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The Truth by Terry Pratchett
The truth about Sir Terry Pratchett’s novel The Truth is that for the first time a DISCWORLD book failed to satisfy me. While there is nothing seriously wrong with the story, the feeling that Pratchett was bolting set pieces together to make a whole overwhelmed the general fun of the book.
First published in 2000, The Truth is 25th in a 49-book series according to Wikipedia. The DISCWORLD books break into definable categories,
May 17th, 2017. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Terry Pratchett | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Stories about people trapped in virtual reality have been thoroughly done, and the trope of the horror-story “final girl,” the lone survivor or almost-survivor who makes it to the end of the movie, at least, is pretty familiar too. In Mira Grant’s latest story, the novella Final Girls (2017), she mixes both of these with a dash of science fiction for an interesting tale that didn’t completely work for me.
Dr. Jennifer Webb is a visionary who has created proprietary VR technology designed to help people address and ultimately heal old traumas.
May 4th, 2017. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Mira Grant | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Mighty Zodiac Volume 1: Starfall written by J. Torres, Corin Howell (illustrations), Maarta Laiho (color), Warren Wucinich (letters)
The Mighty Zodiac has a wonderfully cosmic and original premise — the death of a constellation leads to the fall of six stars from the skies and the freeing of the Rabbit Army from the moon. Or as it is put early on:
When the Blue Dragon died, he left the eastern skies vulnerable. Without another dragon to immediately take its place and ascend into the position of the Guardian of the East,
March 18th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett
Lightning-cracked time portals. Secret tombs. Slave ship mutiny. Snake men. Buried alive. Parlays with kings. These are just some of the adventurous elements of Leigh Brackett’s The Sword of Rhiannon. (Though initially published as Sea Kings of Mars, it quickly changed names, and in reprintings since has consistently been known as The Sword of Rhiannon.) Written in 1953, it was one of the last threads of the pulp era yet benefits from increased expectations regarding prose and characterization.
March 1st, 2017. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 2.5 | Leigh Brackett | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza
Empress of a Thousand Skies by Rhoda Belleza is a YA space opera that feels a bit like old-time science fiction with a modern sensibility, in that characterization takes a back seat to a plot that can’t really be examined too closely, but those relatively flat characters are a nicely diverse mix in terms of gender and color. Sometimes such a propulsive plot can compensate for, or at least ameliorate somewhat, flat characters, but the plot also had its issues,
February 7th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Rhoda Belleza | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Two sets of twins, a disillusioned husband, a grieving boyfriend, one ghost. The lives of Her Fearful Symmetry’s characters are as tangled as they sound, in a drama that will play out amongst the tombstones of Highgate Cemetery. A sticker on the front reminds potential readers that Niffenegger is the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Yet let that be the first and last time Niffenegger’s debut novel is mentioned. Her Fearful Symmetry is described as a ‘delicious and deadly ghost story,’ and should be judged in and of itself.
January 17th, 2017. Ray McKenzie and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2.5 | Audrey Niffenegger | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Tempest: All-New Tales of Valdemar edited by Mercedes Lackey
Tempest (2016) is the most recent in a lengthy series of light fantasy anthologies set in and around Mercedes Lackey’s well-known Valdemar, is a land where people called Heralds are “Chosen” (read: magically bonded for life) with telepathic white horse-like creatures known as Companions. Once bonded, the pair joins others in traveling and policing their kingdom against wrongdoing, threats and evils of all kinds. While I’m a relative newcomer to the world of Valdemar, I’ve read several other works by Lackey and was impressed by a couple of her short stories of the Companions.
January 13th, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 2.5 | Mercedes Lackey, Phaedra Weldon | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Devils of D-Day by Graham Masterton
All the devils and demons that appear in this book are legendary creatures of hell, and there is substantial recorded evidence for their existence. For that reason, it is probably inadvisable to attempt to conjure up any of them by repeating out loud the summons used in the text, which are also genuine. I would like to point out that the Pentagon and the British Ministry of Defense strenuously deny the events described here, but I leave it to you to draw your own conclusions.
November 29th, 2016. Jason Golomb´s rating: 2.5 | Graham Masterton | Horror | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Patterns of the Wheel: Coloring Art Based on Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time
by Robert Jordan & Amy Romanczuk
Patterns of the Wheel is a posthumous collaboration between late author Robert Jordan, of THE WHEEL OF TIME fame, and officially licensed Wheel of Time™ artist Amy Romanczuk, who has merged phrases or dialogue from many of Jordan’s novels with pysanky, a style of Ukrainian folk art most often seen on brightly-colored Easter eggs. While marketed as an adult coloring book,
October 28th, 2016. Jana Nyman´s rating: 2.5 | Robert Jordan | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Apothecary’s Curse by Barbara Barnett
The Apothecary’s Curse, by Barbara Barnett, has wonderful ideas and many interesting elements. In particular, Barnett has a unique thought about the Celtic Faerie. Unfortunately, the story can’t quite support the weight of all the ideas, and the book’s time-jumping structure creates an episodic effect that vitiates the urgency. I don’t think this one succeeds, but I love the imagination at work here.
There are at least two discrete stories in The Apothecary’s Curse.
October 28th, 2016. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Barbara Barnett | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…