Stefan Raets | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

Theft of Swords: Juicy

Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

The first thing you should know about Theft of Swords is that it’s not a fine dining experience. This book is not the literary equivalent of going to a fancy restaurant and getting one of those huge plates that are mostly empty except for a tiny stalk of asparagus artfully drizzled with a delicate sauce. Instead, it’s more like sitting down hungry and getting a big, tasty burger you can just grab and sink your teeth into. (Vegetarians, please substitute for the vegetarian equivalent of a big,

January 5th, 2012. Stefan Raets, Greg Hersom and John Hulet | Michael J. Sullivan | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

Empire State: Full to the brim of neat ideas

Empire State by Adam Christopher

Angry Robot is one of those publishers you just have to keep an eye on, because they come out with some unique, surprising fiction. Their books tend to defy genre conventions and often are impossible to classify. To mess with our heads even more, they then stick weird little filing instructions on them, such as “File Under: Fantasy [ Aztec Mystery | Locked Room | Human Sacrifice | The Dead Walk! ]” for Aliette de Bodard’s Servant of the Underworld,

January 4th, 2012. Stefan Raets´s rating: 2.5 | Adam Christopher | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Postmortal: Entertaining and thought-provoking

The Postmortal by Drew Magary

It’s 2019, and the cure for aging is here. By sheer accident, scientists have identified the gene that causes aging. After receiving “the cure,” people can still get the flu, or cancer, or get murdered or die in car accidents, but the actual, biological aging process is halted so their bodies can theoretically keep going forever. The Postmortal is the story of John Farrell, a young estate lawyer who receives the cure early on and witnesses its effects on society firsthand.

The Postmortal is one of those old-fashioned science fiction novels that takes current — or at least very near-future — society as a starting point,

January 3rd, 2012. Stefan Raets´s rating: 3.5 | Drew Magary | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Seed: An excellent debut novel

Seed by Rob Ziegler

About a century from now, when Rob Ziegler’s excellent debut novel Seed (2011) starts, climate change has caused a new Dust Bowl in the Corn Belt, resulting in major famine across the United States. Most of the surviving population leads a nomadic existence, migrating across the ravaged landscape in search of habitable, arable land. Decades of war, resource depletion and population decline have left the government practically powerless. Gangs and warlords rule the land.

The only thing staving off full-blown starvation is Satori,

December 28th, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Rob Ziegler | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow: As grim as it gets for Cory Doctorow

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow by Cory Doctorow

When we meet Jimmy Yensid, the hero of Cory Doctorow‘s novella The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, he is aboard his giant mecha and hunting down a wumpus in the abandoned city of Detroit, until he comes under attack from a rival group of mechas. The resulting action scene is spectacular — and really made me want to dig out my ancient Mechwarrior games — but as you’d expect from Doctorow, there’s much more going on than meets the eye.

Planesrunner: Airships, quantum mechanics and a hero you care about

Planesrunner by Ian McDonald

I’m a pretty big fan of Ian McDonald, so when I learned that a brand new novel by the author was on the way, I got suitably excited. Then, when I found out that the new novel would be the start of a series, and that this series would deal with alternate dimensions and multiverse-type ideas (very different from his last few books), I got really excited. And then, when I discovered that the series would be a young adult series — well, it took me a while to come down from that one.

Scholar: A new beginning in the IMAGER PORTFOLIO

Scholar by L.E. Modesitt Jr

In a pattern that’s by now familiar for L.E. Modesitt Jr., Scholar marks a new beginning in the IMAGER PORTFOLIO series. The book is set several hundred years before the events portrayed in the three “Rhentyll” novels Imager, Imager’s Challenge, and Imager’s Intrigue. Because of this, Scholar shares no characters with the earlier novels in the series and can be read separately.

November 15th, 2011. Stefan Raets and John Hulet´s rating: 4 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Necropolis: Wildly entertaining mish-mash

Necropolis by Michael Dempsey

Paul Donner, a New York police officer who was murdered in the early 21st century, finds himself brought back to life several decades later, in the wake of a viral attack that caused the “Shift.” Donner becomes part of the new underclass known as the “reborn”: reanimated corpses who gradually grow younger and who aren’t exactly appreciated by the living segment of New York’s population, trapped under the geodesic Blister that protects the rest of the world from the Shift virus. Lost in an unfamiliar future, Donner begins a quest for vengeance,

November 5th, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Michael Dempsey | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Stormed Fortress: Intellectually challenging, incredibly rewarding

Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts

Stormed Fortressis the eighth novel in the WARS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW series by Janny Wurts, and the fifth and final novel in the Alliance of Light sub-arc. I’ve reviewed every novel in the series so far, and all of those reviews have been extremely positive, so by now it’s probably no secret that I’m a huge fan of these books and their author. That being said, Stormed Fortress is an outstanding novel even by the incredibly high standards of this series.

October 25th, 2011. Stefan Raets and John Hulet´s rating: 5 | Janny Wurts | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Highest Frontier: One of the best pure SF novels I’ve read this year

The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski

It’s been about a decade since Brain Plague, Joan Slonczewski’s last novel, came out, but I’d bet good money that more people instead remember the author for a novel that’s by now, unbelievably, already 25 years old — the wonderful and memorable A Door into Ocean, which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Now, ten years after her last novel, Joan Slonczewski presents The Highest Frontier,

October 22nd, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Joan Slonczewski | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Author: Stefan Raets

Theft of Swords: Juicy

Empire State: Full to the brim of neat ideas

The Postmortal: Entertaining and thought-provoking

Seed: An excellent debut novel

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow: As grim as it gets for Cory Doctorow

Planesrunner: Airships, quantum mechanics and a hero you care about

Scholar: A new beginning in the IMAGER PORTFOLIO

Necropolis: Wildly entertaining mish-mash

Stormed Fortress: Intellectually challenging, incredibly rewarding

The Highest Frontier: One of the best pure SF novels I’ve read this year

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