Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kelly Lasiter

Midnight Never Come: Glittering courts

Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan

Midnight Never Comeis the story of two courts, and of two courtiers who must uncover a deadly secret that threatens both mortal and faerie England. Lune is a disgraced lady of the faerie court, trying to win her way back into the good graces of the cruel Queen Invidiana. Michael Deven is a young gentleman of Elizabeth I’s retinue, working with Elizabeth’s spymaster Walsingham to sniff out a “hidden player” in English politics. Neither is quite prepared for what they discover.

Marie Brennan has a lovely,

September 21st, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Marie Brennan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Kelly chats with Chris Howard about Seaborn and Peanut Butter

Kelly interviews Chris Howard about his novel Seaborn. Read Kelly’s review of Seaborn on our Chris Howard page. The art in this interview comes from Chris Howard’s portfolio.

Kelly: Seaborn features two complex and fascinating heroines: Corina and Kassandra. Each woman is involved in a struggle to gain control of her own psyche; Corina has Aleximor, the necromancer who has possessed her, and Kassandra has the voices of her ancestors prodding her toward the goals they think she ought to pursue. Corina is very open to the reader emotionally—we know most of what makes her tick and what her inner landscape is like—but is unable to take action in the physical world throughout most of the book.

August 13th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter | Chris Howard | Author Interviews | 1 comment |

Seaborn: Unique fantasy

Seaborn by Chris Howard

Seaborn is a unique fantasy; it’s unlike anything else I’ve read. Chris Howard tells a compelling story of merpeople and of two women who struggle to become their own woman (or mermaid) in the face of opposition.

Our heroines are Corina Lairsey, a California girl who becomes possessed by a megalomaniacal merman while scuba-diving, and Lady Kassandra, an exiled princess of the Seaborn who is hatching a plan to overthrow her usurping grandfather. Howard does a great job with Corina’s plight,

July 20th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Chris Howard | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Through a Brazen Mirror: A bittersweet gem of fantasy

Through a Brazen Mirror by Delia Sherman

Through a Brazen Mirror is the sort of book that deserves a wider audience than it’s gotten so far. The author is a lesbian, and the book contains a gay character. Since mainstream publishers are still a little squeamish about such things, this book gets the label “Queer Fantasy” slapped on it, gets published by a small press, and the upshot of it is that most straight readers have never heard of the darn thing. And that’s a shame. This isn’t just a good “gay book,”

Kushiel’s Mercy: Has it all

Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey

I quote Yeats with Melisande Shahrizai firmly in mind. For the last two books I’ve waited to see the perilous beauty again, knowing she’d have to appear again at some point. Her machinations and her legacy have always been at the heart of the series, even when she was unseen.

At the beginning of Kushiel’s Mercy, Melisande’s shadow lies heavily over her estranged son, Imriel de la Courcel. Imriel is in love with the Dauphine, Sidonie, but Sidonie’s mother the Queen does not fully trust Imriel.

July 6th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Jacqueline Carey | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Nightwalker: This is how it’s done

Nightwalker by Jocelynn Drake

I’ve been a fan of Buffy for a long time, but there was one thing I always wondered about. Namely, why would a vampire ever bother going to Sunnydale, knowing the Slayer lived there and was likely to dust the vamp as soon as he or she arrived in town? One would think a vamp could live a longer, more peaceful life simply by avoiding the Slayer’s stomping grounds, right?

After the first chapter of Jocelynn Drake’s Nightwalker, I think I get it.

June 23rd, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Jocelynn Drake | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Bast: Bell, Book, and Murder

Bast: Bell, Book, and Murder by Rosemary Edghill

Speak Daggers to Her, The Book of Moons, and The Bowl of Night are some of the best fiction about modern witches I’ve seen yet. And the main reason why is the heroine — Bast. In Bast, Rosemary Edghill creates a delightful heroine with a deep belief in the Goddess and magic — and also with a barbed tongue that deftly skewers the politics and foibles of the Pagan community.

June 16th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Rosemary Edghill | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Lament: Excellent YA fantasy

Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

First love: it’s scary and confusing enough even when there aren’t homicidal faeries involved. Add in the homicidal faeries, and a girl can get in over her head before she can say “cold iron.”

Maggie Stiefvater‘s Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception is an excellent YA fantasy that will appeal to anyone who likes stories of the fae as they appear in the oldest legends: dangerous, seductive, and sometimes deadly. Let me say right up front: Lament is downright frightening in places.

Magic Study: When dangling, watch your participles

Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder

A brief overview of the plot of Magic Study is this: Yelena, the poison taster turned magician whom we met in Poison Study, leaves Ixia for Sitia, the country of her birth, to enter magical training and meet her long-lost family. Along the way, there are family tensions, new friends and enemies among the students and teachers at Yelena’s school, and sinister forces that may claim Yelena’s life, or that of one of her friends, if Yelena can’t thwart them.

June 9th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Maria V. Snyder | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Lady of the Forest: Mixed Emotions

Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson

How to explain my feelings about Lady of the Forest? A romantic historical novel about Maid Marian and Robin Hood, it was an enjoyable escape and post-work-stress-reliever for a couple of weeks. I did enjoy it. Unfortunately, when I shut the back cover, I realized I had just read a six-hundred page book containing almost no surprises.

Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of the stellar Mists of Avalon, gushes about this book in the cover blurb,

June 5th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Jennifer Roberson | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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