“… (Hasn’t it bothered you, this part of the story, my being there, I mean? What was I doing there? ‘Presume not the ways of God to scan,’ you’re been told in umpteen variations, ‘the proper study of Mankind is Man.’ Maybe so, but, what, excuse me, was the Devil doing in Eden?)”
In Glen Duncan’s bitter, darkly comic novel I, Lucifer, a gifted son struggles to win the attention of his emotionally absent father.
June 15th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Glen Duncan | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Esperanza by Trish J. MacGregor
Esperanza is a supernatural adventure novel set in Ecuador. It has a lot to recommend it, even though I was ultimately disappointed.
Some of the problems have to do with marketing. Esperanza is blurbed as a “supernatural thriller.” The book is tense and suspenseful, but I was never scared by it. Also, it is clearly book one of a series, but the blurb does not make that clear. As it is, Esperanza doesn’t end,
June 11th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Trish J. MacGregor | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Prince of Ayodhya by Ashok K. Banker
I don’t know exactly why Prince of Ayodhya failed to satisfy me. Ashok K. Banker has achieved a modern retelling of the Hindu mythic cycle, the Ramayana. I’m a sucker for mythology. Banker is a competent writer and some of his descriptions are beautiful. He clearly knows his source material and wants to share it with a wider audience.
The Ramayana follows the adventures of Prince Rama Chandra, his wife Sita, brother Lakshman and Hanuman the Monkey King as they battle against the powerful arch-demon Ravana.
June 1st, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Ashok K. Banker | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The first half of Three A.M. (2012) is dystopian noir, and the second half wants to be a thriller. This is Steven John’s first novel, and even though it has glitches, it’s successful overall. John creates an interesting premise and an eerie, atmospheric setting in the fog-filled city that is the main location for this story.
For fifteen years, Tom Vale hasn’t seen sunlight. He hasn’t seen stars, or green grass, or a tree. On a good day, when the fog lifts slightly,
May 28th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Steven John | SFF Reviews | no comments |
James Swain is the author of several crime thrillers, featuring series characters like a casino detective and an ex-cop who searches for missing children. Dark Magic is his first attempt at a supernatural thriller. Dark Magic is set in New York City with a main character who is a stage magician and a psychic.
Dark Magic opens with a group of psychics conducting a séance. The leader, Peter Warlock, has a horrifying vision.
May 22nd, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | James Swain | SFF Reviews | no comments |
You just know there are lots of reasons people might give a pass to China Miéville’s newest novel, Railsea. Some will see the YA or sci-fi/fantasy labels hanging on it and dismiss it out of hand. Others will hear it features a captain obsessed with hunting a giant white moldywarpe that cost her an arm and think “I hate parody/allusion” or “I really hated Moby Dick” or “Boy, I hate books with words like ‘moldywarpe” (or all three).
May 21st, 2012. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | China Mieville | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers
Tim Powers’s The Stress of Her Regard was one of my favorite random used-bookstore discoveries. After reading it ten years ago, I talked it up to all my friends. It was out of print at the time, so I constantly lent out my own copy until the time I didn’t get it back. When I got wind of Hide Me Among the Graves, a sequel of sorts, I was thrilled and hoped it would be one of my favorite books of the year.
May 19th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3, 3.5 | Tim Powers | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Indignities of the Flesh by Bentley Little
Until I read Indignities of the Flesh I hadn’t heard of Bentley Little, although he’s been published in magazines like Cemetery Dance, which I used to read. Indignities of the Flesh is an anthology containing ten of Little’s surrealistic horror tales. One, “Valet Parking,” is original to this collection.
Bentley Little provides a paragraph before each story, talking about the inspiration. Not surprisingly, many of his inspirations for horror stories are things that frighten him or creep him out;
May 14th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Bentley Little | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
In a world very different from ours, two powerful factions fight for the throne. Alliances are made and shattered. Vows are sworn and broken. Brothers betray brothers; fathers betray sons; kings are imprisoned and queens make war. No, it’s not A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. It’s The Deep, by John Crowley, published in 1975.
The Deep is Crowley’s first novel. It is unlike his other works,
May 12th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | John Crowley | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris
Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are agents in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, taking on the uncanny in the name of Queen and country. Agent Books is a straitlaced archivist — don’t call him a librarian — who enjoys mechanical tinkering and his peaceful job among the Ministry’s old files. Agent Braun is an outspoken New Zealand transplant who loves to blow things up. At the beginning of Phoenix Rising, the two agents land themselves in the doghouse with the Ministry and are assigned to work together.
May 10th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Philippa (Pip) Ballantine, Tee Morris | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…