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The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard
The Crystal World (1966) is J.G. Ballard’s third apocalyptic work in which he destroys civilization, the other two being The Burning World (1964) and The Drowned World (1962). It seems he likes the elements, having employed floods, draughts, and now crystallization. The process somewhat resembles Ice-9 in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle (1963), but there is no ironic humor to be found in this book as far I could tell.
October 7th, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 2.5 | J.G. Ballard | Audio, Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley
I thought Kameron Hurley’s first book in her WORLDBREAKER SAGA, The Mirror Empire, was a richly imagined, ambitious novel that landed on the positive side of the ledger even if its flaws gave the book’s strengths a run for their money. Unfortunately, the flaws do a bit more than that in the sequel, Empire Ascendant, leading to an overall weaker second effort.
The Worldbreaker setting is a multi-verse with parallel worlds that,
October 6th, 2015. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Kameron Hurley | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Talking to Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Talking to Dragons is the fourth and final book in Patricia C. Wrede’s ENCHANTED FOREST CHRONICLES, though it was actually the first book in the series to be published (1985). Wrede wrote the later three books (Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons) as prequels and now the correct reading order is to start with those three prequels and read Talking to Dragons last.
September 22nd, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Patricia C. Wrede | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Warning: Will contain spoilers for previous books in the RAVEN’S SHADOW series
Anthony Ryan’s RAVEN’S SHADOW series follows the life of Vaelin Al Sorna and his comrades, from his childhood in the religious, militaristic 6th Order to his career as a general, commander, and practitioner of the Dark (magic). Queen of Fire, the third and final book of RAVEN’S SHADOW, brings the series to a conclusion that leaves much to be desired.
September 17th, 2015. Kevin Wei´s rating: 2.5 | Anthony Ryan | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Sleeping King by Cindy Dees & Bill Flippin
Fantasy role-playing games come in all flavors and styles: from the well-known tabletop format of Dungeons and Dragons, to live-action role-playing (LARP) sessions in which players craft armor and characters, to video games based on the D&D format (Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights), to chat forums in which players create text-based adventures, to card-based games like Magic: The Gathering, there truly is something out there for any interested person to explore.
September 15th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 2.5 | Cindy Dees | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Raphael by R.A. MacAvoy
Warning: This review will contain spoilers for the previous books, Damiano and Damiano’s Lute.
R.A. MacAvoy winds up her DAMIANO trilogy with Raphael, a book that focuses on the angel Raphael instead of Damiano, the young man who was the protagonist of the first two books. That’s because at the end of the previous book, Damiano’s Lute, Damiano died when he sacrificed himself for Gaspar’s sister.
September 10th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | R.A. MacAvoy | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell, Jr.
Back in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, some of my favorite reading material, sci-fi-wise, was the wonderful series of 21 “Best of” anthologies put out by Ballantine. In an early indication of my future tastes, my favorites among those 21 collections were those by C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner, Leigh Brackett, Edmond Hamilton and Philip K. Dick, although to be truthful, I thoroughly enjoyed them all… with one exception.
August 18th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 2.5 | John W. Campbell | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán
It takes no effort at all to imagine what the “elevator mash-up pitch” for Victor Milán’s The Dinosaur Lords was: “It’s Jurassic Park meets Game of Thrones!” And darned if that wholly predictable selling phrase isn’t the main blurb (provided by none other than George R.R. Martin himself) sitting right above the title of my copy. And herein lie two of the problems with The Dinosaur Lords.
August 4th, 2015. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Victor Milan | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Yeah, Brian W. Aldiss’ Hothouse (1962) was definitely written with some chemical assistance. Maybe some LSD-spiked vegetable juice? It may have been written as a set of five short stories in 1961, but it’s a timeless and bizarre story of a million years in the future when the plants have completely taken over the planet, which has stopped rotating, and humans are little green creatures hustling to avoid becoming plant food.
There are hundreds of fearsome carnivorous plants that would love to eat human morsels,
July 28th, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 2.5 | Brian W. Aldiss | Hugo Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Beginnings is the sixth book in the WORLDS OF HONOR series, edited by David Weber. WORLDS OF HONOR collects stories about Honor Harrington and other Honorverse character, often written by other writers. As Beginnings implies, these five stories mostly take place before Honor’s service in the Royal Manticoran Navy. One takes place late in Honor’s career, and explores changes to the navy of Grayson, a world with a rigid, patriarchal political system.
July 14th, 2015. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Charles E. Gannon, David Weber | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
As someone who's waited for this book longer than most people seeing this have been alive, it was good reading…
What a strange review! I found this because it's linked on the Wikipedia article for Dragon Wing. Someone who claims…
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I re-read 'The King of Ys' abpout every ten years. The prose is luminous, and the story absorbing. I commend…