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

The Very Best of Charles de Lint: Truly Charles de Lint’s very best

The Very Best of Charles de Lint by Charles de Lint

With a title like The Very Best of Charles de Lint, I had high hopes, and I have to say that they were met. Yes, this is the best of Charles de Lint’s fantasy. Chosen in consultation with his readers on Facebook and on his website, de Lint has culled down decades of writing to create a special volume with beautiful cover art by Charles Vess that highlights the reason why de Lint is considered one of the founding fathers of urban fantasy.

Discord’s Apple: Refreshing and unexpected

Discord’s Apple by Carrie Vaughn

Evie Walker is a comic book writer who is to inherit a magical storeroom from her terminally ill father. Unbeknownst to her, it has been the duty of her family for thousands of years to keep this storeroom safe. The storeroom contains artifacts from myth and legend, such as the Golden Fleece, Cinderella’s slippers, and of course Discord’s apple. Not only is Evie about to inherit these objects of legend, but she is also about to inherit the attention of powerful beings that would love to obtain them.

Hard-Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance

Hard-Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance

I adore Subterranean Press because they’re regularly publishing the kind of classic and new speculative fiction that you might have a hard time finding otherwise. They ignore teen trends and market demands and focus on producing high quality volumes of excellent fiction complete with beautiful covers and interior art.

Hard-Luck Diggings is a collection of 14 of Jack Vance’s unconnected short stories that were written early in his career, when he was perfecting his style and writing the kind of tales that were currently popular and likely to be purchased by publishers.

Magic Below Stairs: Will delight young readers and amuse older ones

Magic Below Stairs by Caroline Stevermer

Set in the same world as Sorcery and Cecilia — also known by the delightful title of The Enchanted Chocolate Pot — this new book called Magic Below Stairs follows the adventures of one Frederick, an intelligent orphan boy chosen to be a footman in Lord Schofield’s house — yes, Kate and her dashing Lord Schofield are minor characters in this adventure — because he fits the livery from the previous servant who was sent away without references.

The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed

The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss

The Princess and her teddy bear, Mr.Whiffle, live in a marzipan castle and spend their days in various childhood adventures such as fighting pirates, squashing stuffed toy rebellions, and hiding from monsters under the bed. Patrick Rothfuss’s simple and cheery writing style and Nate Taylor’s beautifully comic artwork, full of clean lines and plenty of little details to look for, add to the childish atmosphere.

But The Adventures of the Princess and Mr.

The Keepers’ Tattoo: YA high fantasy with historical overtones

The Keepers’ Tattoo by Gill Arbuthnott

The Keepers’ Tattoo, previously published as The Keepers’ Daughter in the U.K., is a young adult high fantasy with historical overtones. While it is set in an imaginary world, the story revolves around the earthquake-ruined city of Thira and the highly advanced “Keepers” who once lived there. Gill Arbuthnott is clearly drawing on the real-life Thera and the mysterious Minoan culture that may have inspired the legends of Atlantis. I’ve long been fascinated by all things Minoan,

Kid vs. Squid: Solid children’s fantasy

Kid vs. Squid by Greg van Eekhout

Kid vs. Squid, by Greg van Eekhout, is definitely a children’s fantasy. It comes in at a slim sub-200 pages (with pretty good-sized print) and doesn’t take much time with detailed description, rich character development, or intricate plotting. That isn’t a complaint; it’s just to say that Kid vs. Squid knows who its audience is, and while it won’t dumb things down or talk down to its readers, it also won’t stretch them.

Leviathan Wept: A collection of entertaining stories

Leviathan Wept: And Other Stories by Daniel Abraham

Leviathan Wept is a collection of short fiction by Daniel Abraham, author of The Long Price Quartet, one of my favorite fantasy epics of the past several years. I’ll admit up front that I’m not usually gung ho about story collections. I find they tend to be uneven just as part of their nature (i.e., it’s hard to get a collection of all excellent stories) and I just have a personal preference for the depth and richness of the novelistic form versus the short form.

Thief Eyes: Different opinions

Thief Eyes by Janni Lee Simner

Based on the Icelandic myth told in Njal’s Saga, Thief Eyes by Janni Lee Simner centers around American teenager Haley, who comes to Iceland with her father. The two of them are trying to find Haley’s mother, who had disappeared there a year earlier after an argument with Haley’s dad. Haley gets caught up in a generations-old curse when she finds an inscribed coin on the shore of a lake. Trying to escape the effects of the curse, she has to face the consequences of actions made by people a thousand years before she was born,

Brightly Woven: Great characters make up for fuzzy plot

Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken

Ten years. A long time to go without rain, but the citizens in Sydelle’s small country town are used to it by now. Until one ordinary day when Wayland North wanders into the sleepy community and brings rain with him.

Sydelle is drawn to the self-proclaimed wizard and when her town is raided the night after North’s arrival, she soon finds herself the wizard’s unwilling “assistant” and suddenly on the adventure of a lifetime. Even though Sydelle longed to leave her village, she questions why North,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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