The Hammer and the Blade by Paul S. Kemp
Meet Egil and Nix, the latest sword & sorcery duo to attempt to soften my jaded heart. Can they do it? Well, they’ll never take the place of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, that’s for sure, but they’ve still got my attention and I’m willing to give them at least a second try.
Egil is a warrior priest — the only worshiper of the obscure god who manifests himself as a tattooed eye on the top of Egil’s bald head.
July 27th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Paul S. Kemp | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Thieftaker is an intriguing new book by D.B. Jackson (penname of David B. Coe) set in pre-Revolutionary Boston. While the novel has its flaws, its unusual setting, winning characterizations, and unique mix of historical fiction, mystery (with a real noir tinge) and fantasy mostly make up for relatively middling plotting and left me looking forward to spending more time in this world.
Ethan Kaille is an independent thieftaker in a 1765 Boston roiling with pre-War tension between loyalists and the patriots newly angered by passage of the Stamp Act.
July 23rd, 2012. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | D.B. Jackson | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Giant Thief by David Tallerman
Easie Damasco is caught stealing and sent to war. He manages to escape, taking a giant named Saltlick and some other items with him, mostly out of habit since he is a thief by trade. Unfortunately, Easie does not realize the full significance of the items he has stolen, and he is forced to run for his life. Fortunately, he hadn’t intended to fight in the battle anyway.
David Tallerman’s Giant Thief is an amusing rogue’s tale, and Easie is just the sort of hero that one might expect from a rogue’s tale: clever and not above bending the rules and the truth to get ahead.
July 3rd, 2012. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 2.5 | David Tallerman | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Seven Princes by John R. Fultz
Trimesqua, King of Yaskatha, is murdered by Emhathyn, an ancient wizard who raises the dead to kill everyone in the palace. The young Prince D’zan manages to escape, helped by his faithful bodyguard Olthacus the Stone, and sets out on a quest for vengeance. To retake Yaskatha, he seeks the help of other rulers, including the two princes of Uurz: the strong warrior Vireon and the scholar/writer Lyrilan.
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, King Vod rules the city of New Udurum where Giants and Men live peacefully together.
June 8th, 2012. Stefan Raets´s rating: 0.1 | John R. Fultz | SFF Reviews | no comments |
James Swain is the author of several crime thrillers, featuring series characters like a casino detective and an ex-cop who searches for missing children. Dark Magic is his first attempt at a supernatural thriller. Dark Magic is set in New York City with a main character who is a stage magician and a psychic.
Dark Magic opens with a group of psychics conducting a séance. The leader, Peter Warlock, has a horrifying vision.
May 22nd, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | James Swain | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges
The Gathering Storm is the first in the KATERINA TRILOGY by Robin Bridges. The trilogy blends historical fiction with the paranormal, and is set in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the late 19th century.
Bridges immerses us in an evocative setting. The pageantry of the Russian court is combined with that hard-to-describe fairy tale mood. Even though we see through the eyes of a heroine who doesn’t really like all the pageantry, we are swept away into a world that is elegant but filled with dark secrets.
May 14th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Robin Bridges | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Michelle Sagara makes her young adult debut with Silence, a spooky and emotionally moving urban fantasy. The heroine, Emma, is mourning her boyfriend Nathan, who died in a car accident. She feels most at peace when she visits the cemetery in the evenings — until one night she has an uncanny encounter on the grounds. And the weirdness doesn’t end there. Now Emma can see and touch the dead, and may be able to affect these spirits in other ways as well…
Emma is a well-rounded character with both good qualities and flaws.
May 1st, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Michelle Sagara, Michelle Sagara West | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson
Royal Street, by Suzanne Johnson, is the first in a new urban fantasy series set in New Orleans. Drusilla Jaco, a.k.a. DJ, is one of the city’s two wizard sentinels, which means she’s assigned to keep an eye on paranormal trouble in town. The other sentinel is Gerry, Drusilla’s mentor and father figure. With Hurricane Katrina on the way, DJ evacuates while Gerry stays behind. When the storm passes, DJ returns to a devastated New Orleans to find Gerry missing, new breaches opened between this world and the Beyond,
May 1st, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Suzanne Johnson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Blackbirds is a Justin book, by which I mean that you will probably go to hell for reading it. This book is splattered with gore and peppered with sexual and toilet humor, and will probably teach you several new profanities. As for me, not being Justin, how did I like it? Well, it pushed me past my usual gore limits (there are reasons I don’t watch the Saw movies), but for the most part I liked it anyway.
The heroine is Miriam Black,
April 25th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Chuck Wendig | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
A plague has killed off much of the human race, and now vampires rule, keeping the remaining humans under tight control to ensure a steady blood supply. Allie Sekemoto lives on the outskirts of New Covington, a vampire-ruled city. She’s part of a ragtag gang of street kids who survive by scavenging and stealing. And she hates vampires. That is, until the day she is mortally wounded and brought back as one of them.
The Immortal Rules follows Allie as she learns how to live as a vampire (still on the run,
April 24th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Julie Kagawa | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…