Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Greg Hersom


testing

The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure

The Return of the Sword: An Anthology of Heroic Adventure

I read and have read a lot of anthologies. They’re great for “in-between-books-reading” and are perfect when you just want a story that you can start and finish in one sitting. Anthologies are also a great source for sampling different writers.

Jason M Waltz did a great job of picking out the stories to use for The Return of the Sword. Except for only one or two stories (even the ones that weren’t particularly something to my personal taste) I found these to be very well and interestingly written.


Read More




testing

The Black Company: Fantastical, anti-heroic fog of war

The Black Company by Glen Cook

The Black Company is an ancient mercenary brotherhood, its members as hard-bitten as skilled. As their ongoing commission in the city of Beryl disintegrates, they escape through the “trap-door” (in its fullest sense) of new employment by a mysterious northern sorcerer; and they soon find themselves the elite unit in the army of the Lady — a legendary figure who, in the eyes of the opposing Rebels, is the embodiment of evil.

The first of Glen Cook’s Black Company novels,


Read More




testing

Swords in the Mist: Uneven

Swords in the Mist by Fritz Leiber

All due respect to the late Fritz Leiber, but overall, this book was weak.

The first story, “Cloud of Hate” was good. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser unwittingly take-on Hate embodied in a noxious mist that turns already shady characters into rampaging serial killers. The next one, “Lean Times in Lankhmar”, starts out interesting as the life-long friends go their separates ways, but goes flat. “Their Mistress, the Sea” builds up well but the ending seemed to be missing something. The rest of the book brings Fafhrd and Gray Mouser to our world’s ancient history,


Read More




testing

A Sword from Red Ice: J.V. Jones is a great story-teller

A Sword from Red Ice by J.V. Jones

This series hooked me with the first one, A Cavern of Black Ice, and I’ve since read all of J.V. Jones’ books. Sure there are better writers out there, but as far as good story-telling goes, Jones is up there with the best of them.

Sword of Shadows reads like a tale told by the village story-teller or a traveling minstrel earning his next room and board. To me, that’s the way a fantasy story should be written,


Read More




testing

The Bloody Crown of Conan: Nobody can touch R.E.H

The Bloody Crown of Conan by Robert E. Howard

Nobody can touch Robert E. Howard when he was at the top-of-his-game. The three stories in The Bloody Crown of Conan are not only some of his best, they are some of his best Conan stories and Conan was his greatest creation. Howard was the father of Sword & Sorcery and next only to J.R.R. Tolkien in being the largest influence of fantasy today. His stories have stark imagery that’s nothing short of amazing.


Read More




testing

Swords Against Death: Sword and sorcery’s most famous duo

Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber

After a self-imposed exile, our heroes — the legendary Fafhrd and Gray Mouser — are back to their old shenanigans in the sinful city of Lankhmar. Shortly after their return, they find themselves hypnotically drawn across Newhon’s Outer Sea to lands unknown, only to have to survive a perilous journey to again get back to Lankhmar — the closest thing they have to a home. Along with their other misadventures, they finally come to terms with the deaths of their true-loves.

As stated on the book’s back-cover,


Read More




testing

Dusk & Dawn: Dark and imaginative, tinged with horror

DuskDawn by Tim Lebbon

For Tim Lebbon, multiple award-winning (Bram Stoker, Tombstone, Shocker, British Fantasy) author of numerous horror/supernatural-themed novels and short stories, the Dusk and Dawn duology marks the writer’s first attempt at a fully realized fantasy world with mixed results.

Before we get into the positives and negatives of the novels, it must be noted that Dawn is a direct sequel to Dusk, so it’s necessary to have read the one before the other,


Read More




testing

The Sword-Edged Blonde: Bledsoe is a natural storyteller

The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe

A foaming tankard for public libraries. If mine hadn’t featured Alex Bledsoe‘s engrossing debut novel, The Sword-Edged Blonde, I doubt I’d have ever discovered it.

Granted, I only discovered it because of the quasi-garish cover and title (neither of which has much to do with the actual story), picking it up just to shake my head at one more piece of fantasy trash. But then I read the cover blurbs from Charles de Lint and Orson Scott Card,


Read More




testing

Winterbirth: I think it will only get better

Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley

If your taste runs along the likes of George R.R. Martin — dark, gritty fantasy that reads like historical fiction — then Winterbirth, the first novel in Brian Ruckley’s The Godless World trilogy, is for you.

The gods got fed-up with their creation and left it to its own demise long ago and this world feels like just that. It’s a cold, dark, and violent, place that’s full of rugged highlands, foreboding forests, and misty,


Read More




testing

The Name of the Wind: Doesn’t disappoint

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

You know how sometimes a book, or a movie, or a concert gets so hyped up in the press and you have such high expectations that when you finally get around to reading/seeing it, it disappoints? That’s what I was worried might happen when I decided to read The Name of the Wind. I purposely came to it late, hoping to wait until Patrick Rothfuss was nearly finished with the trilogy before I starting it. But, the book has received so much attention that it became inexcusable for me,


Read More




Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

We have reviewed 8476 fantasy, science fiction, and horror books, audiobooks, magazines, comics, and films.

Subscribe to all posts:

Get notified about Giveaways:

Support FanLit

Want to help us defray the cost of domains, hosting, software, and postage for giveaways? Donate here:


You can support FanLit (for free) by using these links when you shop at Amazon:

US          UK         CANADA

Or, in the US, simply click the book covers we show. We receive referral fees for all purchases (not just books). This has no impact on the price and we can't see what you buy. This is how we pay for hosting and postage for our GIVEAWAYS. Thank you for your support!
Try Audible for Free

Recent Discussion:

  1. Bill Capossere
  2. Marion Deeds
  3. Yup, Marion, your memory serves you well! Oh...as regards these three recent Bond reviews of mine, as the old saying…

May 2025
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031