Even more books this week!
Jana: This week was pretty productive, reading-wise! I was swept away by Kat Howard‘s Roses and Rot, utterly charmed by Catherynne M. Valente‘s Space Opera, and glued to my chair during Sarah Beth Durst‘s third QUEENS OF RENTHIA novel, The Queen of Sorrow. (Reviews of Valente’s and Durst’s books are in the works.) I’ve begun reading Robyn Bennis‘
May 6th, 2018. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |
The City on the Other Side by Mairghread Scott & Robin Robinson
A devastating war is being waged between the Seelie and Unseelie courts — Coscar, the Unseelie king, has kidnapped the daughter of King Ro’hish in revenge for the theft of a precious item. Coscar’s campaign has been a long and bloody one, and it seems that he’ll stop at nothing to retrieve what was taken. Meanwhile, in our world, little Isabel comes from a wealthy Latinx family and lives with her mother in San Francisco, sometime shortly after the great Quake of 1906.
May 5th, 2018. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The City of Lost Fortunes by Bryan Camp
Bryan Camp’s debut novel The City of Lost Fortunes (2018) is a loving ode to New Orleans and everything that makes it superlative: the food, the music, the soul-crushing humidity, and of course, the people. Ambitious, insightful, and filled with commentary on the diversity and similarities across world mythologies, this novel is absolutely the product of a writer who is worth keeping an eye on.
Invited to an exquisitely bizarre card game that he’s compelled to attend,
May 4th, 2018. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Bryan Camp | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Magical Match by Juliet Blackwell
In A Magical Match, the ninth book in Juliet Blackwell’s WITCHCRAFT MYSTERIES, vintage clothing store owner Lily Ivory is preparing for her wedding, but something is wrong with her groom. He’s been acting strangely, and then he is accused of a murder. Witnesses saw him at the scene, and it looks like an open and shut case, until Lily realizes there may be a magical explanation. Can she discover the truth and get her fiancé out of jail before the wedding?
May 4th, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Juliet Blackwell | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Swordsman of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline
A few weeks back, I had some words to say about a book that was supposedly a major inspiration for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ JOHN CARTER OF MARS series, particularly the first two of the 11: A Princess of Mars (1912) and The Gods of Mars (1913). The book was Edwin L. Arnold’s Gulliver of Mars (1905), and anyone who’s read it must be forcibly struck by the similarities between the two authors’ conceptions of the distant Red Planet.
May 3rd, 2018. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Otis Adelbert Kline | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Armored Saint by Myke Cole
In Heloise’s land, the foremost rule of the Order is clear: “Suffer no wizard to live.” For the exercise of magical powers, it is said, will open a portal to hell through the eyes of the wizard, allowing devils to come through and wreak destruction among men. But all sixteen year old Heloise can see is the oppression of the religious Order, which allows its Sojourners and Pilgrims to bully and oppress the common people. Anyone even suspected of using magical powers, or protecting those who have such powers,
May 3rd, 2018. Tadiana Jones and Jana Nyman´s rating: 2.5 | Myke Cole | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
The Diminished by Kaitlyn Sage Patterson
A shattered moon, broken into two halves, is featured on the cover of The Diminished (2018), Kaitlyn Sage Patterson’s debut YA fantasy novel. It’s an apt symbol for the world created in this novel: the vast majority of people are born as twins, with a mystical emotional tie between them. The chapters alternate between the points of view of two sixteen year old characters at opposite end of society: defiant Vi, one of the diminished, and kindhearted Bo, the designated heir to the throne.
May 2nd, 2018. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Kaitlyn Sage Patterson | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Scourged (2018)is the ninth and final novel in Kevin Hearne’s IRON DRUID CHRONICLES. This has been a great series and I have looked forward to the release of each book as well as all of the related novellas and short stories. The IRON DRUID CHRONICLES is especially wonderful in the audio versions (Random House Audio) performed by the fabulous Luke Daniels. I’m absolutely certain I enjoyed them even more in audio than I would have in print format.
May 2nd, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Kevin Hearne | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The giant robots are back! Only Human (2018) wraps up Sylvain Neuvel’s excellent THEMIS FILES science fiction trilogy with some surprising plot turns. *Expect some spoilers for the first two books, Sleeping Giants and Waking Gods*
At the end of Waking Gods, the robot called Themis was suddenly transported back home to her original planet by remote command of her alien makers,
May 1st, 2018. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Sylvain Neuvel | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Medusa Uploaded by Emily Devenport
Medusa Uploaded (2018), Volume One of Emily Devenport’s THE MEDUSA CYCLE, begins with two bodies being expelled through the far-future generation ship Olympia’s airlock — bodies formerly belonging to living members of the Executive class of the ship’s inhabitants, and who were deliberately killed for a host of reasons ultimately boiling down to pure, simple revenge. But why is this revenge necessary, and who is stalking the men and women of this elite upper crust,
May 1st, 2018. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Emily Devenport | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
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…
I've thought about picking that one up. The artwork looks perfect.
I like the way you think, Bill. I found the second one particularly objectionable; the one with Khan. It was…
I find if I take every Trek reference out of them (the title, the character names, the ship names, etc.),…