Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: August 2017

Thoughtful Thursday: Guess What We’re Reading (giveaway)!

It’s been a couple of years since we played Guess What We’re Reading. Let’s try it again!

Grab a well-known speculative fiction book off the shelf (something you think we should be familiar with), choose a passage and give us 50 words from that passage. Other readers will try to guess your book while you try to guess theirs.

Here are the rules:

Submit as many passages as you like — just put them in separate comments.
When you guess someone’s book, reply directly to that comment so we keep the threads neatly organized.

August 31st, 2017. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 20 comments |

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869: A beautiful story

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869 by Alex Alice

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869 is a beautifully drawn graphic steampunk tale by author/illustrator Alex Alice, whose artwork alone makes the book worth picking up for a middle-grade reader (or relatively advanced younger reader). Luckily, the narrative/text half (translated from the original French by Anne and Owen Smith) has its own charm and strengths, even if it doesn’t quite match the quality of the illustrations.

The tale opens in 1868 with a young woman (Claire) preparing,

August 31st, 2017. Bill Capossere and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Children, Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Summoned Mage: Diary of a misplaced mage

The Summoned Mage by Melissa McShane

Editor’s note: At the time we are posting this review, this 99c at Amazon.

The Summoned Mage (2017) is the diary of Sesskia, a 27 year old thief and secret mage: secret because being a mage is viewed as an executable offense in her country of Balaen. But her magical powers have saved Sesskia’s life before, and in any case are a part of her very self that are both exhilarating and terrifying. So Sesskia wanders from place to place,

August 31st, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Melissa McShane | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

WWWednesday: August 30, 2017

This week’s word for Wednesday is Brennivin, an unsweetened Icelandic schnapps flavored with caraway that is considered the country’s signature beverage. It’s is marketed in the US as akavit. I’d like to say that after today there will be no more Icelandic words, but I can’t guarantee that.

Earth:

This may be outdated by the time the column is posted, but this site allows people to donate diapers to families affected by Hurricane Harvey. Diapers are not considered an emergency supply and generally not provided by government or non-profit emergency relief groups.

August 30th, 2017. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |

The Vintner’s Luck: Magic realism in a nineteenth century vineyard

The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox

In many ways this is a strange book in both content and format, but once you read the first few chapters and get used to the way in which the story is told, The Vintner’s Luck (1998) is a compelling, page-turning read from an author whose style reminds me of a slightly more refined Joanne Harris.

Sobran Jodeau is a young vintner in early nineteenth century Burgundy; lovelorn and a little drunk when he wanders into his vineyards one summer night.

August 30th, 2017. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Elizabeth Knox | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Wytchfire: Old-school epic fantasy

Wytchfire by Michael Meyerhofer

Wytchfire, the first book in Michael Meyerhofer’s DRAGONKIN TRILOGY, is the image of a classic-style epic fantasy of the sort that hasn’t seemed to show up as often since George R.R. Martin and Robin Hobb largely took over for Tolkien as guiding lights of the genre. It’s a fun and lively story, but the reader’s enjoyment may depend on how much s/he enjoys old-school epic fantasy and its associated tropes.

I happen to like old-school epic fantasy,

Plagues: The Microscopic Battlefield

Plagues: The Microscopic Battlefield by Falynn Christine Koch

Plagues: The Microscopic Battlefield (2017) by Falynn Christine Koch is part of the SCIENCE COMICS series, a graphic series of books each of which explores a single scientific topic. In this case, as the title might indicate, it’s plague, but more broadly it’s an examination of how pathogens (bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, parasites) infect and damage the human body, how the body (sometimes with medical help) tries to fight them off, and, to a lesser degree, how such illnesses have affected human history.

August 29th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Comics, Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Crowfield Demon: A dark and creepy supernatural read

The Crowfield Demon by Pat Walsh

In The Crowfield Curse (2012), young William and his friends and allies righted a long-ago wrong at Crowfield Abbey and faced down the terrifying Unseelie King. But now another evil is rising at the abbey — one that has even the Unseelie King running scared.

The Crowfield Demon is even better and spookier than The Crowfield Curse. I didn’t realize how familiar the abbey had begun to feel after one relatively short book;

Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light

Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light by Bob Berman

Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light is a wonderfully smooth and lucid tour of the electromagnetic spectrum by Bob Berman, whose engagingly accessible prose makes this an excellent introduction to the topic for non-scientists.

Berman divides his exploration into two basic parts: how were the various types of light waves discovered and how do they impact our daily lives. Why light? Because, as Berman says, “photons constitute 99.9999999 percent of everything.

August 28th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Jimmy and the Crawler: Plugging a plot hole

Jimmy and the Crawler by Raymond E. Feist

In May 2013 Magician’s End, the final book in Feist’s long running RIFTWAR series, appeared. It was the final chapter in a series that had been going for over thirty years. Earlier that year, Feist published the novella Jimmy and the Crawler to tie up a loose end in the series. As usual with Feist, I read it in Dutch translation. One of the earlier translators of Feist’s works, I think translator Mat Schifferstein is the fourth to have a go at RIFTWAR material,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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