Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins
I’ve read several novels over the last few years that were compared to China Miéville by reviewers, publishers, or both. In most cases, I thought the comparison was a stretch, to say the least. In some cases, it was simply ludicrous. Setting your fantasy novel in a grimy city where it rains a lot is not enough. Not every weird/slipstream dystopia qualifies. There is more to it than that.
When Wolfhound Century by Peter Higgins arrived on my doorstep,
March 29th, 2013. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Peter Higgins | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Quintessence is a historical fantasy by David Walton, set in an alternate 1500s, a time of religious and political turmoil, exploration, and advances in natural philosophy, as old authorities were beginning to be challenged. In the last days of Edward VI’s reign, a ship returns from the edge of the world (literally — this world is flat) with news of a fantastic island, Horizon, filled with strange creatures and even better, home to what appears to be the Elixir of Life.
March 19th, 2013. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | David Walton | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill
Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill is not what I would label a particularly well-written novel. In fact, in many ways, I’d call it a poorly written one. But despite the several issues I had with major aspects of the work, I have to admit that by the end I was mostly enjoying myself and curious as to where the story was going to go.
The novel opens up with a fairy-tale like romance, one that was a bit too sugary for my liking,
March 7th, 2013. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5, 3.5 | C. Robert Cargill | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
I’m not going to start at the beginning with A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan; I’m going to start before the beginning — at the cover. Why? Because it’s gorgeous: a beautifully drawn, silver and blue and grey hued dragon walking on all fours, its left front and right hind leg in the process of moving forward; its powerful legs, erect head,
February 25th, 2013. Bill Capossere and Jana Nyman´s rating: 3.5 | Marie Brennan | SFF Reviews | no comments |
When Firebrand opens, Seth, a 16-year-old Sithe, has a crossbow trained on his brother, Conal. Conal is thin, his face half-blacked and bloody, his hair shaved from his head. Conal is about to be burned as a witch at the tail-end of the sixteenth century at the urging of a minister who smiles at the thought of the horrible deaths his victims are about to endure. Seth will kill his brother to spare him the agony of burning at the stake.
It’s a prologue that grabs the reader’s attention firmly.
February 19th, 2013. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Gillian Philip | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Blood Oranges by Kathleen Tierney
Tired of vampires? Or werewolves? Or girls who can dispatch the critters with no effort, swinging a stake through the heart as if it were a knife through butter? Yeah, me too. But give me a vampire who is a werewolf who is also a young female human hunter of vampires and werewolves, and we’re in business. Make her the unreliable, foul-mouthed narrator of her own story, and you’ve got Kathleen Tierney’s Siobhan Quinn in her first adventure, Blood Oranges.
February 14th, 2013. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Caitlín R. Kiernan, Kathleen Tierney | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
I hate to give a DNF review to Between by Kerry Schafer. I love finding new authors to read, the cover art is pretty (check out the subtle scales on her shoulder!), and the premise sounded great. Unfortunately, I only got about halfway through the book before setting it aside.
Schafer’s heroine, Vivian, has always had strange dreams, and now those dreams are affecting reality, for her and everyone around her. She’s an ER doctor, and one of her patients dies after an attack by dragons — dragons that come from the Between,
February 13th, 2013. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 0.1 | Kerry Schafer | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord
I have to confess that I spent at least the first third of Karen Lord’s The Best of All Possible Worlds mostly annoyed and disappointed by the writing. I found the writing flat, the world-building slim, and the character relationships implausible, simplistic, and melodramatic. But around halfway through, the book, despite its flaws, started to grow on me somewhat and by the halfway point I was mostly in, though I still had some major issues.
The setting is a far-future in a universe populated by different types of humans,
February 12th, 2013. Bill Capossere and Stefan Raets´s rating: 3 | Karen Lord | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
So, I put this as my status on Facebook:
Guess which book I’m talking about. I’m reading this YA post-apocalyptic novel where the United States of America has been torn apart by War and now it’s all separated into regions and you can’t move between regions without permission from the central government that is set on enforcing its rules on everybody and then the girl that’s the main character gets abducted from her home by the government and sent to this brutal place with a bunch of other kids but she survives because of this guy that she’s known forever and he loves her and protects her and then they join the rebellion.
January 24th, 2013. Ruth Arnell´s rating: 2 | Kristen Simmons | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
The Six-Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher
I don’t know if I’ve seen a book as packed with ideas, tropes, storylines, and genres as The Six-Gun Tarot, by R.S. (Rod) Belcher. To give a rough idea, here is a mere sampling of what’s in the mix: Native American coyote mythology, zombies, a seemingly unkillable sheriff, Lovecraftian/Cthulhu mythos, Western genre tropes, acupuncture, Lilith mythos, steampunk, a re-examination of Christian creation myth, romance, Mormonism, Civil War stories, horror, ghosts, pirates (OK, only briefly mentioned,
January 23rd, 2013. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | R.S. (Rod) Belcher | SFF Reviews | 12 comments |
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!
Sorry if I mislead you in this detail, Paul...the voyage by ship was only the first leg of the quintet's…
The geography is confusing me--how does one get to a village in Tibet by ship? And even the northernmost part…
Oh, this sounds interesting!