Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: July 2017

Anna Dressed in Blood: A unique start to a YA horror series

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

I usually struggle a bit with young adult books, however, Kendare Blake’s Anna Dressed in Blood (2011) was a book I was really excited to see in my mailbox. First of all, the title is catchy and so is the cover. But it was the idea that really caught me — a teenage boy falling for a serial killer ghost. Interesting. How on earth could an author turn something like that into a book geared toward teens?

Blake does a great job at creating a world that is both familiar and different for readers to immerse themselves in.

Abandoned Cars and The Lonesome Go by Tim Lane

Abandoned Cars and The Lonesome Go by Tim Lane: The Myths of America(ns) in Comics (an essay review)

Tim Lane’s two books — Abandoned Cars and The Lonesome Go — are near perfect in their look into an America filled with wanderers, hobos, misfits, and your average guy struggling to make it in a country that seems to withhold the promises it is famous for making. These are the stories of dreamers who lost their way,

July 15th, 2017. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

A Gathering of Ravens: If Robert E. Howard and Poul Anderson collaborated on a novel…

A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden

Grimnir is a monster, literally. The Norse call him skraelingr. To the Irish, he is the fomoraig, and to the English he is an orcneas. Born and raised to do war, for and against the old gods. Immortal, they spend their endless lives, longing for glory in the final battle of Ragnarok.

So Grimnir’s disposition is already brutal, but to add to it, he’s the very last of his kind. To say he’s a pissed-off is a gross understatement.

Nemesis Games: Provides the backstory we’ve all been craving

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey

Naomi swirled the milky liquid in her glass, watching it slosh against the sides, a miniature sea, complete with little icebergs. “We need to talk,” she said.

Holden winced a bit inside, but forced his words to come out lighter than they felt in his head. “You mean man-woman talk, Captain-XO talk, or . . .”

“More of the ‘or’ type.”

“So, what’s on your mind?” He leaned back against the bulkhead. Space-grade permasteel she thought, but between man and metal,

July 14th, 2017. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | James S.A. Corey | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

The Illearth War: Lord Foul strikes back

The Illearth War by Stephen Donaldson

Reading The Illearth War (1978), the second book in Stephen Donaldson’s THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT, I can’t help but be reminded of The Empire Strikes Back. This is in comparison to the strong THE LORD OF THE RINGS feel exuded by Lord Foul’s Bane, the first book in the series. Both Illearth and Empire are the middle story in a trilogy (and like THOMAS COVENANT,

July 13th, 2017. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3 | Stephen R. Donaldson | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Sixth Annual Speculative Fiction Limerick Contest

It’s time for our annual Fantasy Limerick contest!

Your task is to create a limerick that has something to do with speculative fiction. It could be about a character, a series, an author, or whatever fits the theme. Here are the rules for creating a good limerick (quoting from this source). A limerick:

is five lines long
is based on the rhythm “da-da-DAH” (anapest meter)
has two different rhymes
Lines 1, 2, and 5 have three of those da-da-DAH “feet,” and rhyme with each other.

July 13th, 2017. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 50 comments |

The Gauntlet: A celebration of family and culture

The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi

Karuna Riazi has already made a name for herself on social media; if you’ve seen or used the widely popular Twitter hashtag #yesallwomen, you have Riazi to thank for it, along with her many other meaningful contributions to conversations about diversity, inclusivity, and representation in media. This year, her debut middle-grade novel The Gauntlet (2017) was published, and it is every bit as positive, well-crafted, and insightful as her non-fiction.

Birthdays ought to be a big deal for any child,

The Stars, Like Dust: Asimov’s least favorite of all his novels still offers much

The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov’s very first novel, Pebble in the Sky (1950), was the opening salvo in what would later be known as his GALACTIC EMPIRE trilogy, and was set some 50,000 years in Earth’s future.

It may surprise some potential readers to learn, then, that book 2 in the series, The Stars, Like Dust (the use of a comma after the word “Stars” is not present anywhere in my 1963 Lancer paperback,

Down Among the Sticks and Bones: Inventive, enthralling, heartbreaking

Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire

Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway (2016) introduces the reader to a reality in which some children get swept away to other worlds. These worlds of whimsy or darkness (and everything in between) become home to the children so much so that they are devastated if they are forced to leave. If they do come back to our world, a fortunate few may find kindred spirits at Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the setting of that first novella.

WWWednesday: July 12, 2017

UPDATE: Kelly Lasiter won Jeopardy last night!
Awards:

Baen Books has announced the finalists in the Baen Adventure Award. The award will be presented at GenCon on August 19, 2017.

Books and Writing:

Junot Diaz interviews Margaret Atwood about The Handmaid’s Tale. This is a thoughtful and terrifying interview.

Here is an interesting article about an artist who visited the sites of 17 libraries along the Silk Road.

Demonyms are not for naming demons.

July 12th, 2017. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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