Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Marion Deeds

Be My Enemy: No sophomore slump in the EVERNESS series

Be My Enemy by Ian McDonald

Be My Enemy is Ian McDonald’s second book in his alternate-universe EVERNESS series. In this book, our hero Everett Singh confronts his most powerful enemy, himself.

At the end of Planesrunner, Everett’s father was transported into a random universe by the Known Worlds villain Charlotte Villiers. Villiers used a weapon she called a jumpgun. Everett managed to grab the jumpgun, and has used it and the map of universes on his computer tablet to send the airship Everness to another universe as well.

The Six-Gun Tarot: A crazy-wild desert town and a roller-coaster adventure

The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher

I don’t know if I’ve seen a book as packed with ideas, tropes, storylines, and genres as The Six-Gun Tarot, by R.S. (Rod) Belcher. To give a rough idea, here is a mere sampling of what’s in the mix: Native American coyote mythology, zombies, a seemingly unkillable sheriff, Lovecraftian/Cthulhu mythos, Western genre tropes, acupuncture, Lilith mythos, steampunk, a re-examination of Christian creation myth, romance, Mormonism, Civil War stories, horror, ghosts, pirates (OK, only briefly mentioned,

January 23rd, 2013. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | R.S. (Rod) Belcher | SFF Reviews | 12 comments |

The Merchant of Dreams: Still interesting, but not as good as the first book

The Merchant of Dreams by Anne Lyle

Anne Lyle continues her Elizabethan sword-and-cipher fantasy series NIGHT’S MASQUE with Book Two, The Merchant of Dreams. This book picks up almost a year after the end of The Alchemist of Souls, and follows Mal Catlyn and his friends on their adventures, which take place mostly on the ocean or in the city of Venice.

In Lyle’s universe, the New World is populated by skraylings, a non-human race who reincarnate and who use magic.

January 16th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Anne Lyle | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: We love it

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

I’m pretty sure every person in the western world knows who Harry Potter is and knows the basic story line. Harry Potter was The Boy Who Lived. Both his parents were killed by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the evil Lord Voldemort, but he survived the attack, somehow causing Voldemort to disappear. Now Harry is eleven, and off to his first year at Hogwarts wizarding school. But it seems like Voldemort is making a resurgence. Is Harry safe, even under the watchful eye of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore?

Untimed: Like science class in Las Vegas

Untimed by Andy Gavin

Charlie Horologe’s mother can’t remember his name. People often forget him seconds after they’ve seen him. When he scores the highest in the high jump on the track and field team, they give the medal to the kid who came in second. The only people who seem to remember him consistently are his dad and his aunt Sophie, who travel together for their work and only show up about twice a year, usually with an armload of history books for Charlie and a quiz on the contents.

This is the opening of Andy Gavin’s YA time-travel fantasy Untimed.

Marion Chats with Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest has written ghost stories, monster stories, tales of the Elder Gods, urban fantasy and steampunk, but she is probably best known for the EDEN MOORE series, and for Boneshaker and the subsequent books in her CLOCKWORK CENTURY series. The Inexplicables, the fifth book in that series, was released earlier this fall. In addition to moving from Seattle to Chattanooga, Tennessee, Priest just finished up a book promotion tour, but she found time in her schedule to answer a few of my questions for Fanlit.

December 18th, 2012. Marion Deeds | Cherie Priest | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 6 comments |

Apollo’s Outcasts: Pleasing young adult science fiction adventure

Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele

Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele is a pleasing science fiction adventure for young people, in the mold of Robert Heinlein’s YA work. It takes place on a near-future Earth and on the lunar colony, Apollo.

Jamey Barlowe was born on the moon but returned to Earth when he was an infant. Jamey’s bones never developed properly in the moon’s lower gravity. On Earth, he is crippled, needing crutches and an automated “mobil” to move about.

Quantum Coin: Fun YA adventure

Quantum Coin by E.C. Myers

Quantum Coin is E.C. Myers’s second book, following the adventures of Ephraim Scott and his friends as they hop from universe to universe by means of a magical coin, er, I mean, a coheron drive disguised as a quarter. In this outing, the very multiverse is collapsing and universes are merging, with unpredictable results. It appears that only Ephraim, Jena Kim, Zoe (an “analog” of Jena from a dystopian universe) and Nathan can stop it — but is that even the right thing to do?

Fair Coin: A quirky vision of a fun science fiction trope

Fair Coin by E.C. Myers

Fair Coin by E.C. Myers is the first book in a YA science fiction series. The hero, Ephraim Scott, lives in Summerside, New York. One day he comes home from school to discover that his alcoholic mother has overdosed on pills. She did this because she was told Ephraim was killed in an accident. This is not a hoax or a mistake; when Ephraim takes his mother to the hospital he finds out that the boy in the morgue has ID and a library card in Ephraim’s name.

The Steam Mole: A rollicking good time

The Steam Mole by Dave Freer

Dave Freer’s YA novel The Steam Mole is a rollicking good time. This book picks up almost immediately after Cuttlefish. Tim Barnabas and Clara Calland are now in Westralia, a free nation on the Australian continent. Clara and her scientist mother Mary have sought asylum from the dreaded coal-driven British Empire, alive and well in 1953 in this world, but Tim and the rest of the submarine’s crew are stranded while the Cuttlefish is being repaired.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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