Death first comes to Otto Hundebiss on the battlefield. Surrounded by Otto’s friends and comrades, he offers to take Otto with him as well. Otto declines, and Death and his ghostly army vanish. So begins Sally Gardner‘s twisted take on the Hans Christian Anderson tale of the tinderbox. And it doesn’t get any more light-hearted after that…
Otto staggers through the woods in which the battle took place, a bullet in his side and a sword wound in his shoulder, and eventually passes out.
August 25th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Sally Gardner | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
“How do we protect our children?” Cal said quietly.
Apollo watched the soft little shape in his hand. “Obviously I don’t know.”
Victor LaValle’s novel The Changeling (2017) is a five-star book, one of the year’s best. I predict this thoughtful modern dark fantasy novel — or it might be horror — will be shortlisted on several awards and Best Of lists.
LaValle takes the tropes of traditional middle European fairy tales and blends them perfectly with a view of modern living,
August 17th, 2017. Marion Deeds and Ray McKenzie´s rating: 5 | Victor Lavalle | Locus Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
And I Darken bought us some of the best characters YA has seen in a long time: Lada Dracul, the fearsome terror of a little girl, and her gentle brother Radu. Defying stereotypes of gender, race and religion, as well as the predictable tropes of the genre itself, And I Darken was a FanLit fave of last year. Lada and Radu make their return in the follow-up, Now I Rise (2017), but can the sequel live up to its dazzling predecessor?
July 5th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Kiersten White | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Lost Stars (2015) is not in want of a good premise. The story takes place over the course of events in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. It chronicles the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire and the struggles of two star-crossed individuals as they try to find their place within the changing political environment of the galaxy. The aristocratic Thane Kyrell and lowly labourer Ciena Ree both reside on the Outer Rim of planet Jelucan.
June 26th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 2 | Claudia Gray | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh
We meet our protagonist, the rather precious Mariko, being carried roughly through the forest in her palanquin. Next thing she’s the target of an attempted assassination. So begins our tale of magic, samurai and deception in Flame in the Mist‘s ancient, feudal Japan.
Mariko is on the way to the Imperial Palace to meet her betrothed when her convoy is attacked. At just seventeen years old, she has little say in such minor matters as her future husband.
June 15th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Renee Ahdieh | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
I was a big fan of V.E. Schwab’s 2013 novel Vicious, noting in my review how she had overcome the possible burden of overfamiliar concepts (it’s a folks-with-powers-who-have-some-gray-to-them kind of novel) with supremely polished execution. Well, she’s pretty much done the same with her newest novel, A Darker Shade of Magic, which takes many of the usual fantasy tropes and, again, just handles them all so smoothly that you simply don’t care much that you’ve seen them all before.
June 2nd, 2017. Bill Capossere, Ray McKenzie, Tim Scheidler, Marion Deeds and Skye Walker´s rating: 4 | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | SFF Reviews | 11 comments |
Warning: Will contain some spoilers for the previous book, Riders.
Readers of the explosive finale to Veronica Rossi‘s Riders will remember the fate the four horsemen of the apocalypse came to: Daryn sealed War (our hero Gideon) in a dark dimension with Samrael, the last surviving demon of the Kindred. Now, plagued with guilt, it’s up to her to rescue him in Seeker (2017).
Whilst Daryn’s role in Riders was shady at best — she was unable to adequately explain why she was forcing Gideon to round up the other horsemen of the apocalypse — we find out that she is a Seeker: she gained Sight and the ability to see the future.
May 24th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Veronica Rossi | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Eighteen year old Gideon Blake has waited his whole life to become a US Army ranger, but when his whole life comes to an abrupt end, those dreams can no longer become a reality. Instead, he finds himself wearing a mysterious metal bracelet he can’t remove and most certainly not as dead as he should be. Gideon discovers that he is, in fact, living out (ahem) his true destiny: he has been reincarnated as one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, War.
Gideon should have died.
May 23rd, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Veronica Rossi | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts
Royal Bastards (2017) marks the newest addition to YA epic fantasy — a genre that seems to be having a bit of a moment. We meet Tilla, our plucky young heroine and bastard to the Lord Kent, and her half-brother Jax, swigging wine on the palace roof and watching the arrival of the visiting Princess Lyriana. Despite their royal blood, the bastards are worlds apart from the legitimate royals, though all that may be about to change…
A great feast marks the welcome for Princess Lyriana,
May 22nd, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Andrew Shvarts | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles
It’s not been the best year for Zoe. What with her father’s death in a caving accident, her neighbour’s disappearance and then the fact that she is brutally attacked with her younger brother in a cabin in the woods, it’s fair to say things have been better. But with the arrival of the mysterious paranormal bounty hunter “X”, everything is about to change.
On the surface, The Edge of Everything might look like your average contemporary YA novel, but it is far darker than many readers will expect.
April 17th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Jeff Giles | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…
Gentlemen, I concur! (Forgive me for jumping into your convo)
The cover is amazing. I love how the graphic novel (and the review!) hewed close to the theme of "good…