Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”
The “angels” and “devils” of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone (2011) are not quite what those words would lead you to expect, but are given an original twist. The angels are closer to the angels we know — specifically the fearsome, fiery warrior type of angel, not the gauzy kind that helps adorable children cross bridges.
September 26th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter, Tadiana Jones, Marion Deeds, Terry Weyna and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4, 4.5, 5 | Laini Taylor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Hazel and Jack have always been best friends, bonding over their shared love of science fiction and fantasy. They play make-believe “superhero baseball” and hang out in a derelict house they call the Shrieking Shack. But now that they’re eleven, Hazel’s mom is pushing her to make some female friends, and Jack is more interested in hanging out with his male friends than with Hazel. Then the impossible happens: Jack is taken away by a mysterious witch, and Hazel is the only one who can rescue him. Anne Ursu’s Breadcrumbs is a retelling of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” and it’s fantastic.
September 21st, 2011. Kelly Lasiter and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5, 5 | Anne Ursu | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Isle of Night by Veronica Wolff
Isle of Night is the first in a new young adult paranormal series, The Watchers. Author Veronica Wolff attempts to combine several hot fiction trends into Isle of Night: vampires, boarding school, catty mean girls, and a scenario in which teens are forced to fight to the death.
Annelise Drew, who goes by her last name, is looking forward to escaping her abusive home life and going to college. When she gets to school,
September 12th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 1.5 | Veronica Wolff | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson
Jean Johnson’s A Soldier’s Duty, the first installment in her new science fiction series Theirs Not to Reason Why, is a pretty good book. From the standpoint of a sci-fi enthusiast it brings a lot of the critical elements together, such as extreme technology, alien races, and a space-faring society. In addition, Johnson creates a military backdrop that feels realistic. The result is a better than average novel.
Ia, the main character, is a psychically gifted woman from a heavy-gravity world.
September 10th, 2011. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Jean Johnson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Awakenings by Edward Lazellari
Last month, Tor.com posted an excerpt from Awakenings, the exciting debut novel by Edward Lazellari. That post fell smack in the middle of that site’s Noir-themed week, so maybe it’s not surprising that the excerpt was the novel’s prologue, which introduces Colby, a down-on-his-luck private investigator who gets contracted by some shady — and, as soon becomes clear, truly terrifying — characters to track down a list of people for unknown purposes.
However, the noir-ish tone of that excerpt may be a bit deceptive,
September 8th, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Edward Lazellari | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The land of Shale is in trouble. The Roil, a wave of darkness filled with unnatural monsters, is sweeping across the continent, engulfing everything it encounters. Out of twelve cities, only four remain standing. Humanity is fighting back in every way it can, but internal divisions between political factions increase the chaos, and more and more it seems like the end is nigh. It’s up to a drug-addicted boy, a young woman out for revenge for the death of her parents, and a man who may be thousands of years old,
September 6th, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 2 | Trent Jamieson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
FORMAT/INFO: The Taker is 448 pages long divided over four Parts and fifty chapters. Narration switches between Luke Findley’s third-person POV set in the present day, and Lanore McIlvrae’s first-person story which is set in the past and comprises most of the novel. From chapter nineteen through the end of chapter twenty-four, the book features a third-person narrative from Adair. The Taker is largely self-contained, coming to a satisfying conclusion that wraps up the novel’s major plotlines, but two sequels have been contracted.
August 30th, 2011. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Alma Katsu | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Jake Sullivan is not your average Heavy. He spent his jail time honing his skills and improving his mind and now he’s J. Edgar Hoover’s super-weapon, useful for fighting Fades, Torches, Brutes, and any of the other Actives who are using their magic for criminal purposes. Jake doesn’t like being used this way, but it’s his ticket out of prison. When the FBI asks Jake to bring down Delilah Jones, the Brute who used to be his girlfriend, Jake gets caught up in a world-wide battle that involves magic,
August 26th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Larry Correia | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Low Town (The Straight Razor Cure) by Daniel Polansky
FORMAT/INFO: Low Town is 352 pages long divided over 49 numbered chapters. Narration is in the first person, exclusively via a thirty-five year old crime lord/drug dealer/junkie named the Warden. Low Town is self-contained, but is the first volume in a series. August 16, 2011 marks the North American Hardcover publication of Low Town via Doubleday. The UK edition will be published by Hodder & Stoughton on August 18,
August 12th, 2011. Robert Thompson, Stefan Raets and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Daniel Polansky | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Rachel Caine’s Working Stiff is technically a zombie novel, but it’s not your typical zombie novel. It’s not your typical urban fantasy, either. In fact, it might be more properly termed urban soft science fiction, as the zombifying agent is a nanotech drug rather than magic. But whatever you call it, it’s an excellent book that has me kicking myself for not having tried Caine’s novels before (I’d only read her short story “Death Warmed Over”).
Bryn Davis is one of the most relatable urban-fantasy heroines I’ve seen.
August 12th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Rachel Caine | SFF Reviews | no comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
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…