Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: August 2017

The Greatest Adventure: Dinosaurs and dynamite

The Greatest Adventure by John Taine

In the 1957 Universal film The Land Unknown, a quartet of men and one woman discover a tropical wonderhell 3,000 feet below sea level in the frozen wastes of Antarctica, replete with killer plants and savage dinosaurs. But, as it turns out, this was not the first time that four men and one woman had battled prehistoric monsters and inimical flora in a surprisingly balmy valley on the frozen continent. That honor, it would seem, goes to a book called, fittingly enough,

Double Cross: Characters evolve and develop

Double Cross by Carolyn Crane

If Mind Games is where Carolyn Crane sets up her world, Double Cross (2010) is where she hits her stride. The world has been built and Crane can really take her time to enjoy the plot and flesh out her characters. Usually the second book in a trilogy suffers a bit, but this one doesn’t. Characters evolve and develop. Crane turns flaws into impressive strengths and the twist at the end rather surprised me and added a nice tragic note to everything.

August 18th, 2017. Sarah Chorn´s rating: 4 | Carolyn Crane | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Spirits of Glory: A unique, surreal world

Spirits of Glory by Emily Devenport

Recently, author Emily Devenport approached me with a request to review her young adult novel Spirits of Glory. I was not familiar with Devenport, but a quick search told me she has published several novels under three different pen names, one of which earned her a Philip K. Dick Award nomination. Spirits of Glory (2010) is self-published, and I tend to avoid such books after a number of negative experiences. Given Devenport’s resume, however, I wasn’t too worried I’d end up with a poorly written piece of fiction,

Servants of the Storm: Hurricanes and demons in Savannah

Servants of the Storm by Delilah S. Dawson

I spent a few months on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The disaster I saw was staggering, and the soul of the area was absolutely clear. There were a lot of frayed and frazzled, dark emotions, but there was also a lot of hope.

Because of that experience, Servants of the Storm (2014) has been on my radar for a while. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was interested in seeing how a talented author could take a natural disaster and turn it into a young adult novel.

Mystic: Enchanting

Mystic by Jason Denzel

I almost didn’t read Mystic (2015). I got through about three pages, and I was 90% sure I would put it down. However, I pulled through, and in the end I’m glad I did. This book enchanted me, and once I got used to the thing that bothered me at first (which I will expand on below), it was easy to ignore because there was so much else for me to enjoy.

So what bothered me so much at the start? Honestly,

August 18th, 2017. Sarah Chorn´s rating: 4 | Jason Denzel | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Little Brother: Techno-anarchy for juveniles

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

I’m willing to bear with a writer whose style is less than polished if they have — or seem to have — good ideas. I’m willing to set aside wooden characterization if it serves a larger purpose. I’ll accept a little glossing over if the intentions are good. I’m even willing to ignore large holes in ideology if the story is good. Unfortunately for Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (2008), the combination of these flaws is too heavy. With all of these issues glaringly apparent,

Thoughtful Thursday: Rename this horrible cover!

We’re always on the lookout for horrible SFF covers that need renaming.

When we tweeted our review for this book last week, author Myke Cole pointed out that this awful cover is really begging to be renamed:

Folks. This cover is crying out for alternate titles. Something more clever than “Behold! My glowing junk!” Please. https://t.co/UKieUzZ2ZO

— Myke Cole (@MykeCole) August 11, 2017

Yeah, he’s right, and there are lots of good suggestions in that thread (my favorite is “Gold Member”

August 17th, 2017. FanLit | Myke Cole, Orson Scott Card | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 10 comments |

Wicked Like a Wildfire: Edgy YA heroine, unique setting, extravagant imagery

Wicked Like a Wildfire by Lana Popović

In Wicked Like a Wildfire (2017), magic and secrecy swirl around Iris and Malina, a pair of seventeen year old fraternal twins who live in current-day Montenegro with their single mother, Jasmina. Jasmina confides to them that all of the women in their family have a distinct gleam, a magical way to create and enhance beauty. Jasmina bakes marvelous foods that call particular visual scenes to the minds of those who eat them. Malina can sense moods and reflect them back with an amazing voice that creates layers of harmony.

The Changeling: A rich dark fairy tale for the Information Age

The Changeling by Victor LaValle

“How do we protect our children?” Cal said quietly.
Apollo watched the soft little shape in his hand. “Obviously I don’t know.”

Victor LaValle’s novel The Changeling (2017) is a five-star book, one of the year’s best. I predict this thoughtful modern dark fantasy novel — or it might be horror — will be shortlisted on several awards and Best Of lists.

LaValle takes the tropes of traditional middle European fairy tales and blends them perfectly with a view of modern living,

WWWednesday: August 16, 2017

The Hugo Awards were awarded on August 11 at WorldCon in Helsinki, Finland. N.K. Jemisin won for the second year in a row for The Obelisk Gate, the second in her BROKEN EARTH trilogy. The third book in the trilogy, The Stone Sky, just came out yesterday, so anyone who likes to wait until trilogies are complete before reading any of their parts can now dive in! Oh, and here’s some late-breaking news: TNT is developing the first book in the trilogy,

August 16th, 2017. Terry Weyna | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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