Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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The Measure of the Magic: Brooks is now copying himself

The Measure of the Magic by Terry Brooks

“The Black Staff’s Bearer Comes Closer Each Day…”

By this stage there are so many books in Terry Brooks’ SHANNARA series that each new installment requires a lengthy rundown of where it belongs in the sequence. After writing the original SHANNARA trilogy back in the 1970s, as well as a bevy of direct sequels, Brooks went on to write a seemingly-unrelated contemporary fantasy trilogy that introduced the Knights of the Word, champions of light armed with powerful staffs of black wood who fight against demonic forces that strive to bring about the end of the world.

February 18th, 2012. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2.5 | Terry Brooks | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Shadows West: Three screenplays by the Lansdales

Shadows West by Joe R. and John L. Lansdale

Reading a screenplay is a different experience from a novel or short story. A screenplay strips the story down to dialogue and action, with some visuals. There is no interior monologue or author philosophizing, or at least, not much. It can be refreshing.

Joe R. Lansdale, who has written crime novels, mystery, dark fantasy and horror, provides three screenplays for the interested reader in Shadows West. Two of the trio were written with his brother John Lansdale,

January 30th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Joe R. Lansdale | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Sixty-One Nails: There is a fine novella hiding inside

Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon

You know it’s going to be a bad day when, first thing, someone steps in front of a moving subway train right next to you; and next, when you have a major fight with your ex-wife about your daughter, it’s hard to believe things will get any better. When the third thing that happens is you have a heart attack and die, it can’t really get any worse, can it?

But maybe it can get better. Maybe you can come back to life with the aid of a passerby.

January 24th, 2012. Terry Weyna´s rating: 2.5 | Mike Shevdon | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Star of the Morning: A milder type of romance

Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland

She is a beautiful mercenary girl with supernatural skill with a sword and a hatred of magic. He is a prince and arch-mage, responsible for the spells that protect his brother’s kingdom. Can these two crazy kids ever make it work?

Apparently not. At least, by the end of Lynn Kurland’s Star of the Morning, not yet. Morgan is recovering from a deadly dose of poison, and Miach is back at his brother Adhemar’s castle, putting duty ahead of his growing feelings for Morgan and trying to solve the mystery of the dark magic seeping into the kingdom.

January 18th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Lynn Kurland | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Mischief Monster: Read this one in print

The Mischief Monster by Bruce Coville

The Mischief Monster is the fourth book in Bruce Coville’s delightful MOONGOBBLE AND ME series for ages 9-12. I’ve been listening to this series of short books on audio with my girls who are 6 and 9 years old. Each book is about an hour long and dramatized by Full Cast Audio, which means there’s a cast of readers playing parts rather than just one narrator.

In The Mischief Monster, Edward, Moongobble, and their friends try to return a mischievous monster princess named Snelly to her home in Monster Mountain.

Empire State: Full to the brim of neat ideas

Empire State by Adam Christopher

Angry Robot is one of those publishers you just have to keep an eye on, because they come out with some unique, surprising fiction. Their books tend to defy genre conventions and often are impossible to classify. To mess with our heads even more, they then stick weird little filing instructions on them, such as “File Under: Fantasy [ Aztec Mystery | Locked Room | Human Sacrifice | The Dead Walk! ]” for Aliette de Bodard’s Servant of the Underworld,

January 4th, 2012. Stefan Raets´s rating: 2.5 | Adam Christopher | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine: Too much for my delicate senses

The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine by Peter Straub

Ballard, a wealthy businessman, and Sandrine, his much younger lover, are cruising down the Amazon River in a mysterious yacht. The crew is never seen, blank-eyed natives watch the boat from the river’s shores, and there seems to be a dangerous predator in the river. The dimensions of the yacht don’t make sense, the delicious food is unidentifiable, and it’s not clear how long Ballard and Sandrine have been on the boat.

Presumably, they’re taking a vacation somewhere out of the reach of Ballard’s clients and Sandrine’s husband,

Bedeviled: This series needs some fine-tuning

Bedeviled by Sable Grace

At the end of the first DARK BREED novel, Ascension, Kyana turned her witch friend Haven into a vampire/lycanthrope hybrid in order to save her from certain death. But Haven is taken over by the evil god Cronos, who wants to use her to bring himself back to life and usher in his new reign. Most of the Order wants to see Haven killed to end the threat. Kyana is the only one who still believes in her friend, so it’s important that Kyana find Haven first — no one else will ask questions first and shoot later,

December 27th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Sable Grace | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Telling: I expect more from Le Guin

The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guinis an iconic voice whose books, like Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World is Forest, made people rethink their assumptions of the society they lived in. She is intimidatingly intellectual but writes characters who are real and full of heart. She is a personal role model of mine, so it’s difficult to write a less-than-glowing review about The Telling, a late entry into Le Guin’s HAINISH CYCLE stories.

December 19th, 2011. Marion Deeds and Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Ursula K. Le-Guin | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Hunter From the Woods: Mediocre compared to McCammon’s other work

The Hunter From the Woods by Robert McCammon

Robert McCammon’s werewolf WWII British spy, Michael Gallatin, is back in a collection of short stories that surround the events in McCammon’s best-selling book, The Wolf’s Hour:

“The Great White Way” — Young Michael Gallatin has left the Russian forests and his pack. He finds refuge with a gypsy circus but is soon entrapped in a deadly love triangle.
“The Man from London” — Michael has been adopted by a small Russian village.

November 29th, 2011. Greg Hersom´s rating: 2.5 | Robert McCammon | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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