The Dinosaur Knights by Victor Milan
I’m always a bit iffy about reading a second book in a series whose first book I didn’t much care for, but I guess it’s the optimist in me that overrules my better judgment. Optimism, and the fact that while rare, occasionally the second book does reward that optimism. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for Victor Milan’s The Dinosaur Knights (2016). As I noted in the review of book one, The Dinosaur Lords,
September 1st, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 0.1 | Victor Milan | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Magician’s Key by Matthew Cody
I have to admit at the outset that I didn’t read Matthew Cody’s first book (The Peddler’s Road) in THE SECRETS OF THE PIED PIPER trilogy. But that turned out not to be much of an obstacle as Cody does a very efficient job early on of catching the returning reader up on the events of book one, so I never felt lost in what was happening. Obviously, I can’t comment on the quality of that first book,
August 24th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Matthew Cody | Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Standard Hollywood Depravity by Adam Christopher
The very thing which makes Adam Christopher’s Ray Electromatic a compelling character — he’s a robot P.I.-turned-assassin for hire with a 24-hour memory — is simultaneously the best and most-frustrating thing about his RAY ELECTROMATIC series. When Christopher is restrained by the shorter word-counts of the novelette “Brisk Money” or this novella, Standard Hollywood Depravity (2017), there’s no room for unnecessary repetition or extraneous plot devices, and the “robot noir” at the heart of this series takes center stage.
August 8th, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Adam Christopher | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Weight of the World by Tom Toner
Note: This review contains some spoilers for the previous book, The Promise of the Child.
I finished The Promise of the Child, the first book in Tom Toner’s AMARANTHINE SPECTRUM space opera series, rather bewildered but game to continue the series by jumping into The Weight of the World (2017). Toner begins this second book in the series with a two page summary of what actually happened in The Promise of the Child,
July 10th, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Tom Toner | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Warning: This review will contain a spoiler for the previous novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It’s really impossible to talk about A Closed and Common Orbit without this spoiler. However, you don’t need to read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet before reading A Closed and Common Orbit since this sequel focuses on two minor characters from the first book.
June 21st, 2017. Kat Hooper´s rating: 1.5 | Becky Chambers | Audio | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Firebrand (2017) is the second of A.J. Hartley’s STEEPLEJACK series, following shortly after 2016’s Steeplejack and continuing the story of Anglet Sutonga, a young woman with a very strong sense of justice and a knack for finding herself in trouble. Firebrand builds on the events of Steeplejack, and as a result, this review will contain very mild spoilers for Steeplejack.
June 9th, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | A.J. Hartley | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
While I didn’t fall in in love with V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, I quite enjoyed it, giving it four stars in my review. Schwab is back in this universe now with a sequel, A Gathering of Shadows (2016), which carries forward the strengths of the first book, making for yet another strong story.
Set four months after the events of book one (and yes,
June 7th, 2017. Bill Capossere, Kevin Wei and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Guild Conspiracy by Brooke Johnson
Published in 2016, The Guild Conspiracy, by Brooke Johnson, is the second book in the CHRONIKER CITY STORIES series. It begins about six months after the events of Book One, The Brass Giant. Petra Wade, a young woman fighting to be accepted as an equal in the Engineers Guild, continues her struggle while also waging an asymmetrical battle against Julian Goss, an engineer who has a terrifying view of a mechanistic future world and is willing to orchestrate a war to get it.
February 20th, 2017. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Brooke Johnson | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Wondering Sight by Melissa McShane
In Wondering Sight (2017), the second book in Melissa McShane’s THE EXTRAORDINARIES series, we return to a fantasy-touched version of Regency-era England where some people have magical talents ― throwing and extinguishing fire, shaping one’s appearance, flying, teleporting, and more. Sophia is an Extraordinary, one of the very few people who have particularly strong magical abilities. As a Seer, she can cast herself into Dreams, which show her future events as a series of doors in her Dreams that she can open and explore,
February 13th, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Melissa McShane | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
With Blood Upon the Sand by Bradley P. Beaulieu
With Blood Upon the Sand (2017) is the second in Bradley P. Beaulieu’s THE SONG OF THE SHATTERED SANDS series, following up on the excellent Twelve Kings in Sharakhai. The sequel didn’t grab me quite as fully as its predecessor, but it’s quite nearly as good and certainly has me eager to continue reading the series.
So as to avoid spoilers for the first book,
February 3rd, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Bradley P. Beaulieu | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
...as well as the 1932 sequel, "Topper Takes a Trip"!
It's such a rich and ancient ambience - in many ways the plot itself doesn't matter, I just like strolling…
I didn't know he wrote Topper!
Best new book: Play of Shadows by Sebastien Sebastien de Castell Honorary mention for The Naming Song by Jebediah Berry…
Best read for August was Karel Capek's War With the Newts, another one of his acerbic fables about the human…