Behemoth is Scott Westerfeld’s follow-up to Leviathan, the first book in a new steampunk series set in an alternative Europe on the edge of WWI with the Austro-Hungarians and Germans (“Clankers”) using steam-driven machines and the British and their allies (“Darwinists”) using genetic engineering. Leviathan was one of my best reads of 2009, and Behemoth would have been on my list for 2010 had I gotten around to reading it by the time I compiled my list.
January 17th, 2011. Bill Capossere, Rebecca Fisher and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4, 4.5, 5 | Scott Westerfeld | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Fathom is an entertaining horror novel once it gets going. Cherie Priest spends the first 100 pages of Fathom setting a scene, complete with pages upon pages of infodumps. One character will tell another character a story about a third character, for instance, or a character will have a prolonged recollection of a scene from his past. In addition, the time in which the novel is set does not become apparent until the last few chapters of the novel.
January 8th, 2011. Terry Weyna and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Cherie Priest | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne M. Valente
[Note: I listened to Brilliance Audio’s version of The Habitation of the Blessed read by Ralph Lister. It took me a while to adjust since I have recently listened to Lister read three installments of THE GOREAN SAGA and I at first had a hard time hearing the priest Prester John instead of the sadistic misogynist Tarl Cabot. But I got over this soon enough and thought that Mr. Lister did a great job with this one.]
In The Habitation of the Blessed,
December 28th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Catherynne M. Valente | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Zero History by William Gibson
It is getting more difficult to classify William Gibson as an SFF writer. Although Gibson’s earliest work stands alongside the best of science fiction and cyberpunk, and The Difference Engine, which he co-wrote with Bruce Sterling, is a well-respected steampunk novel, Gibson’s Bigend trilogy has left cyberpunk, outer space, and human cloning behind.
Instead, Zero History is about jeans.
Gabriel Hounds clothing is unlike any clothing now made by mainstream fashion companies.
November 10th, 2010. Ryan Skardal and Marion Deeds | William Gibson | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Kill the Dead by Richard Kadrey
Richard Kadrey’s Kill the Dead is the sequel to Sandman Slim, and James Stark has been keeping himself busy working for various entities in order to pay the rent. The Devil is one of the entities that makes use of Stark’s services, and he wants Stark to serve as his bodyguard while he’s in town on business. Stark is forced to juggle the obligations of both Heaven and Hell, and manages to place himself in the middle of a conflict that started at the dawn of time.
November 5th, 2010. Justin Blazier, Terry Weyna, Robert Thompson, Greg Hersom and Marion Deeds | Richard Kadrey | Audio | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
I’m not sure what’s wrong with me lately. I keep finding myself reading some gloriously blasphemous works of fantasy literature. I reviewed Jesse Bullington’s The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart and accepted that it could very well show up as a stain on my soul’s credit report. Now, having just finished Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim, I might as well file eternal bankruptcy.
James Stark was betrayed and sent to hell for 11 years.
November 3rd, 2010. Justin Blazier, Kat Hooper, Greg Hersom, Terry Weyna and Marion Deeds | Richard Kadrey | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder
I’ve had some mixed success with the steampunk trend the past few years, thoroughly enjoying it when the authors pay as much attention to story and character as they do in coming up with new ways to mash-up old and new technologies, but finding it dully disappointing when the basic steampunk premise is the high point of creativity (Look! Airships flying over horse-drawn carriages while Dickens is walking through the streets!). Mark Hodder’s new book, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack,
September 16th, 2010. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Mark Hodder | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep
The atmosphere of Spider’s Bite might be described as “Southern-fried noir.” The setting is Ashland, an Appalachian city where magic is openly known and a ruthless magical mobster has her fingers in every pie. Most of the cops are corrupt. The hair is big and the food is gloriously unhealthy.
Gin Blanco is an assassin. She takes pride in her skill and doesn’t waste a lot of time brooding about her chosen career. Her profession makes her an unlikely heroine, but her tough,
September 2nd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter, Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds | Jennifer Estep | Audio | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
China Mieville’s Kraken is a rollicking head-spinning comic novel set in an alternate London where gods and cults and magic are so interwoven into the daily fabric that there is an entire squad in the London police to deal with those elements, and it is that squad which is called in to investigate when the eponymous Kraken is stolen from the Natural History Museum.
They’re not alone in their desire to find out what happened to the giant squid, however, which also happens to be considered a god by many.
August 20th, 2010. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | China Mieville | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
To be something abnormal meant that you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you… and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them.
In Nnedi Okorafor’s post-apocalyptic Sudan, there are two predominant ethnic factions: the light-skinned Nuru and the dark-skinned Okeke. Who Fears Death takes place amid a genocide that the Nuru commit against the Okeke, a campaign that (like genocides in our own time) includes both murder and rape.
July 2nd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter and Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Nnedi Okorafor | Audio, Stand-Alone, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson....
On a more serious note, well, shoot. I was torn between reading James by Percival Everett, or rereading Hard-Boiled Universe…
"Goodnight F***ing Moon?" Hahahahahahahaha!
Your intro had me laughing my f***ing a** off! Especially the Caterpillar!
Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is my favorite fantasy series. It's fantastic. I've been holding off on starting The Last King…