I was so excited by the premise of Stephanie Garber’s Caraval (2017) that I listed it as one of my most anticipated books of 2017. Word has it that there are already plans to make Caraval into a film and I expect it is going to get a fair amount of hype. I can understand why and yet I find I cannot give it more than three stars. I will attempt to justify the reasons why.
Scarlett spent her childhood dreaming of the magical show called Caraval and its mysterious proprietor,
April 12th, 2017. Katie Burton and Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Stephanie Garber | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Magic of Blood and Sea by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Magic of Blood and Sea (2017) combines two of Cassandra Rose Clarke’s novels, The Assassin’s Curse (2012) and The Pirate’s Wish (2013), into one volume. Originally, these novels were published by Strange Chemistry, the YA branch of Angry Robot Books, but the imprint went defunct (as sometimes happens) and the publication rights to their various books were scattered to the four winds. In this particular case,
March 20th, 2017. Jana Nyman and Ruth Arnell´s rating: 4.5 | Cassandra Rose Clarke | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Mighty Zodiac Volume 1: Starfall written by J. Torres, Corin Howell (illustrations), Maarta Laiho (color), Warren Wucinich (letters)
The Mighty Zodiac has a wonderfully cosmic and original premise — the death of a constellation leads to the fall of six stars from the skies and the freeing of the Rabbit Army from the moon. Or as it is put early on:
When the Blue Dragon died, he left the eastern skies vulnerable. Without another dragon to immediately take its place and ascend into the position of the Guardian of the East,
March 18th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
On first look, it might seem that Laini Taylor was a little too ambitious with her latest offering, Strange the Dreamer (2017), kind of like an overenthusiastic cook that goes a bit overboard with their cake ingredients. The blurb doesn’t help matters, citing a war between gods and men, a mysterious city, a mythical hero, a librarian, alchemy, nightmares and monsters as some of the components of the story — which will no doubt have raised an eyebrow or two.
March 7th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4 | Laini Taylor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Tea starts her story by accidentally raising her brother from the dead. This is surely a traumatic enough experience for a young girl, but it marks her with the dark magic of the bone witch, unlike her sisters who possess ‘normal’ magic. So on top of having to deal with her corpse brother, Tea is now spurned by the village she’s grown up in. The Bone Witch (2017) explores Tea’s journey of coming to terms with the darkness within her and finding her place in a world that fears her.
March 6th, 2017. Ray McKenzie and Skye Walker´s rating: 4.5 | Rin Chupeco | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly
While Lara Elena Donnelly’s debut novel Amberlough (2017) isn’t quite the Fleming-esque spy thriller it purports to be, Amberlough certainly doesn’t disappoint. Set in Amberlough City, a decadent, Industrial-era locale reminiscent of Paris in the early 1900s, Amberlough tells the story of Cyril DePaul and his lover Aristide Makricosta, who also happens to be the city’s greatest crime lord. Cyril, a former field operative in Amberlough’s Federal Office of Central Intelligence Services who landed a cushy desk job after an assignment went awry,
February 23rd, 2017. Kevin Wei and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Lara Elena Donnelly | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Crossroads of Canopy by Thoraiya Dyer
The thing I loved most about Crossroads of Canopy, by Thoraiya Dyer, was the elaborate and coherent world she’s created in this new fantasy, Book One in the TITAN’S FOREST trilogy. Published in 2017, Crossroads of Canopy introduces us to a society that lives in a forest, at all elevations, from the Floorians to the Canopians, who are called “Warmed Ones” because they are the only ones to feel the sun directly on their skin.
February 22nd, 2017. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Thoraiya Dyer | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Game of Shadows by Erika Lewis
High school is hard enough on its own — there’s homework, bullies, unrequited crushes, and overprotective parents, just to name a few hurdles on the way to freedom and adulthood. But that’s nothing compared to the challenges presented in Erika Lewis’ Game of Shadows (2017); our intrepid hero must also learn sword fighting, diplomacy, and an entirely new language and culture if he is to save his mother from an evil sorcerer’s machinations. By comparison, Advanced Geometry seems a lot more appealing!
February 20th, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 3.5 | Erika Lewis | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Department Zero by Paul Crilley
Department Zero by Paul Crilley is a neat mashup of humor and horror, of interdimensional fantasy and Lovecraft. First person narrator Harry Priest has a lively voice and a lot to learn when his life gets turned upside down after one really bad day at work. If you like acerbic British humor and the Old Ones of H.P. Lovecraft, this is a book for you.
Priest is a crime-scene cleaner in Los Angeles. He is separated from his wife and daughter,
January 30th, 2017. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Paul Crilley | Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Rising by Heather Graham & Jon Land
In The Rising (2017), Alex Chin is a rising star, the handsome blond quarterback of his high school football team, dating the head cheerleader. His Chinese adoptive parents are concerned about his grades not being good enough, and his nerdy tutor Samantha, a classmate with plans for a career at NASA, hounds him to work harder at school, while nursing a secret and seemingly hopeless crush on Alex. He also has strange dreams that cause him to fill a drawing pad with detailed drawings of a world filled with menacing machines.
January 24th, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Heather Graham | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
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…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…