I’ve been eyeing Dog Days curiously for a while now (insert obvious feline joke here), mainly intrigued by the blurb’s promise of a magical dog. Yes, that’s right, I freely admit it — my inner three-year-old wanted to see the magical doggie.
The magical dog is an Ifrit, which I found kind of intriguing. Besides that, though, Dog Days has little to offer. I don’t like the main character, Mason, one bit. To avoid making him a Gary Stu,
December 20th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 1 | John Levitt | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Finders Keepers by Linnea Sinclair
I enjoyed Ann Aguirre’s Grimspace so much that I thought I ought to start looking into this whole “romantic” sci-fi thing. It all seemed so right up my alley. And I’d seen Linnea Sinclair listed as an author of this type of work, and Finders Keepers sounded interesting.
Finders Keepers is undoubtedly a romance novel with spaceships and laser rifles (no lightsabers). No matter how you shake it,
November 19th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 1.5 | Linnea Sinclair | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
What is there to say about Anton Strout’s Dead to Me? Good things, I mean, since that is my quest these days…to begin my reviews with the positive rather than the negative. This isn’t proving to be easy and if I was a more paranoid person I’d wonder if Mr. Strout didn’t just write Dead to Me for the sole purpose of trying my (admittedly rather short) patience.
Well, I love the fact that Strout chooses to give his character the power of psychometry.
October 11th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 2 | Anton Strout | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Beth Johnson interviews Stacia Kane, author of Personal Demons.
Beth: So for starters… one of the things I really loved about Personal Demons was Megan. She was a good, strong character without being one of those attitude-packing tough broads so common in urban fantasy. What made you decide to make her that way? Was that how you originally envisioned her, or did she end up having her own ideas?
Stacia Kane: It’s basically how I envisioned her from the beginning. While I enjoy reading stories about really tough girls sometimes,
July 31st, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest) | Stacia Kane | Author Interviews | no comments |
So one of the problems I’ve been having recently, when it comes to returning to authors I’ve already read, is book blurbs that fill me with a sense of foreboding. The plots have been sounding so thin (and often matching). Not Wanderlust though. When I read the blurb for Wanderlust, I got excited.
Now that Sirantha Jax has exposed Farwan Corporation for what it really is, she’s kind of suffering a bit of a career dilemma… i.e.,
July 2nd, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 4.5 | Ann Aguirre | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Dream Thief stars Amalia Langford, the daughter of Kit and Rue from The Smoke Thief, and Zane, a thief who was introduced in the previous book. Zane is charged with retrieving a special diamond called Draumr. At the behest of Kit and Rue, he agrees to travel across Europe, into the Carpathians, in search of it. Accompanying him is Lia, who is possessed of the ability to hear the future. In her dreams she hears a future in which Zane,
June 30th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 0.1 | Shana Abe | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I’m not usually a sci fi reader. Call me a wuss, but whenever I would try to read sci fi, I usually got too distracted by all the sciencey stuff to remain focused on the story. But I had seen Grimspace advertised on a website and the cover caught my eye. At that point my reaction was about as intellectual as “Ooo, pretty colors…” but hey, attractive covers are a plus. Then the book caught my eye again, this time in the bookstore, and lo and behold,
June 2nd, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 4 | Ann Aguirre | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling
Lately, whenever I pick up a new book by a favorite author and read the back of it, I get this feeling of dread. I don’t know what it is, but my favorites are throwing out some really thin-sounding plots. Lynn Flewelling has been a favorite for years, though, since I first began reading her Nightrunner series, so I held out hope for Shadows Return.
So Alec and Seregil are on a new mission when they’re captured and sold into slavery.
May 16th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 3.5 | Lynn Flewelling | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey
Compared to Kushiel’s Scion, Phèdre and Joscelin return for a much larger portion of this book and they are as awesome as ever. They add excitement and helped me through much of the slog that was the first 300-odd pages. Yes, that’s right. Though previous Kushiel books have been long and probably could have withstood some cutting easily, I never minded the extra. With both Scion and Justice, that extra could have been done without.
May 6th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest) and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 0.1, 2 | Jacqueline Carey | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Wizard Felix Harrowgate is back and much less crazy than he was during 90% of Sarah Monette’s Melusine. So is thief Mildmay the Fox, who’s a bit less mobile, crippled by a curse that caught up to him in the previous book. Their goal: To travel back across the world, return to Melusine (the city) and restore the magical crystal called the Virtu.
If the plot sounds a little thin…well, that might be because it is. It’s padded with events,
April 4th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 4.5 | Sarah Monette | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…
this sounds like a fun one