The Valley of Shadows by John Ringo & Mike Massa
My experience with authors who write in another author’s world has been mixed. On the good side you have the work that Janny Wurts did with Raymond Feist in the EMPIRE CYCLE. On the less impressive side you have The Valley of Shadows (2018). This is the fifth installment in the BLACK TIDE RISING series and takes a tangential track describing what happens with Tom Smith, the corporate security guru,
November 12th, 2018. John Hulet´s rating: 2 | John Ringo | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
We read a few more fun books this week!
Bill: This week I finally finished Seth Dickinson’s The Monster Baru Cormorant, a novel I admired more than enjoyed. I also read How to Love the Universe: A Scientist’s Odes to the Hidden Beauty Behind the Visible World by Stefan Klein, a nicely written overview of a dozen or so major concepts of modern physics. On audio, I continue to be captivated by Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Our Worst by Robert M.
November 11th, 2018. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |
Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) completely reinvented Batman as an angry and bitter older man coming out of retirement to stem a rising tide of crime in Gotham City alongside Police Commissioner Jim Gordon. This was a dark vision of a complex and troubled soul driven to fight crime to avenge his parent’s senseless death, and it resonated with a new generation of readers and gained comics greater credibility among mainstream readers. Just one year later Miller produced a four-part story arc called Batman: Year One (1987).
November 10th, 2018. Stuart Starosta and Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Frank Miller | Comics, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Nevada Baylor is getting married to Connor Rogan, and when Rogan’s mother Arrosa shuts down their plans for a small and simple wedding, insisting on a full-scale formal wedding, a couple of things happen. Nevada inexplicably gets incredibly fussy and controlling about the wedding details, firing two wedding planners, and her beleaguered 18 and 16 year old sisters Catalina and Arabella decide that the only feasible option is to handle the wedding planning themselves. And a large crowd of Rogan’s Spanish relatives on his mother’s side descends on Mrs.
November 9th, 2018. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Ilona Andrews | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Let’s get this out of the way early. Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver (2018) is not perfect. It’s a little overlong, with a bit of a pacing issue about two-thirds of the way through. Beyond that, other problems include … no, wait. I forgot. There are no other problems. And I lifted up each and every page to check under them. Zip. Nada. Nothing. So yeah, the biggest problem with Spinning Silver is kind of like the problem you have when the waiter brings out your chocolate cake dessert,
November 9th, 2018. Bill Capossere, Tadiana Jones, Taya Okerlund and Nathan Okerlund´s rating: 5 | Naomi Novik | Locus Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez
This silly little tale is about a beautiful witch who doesn’t have a name. When she was young she was taken in by an old ugly witch who educated her in magic spells and other witchiness. Part of her education involved learning how to make herself appear ugly with sloppy clothes, hair coverings, and warts, because nobody trusts a beautiful witch.
After the death of her mentor, the young nameless witch was on her own, though she acquired a few companions: an enchanted broom,
November 8th, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | A. Lee Martinez | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Fans of Meg Cabot’s MEDIATOR series thought it was over back in 2005 with Twilight, but in 2016, Cabot published this novella as book “6.5” before publishing another full novel (Remembrance) that year. This review will have some spoilers for the series, so please don’t read further if you intend to read MEDIATOR.
Suze is now in college and Jesse is in med school.
November 7th, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Meg Cabot | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
I always find it a little nerve-wracking when an author returns to a successful series after a long time away. There’s always the fear, for me at least, that one of two things is going to happen: either the author will be nostalgic about the original work to the extent that s/he makes the new book into a fawning tribute without substance, or the author will have changed enough in the time between installments that the magic is just gone. I’m happy to say, though, that Philip Pullman‘s new novel dispels both of those fears.
November 7th, 2018. Tim Scheidler, Ray McKenzie, Katie Burton and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3, 4.5 | Philip Pullman | Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Loved Dead and Other Tales by C.M. Eddy, Jr.
Sometimes, it seems, a little notoriety can be a good thing. Take, for example, the case of the legendary pulp magazine Weird Tales. Though famously cash strapped for most of its 32-year run, during its earliest days, in 1923, things looked especially bleak for the nascent publication. On the very brink of bankruptcy, editor Edwin Baird decided to purchase, against his better judgment, a story by a Providence, Rhode Island-born writer named C.M. Eddy, Jr.
Eddy had already had a few of his weird tales released in the pages of Weird Tales,
November 6th, 2018. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3 | C.M. Eddy_Jr | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Gates of Eden by Brian Stableford
Lee Caretta is a geneticist who has been sent, along with a xenobiologist, to the newly discovered planet of Naxos to investigate the mysterious deaths of the first exploratory team to arrive on the planet. As far as anyone knows, there are no sentient species on Naxos, but Lee and his colleagues will learn that there is life on Naxos, and it is strange and dangerous.
But it’s not only the new planet that is hostile. There is some political and personal intrigue going on,
November 6th, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Brian Stableford | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…
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…