Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Terry Weyna

Magazine Monday: Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Issues 112 through 116

Issue 112 (January 10, 2013) of Beneath Ceaseless Skies begins with “Death Sent” by Christian K. Martinez. It’s a science fictional story, or at least steampunk, and depicts the end of the world — or at least the end of the works of the human race. As the story opens, a great star lens, the last of them, has fallen to the earth. It’s a moody piece that paints a picture of this world, but there is almost no plot.

The second story in this issue is better. In “The Stone Oaks” by Stephen Case,

March 4th, 2013. Terry Weyna | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Wrong Goodbye: Another fine example of supernatural-noir

The Wrong Goodbye by Chris F. Holm

The Wrong Goodbye is Chris F. Holm’s second COLLECTOR adventure. Sam Thornton is a damned soul. In life he struck a deal with a demon to save his wife, who was dying of tuberculosis. It wasn’t enough that he traded his soul for her life; the demon corrupted him while he was still alive. Now Sam is pressed into service collecting and delivering other damned souls to Hell.

Things have gotten precarious since Sam’s last outing.

February 26th, 2013. Marion Deeds and Terry Weyna´s rating: 3.5 | Chris F. Holm | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Magazine Monday: Apex Magazine, Issues 44 and 45

Issue 44 of Apex Magazine leads off with “Trixie and the Pandas of Dread” by Eugie Foster. It would take a hard heart to resist a story that starts like this: “Trixie got out of her cherry-red godmobile and waved away the flitting cherubim waiting to bear her to her sedan chair.” In the world Foster has created, one can become a god when the Karma Committee appears at her door bearing prizes akin to the Publishers Clearinghouse bonanza. Trixie uses her power to get rid of the jerks who write sexist,

Mr. Monster: Cleaver is a hero unlike any other

Mr. Monster by Dan Wells

John Wayne Cleaver’s journey started in I Am Not a Serial Killer, but his problems get more severe in the second book in Dan Wells’s trilogy, Mr. Monster. The teenage sociopath is very determined not to become the serial killer he longs to be in his heart of hearts, but it’s a challenge. His dark side — Mr. Monster, he calls it — wants out, and it especially wants to kill Brooke, the beautiful girl he drives to school every day.

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince: Everything I expect from Hobb

The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince by Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb’s FARSEER series is one of my all-time favorite fantasy epics. It’s about FitzChivalry Farseer, the bastard son of a dead prince. Fitz is a sad case, not only because his father’s dead and he’s illegitimate, but perhaps mostly because he has the Wit — an ancient magic that lets him communicate with and bond to animals. The citizens of the Six Duchies fear the Wit and kill those who practice it. But that wasn’t always the case…

Now,

February 22nd, 2013. Kat Hooper and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Robin Hobb | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Firebrand: Breathes new life into old tropes

Firebrand by Gillian Philip

When Firebrand opens, Seth, a 16-year-old Sithe, has a crossbow trained on his brother, Conal. Conal is thin, his face half-blacked and bloody, his hair shaved from his head. Conal is about to be burned as a witch at the tail-end of the sixteenth century at the urging of a minister who smiles at the thought of the horrible deaths his victims are about to endure. Seth will kill his brother to spare him the agony of burning at the stake.

It’s a prologue that grabs the reader’s attention firmly.

February 19th, 2013. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Gillian Philip | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Magazine Monday: Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January/February 2013

The latest issue of F&SF is stuffed with good reading. I can’t pick a favorite, as I often do; many of the stories hit that sweet spot. Robert Reed’s short story, “Among Us,” is a good example: it’s about the Neighbors, creatures who look exactly like humans but are not, though they may not know that themselves. The narrator studies the Neighbors in every way possible — almost. There comes a moment when he is not willing to let research take its course, and whether that proves something to him, to the researchers,

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: Nerdy and bookish

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is a romp of a first novel by Robin Sloan. It’s a perfect book for booklovers who lean toward the mysterious and fantastic, blurring genre lines throughout to afford readers a marvelous time.

The novel begins when Clay Jannon, the first-person narrator, is responding to an advertisement for a clerk in a 24-hour bookstore in San Francisco. Clay was educated as a graphic artist, but he’s finding jobs scarce since his work designing a logo and a website for a bagel bakery and acting as the “voice” of @NewBagel on Twitter — definitely a new economy sort of job.

Blood Oranges: Caitlín R. Kiernan tries her hand at urban fantasy

Blood Oranges by Kathleen Tierney

Tired of vampires? Or werewolves? Or girls who can dispatch the critters with no effort, swinging a stake through the heart as if it were a knife through butter? Yeah, me too. But give me a vampire who is a werewolf who is also a young female human hunter of vampires and werewolves, and we’re in business. Make her the unreliable, foul-mouthed narrator of her own story, and you’ve got Kathleen Tierney’s Siobhan Quinn in her first adventure, Blood Oranges.

February 14th, 2013. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Caitlín R. Kiernan, Kathleen Tierney | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Magazine Monday: Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet No. 28

An issue of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet always lands in my mail with accompanying hearts, unicorns, flowers, and an unearthly music that wafts through the air and draws my mind and spirit into its pages. Not a planned event, it’s published irregularly, but it’s always a treat. Somehow this issue just called for the unicorns and flowers iteration first, because it put me in such a good mood.

The last story in the issue, “The Book of Judgment” by Helen Marshall is my favorite, not just because Jane Austen is my favorite writer,

February 11th, 2013. Terry Weyna | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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