I’d been meaning to read Yarrow (1986) for years. I loved Charles de Lint’s Memory and Dream, in which he tells the story of a painter touched by the Otherworld. And I’m a writer (or at least a wannabe one), not a visual artist, so I figured, “if I liked his artist book so much, how much more am I going to love his writer book?” Unfortunately, the answer is “not as much.” Yarrow is very early de Lint,
August 5th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Charles De_Lint | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Yorath the Wolf by Cherry Wilder
Warning: May contain spoilers for A Princess of the Chameln
One of the mysteries laid out in Cherry Wilder’s A Princess of Chameln is the identity and whereabouts of Aidris’s cousin, the child of Elvedegran, her mother’s sister and the queen of Mel’Nir. The common understanding is that, because of a monstrous birth defect, the child and the mother both died. However, late in A Princess of Chameln,
August 19th, 2016. Kate Lechler´s rating: 3 | Cherry Wilder | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Gold Coast by Kim Stanley Robinson
Jim McPherson is unsatisfied with the future. Unable to find steady, well-paid work, Jim mostly spends his time partying and casually hooking up with random women. Jim’s family is of small comfort to him since he spends most family dinners enduring his father’s many complaints about how Jim does nothing useful. Jim does not know it, but his father, a defense contractor, is also deeply frustrated in his career, even if it does provide what appears to be a successful lifestyle to outsiders. Jim only begins to feel as though he is doing something of value when he starts protesting against militarism.
February 10th, 2016. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Damiano’s Lute by R.A. MacAvoy
Damiano’s Lute is the second book in R.A. MacAvoy’s DAMIANO trilogy, which takes place in Renaissance Italy. In the first book, Damiano, we met a young man named Damiano Delstrego who was feeling befuddled because he was both a witch and a Christian. He had left his village with his lute and his talking dog. He had several encounters with the archangel Rafael, who acts as a sort of patron to Damiano and taught him to play the lute.
August 28th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | R.A. MacAvoy | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Homunculus by James P. Blaylock
“Does the night seem uncommonly full of dead men and severed heads to you?”
Langdon St. Ives is a man of science and a member of the Royal Society. With the help of his dependable and discreet manservant, St. Ives prefers to spend his time secretly building a spaceship in his countryside silo. But currently he’s in London to help his friend Jack Owlesby recover a wooden box containing the huge emerald Jack’s father left him for an inheritance.
Things get confusing when it’s discovered that there are several of these boxes that all look the same and all contain something somebody wants.
March 22nd, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | James P. Blaylock | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay
It’s been 1½ years since I read The Summer Tree, Guy Gavriel Kay’s first novel and the first in his Fionavar Tapestry. I mentioned in the review for that book that I’m an adoring fan of Kay’s later stand-alone novels but that I found The Summer Tree derivative and heavy. I would have happily skipped its sequel, The Wandering Fire, but I had already purchased it at Audible,
October 20th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
They plot with men, my other selves, and men imagine they are gods.
Several years have passed since Molly and Case freed the AI who calls himself Neuromancer. Neuromancer’s been busy and now his plots have widened to involve several people whom we meet in Count Zero:
Turner is a recently reconstructed mercenary who’s been hired by the Hosaka Corporation to extract Christopher Mitchell and his daughter Angie from Mitchell’s job at Maas Biolabs.
September 22nd, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | William Gibson | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
“Hard science fiction” focuses on the science of the story, often at the cost of character and plot. “Hard-boiled fiction” often features a cynical, jaded protagonist steadily battling against the forces of evil, but making little overall progress. The Black Company books are often categorized as military or dark fantasy, but perhaps “hard fantasy” would be more accurate, as Glen Cook combines the hard-boiled voice with classic fantasy tropes that we might expect to see in a board game.
The setting could not be any more “sword and sorcery” if it tried.
January 16th, 2011. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Glen Cook | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Keeper of the Keys by Janny Wurts
In this second episode of THE CYCLE OF FIRE, Ivainson Jaric witnesses some crucial history: how his father the Firelord and Anskiere the Stormwarden, both Vaere-trained sorcerers, bound the demons at Elrinfaer; how his father went mad and betrayed Anskiere; and how, though the demons were eventually bound, the land was destroyed in the process. Jaric also receives forewarnings, in the form of visions, of what the future will hold if he does not master his powers to help Taen and Anskiere subdue the rising demonkind who have now recruited Emien,
November 8th, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Janny Wurts | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The wood sucks at the mind, it sucks out the dreams.
Many times I don’t like sequels because there’s nothing new to learn. Authors tend to give us all of their world-building in the first novel, so I’m often bored by a sequel. But Lavondyss blew my mind. It is, I have no doubt, one of the best fantasy novels ever written.
In Mythago Wood, Harry Keeton entered the forest with Steven and he’s been there for years.
July 23rd, 2009. Kat Hooper and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Robert Holdstock | BSFA Award | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…