Star Wars (Volume One): Skywalker Strikes by Jason Aaron (writer) and John Cassaday (artist)
Marvel now has the rights to the Star Wars comics, so they’ve been reissuing all the old Dark Horse collections and launching into several different series. In fact, there are so many new ones that I’m not even sure how they are all connected. But the two you need to know about are Star Wars (Volume One): Skywalker Strikes by Jason Aaron and Darth Vader (Volume One): Vader by Mark Waid,
January 2nd, 2016. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
Sit down, kiddies. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, humans were killing each other so fast that total extinction was looking possible, and it was my job to stop them.
Well, I say “my job.” I sort of took it upon myself. Expanded my portfolio a bit. I guess that surprised people. I don’t know how it surprised people — I mean, if they’d been paying the slightest bit of attention they’d have known that AIs have this built-in tendency to take over the world.
December 30th, 2015. Tadiana Jones and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Erin Bow | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano
The conceit behind Diary of a Haunting is that M. Verano is an associate professor at a university in Idaho who has devoted his life to “editing a series of first-person narratives” which demonstrate instances of occult or paranormal incidents. “Montague Verano” is a pseudonym used to lend authenticity to the framing device for this narrative, which purports to be a collection of journal entries from a turbulent six-month period in the life of a teenaged girl. Naturally, the reader is assured that pertinent details like names have been changed to protect affected individuals.
December 15th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 2 | M. Verano | Horror, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Imagine a world in which the Library of Alexandria still existed, a world in which all of that accumulated knowledge and human history was still accessible to any literate person. That sounds pretty amazing, right? What most people might not take into account, however, is how drastically different that world would be from our own with the benefit of said knowledge and the attendant power given to its keepers. Ink and Bone, the first volume of a planned YA series by Rachel Caine,
December 10th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Rachel Caine | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
Grudging, a newly published young adult fantasy and the first in a new series called BIRTH OF SAINTS from Michelle Hauck, is set in a country reminiscent of medieval Spain, where noble warhorses are a soldier’s right arm and religious faith is a significant part of most people’s lives, giving this fantasy an somewhat unusual cultural flavor.
Seventeen year old Ramiro wants nothing more than to be a respected soldier in his pelotón like his older brother Salvador: to fight in hand-to-hand combat with his sword and earn the right to grow a beard,
November 25th, 2015. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Michelle Hauck | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
Made to Kill by Adam Christopher
In his afterword to his new novel Made to Kill, Adam Christopher explains how the idea first saw life as a long short story/novelette entitled “Brisk Money.” While this more extensive take on the story is still relatively slim for a novel, coming in at just over 200 pages, I have to admit that it seemed to me that Christopher would have been better off simply writing another “episode” of his narrative via another short story rather than trying to expand the original into something larger.
November 25th, 2015. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Adam Christopher | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Shards of Heaven by Michael Livingston
The Shards of Heaven is not author Michael Livingston’s first work. In fact, he’s already a prolific award-winning writer, though mostly focused in his world of academia. Livingston is a Professor of Medieval Literature at The Citadel in South Carolina. The Shards of Heaven is his first novel and he taps into his significant historical knowledge. He liberally expands his knowledge base with strong fantasy elements, though, not unlike George R.R. Martin’s A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE,
November 18th, 2015. Jason Golomb´s rating: 3 | Michael Livingston | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Michael Moorcock Library (Vol. 1): Elric of Melniboné adapted by Roy Thomas
“Melniboné has never stood for good or for evil, but for herself and the satisfaction of her desires.”
Michael Moorcock’s Elric cannot follow this line of thinking that is prevalent among his people, the people of Melniboné; in fact, it’s so prevalent that even his lover, whose words I quoted above, believes that they are a race of people above ethics, above good and evil, in the way we think of such concepts.
November 14th, 2015. Brad Hawley | Michael Moorcock | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
Fans of Jim Butcher (including myself) were thrilled to see that he’s started a new series called THE CINDER SPIRES. This one is quite different than his previous works. THE DRESDEN FILES, for which Butcher is best known, is a modern-day urban fantasy with a first-person narrator and a hardboiled feel. THE CODEX ALERA is an epic fantasy with a typical medieval setting and plot.
THE CINDER SPIRES is set in a more imaginative world.
November 13th, 2015. Kat Hooper, Kevin Wei and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Jim Butcher | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
I like STAR WARS but I am not a superfan. I have only seen 4.5 of the 6 current movies and to the best of my recollection I have never read a STAR WARS novel or novelization before this one. I think this daily-double of ignorance makes me the perfect reviewer for Chuck Wendig’s STAR WARS: AFTERMATH, part of THE JOURNEY TO THE FORCE AWAKENS series of novels tied in to the upcoming movie The Force Awakens.
October 15th, 2015. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Chuck Wendig | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…
Gentlemen, I concur! (Forgive me for jumping into your convo)