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Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kate Lechler

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Crown of Vengeance: Enjoyable high fantasy

Crown of Vengeance by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory

I finished listening to the audio version of Crown of Vengeance, the first in Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory’s DRAGON PROPHECY series. It tells the story of Vielissar Farcarinon, an Elvish mage who discovers when she is twelve that her parents were killed and her ancestral house destroyed by the people who fostered her, House Caerthalion. She nurses her rage and quest for vengeance as she learns to channel the Light. However, she soon finds out that she is the Child of the Prophecy,


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October 1st, 2014. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

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WWWednesday: September 24, 2014

On this day in 1852, the first airship powered by (a steam) engine, created by Henri Giffard, traveled 17 miles from Paris to Trappes. And, on this day in 1990, astronomers noticed the Great White Spot (or Great White Oval), a giant storm on Saturn that is observable every 28.5 years.

Writing, Editing, and Publishing:

Apex Magazine has recently announced staff changes. Jason Sizemore, the publisher of Apex, will be taking over as editor-in-chief as Sigrid Ellis steps down; the new poetry editor will be Bianca Spriggs.

I recently ran across a new blog to follow,


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September 24th, 2014. | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

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Darwin’s Radio: Cool idea that doesn’t connect

Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear

Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear follows several characters — a molecular biologist, an archaeologist, and a public policy maker — through a cataclysmic pandemic sweeping through the human race. This disease is an HERV, a human endogenous retrovirus, which is a piece of dormant genetic code that, when activated, only affects sexually-active women. It causes them to get pregnant with a horribly-mutated fetus that self-aborts, only to follow up with another pregnancy of a new species of human, homo novus.

I found Bear’s description of homo novus a fascinating suggestion of ways in which our species might evolve.


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September 23rd, 2014. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

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WWWednesday: September 17, 2014

On this date in 1676, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek wrote a letter to the Royal Society describing “animalcules.” They met his claims to see microscopic creatures with skepticism, but today we know that the creatures he saw as protozoa.

Writing, Editing, and Publishing:

The longlist for the National Book Award YA Lit has been announced, and includes some great SFF picks, like Kate Milford’s Greenglass House, Andrew Smith’s 100 Sideways Miles, and John Corey Whaley’s Noggin.


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September 17th, 2014. | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |

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Steadfast: More like Stead-slow

Steadfast by Mercedes Lackey

Steadfast by Mercedes Lackey is another fairy-tale retelling from her ELEMENTAL MASTERS series. It recasts Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Katie Langford is a circus acrobat on the run. She flees to Brighton and ends up as a dancer and magician’s assistant for a small theatre. Lionel Hawkins, the magician she works for, is an elemental magician; he and his good friend Jack, the one-legged doorman of the theater, soon see that Katie also has undiscovered magical abilities.


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September 16th, 2014. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

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Home from the Sea: Lackey finally gets it right

Home from the Sea by Mercedes Lackey

Home from the Sea by Mercedes Lackey was a pretty enjoyable, fluffy fantasy romance. Set in coastal Wales, it combines the story of Tam Lin with selkie myths. Mari Prothero is a young woman who lives with her father, Daffyd, an unusually lucky fisherman. On her sixteenth birthday, Mari learns, to her great dismay, that she has been promised as a bride to one of the Selch, the seal-skinned people of the sea. This bargain has been in place for generations of the Prothero family;


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September 11th, 2014. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

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WWWednesday: September 10, 2014

On this day in 2008, the Large Hadron Collider was powered up in Geneva, Switzerland, and proton beams circulated in the main ring.

Movies and Television:

A new live-action Peter Pan is coming to the small screen this fall. Allison Williams of GIRLS (and news anchor Brian Williams’ daughter) will continue the tradition of women who have played the spritely boy. Check out some of the first photos of Williams as Pan.

A new animated film, Hullabaloo, is being funded by IndieGoGo.


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September 10th, 2014. | World Wide Wednesday | 8 comments |

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Egg and Spoon: Feels more like fabulist literary fiction than YA

Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire

Gregory Maguire’s Egg and Spoon is being marketed as a YA novel, and I hope that designation doesn’t drive any readers away. This book blends the humor and hunger of real life with the wonder and otherworldliness of fables, resulting in a story that broke my heart so subtly, it was like a crack developing in an egg.

Egg and Spoon follows two young protagonists in Tsarist Russia. Elena Rudina, a peasant girl from the village of Miersk,


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September 9th, 2014. ´s rating: | | , | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

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WWWednesday: September 3, 2014

On this day in 301, San Marino, the longest continuously existing republic, was founded by St. Marinus. The demonym is Sammarinese.

Writing, Editing, and Publishing:

Io9 has a list of books coming out in September that you can’t miss. I’m particularly excited for Maplecroft, Cherie Priest’s new book about Lizzie Borden. For more upcoming books, check out our new releases page.

Jack Heckel writes about fairy tale portrayals of female power for Tor.com. I especially like his analysis of the tale of the Fisherman and his Wife,


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September 3rd, 2014. | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |

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DragonCon Day 2: or, In which I chase Lev Grossman around Atlanta

The first panel on my Sunday list was “Modern-Day Magic,” with Jim Butcher and Lev Grossman at 10 am. I was pretty excited for this; on Saturday, I had a chance to see Lev in the Delphic Oracle panel but had thought “it’s fine, I’ll see him tomorrow,” and decided to go to the Writing Track panel instead. If only I had the powers of the Delphic oracle to see into the future . . .

I left for downtown at 9:15, and made it to the con with plenty of time to spare.


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September 2nd, 2014. | | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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