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]: 2013.01

Fire with Fire: The hero mars this fun Nebula-nominated adventure

Fire with Fire by Charles E. Gannon

I don’t read a lot of military science fiction, and Fire With Fire is definitely military SF. It’s also an intelligence thriller and a first-contact story, at least part of the time. Charles E. Gannon’s book was good fun, but could have been forty pages shorter (limiting the verbiage of the talking heads) without losing anything, and the main character was a problem.

Caine Riordan, the hero of Fire with Fire, is a little like Jack Ryan from the old Tom Clancy books.

April 3rd, 2014. Marion Deeds and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Charles E. Gannon | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Plague Seed: Did Not Finish

Plague Seed by Wade Alan Steele

I did not finish Plague Seed by Wade Alan Steele and so as is usual when that happens, this will be quite the short review, as I don’t like to belabor the point about why I found a book to be so bad that I put it down.

Plague Seed begins with a letter from the elven Seligre, “Savior of Oldenhome and the southern lands of Talandria,” to his newborn son, introducing his account of the Plague War.

March 24th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 0.1 | Wade Alan Steele | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Fortune’s Pawn: Romantic space opera

Fortune’s Pawn by Rachel Bach

Devianna Morris is the most ambitious mercenary you’ll ever meet. Her life’s goal is to join the Devastators (the super-elite king’s guard) and the only way to get there fast is to sign on to the security team of the merchant ship called The Glorious Fool. Devi doesn’t know why The Glorious Fool is so dangerous, but she knows that it manages to kill just about every member of its crew, so just surviving for a year should be enough to bring Devi to the attention of the Devastators.

Generation V: Not a typical vampire novel

Generation V by M.L. Brennan

Adolescent vampire novels are a dime a dozen and most of them revolve around a teenage girl with a love interest who happens to be a not-so evil, impossibly sexy vampire. It’s the kind of boring cliché that drives the male segment of the populace away from urban fantasy. There are exceptions to the rule and these stories can be not only fun to read, but also refreshing because they don’t follow the expected paths.

If you worked at a coffee shop, drove a terrible car,

January 21st, 2014. John Hulet´s rating: 4 | M.L. Brennan | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Thor, Viking God of Thunder: Vibrant, entertaining, informative

Thor: Viking God of Thunder by Graeme Davis

With all the attention being paid to Thor lately, thanks to the Marvel same-named films and his appearances in the Avengers movies, Osprey Publishing made a wise decision to make the god the subject of one of their texts in their MYTHS AND LEGENDS series, this one written by Graeme Davis. I had been a little disappointed in my first MYTHS AND LEGENDS text, dealing with Jason and the Argonauts (giving it a three-star rating),

A Dance of Cloaks: Strong plotting

A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish

Thren Felhorn is the master of the Spider Guild, the supreme collective under which Thren has united all the thieves’ guilds in the city of Veldaren. In the prologue of A Dance of Cloaks, author David Dalglish has given Thren two sons, Randith and Aaron, and placed the guilds on the brink of war with the Trifect, three wealthy families that wield most of the political power in a land where the king is young, foolish and easily manipulated.

January 8th, 2014. Terry Weyna´s rating: 3 | David Dalglish | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Mayhem: A dark, elegantly written murder mystery

Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough

Two things drew me to Sarah Pinborough’s Mayhem. First, the cover — exceptionally elegant and very fitting for this 19th century tale. Second, Jack the Ripper. If for some reason you are unaware of who he was, Jack was a serial killer in late 19th century London who targeted female prostitutes and murdered them in brutal ways. He killed at least five women, likely more, but get this — he was never caught. This anonymity led to widespread terror throughout the area for years to come.

December 19th, 2013. Pat Doherty´s rating: 3.5 | Sarah Pinborough | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Delia’s Shadow: Ghosts, mystery, and good fun

Delia’s Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer

Delia’s Shadow, Jaime Lee Moyer’s first novel, is a fun and light read highly recommended for anyone who just wants to see a hard-edged detective solve a murder mystery while falling in love, with ghosts and Edwardian outfits as excellent window dressing. If that sounds satisfying, then Delia’s Shadow is a perfectly pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon. The characters fall into well-worn but very likable categories, the mystery-solving proceeds in neatly-ordered steps,

November 21st, 2013. Alix E. Harrow´s rating: 3.5 | Jaime Lee Moyer | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

The Incrementalists: An ambitious collaboration

The Incrementalists by Steven Brust & Skyler White

The Incrementalists is collaboration between authors Steven Brust and Skyler White. I was more familiar with White going in, having enjoyed her trippy novels and Falling, Fly and In Dreams Begin. My experience with Brust’s vast catalogue was sadly limited to having read The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars many years ago while obsessively collecting the FAIRY TALE SERIES. In The Incrementalists,

November 21st, 2013. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Skyler White, Steven Brust | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Dream London: In which the antihero stumbles

Dream London by Tony Ballantyne

Antihero (n): Protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, such as nobility of mind or spirit.

Tony Ballantyne’s Dream London opens with a stunner of a first chapter. Captain Jim Wedderburn awakens in his room to find two fiery salamanders munching on a green beetle the size of a dinner plate. It only gets stranger from there, as he confronts a business rival (Wedderburn is a pimp); bumps into his old girlfriend who hands him a scroll with his fortune on it;

November 20th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Tony Ballantyne | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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