Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kelly Lasiter

A Touch Mortal: Did Not Finish

A Touch Mortal by Leah Clifford

Full disclosure: I didn’t finish this book. I didn’t even get that far in. But I’m a firm believer that life’s too short to read bad books. A Touch Mortal hit one of my biggest peeves about YA paranormal romance, and it hit it really quickly.

It starts out with what could be an interesting premise: teenage Eden is somehow slipping from the minds of everyone around her, and doesn’t know why her friends and family are ignoring her. She’s depressed about this and contemplating suicide when she meets two young men on the beach.

Dark Companion: Respectable spooky-boarding-school story

Dark Companion by Marta Acosta

Jane grew up as an unloved foster child in a rough neighborhood full of gangsters and pimps. Inspired by a friend’s death to excel in school, Jane has earned a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy for Girls. She sees this as a ticket out of the violence and exploitation she sees all around her, but instead she finds that there are predators among the rich as well…

Dark Companion by Marta Acosta fits comfortably in with the “dark supernatural secret at a girls’ boarding school” subgenre of novels — though the main secret isn’t technically supernatural,

Gunmetal Magic: Should have been shorter

Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews

This volume includes the novella Magic Gifts — previously seen as a free download at Ilona Andrews’s website this past Christmas season — and the full-length novel Gunmetal Magic (2012), a spinoff of the KATE DANIELS series starring Kate’s best friend Andrea Nash. Magic Gifts is placed at the end of the book but should actually be read first, and there is chronological overlap between the two.

Magic Gifts is sort of a “monster of the week” episode,

September 3rd, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Ilona Andrews | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Dragonet Prophecy: Kind of like ASOIAF for kids

Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland

The Dragonet Prophecy is the first in the new series WINGS OF FIRE, by Tui T. Sutherland. It’s set in a world where dragons are the dominant species; humans are present but are called “scavengers” and seen as an occasionally dangerous nuisance. The prophecy concerns five young dragons who, it is foretold, will end a long and ruinous war. The five are hidden away and raised by a small rebel underground.

Sutherland quickly takes this plot in a couple of unexpected directions that hooked me right away.

Chapter 6 of Hang Fire by Devon Monk

Today we’re featuring Chapter 6 of Devon Monk’s story Hang Fire, which is an internet-only steampunk short story set in late 1800’s America. It takes place between Devon Monk’s AGE OF STEAM books Dead Iron and Tin Swift (which will be released on July 3). Hang Fire is broken into 20 “chapters” and posted, one chapter at a time, on 20 blogs. Start at chapter 1 at Candace’s Book Blog and follow the “read the next chapter”

June 26th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter | Devon Monk | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 72 comments |

The Meri: Readable but unspectacular

The Meri by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Meredydd is an orphan, and the only female student at the prestigious school Halig-liath. At Halig-liath, young men — and Meredydd — are trained to become Osraed, which are magician-priests something along the lines of Druids. Female magic is feared and distrusted in this world, and when Meredydd is falsely accused of witchcraft, the elders decide to send her on Pilgrimage to meet the Meri, a goddess-like figure who serves as a connection between humans and God. The Meri will be the final judge of whether Meredydd is fit to be an Osraed,

June 21st, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Hide Me Among the Graves: Clever “secret history” fantasy

Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers

Tim Powers’s The Stress of Her Regard was one of my favorite random used-bookstore discoveries. After reading it ten years ago, I talked it up to all my friends. It was out of print at the time, so I constantly lent out my own copy until the time I didn’t get it back. When I got wind of Hide Me Among the Graves, a sequel of sorts, I was thrilled and hoped it would be one of my favorite books of the year.

May 19th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3, 3.5 | Tim Powers | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Gathering Storm: Kitchen-sink feel

The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

The Gathering Storm is the first in the KATERINA TRILOGY by Robin Bridges. The trilogy blends historical fiction with the paranormal, and is set in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the late 19th century.

Bridges immerses us in an evocative setting. The pageantry of the Russian court is combined with that hard-to-describe fairy tale mood. Even though we see through the eyes of a heroine who doesn’t really like all the pageantry, we are swept away into a world that is elegant but filled with dark secrets.

May 14th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Robin Bridges | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Phoenix Rising: Lots of rivets, studs and leather

Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are agents in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, taking on the uncanny in the name of Queen and country. Agent Books is a straitlaced archivist — don’t call him a librarian — who enjoys mechanical tinkering and his peaceful job among the Ministry’s old files. Agent Braun is an outspoken New Zealand transplant who loves to blow things up. At the beginning of Phoenix Rising, the two agents land themselves in the doghouse with the Ministry and are assigned to work together.

May 10th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Philippa (Pip) Ballantine, Tee Morris | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Summoning the Night: Snap up on sight

Summoning the Night by Jenn Bennett

Summoning the Night is the second book in Jenn Bennett’s ARCADIA BELL series. It follows Kindling the Moon and is just as good as its predecessor; with this book Bennett has cemented this series’ place on my “snap up on sight” list.

The main plot this time around is that Cady is manipulated into doing an investigation for the Hellfire Club. The teenage children of Hellfire members are vanishing, and the club’s leader,

May 9th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Jenn Bennett | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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