The Infinity Concerto by Greg Bear
I give myself credit for finishing The Infinity Concerto, the first book of Songs of Earth and Power, written by Greg Bear in 1986. The Infinity Concerto has a compelling opening chapter but fails to deliver on that chapter’s promise.
Michael Perrin, the book’s main character, is a sixteen-year-old boy living in southern California, an only child who wants to be a poet. At a family party his father introduces him to the composer Arno Waltiri.
July 18th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2 | Greg Bear | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
In our Edge of the Universe column 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.
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Glen Duncan is the author of seven previous novels including I, Lucifer, which was shortlisted for the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He was chosen by both Arena and The Times Literary Supplement as one of Britain’s best young novelists.
July 15th, 2011. Robert Thompson and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Glen Duncan | Edge | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold
This is Marion’s review of Memory, Komarr and A Civil Campaign. Kat’s thoughts about Komarr are at the bottom.
In Memory, Komarr and A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold turns the VORKOSIGAN SAGA from space opera to planetary politics.
Miles Vorkosigan has always been a risk-taker. Usually the person he puts at risk is himself,
July 9th, 2011. Marion Deeds and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Lois McMaster Bujold | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Ayesha, the Return of She by H. Rider Haggard
H. Rider Haggard returns to his story of star-crossed lovers Ayesha and Leo Vincey in Ayesha, the Return of She. The sequel was published in 1905, nearly twenty years after the publication of She. The world has changed, and Haggard’s storytelling has changed to match.
Haggard remains best known for King Solomon’s Mines, and She is the book of most interest to literary scholars.
July 6th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | H. Rider Haggard | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma
PLOT SUMMARY: Privileged Andrew Harrington is a despondent young man who plans on killing himself. Eight years earlier, he had found the love of his life. It didn’t matter that their lives were vastly different — he born to a rich and entrepreneurial family and she a woman struggling to survive as a prostitute in London’s seedy Whitechapel section. He’s determined to declare his love for her and live happily ever after, even if it means leaving his privileged life behind. Everything changes however,
July 1st, 2011. Robert Thompson, Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere | Félix J. Palma | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas
After black-leather vampires, dandified vampires, little-girl-lost vampires, CEO vampires and sparkly “vegetarian” vampires, Suzy McKee Charnas’s Edward Wayland is as bracing as a cold ocean wind in your face.
Weyland is the main character in The Vampire Tapestry, first published in 1981. For Weyland, there is no curse, no mysterious virus, no fear of the sun, crosses or garlic. Simply put, he is an evolved predator adapted to feed on humans.
Charnas unfolds her meditation on the mind of a predator in five linked novellas.
June 23rd, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Suzy McKee Charnas | Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Harry Dresden never knew his mother Margaret. He knows that she was a wizard, that she used the last name LaFey, and that before she married Harry’s father she hung out with some shady characters. In Blood Rites, he discovers something about Margaret that changes everything he believes about himself.
In the sixth Dresden Files novel, Jim Butcher shakes up Harry’s world. In addition to shocking new information about his mother, Harry has to deal with a revelation about Ebenezar,
June 10th, 2011. Marion Deeds, Kat Hooper and Justin Blazier´s rating: 3.5 | Jim Butcher | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The young-Irish-lad façade does not stand me in good stead when I’m trying to appear scholarly at my place of business — I run an occult bookshop with an apothecary’s counter squeezed in the corner — but it has one outstanding advantage. When I go to the grocery store, for example, and people see my curly red hair, fair skin, and long goatee, they suspect that I play soccer and drink lots of Guinness. If I’m going sleeveless and they see the tattoos all up and down my right arm,
June 7th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter, Kat Hooper, Tim Scheidler and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Kevin Hearne | Audio | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
With Death Masks, the fifth Dresden Files novel, Jim Butcher returns to Chicago-noir. Harry Dresden, that city’s only advertising wizard, is simultaneously challenged to a duel by a duke of the vampiric Red Court and hired by the Vatican to find the missing Shroud of Turin.
The search for the Shroud leads to a headless, handless corpse that died of plagues, several plagues, carried by magically amplified germs. It also introduces Harry to the remaining two Knights of the Sword,
June 5th, 2011. Marion Deeds and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Jim Butcher | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Goliath is the concluding third book in Scott Westerfeld’s LEVIATHAN trilogy (imagine that — a trilogy with only three books) and it brings a wonderfully entertaining YA steampunk/alternate WWI series to a suitably strong close. I won’t bother recapping the world or background since you really need to read books one and two first, so read my review of Leviathan (above) to catch up on the backstory if you’d like.
Goliath picks up shortly after the events of Behemoth,
June 3rd, 2011. Bill Capossere, Rebecca Fisher and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Scott Westerfeld | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
This book made no sense to me at all. I was hoping for some explanations at the end but it…
Oh, Marion, you say "but dark" as if it were a bad thing! 😂
Hammer Studios is... reborn? I only ever read the "Kane" stories, which I found good but dark. It's a little…
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!