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The White Road by Lynn Flewelling
After a long departure from the much loved Nightrunner series, Lynn Flewelling returned to Seregil and Alec’s adventures in 2008 with the release of Shadows Return. Now the adventure begun in Shadows Return continues in The White Road:
“Having escaped death and slavery in Plenimar, Alec and Seregil want nothing more than to go back to their nightrunning life in Rhíminee. Instead they find themselves saddled with Sebrahn,
May 18th, 2010. Beth Johnson Sonderby (guest)´s rating: 2.5 | Lynn Flewelling | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Thief Eyes by Janni Lee Simner
Based on the Icelandic myth told in Njal’s Saga, Thief Eyes by Janni Lee Simner centers around American teenager Haley, who comes to Iceland with her father. The two of them are trying to find Haley’s mother, who had disappeared there a year earlier after an argument with Haley’s dad. Haley gets caught up in a generations-old curse when she finds an inscribed coin on the shore of a lake. Trying to escape the effects of the curse, she has to face the consequences of actions made by people a thousand years before she was born,
May 10th, 2010. Ruth Arnell and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Janni Lee Simner | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
In an opening letter concerning Caragh O’Brien’s new book Birthmarked, her editor says that she could describe the book as a “Hollywood-style pitch (The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games)” but chooses to avoid the lazy and instead describes how the main character, in the book’s first chapter, must deliver a baby solo (not hers) and then, against the wishes of the mother, take it away and deliver it (literally this time) to a group called The Enclave.
April 30th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Caragh O'Brien | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Fall of Light by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
(Note: Fall of Light is a “sideways sequel” to A Fistful of Sky. It refers back to some of the things that happened in A Fistful of Sky, but you could read Fall of Light on its own without any problem.)
Opal LaZelle (sister to Gypsum LaZelle of A Fistful of Sky) is a Hollywood makeup artist who specializes in making monsters for horror movies.
April 30th, 2010. Ruth Arnell´s rating: 2.5 | Nina Kiriki Hoffman | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Sixty-eight Rooms by Marianne Malone
The Sixty-Eight Rooms has a really fun premise. Sixth-graders Ruthie and Jack visit the Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago, and discover a magic key that enables them to shrink to doll-size and explore the rooms up close. It turns out that each room opens onto a real landscape from the time it portrays, complete with real people that Ruthie and Jack can interact with. I thought this was a great concept, and I remember thinking that Marianne Malone should set a sequel in the Fairy Castle at the Museum of Science and Industry.
April 21st, 2010. Kelly Lasiter, Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Marianne Malone | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Edge of Ruin by Melinda Snodgrass
The Edge of Ruin (2010) is a direct sequel to The Edge of Reason, an excellent present-day fantasy novel by Melinda Snodgrass in which Chtulhu-esque beings use religion to generate emotions like fear and anger, enabling them to enter our dimension. It’s an unusual and original concept that led to a fascinating novel.
Unfortunately The Edge of Ruin is not quite as strong as the first novel in the EDGE series.
April 9th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 2.5 | Melinda Snodgrass | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Master of None by Sonya Bateman
If you took parts of the Arabian Nights and remade them in an urban fantasy mold, one of the stories would come out something very similar to Sonya Bateman’s Master of None. Gavyn Donatti, a professional thief, is hired to steal a small item for a local crime boss, but somehow Gavyn manages to lose the item before handing it over to his employer, and this bit of bad luck ends up sending Gavyn on the run. He is saved along the way by a Djinn named “Ian.”
March 20th, 2010. Justin Blazier´s rating: 2.5 | Sonya Bateman | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City has lots to admire: great lines, witty jokes and good insights. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to admire here than to enjoy. The sum ended up being less than its parts, to me. This may have been part of the point, and certainly the sense of disconnectedness is as well, but one of the dangers of a novel about disconnectedness is that it can feel, well, disconnected. The trick is to avoid this somehow,
March 13th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Jonathan Lethem | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Chick and the Dead by Casey Daniels
Pepper Martin thought her newly acquired ability to see ghosts was a one-shot deal. That once Gus Scarpetti moved on to the great hereafter, she could go back to her normal life where only the living talked to her. She was wrong. It seems Gus has been talking her up in the afterlife, and sends Didi Bowman her way.
Didi died in the 1950s and was the sister of Merilee Bowman, Cleveland native and bestselling author of the Civil War novel So Far the Dawn.
March 9th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2.5 | Casey Daniels | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, according to the back flap, is the “basis for an album that [Mathias] Malzieu wrote.” I’d like to hear the album because I’m thinking his source material may have been better served in that medium. The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart isn’t a bad book, but even for a novella there isn’t much there and too much of it is either implied, assumed, or not earned;
March 1st, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Mathias Malzieu | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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