Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kelly Lasiter

Spider’s Bite: Southern-fried noir

Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep

The atmosphere of Spider’s Bite might be described as “Southern-fried noir.” The setting is Ashland, an Appalachian city where magic is openly known and a ruthless magical mobster has her fingers in every pie. Most of the cops are corrupt. The hair is big and the food is gloriously unhealthy.

Gin Blanco is an assassin. She takes pride in her skill and doesn’t waste a lot of time brooding about her chosen career. Her profession makes her an unlikely heroine, but her tough,

Chosen: Doesn’t stand out

Chosen by Jeanne C. Stein

I read the first ANNA STRONG novel, The Becoming, some time ago and didn’t like it. Because of this, I haven’t kept up with the series. When I received a review copy of Chosen, however, I was curious. Now that I’ve read it, I will say that Chosen is superior to The Becoming, but that this series will probably never be one of my favorites.

Anna Strong is approaching the first anniversary of her transformation into a vampire.

September 1st, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Jeanne C. Stein | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Queen of Shadows: Favorite book of 2010 so far

Queen of Shadows by Dianne Sylvan

Having enjoyed Dianne Sylvan’s nonfiction in the past, I was thrilled to see she had an urban fantasy coming out. I wasn’t sure if Queen of Shadows would live up to the high expectations I’d set up in my head, but I was definitely curious to find out. My expectations were met and then some. Queen of Shadows is my favorite book of 2010 so far.

Ironically, this makes it a little hard to review. When a book reaches in and grabs me emotionally the way this one did,

August 30th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Dianne Sylvan | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Mockingjay: Our mixed opinions

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

OK, HUNGER GAMES fans, you’ve been waiting a year for this book, and the last thing you want is some @#$% reviewer spoiling the plot. So, I will do my best to give my impressions of Mockingjay with as few spoilers as possible.

When a series becomes this popular and sparks this much speculation among readers, the author’s task is extremely difficult. How to surprise a fanbase, when that fanbase has spent many months trying to guess what will happen in the final installment (and almost certainly guessed right on a few counts)?

August 29th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter, Bill Capossere, Jason Golomb, Terry Weyna and Skye Walker´s rating: 4 | Suzanne Collins | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

A Star Shall Fall: For fans of historical fantasy

A Star Shall Fall by Marie Brennan

From the celestial heights the arbitrary acts of life seem patterned like a fairy-tale landscape, populated by charming and eccentric figures. The glittering observers require vital doses of joy and pain, sudden reversals of fortune, dire portents and untimely deaths. Life itself proceeds in its unpredictable infinite patterns — so unlike the measured dance of stars — until, for the satisfaction of their entertainment, the watchers choose a point at which to stop.

That’s a quote from Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint,

August 26th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Marie Brennan | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Wild Swans: Broke my heart and fused it back together

The Wild Swans by Peg Kerr

I still remember the day I bought my copy of The Wild Swans. I’d been on a retold-fairy-tale bender and had devoured almost every book listed in the back of the Fairy Tale Series books edited by Terri Windling, at least the ones I could track down. I knew I wanted something in a similar vein, and the back cover blurb of The Wild Swans promised exactly what I was looking for. The book delivered,

The Green Man: Read it slowly

The Green Man edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

In fairy tales, whenever someone journeys into the forest, you just know something strange is about to occur and that the protagonist’s life is going to be changed forever. The same is true of the stories and poems featured in The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest. With this collection, editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling kicked off a series of young adult anthologies, each devoted to a particular theme. Here, the theme is wild nature,

August 22nd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Charles De_Lint, Delia Sherman, Ellen Datlow, Emma Bull, Gregory Maguire, Jane Yolen, Jeffrey Ford, Midori Snyder, Neil Gaiman, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Patricia McKillip, Tanith Lee, Terri Windling | Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Once Upon a Winter’s Night: We don’t need this anymore

Once Upon a Winter’s Night by Dennis L. McKiernan

have a thing for retold fairy tales. There was a time when I had even more of a thing for retold fairy tales. I was obsessed. I combed bookstores for anything claiming to be a retelling of this or that. I was especially interested in treatments of the lesser-known tales, and one of those lesser-known tales was “East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon.”

When I learned of Once Upon a Winter’s Night, I was ecstatic.

August 19th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Dennis L. McKiernan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Shadow Chase: A lot of fun once it finally gets going

Shadow Chase by Seressia Glass

The back cover blurb for Shadow Chase promises an adventure story revolving around the Vessel of Nun, an Egyptian artifact that has gone missing and, unless restored to its proper place, will unleash a worldwide flood.

This storyline, however, doesn’t start until after the 100-page mark (though there is one brief hint that foreshadows part of it), and this is to the detriment of the book. In the early chapters, most of the page time is taken up with introspection, discussions,

August 17th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Seressia Glass | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Fatal Circle: Unusually rich family relationships

Fatal Circle by Linda Robertson

Persephone Alcmedi stirred up a whole cauldron of trouble when she killed an irate fairy at the end of Hallowed Circle. Now, the fairies want Seph dead, and Xerxadrea thinks there’s a traitor in the ranks of the witches. So, in order to protect Seph and her family, Menessos will name Seph his court witch so that it looks like she acted on his orders, thereby bringing the fairies’ wrath down on him instead. Meanwhile, Xerxadrea will use this as a pretext to exile Seph from the witches (also for Seph’s protection),

August 11th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Linda Robertson | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
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We’re in total agreement David!
David C Walton on Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Ambitious, atmospheric, and ultimately unevenJuly 3, 2025
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