Previous SFF Author: Ken Liu
(1980- )
Marjorie M. Liu is an attorney who has lived and worked throughout Asia. She hails from both coasts, but currently resides in the Midwest, where she writes full-time. Learn more at Marjorie M. Liu’s website. Read Kelly’s interview with Marjorie M. Liu.
Kelly Lasiter interviewed Marjorie M. Liu about her recent projects. Read Kelly’s reviews of The Iron Hunt and Darkness Calls.
Kelly: The HUNTER KISS series grabbed me from the first sentence of The Iron Hunt: “When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw.” I love that line, and I’ve been wondering ever since… how did that sentence first come to you?
Marjorie M. Liu: My mom was the inspiration,
Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu
Having enjoyed Marjorie M. Liu’s Hunter Kiss urban fantasy series, I decided to look into her paranormal romance series, Dirk & Steele.
Tiger Eye is the first novel in the Dirk & Steele sequence. The heroine, Dela Reese, is a sculptor with a psychic affinity for metal. On a trip to China, she buys a mysterious riddle box and finds herself bound to Hari, an immortal shapeshifter, by magical forces beyond their control.
Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box by Marjorie M. Liu
Download Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box
I recently had the opportunity to try out Tiger Eye Part I: Curse of the Riddle Box, a casual game released in April 2010 by PassionFruit Games. The game is based on the first half of the novel Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu.
A disclaimer: I’m not as well-versed in casual games and hidden-object games as some other players might be;
In The Dark of Dreams by Marjorie M. Liu
In the beautifully written prologue to In the Dark of Dreams, a young human girl meets a mer-boy on the beach near her family home. The moment is brief and the two are torn away from each other, but they never forget each other and see each other in dreams for many years afterward.
Fast-forward to the present: Jenny (the girl) and Perrin (the boy) have both grown to adulthood and have picked up their share of physical and emotional scars along the way.
Within the Flames by Marjorie M. Liu
Within the Flames is another solid entry in Marjorie M. Liu’s Dirk & Steele paranormal romance series. In this installment, one of the most lovable recurring characters in the series finds his mate. Eddie is assigned to find and protect Lyssa, a young woman living a vagabond life in New York City. The two fall in love but must face demons both internal and external before they can be together.
In many ways, Lyssa is a perfect match for Eddie.
The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu
“When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw.”
That’s the first sentence of Marjorie M. Liu’s The Iron Hunt, and it’s just about perfect as opening lines go. It’s the primary reason I bought the book. Not only does it draw the reader in, eager to find out how and why this happened, but I’m also pretty darn sure it’s an Angela Carter reference. I love Angela Carter.
It would be misleading to suggest,
Darkness Calls by Marjorie M. Liu
I loved The Iron Hunt, and was eagerly looking forward to the sequel. (Has it really only been a year?) I’m happy to report that Darkness Calls (2009) is a worthy successor. This time around, Maxine and her boyfriend Grant are being hounded by a mysterious group of religious fanatics and by a horrifically creepy being who introduces himself as “Mr. Erl King,” a name that will probably be familiar to myth-geeks like me. Seriously,
A Wild Light by Marjorie M. Liu
Reading the Hunter Kiss series is rather like having a strange but wonderful dream. You’re sometimes confused about exactly what is happening and why, but the vistas are breathtaking, the emotions are intense, and when you wake up, the only words that come to mind are “What a ride!”
In the hands of a lesser author, confusion can be a dealbreaker that leads to the book hitting the wall. But Marjorie M. Liu is not a lesser author. Her poetic prose and beautifully drawn character relationships keep you reading even when you — and Maxine — aren’t quite sure of what’s going on.
MONSTRESS 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
Every now and then, a story will tip you into a strange new world without any attempt at exposition or context, leaving you to catch up on events in the most exhilarating way possible. You either sink or swim, and MONSTRESS is one such graphic novel, demanding complete attention, careful consideration, and at least two re-reads in order to grasp all of its detail.
We first meet Maiko Halfwolf as she’s put up for auction as a slave – a pretty clear indication of how dark this story can get,
MONSTRESS 2: The Blood by Marjorie Liu
As much as I enjoyed the first volume of Marjorie Liu‘s MONSTRESS , its second instalment (comprised of issues seven to twelve) is a vast improvement. The first volume was stuffed full of exposition and world-building and backstory, so much so that it was difficult to discern the actual plot. Granted, that made it exciting and complex, but I also had to read through it three times just to glean what was going on.
By contrast,
MONSTRESS 3: Haven by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
It’s always an event when the next collection of Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s MONSTRESS is released — I take a copy home, make sure I won’t get interrupted, and just sink down into the complex storytelling and truly gorgeous illustrations. Every year this ongoing graphic novel cleans up at the Eisner and Hugo Awards, and for good reason.
Maika Halfwolf is a young woman with a terrible secret: an ancient monster resides within her body,
MONSTRESS 4: The Chosen by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
The saga continues with the fourth volume of Marjorie Liu and Sana Takenda‘s epic fantasy MONSTRESS, which at this point is so complex and intricate that it’s difficult to properly summarize it.
Set in an alternate matriarchal 19th century Asia, with a steampunk/art deco/Egyptian aesthetic, this is the story of Maika Halfwolf and the terrible demonic presence that resides within her, one that sporadically bursts forth to cause destruction and mayhem, but occasionally offering her advice and companionship as well.
MONSTRESS 5: Warchild by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
This is my fifth review for what is the fifth volume in Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s collaborative MONSTRESS project, and it’s getting difficult not to repeat myself. Here are the basics: it takes place in a matriarchal society that’s embroiled in a devastating war between those that wield magic and those that rely on technological advancements.
The main character is Maika Halfwolf, a girl with one arm and a Lovecraftian monster living inside her,
The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Liu
I’m a big fan of Marjorie Liu’s MONSTRESS series, so I was eager to pick up her collection of short stories, entitled The Tangleroot Palace (2021). Unfortunately, while there was a lot to admire in terms of the prose itself, the stories didn’t do much for me, though they were solid enough. I’ll note, however, as I always do when reviewing a collection, that I’m a tough audience when it comes to short stories, generally preferring longer,
Songs of Love and Death edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois
Songs of Love and Death is the third anthology that George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois have edited together. Like Warriors and Songs of the Dying Earth, Songs of Love and Death brings together some of the biggest names that SFF has to offer and they set these authors to work on a common theme.
Martin and Dozois offer a cross-genre anthology that ranges from Robin Hobb’s epic fantasy “Blue Boots,” which tells the story of a romance between a young serving girl and a silver-tongued minstrel,
Superheroes — and supervillains — have always been problematic. They are usually all but impossible to kill, but have a single vulnerability that everyone seems to know about, and to aim for, a tradition that goes all the way back to Achilles (who was invulnerable because he was dipped in the River Styx as a baby — except for the ankle by which his mother held him when doing the dipping). Even after death, they always seem to come back in some form or another; Superman, for instance,
The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination edited by John Joseph Adams
The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination is the latest themed anthology edited by John Joseph Adams — and it’s another good one. This time, Adams has collected a set of short stories featuring the hero’s (or often superhero’s) traditional antagonist: the mad genius, the super-villain, the brilliant sociopath who wants to remold the world in his own image — or occasionally, maybe, just be left alone in his secret lair to conduct spine-tingling experiments that,
Previous SFF Author: Ken Liu
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good summation