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]: 2010.01

Night Myst: Good audio read if you like vampires, sparkles, and a strong heroine

Night Myst by Yasmine Galenorn

Cicely Waters, 26 year-old black-clad, green-eyed, tight-abbed, tattooed, street-fighting witch, has been summoned back to her Cascadian hometown so she can use her powers to help solve the mystery of a witch’s murder and some strange disappearances. Soon Cicely finds that things are worse than she could have imagined when she learns that the Indigo Court, an old race of vampiric fae, are planning to take control of both their vampire and fae ancestors. Cicely and her pals will have to make an uncomfortable alliance with the Crimson Court vampires to beat this even nastier foe.

Thresholds: A good read for middleschoolers

Thresholds by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

In Thresholds, by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, we meet Maya. Maya’s best friend Stephanie died of cancer during the school year, so her parents, both school teachers, accept new jobs in a new state to give her a new start. Then, the night before the school year starts, a fairy flies in through her bedroom window and decides that Maya makes an excellent pillow. Maya wakes in the morning to find a pile of fairy dust. Though most people don’t notice anything different about her,

Raised by Wolves: Mixed messages

Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I’m of two minds about Raised by Wolves. It features a suspenseful plot (especially in the second half) and one really good message, but also includes, possibly by accident, a couple of disturbing messages.

Bronwyn “Bryn” Clare is a human girl being raised by werewolves. As a little girl, she and her parents were attacked by a feral werewolf, a “Rabid.” A pack of “good” werewolves burst into the house and rescued Bryn but were too late to save her parents.

Tymon’s Flight: I’ll be first in line to pick up the sequel

Tymon’s Flight by Mary Victoria

“I Don’t Know What’s Out There, But It Knows Me…”

Tymon is a young man growing up amongst strict priests in a seminary, an indentured orphan whose life and future have been organized in full by his guardians. Only occasionally is he able to escape his chores to visit an exiled heretic and dabble in the work of science that has been all but banned by the priests. Life for Tymon is made up of routine and dreaming, but when his friend Galliano constructs a new flying device,

August 2nd, 2010. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Mary Victoria | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Lord of the Changing Winds: A good solid fantasy

Lord of the Changing Winds by Rachel Neumeier

Lord of the Changing Winds is a very well done, straightforward fantasy novel. While there isn’t anything earth-shatteringly new here, neither is there a sense of “same old story.”

Rachel Neumeier takes an interesting direction with Kes, one of her main characters. Kes is a 15-year-old orphan girl, raised by her sister in a small, quiet village. She has healing abilities and doesn’t quite fit in. So far, all the clichéd standards. Kes, however, is not a cliché.

August 2nd, 2010. Sarah Webb (guest)´s rating: 4 | Rachel Neumeier | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Black Dust Mambo: Voodoo & hoodoo

Black Dust Mambo by Adrian Phoenix

Kallie Riviere, a hoodoo rootworker, attends an annual witches’ carnival looking for some fun. She thinks she’s found it in the form of sexy nomad Gage, but before they can do the deed, Kallie passes out in the bathroom while Gage goes to bed alone. In the morning, Kallie finds Gage murdered, the victim of a hex that was laid on Kallie’s bed.

Before long, she has Gage’s disturbingly attractive clan brother knocking on her door looking for answers, the Hecatean Alliance (the witch organization behind the carnival) wanting to take her into protective custody,

July 28th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Adrian Phoenix | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

By Midnight: Dull and unimaginative

By Midnight by Mia James

April is deeply upset when her father takes a job at a small paper in London, and moves his wife and daughter from Edinburgh to do so. At first she is just miserable because she misses her friends and has to start a new school, Ravenwood, where many of the students are either stunningly beautiful or frighteningly clever. But then the deaths start, and April realises that she might be in danger as well. Suddenly there is no one she can trust — not even the beautiful and mysterious Gabriel,

July 28th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 1.5 | Mia James | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Rise of the Darklings: A new series for Harry Potter fans

Rise of the Darklings by Paul Crilley

Emily Snow is old beyond her years. Only 12 and supporting herself and her younger brother by selling watercress on the streets of Victorian England, Emily is lucky if she makes enough in one day to buy one meal to keep herself and her brother alive for one more day. Her parents having both mysteriously disappeared, Emily is not in a great mood when she pulls herself out of bed one cold winter morning to drag herself to work. On the way however, Emily comes across something she should not have seen.

Wintercraft: Ordinary with occasional flashes of brilliance

Wintercraft by Jenna Burtenshaw

In Shadowcry (Wintercraft in the UK where I live) we meet Kate Winters, a young girl who discovers that she has the power to see through the veil and command the souls of the dead. She and her friend, Edgar — who is more than he first appears to be — are taken to the city of Fume and caught up in a power struggle between the Skilled and the High Council, who wish to destroy them.

Wintercraft is a really mixed bag.

Who Fears Death: A book I will never forget

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

To be something abnormal meant that you were to serve the normal. And if you refused, they hated you… and often the normal hated you even when you did serve them.

In Nnedi Okorafor’s post-apocalyptic Sudan, there are two predominant ethnic factions: the light-skinned Nuru and the dark-skinned Okeke. Who Fears Death takes place amid a genocide that the Nuru commit against the Okeke, a campaign that (like genocides in our own time) includes both murder and rape.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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