Two Serpents Rise by Max Gladstone
Two Serpents Rise (2013) is the second book by Max Gladstone and is set in the same world as Three Parts Dead. I struggle to define the “genre” that this series fits into. There are elements of urban fantasy and steampunk, but none of that really fits. It doesn’t matter because the books are awesome and Gladstone has built something that really works.
Two Serpents Rise features Caleb Altemoc,
November 14th, 2013. John Hulet, Kat Hooper and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Max Gladstone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Subterranean Stratagem by Michael Pryor
I have to confess, Michael Pryor’s second installment of THE EXTRAORDINAIRES series, The Subterranean Stratagem, did not quite charm or engage me as much as its predecessor, The Extinction Gambit, did (or Pryor’s earlier THE LAWS OF MAGIC series). As this is the first of Pryor’s books not to do so, I’m going to consider this a minor blip and assume book three will regain his usual form.
November 13th, 2013. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Michael Pryor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two by Catherynne M. Valente
I’ve been a big fan of Catherynne Valente’s first two FAIRYLAND books, each one full of more imagination than the entire oeuvre of some fantasy authors, to say nothing of the lushly vivid and starkly original language, the wry self-aware humor, and the sharp insights into the joys and pangs of growing up. And all of that returns in the third installment, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two.
November 11th, 2013. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Catherynne M. Valente | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
So last time my colleagues gave me the pulpit, I got you all going about those fantasy series that went on well past their expiration date. The ones where you pull book 4 or 5 or 8 off the shelf and go “Honey, does this smell bad to you? Could you smell this?” And then your significant other goes, “Why would I smell that? Do you think it’s bad?” And you go, “Yeah.” And they’re all, “So what would possess you to think I want to smell it? What world do you live in where anyone… ” Well,
October 24th, 2013. Bill Capossere | Thoughtful Thursday | 11 comments |
The Extinction Gambit by Michael Pryor
Michael Pryor’s The Extinction Gambit, book one of the EXTRAORDINAIRES series, is not the best book I’ve read this year. But it does have the best pithy plot summary uttered by a character:
“So the Olympic Games are being jeopardized by a band of evil sorcerers who want my brain,” Kingsley said, “while I try to find my foster father who may have been abducted by creatures from the dawn of time.”
That’s Kingsley Ward,
October 22nd, 2013. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Michael Pryor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson
I tell you, once upon a time kids had to walk to school barefoot. And not just barefoot, but naked. In snow and rain. Uphill. And they had to not get eaten by wolves. And be chased by Neanderthals. And eat shrooms. Or at least, they did if their school was learning how to be a shaman. And if they lived back about 30, 000 years ago. And their name was Loon, the protagonist of Kim Stanley Robinson’s wonderfully detailed Shaman.
October 18th, 2013. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Matthew Kirby is a highly acclaimed author of several Middle Grade /Young Adult novels, including Icefall (which won an Edgar Award) and The Clockwork Three. A former school psychologist, Kirby now lives in Idaho, where he is currently at work on several upcoming novels. He graciously gave up some time to talk to me about his most recent novel, The Lost Kingdom, and what he has planned for the future.
Bill Capossere: It seems to me that The Lost Kingdom skews younger than your prior two books,
October 15th, 2013. Bill Capossere | Matthew Kirby | Author Interviews | 3 comments |
The Last Dark by Stephen R. Donaldson
With The Last Dark, Stephen R. Donaldson draws to a close not only his most recent tetralogy, but his entire ten-book epic centered on the travails of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, certainly one of the longest-lasting and most significant and influential characters in modern fantasy. No matter one’s feelings on the book itself (and mine were definitely mixed), the series as a whole stands as a towering achievement, one of those classic/canonical works of fantasy that any student of the genre has to wrestle with.
October 15th, 2013. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Stephen R. Donaldson | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Countdown City by Ben H. Winters
Countdown City (2013) is Ben H. Winters’s second book in the pre-apocalyptic trilogy that began with The Last Policeman. Hank Palace is no longer a cop in Concord, New Hampshire; police functions have been nationalized, but he still wants to help people and try to maintain order in the two and a half months that remain before Maia, a fifteen-kilometer-wide asteroid, hits the earth.
Hank’s old babysitter asks him to find her husband who disappeared a few days earlier.
October 10th, 2013. Marion Deeds, Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Ben H. Winters | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl by David Barnett
As one might perhaps be able to tell from the title, Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl (2013), by David Barnett, is a paean to the pulp adventure novels of yore a la Frank Reade and His New Steam Man. This sort of thing can be a bit tricky to pull off, as it is a fine line between keeping the spirit of the source material in terms of characters, dialogue,
October 8th, 2013. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | David Barnett | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
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
These weird westerns are always interesting and have been popping up more in recent times (it seemed like there was…
Looking forward to reading the review.