Robert Jackson Bennett lives in Austin, Texas with his family. He is the author of Mr Shivers, The Company Man and, most recently, The Troupe. Bennett is currently working on this fourth novel, but he generously gave some time to Fantasy Literature and answered some questions for us. We hope you’ll read our reviews of all of Robert Jackson’s books.
Marion Deeds: You’ve published 3 books; Mr. Shivers, The Company Man, and now The Troupe.
May 8th, 2012. Marion Deeds | Robert Jackson Bennett | Author Interviews | 4 comments |
Dark Sleeper by Jeffrey E. Barlough
Dark Sleeper is a delightful, debonair and decidedly Dickensian departure from dime-a-dozen fantasy. Jeffrey E. Barlough, who published the book in 2000, attempts and mostly succeeds in writing an entire fantasy novel in the style and form of Charles Dickens, with a dash of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thrown in.
Let me be clear. This is not a steampunk novel, set in the nineteenth century while incorporating twentieth-century technology, winking at the sensibilities and conventions of the time.
April 30th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Jeffrey E. Barlough | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Chris F. Holm’s first novel, Dead Harvest, is supernatural noir at its best. Sam Thornton, who is as surely named for Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade as he is for the Hebrew judge of the Bible, is the best sort of hero to serve as the basis for a series (THE COLLECTOR): despite being damned, he still has a strong sense of right and wrong, and refuses to do wrong whenever he has the option.
April 24th, 2012. Terry Weyna and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5, 4 | Chris F. Holm | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Richard Bowes published Feral Cell in 1986. It’s set in 1999, the last year of the second millennium, in New York City, which is starting, to “go bad” as many other cities before it have. It’s not clear exactly what is making the city go bad. Is it the strange weather, as summers grow hotter and winters grow shorter and drier? Is it the selfishness and complacency of the wealthy and the desperation of the young people? Is it the use of more and different drugs?
April 19th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Richard Bowes | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Troupe by Robert Jackson Bennett
Robert Jackson Bennett: why isn’t everyone reading this guy? Here is an authentic voice with an original vision, a uniquely American dark fantasist who can weave the three Fates into the Great Depression and fairies into a story about vaudeville. With The Troupe, Bennett moves closer to the setting and milieu he created so well in his first novel, Mr. Shivers. The Troupe is a long story with a rich cast, a powerful coming-of-age tale entwined with a traditional fantasy quest.
April 16th, 2012. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Robert Jackson Bennett | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
Wool by Hugh Howey
Editor’s Note: When first published, Wool was an omnibus of edition including 5 “books.” Now, Wool is considered the first novel in Hugh Howey’s SILO series. The other two books are Shift (also at first considered an omnibus) and Dust which we’ve since reviewed.
Wool is the omnibus edition of Hugh Howey’s WOOL series. The first book in the series, Wool,
April 16th, 2012. Ruth Arnell, Bill Capossere, Ray McKenzie and Marion Deeds | Hugh Howey | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
Bad Monkeys, by Matt Ruff, is a funny, dark and twisty thriller. I was hooked on Page Five, when a woman who is being held in the nut-job wing of a Nevada jail says to the doctor evaluating her, “I think it all started when I figured out my high school janitor was the Angel of Death…”
Jane Charlotte, the woman in question, says she works for a secret organization called, well, the organization. This organization has a unit called “The Division for the Final Disposal of Irredeemable Persons” — nicknamed Bad Monkeys.
April 12th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Matt Ruff | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Anne Lyle’s first novel, The Alchemist of Souls, was released last week. Lyle is pretty busy right now, getting ready to attend Eastercon in England and working on The Prince of Lies, the second book in the trilogy, but she answered some questions for Fantasy Literature.
Marion Deeds: I suppose the fact that you grew up in Nottingham partially answers this question, but what inspired your love of swordplay?
Anne Lyle: Mostly it was watching Hollywood swashbucklers as a kid, as they were staple Sunday afternoon TV back in the days before cable.
April 10th, 2012. Marion Deeds | Anne Lyle | Author Interviews | 1 comment |
The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle
Anne Lyle’s first novel, The Alchemist of Souls, is a big tankard of Elizabethan ale, foaming with intrigue, hidden identities, secret societies, treachery, plots, swordplay and magic. I can’t think of a much better way to spend a few hours than to curl up with this book.
Maliverny Catlyn is half English and half French, but a loyal English citizen. He has been a soldier, but now is reduced to taking jobs guarding warehouses and teaching merchants’ sons swordplay.
April 5th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Anne Lyle | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
Saladin Ahmed’s Throne of the Crescent Moon might well remind readers of the Arabian Nights, given that it’s the first thing mentioned by the publishers when advertising Ahmed’s debut fantasy novel. They could also mention that it offers almost everything readers tend to expect from the genre.
Dr. Adoulla Makhslood is a ghul hunter, one of the last of his kind. The magic system he employs relies on vials that he throws at ghuls,
April 3rd, 2012. Ryan Skardal, Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Saladin Ahmed | Audio | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
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…