Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Marion Deeds

Riddley Walker: On the Edge

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban

[At The Edge of the Universe, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]

Language is dependent on the society that uses it. We weave into our idiom words and phrases that explain our history and our present. Similes and metaphors embed themselves so deeply into our sentences that we don’t even notice them. Some are slang: we didn’t get the memo,

A Guile of Dragons: A good beginning

A Guile of Dragons by James Enge

I just finished James Enge’s epic fantasy A Guile of Dragons, the first book in the TOURNAMENT OF SHADOWS series. This was an enjoyable read. Enge plays with traditional tropes, dragons, dwarves, wizards and heroes, but he puts a refreshing spin on the classic images. There may be dragons and unicorns (yes, there is a unicorn) but they’re not exactly what you’re used to.

In the land of Laent, Morlock syr Theorn was raised by the dwarves,

September 13th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | James Enge | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Fathomless: A dark and poignant YA story

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Seaside resorts are fascinating places. Whether it’s Santa Cruz, CA; Point Pleasant, New Jersey; or even Waikiki beach in Hawaii, they have an air of tawdriness and mystery simultaneously. Jackson Pearce uses this numinous setting to powerful effect in her dark YA fantasy Fathomless.

Pearce uses the fairy tale “The Little Mermaid” as the springboard for Fathomless. Lo is an ocean girl, living in the sea off the shore of Georgia. She isn’t a mermaid,

No Sharks in the Med and Other Stories: A horror collection

No Sharks in the Med and Other Stories by Brian Lumley

Brian Lumley became a name in horror fiction in the late 1980s. He was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, like many others, then branched out into different types of horror. He is probably best known for the NECROSCOPE series, but he has also written short fiction, and Subterranean Press has published a collection titled No Sharks in the Med and Other Stories.

Subtitled “The Best Macabre Stories of Brian Lumley,” the book contains pieces picked by the author.

Blades of Winter: One wild ride after another

Blades of Winter by G.T. Almasi

Alix Nico is a red-haired, nano-teched, jacked-up, hard-drinking, part-android, smart-ass, homicidal, loose-cannon Interceptor, an operative for a shadowy intelligence gathering agency called Extreme Operations or ExOps. She is nineteen years old, following in her alcoholic really-loose-cannon father’s footsteps, in a 1980 that’s nothing like the one where Jimmy Carter was finishing up his single term and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back was playing in theaters. Blades of Winter by G.T. Almasi is the first book of the Shadowstorm series,

August 28th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | G.T. Almasi | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Going Postal: Learning how to hope

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

When searching for a strong conflict to anchor a story, most fantasy authors rely on dragons, invading hordes of orcs, and universe-ending supernatural beings and phenomena. In Going Postal, Terry Pratchett tries to save Ankh-Morpork’s post office.

Oddly, by aiming lower – just saving the post office? – I felt that Pratchett had taken more of a gamble than his more bombastic peers. Then again, Going Postal is the thirty-third novel in Pratchett’s spectacularly successful DISCWORLD series,

August 25th, 2012. Ryan Skardal and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4, 5 | Terry Pratchett | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Unnaturalists: Hoping for more adventures of Lumin and Nyx

The Unnaturalists by Tiffany Trent

At first it seems like The Unnaturalists, Tiffany Trent’s young adult fantasy, is a relatively light-weight paranormal romance. In the opening chapter, Vespa Nyx, the rebellious daughter of the curator of the New London Museum of Unnatural History, meets an annoying new Pedant named Hal Lumin. In fact, he rescues her when something goes wrong with a containment field holding a live Sphynx. It seems that Vespa’s biggest problems will be learning to be “ladylike” and facing an arranged marriage.

Marion Chats with Stacey Jay

Stacey Jay, author of the ANNABELLE LEE urban fantasy series, a YA high school zombie series, and the YA fantasy books Juliet Immortal and Romeo Redeemed, a paranormal take on the English-speaking world’s most famous couple, is a busy woman. Before turning to writing, Jay worked as an actress and playwright. Currently, in addition to working on her various series, she is raising her two boys and participating in several writers’ conferences this summer. I exchanged e-mails with Stacey, and caught up with her at the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference in Fort Bragg,

August 21st, 2012. Marion Deeds | Stacey Jay | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 4 comments |

Out of the Silent Planet: Subtle allegory

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis

You probably know that C.S. Lewis was a Christian apologist who wrote many popular books — both fiction and nonfiction — which explain or defend the Christian faith. His most famous work, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, some of the most-loved stories in all of fantasy fiction and children’s literature, is clearly Christian allegory. Likewise, his science fiction SPACE TRILOGY can be read as allegory, though it’s subtle enough to be enjoyed by those who don’t appreciate allegorical stories and just want to read a thoughtful science fiction adventure with an intelligent hero.

Libriomancer: There are lots of reasons to like this

Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines

My experience with Jim Hines’s work has been limited to his PRINCESS series, which I thoroughly enjoyed. That series works in the “lighter” side of fantasy, but does so with a sharp intelligence and very strong characterization. Hines is now out with a new series, MAGIC EX LIBRIS, and judging by its introductory novel Libriomancer, this is going to be another winner.

If this were a Hollywood pitch, one might call Libriomancer a cross between Cornelia Funke’s INKWORLD trilogy.

August 16th, 2012. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5, 4 | Jim C. Hines | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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