The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr
The Language of Spells (2018), by Garret Weyr, has a certain whimsical charm to it at times, and the warm relationship at its core is a definite plus, but it has a good number of issues that mar the reading experience, though probably less so for a younger audience.
The dragon Grisha is born in the Black Forest in a world where magic is on the wane. After a few decades of maturation (though still young in dragon terms),
June 26th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Garret Weyr | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Hannu Rajaniemi’s Summerland (2018) is what you might get if you took the setting/premise of Kevin Brockmeier’s The Brief History of the Dead and gave it to John le Carré to turn into a novel, though I’d argue it’s lacking a bit in the character depth and emotional touch of those two authors.
Summerland is basically an espionage/counter-espionage novel set in late 1930s Britain, who is involved in a proxy-war with Russia (led by a sort of over-soul known as “The Presence”) via the Spanish Civil War,
June 25th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Hannu Rajaniemi | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Time Was (2018), a novella by Ian McDonald, is billed as a time-travel love story, but really, there’s not a lot of depiction of either in this slim work, and while it’s often linguistically/stylistically beautiful, in the end I was more disappointed than not.
Emmet Leigh is a used book dealer who specializes in WWII. He comes across a 1930’s book, Time Was, with a letter inside from Tom Chappel to his lover Ben Seligman dating from the war.
June 21st, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Ian McDonald | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Shadow All of Light by Fred Chappell
A Shadow All of Light (2016) is a collection of linked, chronological stories by Fred Chappell that add up to a full-length narrative if not a seamless novel. Some individual stories are stronger than others, and I would have liked more of a full sense of place, character, and culture, but I enjoyed the underlying magic system, the main character, and how the structure built up over time to a decent climax.
Our narrator is Falco,
June 20th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Fred Chappell | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian
In Origin Story: A Big History of Everything (2018), David Christian ably does what I would have guessed was nigh on impossible — cover 13+ billion years of history from the Big Bang to current times (and actually further since he takes a quick look in the future as well). It’s a smoothly told, incredibly efficient history that mostly lives up to its subtitle.
At the core of Christian’s “Big History” is an ever-increasing complexity: “in special and unusual environments such as our planet …
June 15th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
An Unkindness of Ghosts (2017), by Rivers Solomon, is a book that a lot of people will absolutely love unconditionally, a lot of people will love even as they hate reading large parts of it, and that will leave some people (cough cough this reviewer) a bit cold, which they will softly note while they keep their eyes down and move quietly for the exit. Despite falling into that last category, I’d still recommend Solomon’s debut novel for its stark depiction of a slave society that has too many echoes of our own world despite the sci-fi setting and for its diverse set of characters.
June 14th, 2018. Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Rivers Solomon | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Deadhouse Landing by Ian Cameron Esslemont
Because it occurs not that far along into Deadhouse Landing (2017), I don’t feel bad about revealing that at one point our erstwhile heroes Wu and Dancer are forced into confronting one of the most dire threats of the Malazan Universe — being taken by an Azath. A revelation that I’m sure will have many of you wondering which of the many great powers of that universe could have driven them onto those perilous grounds: K’rul? T’riss? Kallor, a Matron, Icarium? Worthy candidates all,
June 12th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Ian C. Esslemont | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution by Menno Schilthuizen
At the close of his exploration of the somewhat oxymoronic “urban nature,” Menno Schilthuizen tells us that one of his aims is that “the urban organisms you see on your daily wanderings of the city streets will become more special, more interesting, worthy of more than a casual glance.” Schilthuizen, I’d say, is more likely to succeed than not in achieving his goal, as Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution (2018) is a delightfully informative whose insights are enthusiastically and clearly conveyed.
June 8th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Eterna Files by Leanna Renee Hieber
Just after President Lincoln’s assassination, his wife Mary sets a governmental task force to find a cure for death, thus setting in motion the plot of The Eterna Files (2015) by Leanna Renee Hieber. Seventeen years later, the science team working on the Eterna Compound is mysteriously murdered, as is a parallel team in England, where Queen Victoria wants Britain, not America, to be the first to discover an answer to mortality. Both countries seek to find out what happened to their teams,
June 8th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Leanna Renee Hieber | SFF Reviews | no comments |
King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist
Back in the 1980s, like a lot of people, I was eagerly consuming Raymond E. Feist’s RIFTWAR SAGA, which began with Magician: Apprentice and continued onward through a host of novels. I loved Magician, though I have little memory of it, and read the next few books in the series, though eventually I lost track, whether that was due to lack of interest or not,
May 30th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Raymond E. Feist | SFF Reviews | 2 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