech she gave at Continuum 13.

The New York Times has a story about Books of Wonder, a famed children’s bookstore, that is opening a second location as a contingency against a possible lease hike in 2019.

June 14th, 2017. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 10 comments |

The Kill Society: There are parts of Hell even Sandman Slim hasn’t seen

The Kill Society by Richard Kadrey

The Kill Society (2017) is the ninth SANDMAN SLIM book, even if Stark prefers to go by Stark now, rather than the name he was given when he fought in the arena in Hell. Hell is not the eternal absence of God, or some theoretical dimension of punishment; it’s a county, a landscape. And Stark, alive or dead, is very familiar with it. In The Kill Society, Kadrey takes Stark, and us,

This Savage Song: Great premise tied to strong characterization

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

This Savage Song (2016) is the first book in the MONSTERS OF VERITY duology by Victoria Schwab and it’s a strong entry point — fast moving, smoothly told, with a compellingly dark premise and engaging, interesting characters. Even better, there’s no drop off in book two (Our Dark Duet), so I can unabashedly recommend the entire story to readers.

The setting is an alternate world where the US broke up after the Vietnam War into nearly a dozen territories.

June 14th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

City At World’s End: Going Vegan

City At World’s End by Edmond Hamilton

Written near the dawn of the Cold War era and soon after mankind first became aware of the fearful possibilities of the atom bomb, City at World’s End yet remains both highly readable and grippingly entertaining today, more than 65 years after its initial appearance. Edmond Hamilton’s book initially as a “complete novel” in the July 1950 issue of the pulp magazine Starling Stories, was released in hardcover the following year, and, in ’53,

Robert Jackson Bennett talks DIVINE CITIES

Robert Jackson Bennett first came to our attention in 2010 with his Depression-era dark fantasy Mr. Shivers. He won the Shirley Jackson Award for that book. He has since published The Company Man (which won an Edgar Award and a special citation from the Philip K. Dick award), The Troupe and American Elsewhere, which garnered him another Shirley Jackson Award. The first book in his breath-taking DIVINE CITIES trilogy,

June 13th, 2017. Marion Deeds, Bill Capossere and Kate Lechler | Robert Jackson Bennett | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 22 comments |

Soleri: Unoriginal but engaging, potential marred by execution

Soleri by Michael Johnston

Soleri (2017), by Michael Johnston, isn’t going to make anyone marvel at its originality, which in and of itself isn’t necessarily a problem. I’ve said many a time that with genre books, often one can get away with employing standard tropes in terms of characters and plots so long as the craft and execution is there. Unfortunately, Johnston doesn’t quite succeed with either, and so despite having some potential, it’s hard to recommend Soleri at this point,

June 13th, 2017. Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 2.5, 3.5 | Michael Johnston | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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