Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews
With Sweep of the Blade, the fourth installment in Ilona Andrews’ INNKEEPER CHRONICLES series, there is a new main character: Maud, sister of Dina, the previous main character and the innkeeper of this light SF series. We met Maud in the prior book in this series, One Fell Sweep, when Dina convinced Sean the werewolf and Arland the vampire — these are both alien races, by the way,
January 22nd, 2020. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Ilona Andrews | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire
Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children was an island of misfit toys, a place to put the unfinished stories and the broken wanderers who could butcher a deer and string a bow but no longer remembered what to do with indoor plumbing. It was also, more importantly, a holding pen for heroes. Whatever they might have become when they’d been cast out of their chosen homes, they’d been heroes once, each in their own ways. And they did not forget.
Come Tumbling Down (2020),
January 13th, 2020. Tadiana Jones and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Seanan McGuire | Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley
Robin Longbow, a lowly apprentice to the forester of Nottingham Forest, is on the way to Nottingham fair when he is waylaid by bullies. After he accidentally kills one of them, he is forced to flee and go into hiding. If he’s discovered by the sheriff of Nottingham, he’ll be hung by the regent who is sitting in for King Richard the Lionheart while he’s away fighting in Palestine.
But Robin’s friends Much and Marian see Robin’s exile as an opportunity to strike back at the regent and his Norman allies.
January 7th, 2020. Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Robin McKinley | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A political marriage has been arranged between 16-year-old Princess Taoshira (Tashi) of the Blue Crescent Islands and 18-year-old Prince Ramil (Ram) of the country of Gerfal. They’re separated by a few hundred miles, a couple of other countries in between theirs, and a world of cultural differences. Both Tashi and Ram are completely appalled by the idea of the match, and it doesn’t get any better when they meet up, as Tashi’s government sends her to Gerfal to meet and wed Ram. But their countries need an alliance to fight against an aggressive and brutal warlord,
December 30th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Julia Golding | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Chaos, death by the magical Ash Blood plague and by monstrous beasts have consumed the country of Ystara, killing all who remain within its borders. The last survivors, holed up in a cathedral, speculate that this disaster must have been caused by a “ferociously single-minded” young mage, Liliath, whose unprecedented power to call on angels, particularly the archangel Palleniel, has somehow led to things going catastrophically awry.
One hundred thirty-seven years later, Liliath awakes from her magical sleep in the temple of Saint Marguerite, in the neighboring country of Sarance.
December 17th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Garth Nix | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Gabriella White, a brilliant neurologist and scientist who’s searching for a cure to Alzheimer’s, is at the very end of the funding for her research project. In her frustration, she recklessly pushes the power for her lab equipment, a neural stimulation system, to the maximum … and accidentally finds herself in her husband Paul’s body in their nearby house, holding their beloved 11-month-old daughter, who they call Kat or Kitten. Shocked, Gabby drops Kat back into her crib and runs back to the lab, where she finds her own body in a comatose state.
December 6th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Charles Soule | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
SHORTS: Our column exploring free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve recently read that we wanted you to know about.
“Head of a Snake, Tail of a Dragon” by Zen Cho (2018, free on the author’s website)
This short story is a delightful sequel to Zen Cho’s Hugo award-winning novelette, “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again.” And both are free online, so win-win!
Jin-Dae is an imugi, a magical serpent that can — if it learns and grows in the right way — turn into a dragon.
December 3rd, 2019. Tadiana Jones, Marion Deeds and Kat Hooper | Arthur Machen, Cat Rambo, Ilona Andrews, John Scalzi, Zen Cho | Audio, Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Starsight by Brandon Sanderson
“A hero doesn’t choose her trials.”
Spensa can’t help but hear her Gran-Gran’s voice saying these words to her every time Spensa balks at a new trouble in her life. And Spensa — a magnet for trouble — has plenty of occasions to remember these words.
In Starsight (2019), the sequel to Brandon Sanderson’s young adult science fiction novel Skyward, the few humans who remain have been trapped on the barren planet of Detritus for several decades,
December 2nd, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Brandon Sanderson | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu has had a successful career in China for many years, winning China’s prestigious Galaxy Award nine times. But it wasn’t until 2014, when his 2007 novel The Three-Body Problem was first published in English, that he became well-known outside of Asia. Since then, some of his earlier novels, like Ball Lightning (originally published in China in 2004), have been translated and published in English. Supernova Era (2019,
November 21st, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Cixin Liu | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adrian Tchaikovsky is an unusually versatile author. I never know what to expect from him — insect and shapeshifter fantasy, Iron Man-inspired science fiction, and Regency/Napoleonic historical fantasy are just a few examples — but I know it’s going to be imaginative and intelligently written. The last work I read by him, Walking to Aldebaran, was science fictional horror with an unusual literary streak. In a nearly 180 degree turn, Tchaikovsky now offers up the novella Made Things (2019),
November 19th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…