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I’m starting to feel like a broken record (Google it kids) here the past month or so, having had the same general reaction to a long run of books now — “good premise, flawed execution.” The latest perpetrator is Lockstep, a new YA space opera by Karl Schroeder, who has come up with a wonderfully engaging premise and setting, but has failed to create that same sense of engagement with regard to the characters and plot.
Way back in time in the Lockstep universe,
March 25th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Karl Schroeder | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-rae Lee
[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]
I had high hopes for Chang-rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea. A literary author turning his hand to a post-apocalyptic tale that would focus less it seems on zombies and cannibals etc.,
March 7th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Chang-rae Lee | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Futurdaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction edited by Hannah Strom-Martin and Erin Underwood
In their introduction to Futurdaze: An Anthology of YA Science Fiction, editors Hannah Strom-Martin and Erin Underwood offer up their motivation for the collection:
We hope to inject the short-fiction market . . . with an extra serving of undisguised wonder at the possibilities the future may hold [and] give the next generation of speculative readers and writers a taste . . . of the infinite possibilities inherent in both the science fiction genre and the short story form [and to] represent a wider range of viewpoints than is typically seen in American popular culture.
February 28th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Gregory Frost, Lavie Tidhar, Nancy Holder | Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Waking Engine by David Edison
The Waking Engine, by David Edison, continues my unfortunately long-running streak of books that fell short of their potential. As with many of them this past month or so, The Waking Engine has a great premise — people (defined very broadly) do not die just once; instead they do so multiple times, each time waking in a new body to a new life on another world, but with all their memories intact.
February 27th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | David Edison | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Three Princes by Ramona Wheeler
Ramona Wheeler came up with a great setting premise for her novel Three Princes: an alternate Earth where neither the Egyptian nor the Incan Empires ever failed. Now, from their center in Memphis, Egypt rules an enormous swath of land across Africa, Europe, and Asia, though not all are happy with said rule, especially a resistance group led by Otto von Bismarck. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Incans rule most of that area, which they crisscross in their Quetzal airships,
February 13th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Ramona Wheeler | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Vampires are everywhere in teen fiction, but recently some authors have ventured outside fangland and explored a more diverse assortment of supernatural beings. And so we have Fates by Lanie Bross, a novel about, well, Fates. I was a little sad when I realized Bross’s Fates didn’t bear much resemblance to the Greek Fates, just because I’m a sucker for classical mythology, but nonetheless I was eager to see what Bross did with the concept. The gorgeous cover art didn’t hurt a bit either.
February 11th, 2014. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Lanie Bross | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Siege of Darkness by R.A. Salvatore
The major problem with Siege of Darkness is not, hopefully, R.A. Salvatore’s fault. The issue is that this is the point in THE LEGEND OF DRIZZT saga when a particularly noxious example of the “Shared Universe Event” decided to rear its ugly head, getting in everyone’s way and disrupting the meta-narrative. Its long-dreaded appearance does absolutely nothing aside from ticking a box on a checklist, so much so that I’m giving Salvatore the benefit of the doubt here and imagining that the material “had” to be there on the word of the mighty Wizards of the Coast,
January 22nd, 2014. Tim Scheidler´s rating: 2.5 | R.A. Salvatore | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
Based on the polar nature of the first two books in the DUNE series, Paul’s ascension in Dune and his descent in Dune Messiah, not much would seem left to be told in the House Atreides saga. Publishing Children of Dune in 1976, ten years after Dune, Frank Herbert proved there was still more to tell, telling a solid but not spectacular tale that has some big shoes to fill if it is to live up to the success of Dune.
January 14th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 2.5 | Frank Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.B. Hudspeth
The first 65 pages of The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.B. Hudspeth is a fascinating “biography” of the titular doctor, a man who believed that the creatures of mythology actually existed at one time and could be reborn into our world with the proper surgical technique. It’s a tragic tale of a medical prodigy who had already completed medical school with high honors at the age of 20. Black was a man of intense curiosity who reveled in dissecting every type of animal,
January 10th, 2014. Terry Weyna´s rating: 2.5 | E.B. Hudspeth | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Joe Haldeman’s 1974 The Forever War and 1997 Forever Peace were huge successes for the author, winning many of science fiction’s most prestigious awards, not to mention garnering him a solid fan base in the process. Though they share similar sounding titles and a military motif, little else between the two novels resembles the other. When it was announced in 1999 that Haldeman would be publishing a true sequel to The Forever War entitled Forever Free,
January 10th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 2.5 | Joe Haldeman | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.