Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: July 2018

The Future is Blue: Life, and this collection, is like a box of chocolates

The Future is Blue by Catherynne M. Valente

Fans of Catherynne M. Valente who especially love her line-by-line prose will be pleased with her 2018 story collection, The Future is Blue. Fifteen of Valente’s shorter works are showcased here. The title piece is a novelette. The similarity they share is the priority of narrative voice and prose above other story elements, even those of character and plot.

I recommend that readers who love Valente’s prose consider this book as a box of gourmet chocolates,

Raven Stratagem: A must-read for fans of Ninefox Gambit

Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee

In the second installment of Yoon Ha Lee’s MACHINERIES OF EMPIRE series, Raven Stratagem (2017), Captain Kel Charis finds herself possessed by the 300-odd year old General Shuos Jedao. Naturally, Jedao’s existence isn’t good news for anyone nearby, which a Kel fleet soon discovers when Jedao (posing as Charis) takes command of the fleet for reasons unknown. Though Jedao has promised to carry out the fleet’s original mission, fighting the heritical Haftn whose exotic technologies mysteriously function in calendrical space,

July 30th, 2018. Kevin Wei´s rating: 4 | Yoon Ha Lee | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Ruin of Angels: Gods, sisterhood and venture capitalism collide

Ruin of Angels by Max Gladstone

Ruin of Angels, published in 2017, is Max Gladstone’s sixth book in the CRAFT series. This story follows Kai, a priestess we met in Full Fathom Five. Kai is a, well, a “venture priestess.” She creates internal spiritual spaces for clients, and invests in projects that reach into the metaphysical — as everything in this world does. A project has brought her to Agdel Lex, a modern city nested in the time and space of Alikand and a dead city as well,

July 30th, 2018. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Max Gladstone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |

Sunday Status Update: July 29, 2018

We read a lot of fun books in this last full week of July!

Bill: I’ve been away on a long family road trip and then a family reunion, so I’ve missed some weeks. Mostly I was hiking, but I did get some fit some reading in between, including all six (so far) of Max Gladstone’s CRAFT series, which I liked quite a bit obviously; Every Hidden Thing, a rare disappointment from Kenneth Oppel, and Equations of Life,

July 29th, 2018. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |

Shadow of the Scorpion: Agent Cormac’s origin story

Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher

Shadow of the Scorpion (2008) is the fifth in Neal Asher’s AGENT CORMAC subseries, but first in terms of internal chronology, and second in the overall chronology of the POLITY series. Describing the events of Cormac’s youth, as well as his first years training as a soldier, it reveals how he came to be in Sparkind and involved in so much graphic, rip-roaring action across the Prador-infested galaxy.

Split into two storylines,

July 28th, 2018. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 2 | Neal Asher | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Secret of This Book: A great buffet of literature

The Secret of This Book by Brian W. Aldiss

Brian Aldiss was one of the most versatile writers in speculative fiction. Published in a variety of forms (poetry, plays, short fiction, novels, and non-fiction), a variety of genres and sub-genres (fantasy, science fiction, and realism — to cover the big ones) and in a variety of writing styles, his dynamism, willingness to try new modes, and experimentation with prose made him one of the most important writers in the field. Capturing this versatility is Aldiss’s 1995 collection The Secret of This Book.

Fatale (Vol. 5): Curse the Demon: A fitting close to the Fatale series

Fatale (Vol. 5): Curse the Demon by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

In the fifth and final book of Fatale — Curse the Demon — Ed Brubaker returns us to Nicolas Lash’s story throughout most of the book. The year is 2014, and Jo, our femme fatale, has decided to fight back, and with Bishop, or Sommerset, on her trail, it doesn’t take much to lure him in. The question is who is luring whom, because from Sommerset’s perspective, he’s the one reeling Jo in so that they’ll meet in a grand finale.

The Parafaith War: Interesting premise, too many problems

The Parafaith War by L.E. Modesitt Jr

In our far future, a young man named Trystin Desoll is a soldier in the long war that his high-tech civilization has been fighting with the Revs, a society of religious zealots. The Revs, who are outgrowing their own planet, believe that the Eco-Techs are sinful because they use brain implants and other technology to improve their bodies. Therefore, the Revs think it’s permissible for them to wipe out Trystin’s civilization, and they’ve been trying to do this for decades.

Trystin is rising rapidly in the Eco-Tech military.

Thoughtful Thursday: 2018 Hugo Awards: Series, YA, Campbell

The 2018 Hugo Awards will be presented at Worldcon 76 in San Jose, California, on August 19. The Hugo Award finalists are chosen by readers who are voting members of Worldcon. This week we’ll talk about the awards for Best Series, Best Young Adult Novel, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author. We discussed the categories for short works a few weeks ago and we’ll discuss the novels and novellas in our August 9 column.

Best series (in its second year) has a bumper crop of great stories. This category points out,

July 26th, 2018. Marion Deeds | Hugo Award | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 12 comments |

The Book of Secrets: Introducing a magical bookstore with oracle powers

The Book of Secrets by Melissa McShane

Helena Davies, a twenty-one year old who’s been living in her parents’ basement since dropping out of community college for lack of funds, is at loose ends and clueless about her future. She needs a job ― any job ― while she tries to figure out what she wants to do with her life. Surprisingly, the proprietor of Abernathy’s Bookstore immediately hires her, despite her sparse resume. But her new boss barely has time to have her sign an employment agreement (“I … swear to uphold the standards of Abernathy’s without fear or favor,

July 26th, 2018. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Melissa McShane | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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