Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kelly Lasiter

Eve of Destruction: Better than the first book

Eve of Destruction by S.J. Day

It’s not every day that a trilogy’s second installment is better than the first, but S.J. Day has done it.

Eve of Destruction continues the story of Evangeline “Eve” Hollis and her adventures as a “Mark,” a sinner drafted into God’s demon-hunting army. Eve isn’t a typical Mark, and this becomes clearer in this volume as more Marks are introduced to the reader. In some ways, Eve has it easier than her colleagues; she still has a relationship with her family,

April 10th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | S.J. (Sylvia) Day | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Eve of Darkness: She’s tough, she’s sexy, but best of all, she’s smart

Eve of Darkness by S.J. Day

Welcome to S.J. Day’s California, where demons walk among us, unbeknownst to all but a few chosen souls. These chosen souls are the “Marks,” so named because they bear the Mark of Cain. Personally recruited by God to serve as demon-hunting enforcers, they gain superhuman powers and a chance to expiate their sins. The oldest, baddest mark is Cain himself. He’s still a rebel with a distaste for rules, and he still doesn’t get along with that brother of his.

Our heroine, Evangeline “Eve”

April 9th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | S.J. (Sylvia) Day | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Stalking Tender Prey

Stalking Tender Prey by Storm Constantine

Stalking Tender Prey draws on the legend of the Grigori, or Watchers. The Grigori are said to be angels whose over-entanglement with mortals led to their Fall. The central character in Stalking Tender Prey, Peverel Othman, is a Grigori who takes up residence in the small English hamlet of Little Moor, with life-changing results for the townspeople. His arrival precipitates an awakening of sorts, and a loss of inhibitions.

At first, what this means is sex. This is where some readers may be put off.

April 8th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Storm Constantine | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Becoming: Nothing to write home about

The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein

If you don’t think about it too hard, The Becoming could be a fun book for the beach. It’s short, fast-paced, and suffused with a sun-drenched California atmosphere that’s unusual in a vampire novel. (Jeanne C. Stein’s vampires have evolved to tolerate the sun.) It’s also nice that it’s self-contained; there are sequels, but The Becoming is a complete story in itself. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of things about it that bothered me or fell flat with me.

April 8th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Jeanne C. Stein | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Elfland: They just don’t write ’em like that anymore

Elfland by Freda Warrington

Cross Elizabeth Hand with Fire and Hemlock, and you might end up with something like Freda Warrington’s Elfland. This is the kind of big, sweeping modern faerie tale that you don’t see often on the adult shelves anymore. There’s been some beautiful work done in YA recently, but in the adult realm, the trend has been away from novels like this. And that’s a shame. Elfland is complex, rich, sensual, beautifully written, and sometimes heartbreaking.

April 7th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5, 5 | Freda Warrington | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Kelly Chats with Jo Graham

After being enchanted by Jo Graham’s debut novel Black Ships and her new novel Hand of Isis, I had some questions for Jo Graham:

Kelly: One of the ways I can tell I’ve been truly captivated by a work of historical fiction is that I get the mad urge to go out and learn the real history behind the story! So, of course, I’ve been looking up Charmian, with extremely limited success. How much is actually known about her?

Jo Graham: There isn’t much —

March 27th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter | Jo Graham | Author Interviews | 1 comment |

Wild Talent: Gently feminist coming-of-age tale

Wild Talent by Eileen Kernaghan

While Wild Talent is very different from Eileen Kernaghan‘s 2000 novel, The Snow Queen, there are two major themes that the two novels have in common. Both feature young girls striking out precipitously on their own into an unsafe world. Both also address the frustrations of intelligent women up against the repressive mores of Victorian society. The result, in both cases, is a gently feminist coming-of-age tale with a strong sense of place and time.

Deerskin: McKinley seduces us

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Robin McKinley sure knows how to use the English language. We are in her spell from the beginning. Deerskin commences with Lissar’s nurse telling her a fairy tale — but the fairy tale is the story of how Lissar’s larger-than-life parents met. She is told from the very cradle what paragons her mother and father are, and yet she herself is ignored by them. McKinley seduces us with the the magical kingdom’s rarefied beauty and glamour — and also the coldness and rot at its core.

February 7th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Robin McKinley | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Cloven Hooves: Beautiful, haunting, and sad

Cloven Hooves by Megan Lindholm

Though I liked this book, it was depressing. Cloven Hooves is a very melancholy book, moving from one heartbreaking situation to another with no respite.

The story starts with two stories intertwined: first, Evelyn’s wild, rough-and-tumble childhood and her youthful escapades with a faun in the Alaska forest, and second, an older, tamer Evelyn’s marriage, which is on the rocks after she, her husband, and their son move in with the husband’s family. His family is horrible in ways that are devastatingly realistic.

Riversend: Ambitious

Riversend by Sylvia Kelso

Speculative fiction sometimes gets a bad rap for being nothing but “escapism.” While there are certainly plenty of “just for fun” books in the genre, what people sometimes forget is that sci-fi and fantasy have often been a place where writers can experiment with unusual prose styles and tackle controversial themes that might not go over well in mainstream, “realistic” fiction. Sylvia Kelso’s Riversend is an ambitious novel, blending dense, lyrical prose with a thought-provoking look at gender roles and unconventional relationships, and it’s a good story to boot.

January 25th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Sylvia Kelso | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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