One Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron
One Good Dragon Deserves Another (2015) is the second book in Rachel Aaron’s self-published HEARTSTRIKERS series. I listened to Audible Studio’s editions of these books with my 19-year-old daughter. We love the story and the performance of Vikas Adam, the narrator. This review will have some spoilers for the previous book, Nice Dragons Finish Last. If you haven’t read it, you should probably stop here and go do that first.
December 9th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Rachel Aaron | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Conventions go on, or try to, at least. File770 posts some information about bids for future WorldCons. And then, speaking of conventions, here’s what happens when a new variant emerges. It looks like people were quick to get tested and notify each other.
Itzak Perlman is featured in this instrumental version of Abraham Goldfaden’s lullaby “Raisins and Almonds.” There is no real video, so my recommendation is to leave it playing in the background.
The UK Guardian offers up the five best SF novels of 2021.
December 8th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The Liar’s Knot by M.A. Carrick
The Liar’s Knot (2021), M.A. Carrick’s follow-up to the quite good The Mask of Mirrors, does not disappoint as a sequel, offering up the same level of complex plotting, strong characterization, and fluid writing seen in book one even as it (mostly) avoids the dreaded MBS (Middle Book Syndrome). It’s nigh on impossible to discuss it without major (and I mean major) spoilers for book one, so if you haven’t read The Mask of Mirrors,
December 8th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | M.A. Carrick | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamad
Whether it’s writing weird horror, fantasy, science fiction or science horror fiction — a subgenre I think I just made up — Premee Mohamad is one of the best around right now, and she does great work in the novella length. Her latest example is 2021’s The Annual Migration of Clouds, a short, harrowing work set in a tight-knit community surviving after catastrophic climate change and a loss of arable topsoil.
Reid is a teenaged girl in a small,
December 7th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Premee Mohamed | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters (2021), by Henry Gee is a, stay with me here, concisely told history of life on Earth. Really, it’s all in the title there. So you pretty much know upfront what you’re going to get. A broad, but not deep, fast-paced glide through the major elements of how life evolved from its earliest bacteria days to the more complex (if not “better”) days of,
December 6th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Kat: My daughter and I finished Marissa Meyer’s final LUNAR CHRONICLES novel, Winter, and now we’re reading a collection of prequel stories for that series. I finally finished Poul Anderson’s The Boat of a Million Years. I’m not sure what I’m going to read next but I have more than 50 audiobooks loaded onto my phone (most are review copies!), so there are many choices!
Bill: I remain buried under student papers, but did manage to finish M.A.
December 5th, 2021. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 2 comments |
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth (Vol. 4): The Devil’s Engine and The Long Death by Mike Mignola (writer), John Arcudi (writer), Tyler Crook (artist), James Harren (artist), Dave Stewart (colorist), and Clem Robins (letterer).
B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth (Vol. 4) gets off to a quick start. In The Devil’s Engine, we begin in New Mexico with Fenix the psychic boarding a train that, she says, makes her uncomfortable. This can be only a bad sign from a psychic. She’s accompanied by field agent Andrew Devon from the B.P.R.D.
December 4th, 2021. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Mike Mignola | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron
Julius Heartstriker is the youngest son of Bethesda Heartstriker, the ambitious, aggressive, and ruthless matriarch of the powerful Heartstriker dragon clan. Bethesda is disappointed in her youngest son. He’s small, weak, nonthreatening and, worst of all, he actually likes humans. He’s just too nice.
To express her displeasure, and to put a fire in Julius’s belly, Bethesda banishes him to the Detroit Free Zone, a place ruled by an ancient spirit named Algonquin. Pretty much anything goes in the DFZ, but one thing that Algonquin won’t tolerate in her realm is dragons.
December 3rd, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Rachel Aaron | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
It’s the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!
What is the best book you read in November 2021 and why did you love it? It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. We just want to share some great reading material.
Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog, or just write a few sentences about why you thought it was awesome.
And don’t forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our Fanlit Faves page and our 5-Star SFF page.
December 2nd, 2021. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 10 comments |
The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime
Let’s face it, this is a Big One for sci-fi/fantasy fans. The first three episodes of The Wheel of Time dropped on Amazon Prime, and I promptly watched all three. In the spirit of full transparency, let me say that while I quite enjoyed Robert Jordan’s first three books, I felt the series started to decline at that point and kept going south, such that my final word on the series (which I did finish in masochistic fashion) was that I wouldn’t recommend the time investment to anyone thinking about starting it.
December 2nd, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…