2014.03 | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

Death’s End: Truly epic finale to the THREE-BODY trilogy

Death’s End by Cixin Liu

Listening to Cixin Liu’s THREE-BODY trilogy reminds me of those graphics on cosmology that illustrate our relative scale in the universe. It starts with the microscopic world of individual atoms and molecules (or even subatomic particles like quarks and neutrinos), expands outward to individual cells, organisms, and larger creatures, then jumps out further to continents and the planet Earth, zooming back to encompass our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and then pulling out further to an endless sea of galaxies that make up our universe.

The Last Mortal Bond: Brings a good series to a fitting close

The Last Mortal Bond by Brian Staveley

I had a mixed response to the first book in Brian Staveley‘s trilogy, The Emperor’s Blades, but thought book two, Providence of Fire, was a big improvement, boding well for the future of the series. That optimism was borne out, as the final book, The Last Mortal Bond, though perhaps not quite as consistently good as Providence,

June 6th, 2016. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Brian Staveley | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Dominion: An exciting, satisfying conclusion to the trilogy

Dominion by John Connolly & Jennifer Ridyard

The CHRONICLES OF THE INVADERS by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard comes to a satisfying conclusion with Dominion, the final book of the trilogy. We get a post-apocalyptic survival story on earth, an off-planet prison break, space battles, and political skullduggery and espionage in the halls of the Nairene Sisterhood. Each character faces multiple layers of jeopardy as the story comes to a close, and it’s not certain that everyone we like will live.

Morning Star: An emotional rollercoaster

Morning Star by Pierce Brown

WARNING: Contains spoilers for book two, Golden Son.
Editor’s note: This series continues with Iron Gold.

I was very excited to finally lay hands (or eyes) on Pierce Brown’s Morning Star. Picking up where book two, Golden Son, left off, Morning Star opens roughly a year after the Jackal storms into the celebration at Darrow’s Triumph,

March 11th, 2016. Kevin Wei and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Pierce Brown | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Path of Gods: Has its moments

Path of Gods by Snorri Kristjansson

Path of Gods is the third book in Snorri Kristjansson’s VALHALLA SAGA and it pretty much stays the path of what has come before, for good and ill. I rated the prior two books three-stars each, and that’s exactly where I’m placing Path of Gods. Fun dialogue, several engaging characters, and an excellent Norse setting are the strengths, while pace, fluidity, and characterization are the weaker elements.

Path of Gods picks up where Blood Will Follow ended,

February 19th, 2016. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Snorri Kristjansson | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Dragon Coast: Family, friendships and conflicts converge in a satisfying conclusion

Dragon Coast by Greg Van Eekhout

Daniel Blackland, the most powerful osteomancer in the Southern Kingdom, will go to any length to rescue his adopted son, Sam. Sam’s essence is inhabiting a huge dragon, a Pacific firedrake that is wreaking fiery devastation on huge swathes of Los Angeles. To extract Sam’s essence, Daniel needs an artifact, and he and his friend Moth will attempt a high-risk impersonation in the warlike Northern Kingdom next door.

Gabriel Argent is the Water Mage of the Southern Kingdom. He, along with his human “hound” Max,

November 12th, 2015. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Greg Van_Eekhout | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |

Half a War: Memorable grimdark

Half a War by Joe Abercrombie

Warning: Will contain mild spoilers for Half a King and Half a World

One of the worst aspects of Joe Abercrombie’s Half a War, book three of his SHATTERED SEA trilogy, is the cover art — a depiction of assorted medieval weaponry formed by tongues of flame lapping at the darkness. Needless to say, the cover art is pretty freakin’ awesome, so Abercrombie must have put an extraordinary amount of work into the substance of Half a War to make it even better than the attention-grabbing visual that serves as its housing.

August 14th, 2015. Kevin Wei´s rating: 4.5 | Joe Abercrombie | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |

Unlocked: This prequel could have used more subtext

Unlocked by John Scalzi

The novella Unlocked is John Scalzi’s prequel to his innovative novel of ideas Lock In. I read the beautiful Subterranean Press hard copy, and Kat will add comments about the audio version of the story. With both Lock In and Unlocked, the publishers have made some interesting choices in audio presentation.

The subtitle of Unlocked is “An Oral History of Haden Syndrome.” Further down on the title page,

Acceptance: Returns to Area X

Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Jeff VanderMeer’s first two books in his SOUTHERN REACH series, Annihilation and Authority, end up on my top ten list for the year, so it was with great excitement and high expectations that I opened up Acceptance, the third and final book of the trilogy. Having finished, I can’t honestly say those expectations were wholly met, though my lack of satisfaction has less to do with any real complaints about the novel itself and more about the question I had at the end,

Authority: A must-read and a must-reread

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

I just finished reading Jeff VanderMeer’s Authority, the second book in his SOUTHERN REACH trilogy. When I reviewed the first book, Annihilation, Kat (our tyrannical managing editor, in case you didn’t know) butted into my review because she didn’t like what I originally wrote and she made me change it. I’m expecting her to do the same thing here, so if you see any bold red text, that will be her. She likes to talk in bold red.

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]: 2014.03

Death’s End: Truly epic finale to the THREE-BODY trilogy

The Last Mortal Bond: Brings a good series to a fitting close

Dominion: An exciting, satisfying conclusion to the trilogy

Morning Star: An emotional rollercoaster

Path of Gods: Has its moments

Dragon Coast: Family, friendships and conflicts converge in a satisfying conclusion

Half a War: Memorable grimdark

Unlocked: This prequel could have used more subtext

Acceptance: Returns to Area X

Authority: A must-read and a must-reread

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