One Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron
One Good Dragon Deserves Another (2015) is the second book in Rachel Aaron’s self-published HEARTSTRIKERS series. I listened to Audible Studio’s editions of these books with my 19-year-old daughter. We love the story and the performance of Vikas Adam, the narrator. This review will have some spoilers for the previous book, Nice Dragons Finish Last. If you haven’t read it, you should probably stop here and go do that first.
December 9th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Rachel Aaron | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
The Witness for the Dead is the long-hoped-for sequel to Katherine Addison’s marvelous and unusual 2014 fantasy, The Goblin Emperor, in which we met Maia, a half-goblin, half-elf young man who unexpectedly inherited the throne of the elf kingdom when his father, the emperor, was killed along with his brothers in an airship explosion. Thara Celehar, an elven prelate and a Witness for the Dead, was a minor character in that novel who investigated the airship accident at Maia’s request and eventually was able to unearth the truth of why it occurred.
September 3rd, 2021. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Katherine Addison | SFF Reviews | no comments |
William Gibson’s latest novel, Agency (2020), is a follow-up to The Peripheral which needs to be read first. In The Peripheral we learned that in the not-too-distant future, someone will discover some software on a secret server in China which allows users to interact with people using the internet in the past (our modern day). Contacting people in the past makes a new timeline branch called a “stub.” The future people who create the stub can play around with it,
March 10th, 2020. Kat Hooper and Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | William Gibson | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Hellboy in Hell (Vol. 2): The Death Card by Mike Mignola (writer and artist), Dave Stewart (colors), & Clem Robins (letters).
This second and final volume of Hellboy in Hell collects issues 6-10. It opens with Baba Yaga reminding the reader what came before: “He fought and killed a dragon but the dragon was actually a witch. Her ghost plucked out his heart and cast it into Hell.” In the first volume of Hellboy in Hell, Hellboy “went into Pandemonium and cut Satan’s throat .
March 7th, 2020. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Mike Mignola | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Bronze Skies by Catherine Asaro
The Bronze Skies (2017) is the second book in Catherine Asaro’s MAJOR BHAAJAN series. In the first book, Undercity, we met Bhaajan, a private investigator who recently retired from military service. When she is hired by the royal family to track down a runaway prince, she must descend into the grimy tunnels under the capital city of Cries. This is where the lowest cast of citizens live — in the city’s underbelly — and this is where Bhaajan grew up before escaping into the military.
January 16th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Catherine Asaro | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Naondel by Maria Turtschaninoff
Naondel (2016) is the second book in Maria Turtschaninoff’s RED ABBEY CHRONICLES series, but it’s not a sequel; it’s a prequel. Set many years before the events of Maresi, Naondel tells the story of the women who, fleeing their own oppression, founded the Red Abbey as a sanctuary for themselves and others. It is set in what seems to be an amalgam of several Asian cultures,
November 1st, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Maria Turtschaninoff | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Unbound by Victoria Schwab
The Unbound is the sequel to Victoria Schwab’s The Archived, which you should read before starting this book. There will be some spoilers for The Archived in this review, so beware.
Summer is over for Mackenzie Bishop, the Keeper whose secret job is to escort the “Histories” of dead people back to their resting place in the Archive. When we met Mac in The Archived,
September 2nd, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Knight’s Shadow by Sebastien de Castell
I absolutely loved Sebastien de Castell‘s Traitor’s Blade, first in his GREATCOATS series, having been immediately charmed by the utterly winning voice of its first-person narrator Falcio val Mond and its flamboyant Three Musketeers-like tone and narrative. So I was greatly looking forward to its sequel, Knight’s Shadow. I’m pleased to say that while I had a few issues, for the most part I was wholly satisfied despite such high expectations.
April 19th, 2019. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Sebastien De-Castell | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Paradox by Charlie Fletcher
The Paradox (2015) is the second book in Charlie Fletcher’s OVERSIGHT trilogy. I loved the audiobook version of the first book, The Oversight, when I read it four years ago. Despite its crawling pace, I loved it for its grungy Victorian setting. The audiobook narration by Simon Prebble, an award-winning superstar of the audio world, was so spectacular that I titled my review “One of the best audiobooks I’ve read this year” and I said that I’d be picking up The Paradox as soon as it was available.
August 2nd, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Charlie (C.A.) Fletcher | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Marion and Terry discuss Head On. Marion’s words are in black and Terry’s are in blue.
Head On by John Scalzi
Marion: John Scalzi’s 2018 novel Head On brings back FBI team Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, this time investigating a murder that should be impossible. Hilketa is a violent game where the objective is to tear off the head of a specific opposing player and throw it through the goal posts, while defensive players whale on each other with swords and chainsaws.
June 7th, 2018. Marion Deeds, Terry Weyna and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | John Scalzi | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
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…