Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Kelly Lasiter

Four and Twenty Blackbirds: Southern Gothic that shows a lot of promise

Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Cherie Priest

If you’re a reader who can’t get enough of crumbling antebellum mansions, dark family secrets, and muggy Southern weather, you’ll enjoy Four and Twenty Blackbirds (2003). This Southern Gothic ghost story was Cherie Priest’s first novel, and while it’s imperfect, it’s quite readable and shows a lot of promise.

Set in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Four and Twenty Blackbirds possesses a strong, tangible sense of place. I once spent a brief time in Chattanooga during the summer,

June 5th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Cherie Priest | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Meeting of the Waters: How can a swashbuckling Celtic epic be BORING?!?

The Meeting of the Waters by Caiseal Mor

With its gorgeous knotwork cover art and the back-cover blurb about “brave, copper-haired Aoife,” the publishers evidently mean to recommend Caiseal Mor‘s The Meeting of the Waters to readers who’ve read and loved Marillier’s Sevenwaters series, the popular trilogy of Celtic epics featuring strong female protagonists. That’s why I bought this book myself. I expected a similar kind of story, complete with adventure, love, war, and magic. The setting is the time of the Gaelic conquest of Ireland,

May 31st, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Caiseal Mor | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Iron Hunt: Visceral and poetic at the same time

The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu

“When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw.”

That’s the first sentence of Marjorie M. Liu’s The Iron Hunt, and it’s just about perfect as opening lines go. It’s the primary reason I bought the book. Not only does it draw the reader in, eager to find out how and why this happened, but I’m also pretty darn sure it’s an Angela Carter reference. I love Angela Carter.

It would be misleading to suggest,

May 29th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Marjorie M. Liu | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Tower at Stony Wood: Not her best work

The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia McKillip

Patricia McKillip is one of the most unique fantasy writers out there, blending echoes of ancient stories in with intricate and elegant poetic-prose that may surprise those new to her writing style. I must admit that her work is an acquired taste, it took me a few tries to fully understand and appreciate her work; to grasp the story underneath the many-layered poetic language that she invokes.

The Tower at Stony Wood is no exception to this style,

Kushiel’s Justice: Disappointing installment in an excellent series

Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey

Compared to Kushiel’s Scion, Phèdre and Joscelin return for a much larger portion of this book and they are as awesome as ever. They add excitement and helped me through much of the slog that was the first 300-odd pages. Yes, that’s right. Though previous Kushiel books have been long and probably could have withstood some cutting easily, I never minded the extra. With both Scion and Justice, that extra could have been done without.

May 6th, 2008. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest) and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 0.1, 2 | Jacqueline Carey | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Witching Hour: Imaginary genealogies are more fun than they sound

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Although Anne Rice‘s The Vampire Chronicles are undoubtedly her most famous and best-selling novels, there is much to be said for her witch trilogy: The Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Although none of the characters who populate The Witching Hour are quite as memorable as her vampires, the plot and pacing of her witch-stories appeal to me more than anything else she has written to date. Her skills as a novelist are on fine display here and her storytelling techniques are utterly unique,

May 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Anne Rice | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

Silk: Oh, what a tangled web…

Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan

I’m trying to remember how long ago I first read Silk. It may have been as much as ten years ago, when the book was new. I can’t say for sure, but I can say that few books have stayed with me the way Silk has. Even when I’d forgotten the details of the plot, images remained: the horror of the climactic scene, the kudzu-strangled trees. A few years after reading Silk, I went on a road trip through the South,

May 2nd, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Caitlín R. Kiernan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Queen’s Bastard: Prose is lovely; can’t get a grip on the heroine

The Queen’s Bastard by C.E. Murphy

On paper, The Queen’s Bastard is right up my alley. Court intrigue plus magic plus sex? Where do I sign up? I’ve seen comparisons to the Kushiel series and it’s not hard to see why; it’s partly the intrigue/magic/sex combination and partly the prose, which is lush and has moments of exquisite beauty. It was the prose that hooked me from the first page.

Unfortunately, other factors “unhooked” me later in the book, and now I’m three-quarters of the way through The Queen’s Bastard and not really feeling the urge to go on.

April 29th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | C.E. Murphy | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Winter Rose: A dreamy and mysterious tale of family secrets

Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip

The first time I read Patricia McKillip, I didn’t get very far. The book was the Riddlemaster of Hed, and I was completely unprepared for her complex use of language. But there must have been something in her style that intrigued me, because I tracked down Winter Rose not long afterwards, and since then have been a big fan of all her work. Out of all Patricia McKillip’s books (at least the ones I’ve read) Winter Rose is perhaps the most opaque.

Blood Noir: Too much drama, too little actual plot

Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton

I probably shouldn’t be plodding on through this series at all. I haven’t truly enjoyed an Anita Blake book in years. Lack of editing hasn’t done the series any favors, and while I don’t mind sex in novels, Laurell K. Hamilton still hasn’t figured out that sometimes you can gloss over periods of time when nothing much is happening plotwise. (“Three weeks later…”) I don’t need a play-by-play every time the characters get it on. It just fills up pages and crowds out the plot.

April 11th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 1.5 | Laurell K. Hamilton | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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