Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Bill Capossere

The Shamer’s Daughter: Recommended for the better sequel

The Shamer’s Daughter by Lene Kaaberbol

The Shamer’s Daughter is in itself a pleasant little story that moves along well and has at its core an extremely intriguing concept that here is unfortunately not fully explored, but the good news is that while The Shamer’s Daughter is an ok read, its sequel, The Shamer’s Signet, is a much stronger book, well-rewarding the reader who begins the series.

“Shamers” have the gift of, as one might guess, shaming. To look into a Shamer’s eyes is to look into a mirror of your soul,

The Dream of Perpetual Motion: Wild, vivid, inaccessible, strange

The Dream of Perpetual Motion by Dexter Palmer

FORMAT/INFO: The Dream of Perpetual Motion is 352 pages long divided over five parts, with each part divided into numbered segments. Also includes a Prologue, an Epilogue, and four Interludes. Narration alternates between the first-person and the third-person via the narrator of the book, Harold “Harry” Winslow. The Dream of Perpetual Motion is self-contained.

March 2, 2010 marks the North American Hardcover publication of The Dream of Perpetual Motion via St.

Magic by the Book: Pales next to the books it’s a tribute to

Magic by the Book by Nina Bernstein

It’s hard not to appreciate a book whose author clearly intends it to be a literary homage to some all-time favorite young fantasy authors: E. Nesbit, Edward Eager, Mary Norton, etc. And whether the tribute is subtle in terms of theme or visuals or plot or more directly stated, as when one of the characters references a book by the above mentioned authors, it is always done without a sense of irony — there’s a sincere sense of love there.

Unfortunately,

The Somnambulist: A dilemma

The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes

To be honest, I’m thoroughly divided as to the sort of review I want to give The Somnambulist. On the one hand, despite some flaws, for most of the book, it was one of the most fun reads I’ve had in a while. On the other hand, the last 40 pages or so were just downright bad. I don’t mean simply disappointingly bad relative to the rest of the book, but off-the-rails, what-the-heck-happened, did- the-author-die-and-then-some-stranger-finish-the-book terrible kind of bad. Which leaves me with a dilemma.

February 4th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Jonathan Barnes | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |

The Warded Man: Eagerly awaiting the sequel

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

I’ve often said that employing the usual fantasy tropes in a novel isn’t an automatic sign of poor writing; it’s what you do with them that matters. Witness the three main characters in Peter Brett’s The Warded Man: a young boy leaving his small hamlet for the larger world, a young girl trying to maintain her independent nature, a young orphan who must make his own way in the world. Anyone seen these before? Anyone? Buehler?

Luckily for us readers,

February 1st, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Peter V. Brett | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Dragon Keeper: A worthy beginning

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb’s Dragon Keeper is a welcome return to the world of the LIVESHIP TRADERS trilogy (fair warning: if you haven’t read that series, there may be a few spoilers here). Specifically, it is set in the Rain Wilds with the emergence of the serpents/dragons from their casings, an event enthusiastically anticipated by all who long to see these beautiful, powerful creatures soaring through the skies once more.

Often in Robin Hobb’s fiction, though, the most eagerly awaited events turn into the most disappointing ones,

January 18th, 2010. Bill Capossere and Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Robin Hobb | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Lord of Snow and Shadows: Uneven but mostly positive start

Lord of Snow and Shadows by Sarah Ash

Lord of Snow and Shadows starts as Gavril, a young relatively carefree painter, learns that he has just inherited rule of the northern kingdom of Azhkendir after his father (whom Gavril never knew) was murdered. The inheritance has a darker side, however, as his father’s line also passes from son to son the Drakhaoul, a creature which lives in their blood and mind and gives them great power at great cost — the eventual transformation of their body and soul.

January 12th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Sarah Ash | SFF Reviews | no comments |

One for Sorrow, Two for Joy: Nice idea, weakly and palely executed

One for Sorrow, Two for Joy by Clive Woodall

One for Sorrow, Two for Joy is one more in the vein of animal kingdom books, the classic one of course being Watership Down. Sorrow doesn’t approach the skill, majesty, or emotion of Watership Down but that’s hard to fault it for, as few books do. The problem is not that it doesn’t hold up well against a classic but that it doesn’t hold up well against your average book either.

The Game of Sunken Places: Bit muddled

The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson

The Game of Sunken Places has at its core several relatively humdrum concepts: a board game that plays for real, a hidden kingdom, two friends (one timid, one outgoing), a race to save the (or a) world. This isn’t so bad since so much fantasy works with the same basic materials. The question is whether the author transcends the familiar and here the answer tends to be no.

The story follows a pair of thirteen-year-old friends, Gregory and Brian,

Dust of Dreams: The best LRMMVSTLB fantasy epic

Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson

So, a long-running, massive multi-volume fantasy epic is winding to a close, a close so big that the last book actually has to be split, and it’s still 800 pages long. What’s that? No, this is the other long-running massive multi-volume split-the-last-book fantasy epic. Not The Wheel of Time but Steven Erikson’s Malazan series, whose penultimate book, Dust of Dreams, moves us nearly to the close. And if I had to choose only one LRMMVSTLB fantasy epic for newbies to start?

January 6th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Steven Erikson | SFF Reviews | 12 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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