Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kat Hooper

Warprize: Beware the heart with the arrow through it

Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan

Scenario: I’m in the library. It’s 5 minutes until closing. I’ve got to find a book fast. My library is a small neighborhood branch and there’s not a huge selection. There are plenty of fantasy books, but it’s hard to find one I haven’t read that’s not a sequel to something I haven’t read. I’m starting to panic as I’ve got only one minute left. I grab a book that has the little “fantasy” sticker on it (black unicorn with glowing horn dancing on a purple background) and it’s something I’ve never heard of before: Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan.

October 12th, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Elizabeth Vaughan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Last Argument of Kings: No redemption

Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

Say one thing for Kat Hooper, say she’s a weak-minded sucker.

She really enjoyed the first two books of Joe Abercrombie’s THE FIRST LAW trilogy. This story was original, had a unique style, fascinating characters, and a darkly cynical vibe. She liked it. It was fresh. But she was kind of hoping, even daring to expect, that the last book, Last Argument of Kings (2007), might have an ending that was, if not perhaps exactly happy, at least somewhat satisfying.

October 1st, 2008. Kat Hooper and Greg Hersom | Joe Abercrombie | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Mists of Avalon: Beautiful writing, but excruciatingly slow

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Mists of Avalon, as you’ve likely guessed, is a retake on the King Arthur legends, but what makes it different is that it’s written from the women’s perspectives (Morgaine, Guinevere, etc.). The first one was written by Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1983 and this was the first time this feminist technique was used in fantasy literature and it was very successful (I learned that when I took a Modern Scholar course in fantasy literature).

Before They are Hanged: Expect more of the same

Before They are Hanged

Before They are Hanged (2007) begins just where The Blade Itself left off and continues the stories of Logen, West, Jezal, Ferro, Bayaz, Glokta, and company. Expect more of the same in this novel: brutal fighting, sickening torture, nasty politics, ruthless characters, and barbarian grammar.

This recipe mostly works — the plot is interesting, the pace is fast, there’s a bit of humor, and the characters are well-developed and continue to grow. I certainly enjoyed the story. There were a few things,

September 1st, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Joe Abercrombie | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent: By Galen Beckett (sort of)

The Magicians and Mrs. Quent by Galen Beckett

From the back flap: “What if there were a fantastical cause underlying the social constraints and limited choices confronting a heroine in a novel by Jane Austen or Charlotte Brontë? Galen Beckett, … began The Magicians and Mrs. Quent to answer that question… ”

I was excited to receive a copy of The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, Galen Beckett‘s “debut” novel. There’s something exciting about a new author — they’re fresh,

July 9th, 2008. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Galen Beckett | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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,

Mistress of Dragons: Dragons gone bad

Mistress of Dragons by Margaret Weis

Mistress of Dragons is an interesting story with some likable heroes and excellent villains. The heroes are the humans and their dragon allies, but the humans don’t realize that dragons are their friends because the villains are a couple of dragons gone bad. Very bad. The good dragons concoct a plot which uses humans to conquer the bad dragons. Mistress of Dragons ends with an unexpected plot twist.

This story is well-told, though it annoys me how often Margaret Weis omits conjunctions from her sentences.

The Well of Ascension: Plenty left to tell

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

Bridge books are always dicey things — many fall into a sophomore slump, meandering along trying to get from A to C with the required stop at B (because everyone knows a fantasy story can’t be told in only two books; three is clearly the sacred minimum — damn you Tolkien!). Luckily, The Well of Ascension (2007) doesn’t fall into that trap.

Mistborn is set in an ashen, mist-filled world whose myths tell of a time when plants were green.

Knife of Dreams: Moves story forward

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan

Knife of Dreams has several things going for it. It isn’t as bad as the last few for one, no slight achievement. It is relatively crisp in prose and pace. It advances story and character at a more enjoyable pace. It even has a few (though too few) strong scenes that evoke fond memories of earlier (much earlier) books in the series. It is without a doubt an improvement on the past few and anyone who has put the time into this series and felt like they were scraping along will breathe a sigh of relief.

May 26th, 2008. Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Legacy: Shut up, Fawn.

Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold

It sincerely hurts me to give Lois McMaster Bujold the “DNF,” but I didn’t get very far into The Sharing Knife: Legacy before giving up. It tried it on audio, with the same reader who read Beguilement (see above).

The first scene was a sex scene: Dag (who’s 55 years old) and Fawn (who’s 19) on their wedding night. I rolled my eyes through most of it, and when Fawn started chatting about her family’s propensity to produce twins and other unsuitable topics for a wedding night scene (this is during the act,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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