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]: 2009.01

The Midnight Charter: Deep themes for YA, but weak world-building

The Midnight Charter by David Whitley

The Midnight Charter by David Whitley is an intriguing YA book with some deep ideas behind it, though it doesn’t quite meet its potential in terms of the story itself. The book is set in the city of Agora, a walled-off dystopia whose workings revolve around a barter-for-everything system: Food, art, labor, even emotions, are commodities of trade. The system has stood for some time, but as the story opens, the needed disruption (otherwise there wouldn’t be much of a story) is about to occur.

Wolfbreed: The worst and the best that humanity can do

Wolfbreed by S.A. Swann

Lilly is one of a litter of werewolf children being raised by the Knights of the Teutonic Order in 13th century Prusa (later Prussia). The wolfbreed, as they are called, are subjected to horrifying abuses and trained to become brutal weapons of war. Their purpose: to help the Order massacre Prussia’s remaining pagan strongholds.

A theological debate rages between the Order and the Church regarding the nature of the wolfbreed. Are they simply animals, soulless but trainable and possibly useful? Or, are they minions of Satan?

August 31st, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | S. Andrew Swann | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

The Drowning City: Filled with dark and scary places

The Drowning City by Amanda Downum

Orbit Books sent me The Drowning City and I wasn’t sure it would work for me. The cover is awesome and the back-cover blurb is intriguing, but for some reason, I just got the feeling it was a story aimed more toward a female readership.

Before I even got to the map, though, I was impressed by Amanda Downum‘s choice of opening quotes. The first quote is from Emily Dickinson, which would have been impressive even by itself,

August 29th, 2009. Greg Hersom´s rating: 4.5 | Amanda Downum | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Hannah: Great for young girls

Hannah by Kathryn Lasky

The other orphan girls at the Boston Home for Little Wanderers fantasize that they are secretly the long-lost daughters of wealthy families, or even of royalty. Hannah harbors no such dreams. What she doesn’t know, however, is that her heritage is the strangest of all. When she is packed off to live in dry landlocked Kansas and falls deathly ill, she begins to realize that she’s not like other girls.

Desperate, Hannah returns to Boston and finds a job as a scullery maid with the wealthy Hawley family.

Servant: Better-than-average traditional epic fantasy

Servant by John D. Brown

Editor’s Note: This review is for the original version of Servant which was, back in 2009, titled Servant of a Dark God.

CLASSIFICATION: Servant of a Dark God is a mostly traditional epic fantasy novel in the vein of David Farland, Greg Keyes, and James Clemens, with elements of Brandon Sanderson, David Keck, and Kate Elliott.

August 21st, 2009. Robert Thompson´s rating: 3.5 | John D. Brown | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Ruined: There’s nothing I like better than a good ghost story

Ruined: A Ghost Story by Paula Morris

There’s nothing I like better than a good ghost story. And New Orleans is a great city to set one in. In fact, Ruined‘s greatest strength is its setting.

Because I’ve been doing research on NO for a project of my own, some of what the book offers is stuff I already know. Even so, all of it is fascinating, especially for people only just being exposed to it. Paula Morris paints the city into the perfect backdrop for her ghost story,

Night Runner: Good book for teenage boys

Night Runner by Max Turner

Thanks to Stephenie Meyer, teen fiction and vampires is on fire and the past couple of years has seen an explosion of new series riding the popularity wave. One of the newest entries in this subgenre is Max Turner’s debut which was originally released in Canada last year.

Not quite 300 pages long, Night Runner is a nonstop, high-speed adventure / mystery / thriller starring 15-year-old Zack Thompson who discovers that he’s — what else — a vampire!

Bloody Good: WWII Nazi vampires

Bloody Good by Georgia Evans

I’m always glad to see a vampire novel that moves away from stereotypical plots and settings. So, when I learned that Georgia Evans’s Bloody Good was set in England during World War II and that its vampires were Nazi secret agents, I was immediately intrigued.

Bloody Good is at its best when depicting the struggles of ordinary country folk during the war. Through the many neighborly chats that fill these pages, the reader gets an idea of what it might have been like to deal with air raids,

August 1st, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Georgia Evans | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Forest of Hands and Teeth: Great debut

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

CLASSIFICATION: The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a post-apocalyptic tale of survival, zombies and love. Its M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village” meets George A. Romero meets Stephenie Meyer…

FORMAT/INFO: Page count is 320 pages divided over thirty-six Roman-numbered chapters. Narration is in the first-person, exclusively via the protagonist Mary. The Forest of Hands and Teeth is self-contained, but there is ample scope for sequels, and the author is actually working on another book set in the same milieu.

Strangely Beautiful: Excellent romantic historical fantasy

The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber

Editor’s note. Since Kelly first reviewed these books in 2009, they have been picked up by Tor and combined into one volume called Strangely Beautiful (shown here).

As The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker opens, six London youngsters are chosen for a special destiny. Plucked from their ordinary lives, they are brought together by a mysterious goddess. Their mission: to protect humanity from the forces of evil. The goddess promises the six that,

July 28th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Leanna Renee Hieber | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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