This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s almost soul-crushing. I adored the first 25% of Zack Jordan’s The Last Human. It was on its way to being my favorite book so far this year. It was imaginative, clever, exciting, funny, and warm. I loved it. Then, it took a turn, and I struggled to finish it.
The Last Human (2020) is about a girl named Sarya who is being raised by a huge sentient black widow spider.
May 6th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Zack Jordan | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back (2020) is a historical fantasy based on the lives of Wolfgang Mozart and his beloved sister Marie Anna whose pet name was Nannerl. Nannerl was four years older than Wolfgang and a musical prodigy when she was a child. Tutored by her father, Leopold, she was much admired and praised as “the rare woman with a good ear” according to one of the characters in Lu’s novel.
As a child,
May 5th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Marie Lu | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Blight of Blackwings by Kevin Hearne
A Blight of Blackwings is the second novel in Kevin Hearne’s SEVEN KENNINGS series, following A Plague of Giants which you’ll need to read first because this novel jumps in right where the first one left off. Hearne uses the same structure and frame story, with Fintan the bard using a magical device to turn himself into the image of each point-of-view character.
At the end of A Plague of Giants,
April 29th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Kevin Hearne | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne
Displaying his versatility, Kevin Hearne turns his pen to epic fantasy in A Plague of Giants (2017), the first novel in his SEVEN KENNINGS series. It follows a large cast of characters who live in different kingdoms on a continent that has just been invaded by a race of strange-looking people who are tall, thin and white-skinned. These Bone Giants, as they come to be called, came from across the water in ships and landed in several seaside towns.
April 23rd, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Kevin Hearne | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Stars Beyond (2020) is the sequel to sisterly writing duo S.K. Dunstall’s novel Stars Uncharted which Tadiana and I reviewed last year. We agreed that it was a Firefly-type story that was accessible and pleasant, but lacked originality. The good news, though, is that book two, Stars Beyond, is better.
Stars Beyond picks up where Stars Uncharted left off.
April 20th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | S.K. Dunstall | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sisters Eleanor and Mike have come to rely on each other for comfort and love. The space beneath Eleanor’s bed is a favorite hiding place where they can retreat from real life when their parents begin to fight almost every night.
One night, after their abusive father breaks the family heirloom they call the “witch ball,” the girls find a river running under Eleanor’s bed. After falling in, they discover that the river leads to a land of dreams and nightmares and that, according to strange creatures who live there,
April 15th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Fran Wilde | Audio, Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Come the Revolution by Frank Chadwick
Come the Revolution (2015) is the sequel to Frank Chadwick’s How Dark the World Becomes (which you’ll want to read first).
Sasha Naradnyo survived the events of the previous book, but just barely. One of our favorite characters, however, did not survive. Now it’s a few years later. Sasha is the head of security for Tweezaa, the Varoki girl he was protecting in How Dark the World Becomes.
April 13th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Frank Chadwick | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez
Sal Vidon has just started at a new middle school and he’s already been to the principal’s office three times. That’s because Sal is a magician, or so he says, and, indeed, very strange things happen around him. For example, he made a dead chicken suddenly appear in a bully’s locker, and he made his dead mother appear in his kitchen to cook up a feast of Cuban food one day before his father and stepmom got home from work.
Soon Sal attracts the attention of school council president Gabi Real,
April 10th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Carlos Hernandez | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
How Dark the World Becomes by Frank Chadwick
Sasha Naradnyo is a mid-level gangster in “Crack City,” a city literally inside a large canyon on the surface of a planet called Peezgtaan that’s mostly inhabited by the Varoki, a sentient lizard-like species. The smaller population of humans, second-class citizens on Peezgtaan, have been ghettoized to Crack City, the only place on the planet where they can breathe the air. They came to Peezgtaan to work for a pharmaceutical company that later went bust, and now they’re stuck on the hostile planet.
Sasha’s got a good heart,
April 7th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Frank Chadwick | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Reposting to include Tadiana’s review.
Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley
Spindle’s End (2000) is Robin McKinley’s delightful and very loose retelling of the Sleeping Beauty (Little Briar Rose) fairy tale.
On the princess’s naming day, a bad fairy declares a curse, stating that, on her 21st birthday, the princess will prick her finger on a spindle and die. In an attempt to thwart the curse, a good fairy named Katriona takes the princess to live with her aunt in a swampy region called Foggy Bottom.
April 6th, 2020. Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Robin McKinley | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.