Marion Deeds | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

How the World Became Quiet: Wish I’d discovered Swirsky sooner

How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future by Rachel Swirsky

I don’t read a lot of short stories, so it isn’t surprising that Rachel Swirsky wasn’t on my radar. Stories and novellas are what she is best known for. Subterranean Press has gathered 18 of her works into this collection, How the World Became Quiet.

Swirsky also writes poetry, which explains both her precise use of prose and her mastery of tone. This collection ranges from masterworks to pieces that are,

The Scroll of Years: A lovely gift to give yourself

The Scroll of Years by Chris Willrich

In The Scroll of Years, Chris Willrich’s short story characters, Persimmon Gaunt and Imago Bone make the jump to their first novel. Gaunt, who comes from one of the city of Palmary’s “better” families, is a rebellious poet, and Bone is a thief. They are lovers, and as the book opens they are expecting their first child. In their time together, Bone has taught Gaunt quite a bit about fighting, fleeing and breaking and entering; Gaunt has help Bone develop his gift for language.

September 25th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Chris Willrich | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |

Marion chats with Helene Wecker

Helene Wecker’s debut novel, The Golem and the Jinni (reviewed here), explores the immigrant experience through the eyes of two folkloric creatures. Helene took some time from her schedule to answer some of my questions and to give me a signed copy of The Golem and the Jinni which I’ll pass on to one random commenter.

Marion Deeds: The Golem and the Jinni is primarily an immigrant’s tale, but your title characters, being folkloric creatures, added a new level to the story.

September 24th, 2013. Marion Deeds | Helene Wecker | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 11 comments |

Kill City Blues: Shopping Mall Gothic

Kill City Blues by Richard Kadrey

How about a nice haunted house book? You’ve read dozens, you say? Okay, well how about a haunted hotel? Been there, done that… ? Well, have you read about a haunted luxury mall, one with abandoned levels all the way down to a faux Roman bath that holds a shrine to a god from another universe, and contains, somewhere, a God-killing weapon? No? I thought not.

Kill City Blues is the fifth SANDMAN SLIM book from Richard Kadrey.

September 18th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Richard Kadrey | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Devil Said Bang: Leaving Hell was the easy part

Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey

Warning: This review may contain spoilers of earlier SANDMAN SLIM books.

I admire writers who can create fast-paced, intricately plotted stories that still have layered, complete characters. To me, that’s the prose version of juggling eggs and chainsaws at the same time. In Devil Said Bang, Richard Kadrey’s fourth SANDMAN SLIM book, he accomplishes this feat while tap-dancing and simultaneously playing blues harmonica.

When Devil Said Bang opens,

September 17th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Richard Kadrey | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Rose and the Thorn: Do not get on Royce Melborn’s bad side

The Rose and the Thorn by Michael J. Sullivan

The Rose and the Thorn is the second book in Michael J. Sullivan’s RIYRIA CHRONICLES. Sullivan continues to share “the early years” of Hadrian Blackwater and Royce Melborn.

The Rose and the Thorn takes place about one year after the events in The Crown Tower. The book opens, not with our two wandering thieves-for-hire, but with Reuben Hilfred. Reuben is soon to be made one of the royal guards in King Amrath,

September 13th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Michael J. Sullivan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The White Forest: A successful gothic pastiche

The White Forest by Adam McOmber

“It was in the flow of that great primordium that I saw something astonishing – a final vision: a vast and wild image of myself.”

In The White Forest, Adam McOmber attempts a Victorian-style thriller, a spooky gothic in the style of Henry James. The story follows three young people on London’s Hampstead Heath, during or shortly after the Crimean War. Nathan Ashe is a young aristocrat, a gentleman, always curious, whose seeking has become more desperate since he has returned from the war.

23 Years on Fire: Bad pacing slows down this military adventure

23 Years on Fire by Joel Shepherd

23 Years on Fire is the fourth book in Joel Shepherd’s CASSANDRA KRESNOV series, a set of military SF books set several hundred years in future, in a distant galaxy. Cassandra Kresnov, who goes by Sandy, is the commander of the galactic Federal Security Agency, or FSA’s, special operations branch. She is also a GI, a combat-designed 100% synthetic person. Sandy must deal with the prejudices of original humans and her own questions about the destiny and evolution of her “people,” the synthetic soldiers.

September 9th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Joel Shepherd | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Glass God: Sharon Li is no Matthew Swift

The Glass God by Kate Griffin

The Glass God is the second book in Kate Griffin’s Magicals Anonymous series. These books are set in the same magical London as the MATTHEW SWIFT books, but follow the character of Sharon Li, barista turned shaman turned “community support worker” for various magical beings in the greater London area.

While Swift, a sorcerer, is a loner and a one-person army of anarchy, that’s not how Sharon rolls. She is a shaman,

August 16th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Kate Griffin | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Stray Souls: Griffin moves into Pratchett territory

Stray Souls by Kate Griffin

I am a big fan of Kate Griffin’s MATTHEW SWIFT books. I think her love of London; the majestic, the beautiful, the historic, the grungy, the run-down and the shoddy, powers those books, as does a system of magic that grown organically from the city (or, as Swift puts it, “Life is magic.”) With Stray Souls, Griffin introduces another character and what appears to second series set in the same magical universe; the MAGICALS ANONYMOUS series.

August 14th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Kate Griffin | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Author: Marion Deeds

How the World Became Quiet: Wish I’d discovered Swirsky sooner

The Scroll of Years: A lovely gift to give yourself

Marion chats with Helene Wecker

Kill City Blues: Shopping Mall Gothic

Devil Said Bang: Leaving Hell was the easy part

The Rose and the Thorn: Do not get on Royce Melborn’s bad side

The White Forest: A successful gothic pastiche

23 Years on Fire: Bad pacing slows down this military adventure

The Glass God: Sharon Li is no Matthew Swift

Stray Souls: Griffin moves into Pratchett territory

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