Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Order [book in series=yearoffirstbook.book# (eg 2014.01), stand-alone or one-author collection=3333.pubyear, multi-author anthology=5555.pubyear, SFM/MM=5000, interview=1111]: 2002.01

Lords of Rainbow: Epic fantasy with no baggage

Lords of Rainbow by Vera Nararian

A decade ago, I was a big fan of secondary-world fantasies: big sprawling epic plots, an entirely different but familiar setting, and larger than life characters. Had I read Lords of Rainbow back then, I would have immediately fallen in love with it. As I am now, however, there’s a lot less unabashed praise for that particular sub-genre and I’ve become more critical.

What’s obviously commendable with Vera Nazarian is that her cosmology isn’t a random hodgepodge of ideas but rather a cohesion of a single,

October 17th, 2010. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 3 | Vera Nazarian | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Summer Country: Not your little sister’s faerie novel

The Summer Country by James A. Hetley

First, a caveat. Don’t let the pretty cover art fool you. The Summer Country is not a “pretty” book. It’s really more horror than fantasy, full of violence and truly twisted characters. That said, I enjoyed The Summer Country. It stands out, with a few others, as a novel that presents a distinctive and original way of looking at the Otherworld, the faerie realm.

James A Hetley‘s “Summer Country” is ruled by those of the Old Blood,

June 3rd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | James A. Hetley | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Devil in Green: Gripping edge-of-your-seat story

The Devil in Green by Mark Chadbourn

The Devil in Green takes place shortly after the end of Always Forever, the final book in Mark Chadbourn‘s Age of Misrule trilogy, which described the return to our lands of legendary creatures and gods, so old and powerful that their memories became the basis for many of our myths. Now the final battles are (seemingly) over, and humanity slowly tries to come to terms with the realities of the new Dark Age,

May 19th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 3 | Mark Chadbourn | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Storm of Wings: Realistic military fantasy

Storm of Wings by Chris Bunch

Chris Bunch shows some real creativity in Storm of Wings by his ability to adequately blend real military action with fantasy themes. Undoubtedly, his service as a commander in Vietnam and his writing as a correspondent for Stars and Stripes gives him the background which makes his story so plausible.

Hal Kailas, our poor down-trodden adolescent hero, loves dragons and, through a series of events, he gets conscripted into the military. Hal’s fascination with dragons gives him some useful ideas and skills which both reward and punish him at different points in the story.

April 26th, 2010. John Hulet´s rating: 4.5 | Chris Bunch | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Sword of Change: Seek your quarters ’cause these books are dull

SWORD OF CHANGE by Patricia Bray

Devlin is a tortured soul. He wants to die, so he becomes his country’s Chosen One because it pays a fortune (which he can send to his brother’s widow) and it’s certainly deadly.

Sounds exciting, but don’t bother putting on your blood pressure cuff, because it wasn’t.

Devlin’s sure he’s going to die during the initiation ceremony (actually, it was me who nearly died of boredom), but, unfortunately, he doesn’t. And so we accompany him on his journeys which read more like a book report than an adventure.

February 21st, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Patricia Bray | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Sorcerers of the Nightwing: A promising start to a dark series

Sorcerers of the Nightwing by Geoffrey Huntington

After his father’s death, fourteen year old Devon March is sent to his new home in New England — the huge and forbidding mansion Ravenscliff, that all the townspeople he meets on his way warn him against travelling to. But Devon is not as afraid of his future as others in his shoes would be: he knows he is gifted with a special power, a power that protected him from the very real demons and monsters that he had dwelling in his cupboard and under his bed as a child.

The Frog Princess: Patchy and Forgettable

The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker

Writing a critical review for a book as harmless and fluffy as The Frog Princess makes me feel awful, almost like I’m unnecessarily picking on a little girl in the corner who is minding her own business and trying to quietly read her book. But the fact remains that although The Frog Princess is a diverting and easy-to-read story, it’s also rather patchy and forgettable. Quite simply: there are better books to be read to your kids, and plenty that include frogs and princesses.

A Sorcerer’s Treason: Light standard epic fantasy

A Sorcerer’s Treason by Sarah Zettel

Bridget Lederle is the lighthouse keeper on Sand Island, Wisconsin in 1899. She’s an outcast, having had a baby (which died) while she was single. One night she saves the life of mysterious Valin Kalami whose boat crashed onto the rocky shore of Lake Superior.

It turns out that Kalami is a sorcerer sent from the kingdom of Isavalta to find Bridget — who doesn’t realize that she has a tie to this parallel world and some powers of her own. With not much to keep her on Sand Island,

June 19th, 2009. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Sarah Zettel | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: A pair of joyfully destructive necromancers…

Bauchelain and Korbal Broach by Steven Erikson

Bauchelain and Korbal Broach collects three of Steven Erikson’s novellas set in the Malazan Empire series, certainly one of the most ambitious, and I’d say one of the best, epic fantasies going. The collection, which includes Blood Follows, The Lees at Laughter’s End, and The Healthy Dead, follows the exploits of its eponymous main characters, a pair of joyfully destructive necromancers we first met in book three of the larger series,

June 17th, 2009. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Steven Erikson | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Book of Shadows: Feels unfinished

The Book of Shadows by James Reese

James Reese attempts Anne-Rice-style supernatural fiction with The Book of Shadows, his first novel. It is Rice-like in that it contains gender-bending sexual material, lush detail, horrifying violence, and a set of supernatural beings who have long existed in folklore but are given new “rules” and characteristics by the author. Here, it’s witches, but not the sort of harmless neo-pagan witches that are around today. These are witches as depicted in medieval lore, throwing orgies and dealing with demons.

April 30th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | James Reese | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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