Fever Crumb is a prequel of sorts to Philip Reeve’s fantastic HUNGRY CITY CHRONICLES, which started with Mortal Engines. I say “of sorts” in that it’s set in the prehistory of the HUNGRY CITY CHRONICLES world, but far back enough in time that Fever Crumb doesn’t act as a direct lead-in to the larger series: instead of giving us more of the same characters, it sets up the major concepts and incipient events of the series.
April 29th, 2010. Bill Capossere and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5 | Philip Reeve | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is easily my favourite of the Harry Potter books. Harry is in his third year at Hogwarts, and the big news is the escape of dangerous and deadly wizard Sirius Black from Azkaban prison. Harry learns that, for some reason, Sirius is after him. To increase security at Hogwarts, Dumbledore has reluctantly allowed the Dementors — ghostly cloaked beings that suck the happiness from a person’s soul and eventually drive them mad — to guard the castle.
April 24th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest), Kelly Lasiter, Kat Hooper, Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | J.K. Rowling | Children | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Sixty-eight Rooms by Marianne Malone
The Sixty-Eight Rooms has a really fun premise. Sixth-graders Ruthie and Jack visit the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, and discover a magic key that enables them to shrink to doll-size and explore the rooms up close. It turns out that each room opens onto a real landscape from the time it portrays, complete with real people that Ruthie and Jack can interact with. I thought this was a great concept, and I remember thinking that Marianne Malone should set a sequel in the Fairy Castle at the Museum of Science and Industry.
April 21st, 2010. Kelly Lasiter, Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Marianne Malone | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Wizard of Mars is the ninth book in Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series and continues in the same strong vein as the others. At this point, there isn’t much to review in that if you’ve read the eighth book in a series, it’s pretty safe to assume you’re going to be picking up the ninth. But in a nutshell, if you do, you’ll be rewarded with the same quality you’ve become accustomed to and many of the same strengths.
April 18th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Diane Duane | Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Ghosts of Manhattan by George Mann
I’ve been lukewarm to George Mann’s Victorian steampunk novels set in London, finding them mostly adequate: quick-paced but a bit flat and somewhat too beholden to cinematic cliché. They are intermittently entertaining and lively, but never quite get all the way to good. Mann’s new novel, Ghosts of Manhattan, is similar, but set in America this time. It’s perhaps a step above the London novels in quality.
It’s 1926 and America is in a cold war with a British Empire that still stretches over much of the world.
April 8th, 2010. Bill Capossere and Terry Weyna´s rating: 2 | George Mann | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Celestial Globe by Marie Rutkoski
The Celestial Globe is the second book in Marie Rutkoski’s Kronos Chronicles, following last year’s Cabinet of Wonders, which was a wonderful start with strong characterization, a creative mix of 16th century history and folk tales in service of a compelling plot, and a wonderful sense of both light and grim whimsy. The Celestial Globe isn’t as strong, but it’s a rewarding read in its own right and more than fulfills the purpose of a second book: convincing the reader to stay with the series.
April 6th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Marie Rutkoski | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish
Troll Fell is a decent young adult book whose Norse background gives a more fresh feel to an otherwise relatively mundane plot and set of characters. Younger readers will most likely enjoy it if not be inspired or captured by it; older readers won’t find much to chew on.
The story follows young Peer Ulfsson who upon his father’s death is grabbed up (literally) by a pair of wicked ogrish uncles for their own hidden reasons, the most transparent of which is to use him as free labor at their run-down mill,
March 15th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Katherine Langrish | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City has lots to admire: great lines, witty jokes and good insights. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to admire here than to enjoy. The sum ended up being less than its parts, to me. This may have been part of the point, and certainly the sense of disconnectedness is as well, but one of the dangers of a novel about disconnectedness is that it can feel, well, disconnected. The trick is to avoid this somehow,
March 13th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Jonathan Lethem | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Story of Cirrus Flux by Matthew Skelton
Matthew Skelton’s The Story of Cirrus Flux is an uneven YA novel that solidly entertains, though one wishes for stronger characters and a greater sense of place.
The Story of Cirrus Flux is set in London, 1783. The title character is an orphan whose father was a famed Antarctic explorer years ago, though Cirrus doesn’t discover this for some time. The book opens in 1756 during one of Cirrus’ father’s journeys,
March 6th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Matthew Skelton | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, according to the back flap, is the “basis for an album that [Mathias] Malzieu wrote.” I’d like to hear the album because I’m thinking his source material may have been better served in that medium. The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart isn’t a bad book, but even for a novella there isn’t much there and too much of it is either implied, assumed, or not earned;
March 1st, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Mathias Malzieu | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
so you're saying I should read it? :)
As a native New Yorker, I love the idea of the city being filled with canals and no skyscrapers! And…
How did I miss this? Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
I guess that is true, Marion. And when it comes to "You Only Live Twice," I saw the movie TWICE…
You managed to work in your two loves; vintage fiction and films!