Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kelly Lasiter

Ill Met by Moonlight: Amusing Shakespearean fantasy

Ill Met by Moonlight by Sarah A. Hoyt

Quicksilver is a faery version of Prince Hamlet. He is the rightful ruler of his people, but his inheritance has been usurped by his murderous brother. He can only wreak revenge and claim his birthright with the help of a mortal, and Will Shakespeare seems like just the man for the job. Luckily, Quicksilver has a gender-shifting talent, and Will is much intrigued by Q’s female aspect…

Will has an agenda as well; his wife has been kidnapped by the aforementioned usurping king,

May 26th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Sarah A. Hoyt | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Sins & Shadows: Pretty woman, big gun, bigger mouth

Sins & Shadows by Lyn Benedict

The only good thing about gods is that they prefer their realm to ours.

Lyn Benedict also writes political-intrigue fantasy under the name Lane Robins. I learned this before starting Sins & Shadows, and I’ve been wondering ever since whether I’d have figured it out if I hadn’t known. The setting, plot, and prose style are completely different from the Lane Robins books, but there are some echoes in the general themes: love,

May 22nd, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Lyn Benedict | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Salt and Silver: What happens when the Hell portal vanishes

Salt and Silver by Anna Katherine

Blurbs for Salt and Silver use the word “romp” often enough that I was expecting something in the vein of paranormal chick lit. I was surprised, then, by the dark places Salt and Silver goes, and Anna Katherine‘s ability to both scare the daylights out of me and break my heart.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, given that the whole story is about going to, well, Hell.

Our heroine is Allie,

May 17th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Anna Katherine | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Kings and Assassins: The prose kept me going

Kings and Assassins by Lane Robins

I wasn’t sure I’d like this one. Janus Ixion as the protagonist? I hated Janus in Maledicte. I started reading Kings and Assassins with that loathing firmly in place, and in the early pages of the book, he didn’t do much to make me like him any better. I didn’t like the other characters either. I didn’t care about Janus, I didn’t care that he missed Maledicte, I didn’t care about his wife or about their endless quarrels,

May 14th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Lane Robins | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Lavinia: A voice and a story for Lavinia

Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin

“It’s not death that allows us to understand one another, but poetry.”

Lavinia, wife of Aeneas, is silent in Virgil’s Aeneid. In the novel Lavinia, Ursula Le Guin gives a voice and a story to this nearly obscure figure.

I loved the prose from page one. Le Guin’s skill with the English language is unquestionable. Here’s a sample from early in the novel:

Like Spartan Helen,

The Trouble With Witches: A lot of fun

The Trouble With Witches by Shirley Damsgaard

After reading Witch Way to Murder, I found myself craving another Ophelia and Abby mystery and went to the library for my “fix.” They didn’t have book two, Charmed to Death, but they did have book three, The Trouble With Witches. I decided, what the heck, you can usually read these cozy mystery series out of order anyway. Often, authors will only allude vaguely to events of previous books in case you’re reading them out of sequence.

May 12th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Shirley Damsgaard | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Santa Olivia: Completely different and darn good

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey

I’m not actually sure if Santa Olivia (2009) is technically a fantasy novel. The heroine, Loup Garron, has unusual abilities, but she gets them by way of genetic engineering, not magic (her father was a top-secret military experiment). However, if you’re a fantasy fan, don’t let this dissuade you! There’s plenty here for a fantasy reader to love. Santa Olivia is a coming-of-age story; it’s a story about being a misfit; it’s a story about an underdog up against towering odds;

May 6th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Jacqueline Carey | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Magic in the Blood: Ouch!

Magic in the Blood by Devon Monk

I complain sometimes about urban fantasy heroines who keep racking up more and more improbable powers over the course of a series, eventually becoming such spectacular demigoddesses that it would take a small army to give them so much as a black eye.

That’s one problem Allie Beckstrom doesn’t have. I’m beginning to think Allie needs more powers to deal with everything Devon Monk is throwing at her. Monk is great — maybe a little too great — at describing the agony of trekking all over Portland in the rain with a blinding migraine,

May 3rd, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Devon Monk | SFF Reviews | no comments |

An Earthly Knight: Interesting character study, flat romance

An Earthly Knight by Janet McNaughton

I went through a phase a few years ago where I sought out every retelling of the Tam Lin story that I could get my hands on. So the title An Earthly Knight was instantly familiar to me, and I knew I needed to read this book. I was especially intrigued by the author’s choice to return the story to its original setting, medieval Scotland.

Unfortunately, the historical aspect falls a little flat. McNaughton has a tendency to get a bit infodump-y. I wasn’t familiar with the politics of that time and place,

King of Morning, Queen of Day: A fairy tale of unforgettable power

King of Morning, Queen of Day by Ian McDonald

I knew, just by reading the back cover blurb, that King of Morning, Queen of Day was right up my alley. Women with mystical powers? Check. Faeries? Check. Ireland? Check. In fact, I think the only reason I didn’t discover this book earlier is that it was published in 1991, and I only started reading fantasy sometime in the late nineties.

The story begins with Emily, a bratty but endearing girl of fifteen,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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