Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Bill Capossere

Shadowmancer: Almost unreadable

Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor

I didn’t finish Shadowmancer, finally giving up about three-quarters of the way through after oh-so-painfully forcing my way through to that point.

The reasons for not finishing are pretty basic. The characters are mere shadows (no pun intended) of real people, offered up in mostly two-dimensional form with the occasional attempt at depth through clumsy and often lengthy interior exposition. Motivations are either never explored or shift with blinding speed. The plot is a pretty helpless muddle, filled with inconsistencies, gaps,

Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo: Both flaws and great moments

Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye

Leven Thumps has some major problems. Its main character, Leven, is too shallowly drawn and far too passive throughout the novel — more acted upon than acting. The book is overlong by about 50-70 pages with some repetitive parts. Its villain isn’t sharply drawn enough and not quite villainous enough. There seems to be a disappointing pattern of equating moderate mundane villainy with being overweight or homely. And far too often Skye tells the reader what is happening rather than showing it.

The Steel Remains: Dark, gritty, obscene

The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan

The Steel Remains, by Richard Morgan, is a dark, gritty, and in some places obscene fantasy that will not be to everyone’s liking. So let’s get the surface material out of the way — if you don’t like your books laced with a heaping amount of f-bombs, graphic sex (hetero and homosexual), and graphic violence, The Steel Remains is not for you. In the slightest. Run. Run as far as you can. And if you can live with the swearing,

January 19th, 2009. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Richard K. Morgan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Stepsister Scheme: Nicely sidesteps all the pitfalls

The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

I’m always a bit wary of books that take fairy tales as source materials. Too often, I’ve found, they fall into a few typical traps. One is they become enslaved by the structure of one cute explanation/cute twist per each plot point of the original fairy tale, so that the twists themselves become predictable: beat one, two, twist, beat one, two, twist. Another is they become so enamored in the humor aspect of their humorous retelling that they lose sight of the telling aspect — so the plot is unoriginal and dull.

January 2nd, 2009. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Jim C. Hines | SFF Reviews | no comments |

A Shadow in Summer: A book worth re-reading

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham

The Cities of the Khaiem shine like jewels in the East, and the brightest is the port of Saraykeht. The realm’s profitable cotton trade flows through the city, quickened by the artistry of the poet Heshai. For in the East, a poet’s art can become incarnate as a powerful spirit-slave (andat), and it is on the shoulders of Heshai, master of the andat Seedless, that the weight of Saraykeht’s continuing prosperity balances… a weight outsiders would gladly topple.

In these delicate times, first-time novelist Daniel Abraham chronicles the poignant choices of a handful of characters seldom seen in the “fantasy”

Lord of the Silent Kingdom: Hugely complex

Lord of the Silent Kingdom by Glen Cook

In my review of Glen Cook’s first book in the Instrumentalities of the Night series, I bemoaned the lack of a map. Somehow, my opinion managed to go unheard and/or unheeded and so I’ll start again by asking if it would be too much to include a map in a book that jumps among a slew of kingdoms, countries, islands, and petty territories.

As a long-time fan of “epic” fantasy, I consider myself pretty well-versed in how to handle sweeping geography,

November 14th, 2008. Bill Capossere, John Hulet and Robert Thompson´s rating: 3, 4 | Glen Cook | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Pawn of Prophecy: Juvenile

Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

I read Pawn of Prophecy as an adult, a few years ago. I had heard great things about it, so I was disappointed after reading it. The plot is typical “orphan boy saves the world” fantasy, the description is weak, the dialogue is often silly (humor is a focus, and much of the dialogue is funny — but it’s not realistic). The pace is rapid, however, and I flew through the book in one day.

The Belgariad would be just right for a teenager (so I give it 3 stars),

November 10th, 2008. Kat Hooper and Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | David Eddings | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

The Shadow Roads: Decent but anticlimactic close to trilogy

The Shadow Roads by Sean Russell

The Shadow Roads brings The Swans’ War to a somewhat satisfying close, but its many weaknesses lessen the impact it might have had. The strength is the backstory — the sense of myth surrounding the three children of Wyrr, Death walled away into his own world, stories of loss and transformation. When Sean Russell spends time in this area, whether in detail or just tangentially, it lends a sad sense of grandeur and depth to the work as a whole.

October 7th, 2008. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Sean Russell | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Midnight Over Sanctaphrax: Better than first, not as good as second

Midnight Over Sanctaphrax by Paul Stewart

Midnight Over Sanctaphrax falls into the middle of the first three books of the series. While Twig’s character is enlarged upon and other interesting ones added, the book falls too easily into the same episodic nature of the first book, where one peril follows closely upon another with none of them ever explored in enough depth so that they truly feel dangerous or suspenseful.

The nature of the basic plot, Twig searching for his lost crew after his skyship explodes and hurls them in different directions,

Beyond the Deep Woods: Weak start to series

Beyond the Deep Woods by Paul Stewart

Beyond the Deepwoods is the start to the long-running Edge Chronicles. This first book does what one would expect, introduces the world, the major characters, and the major conflicts, but it does so in such shallow fashion that one might be hard-pressed to consider reading on. I don’t know how the rest of the series goes, but I can say that the second novel, Stormchaser, improves in many ways upon the first.

Beyond the Deepwoods,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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