Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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Sword of Change: Seek your quarters ’cause these books are dull

SWORD OF CHANGE by Patricia Bray

Devlin is a tortured soul. He wants to die, so he becomes his country’s Chosen One because it pays a fortune (which he can send to his brother’s widow) and it’s certainly deadly.

Sounds exciting, but don’t bother putting on your blood pressure cuff, because it wasn’t.

Devlin’s sure he’s going to die during the initiation ceremony (actually, it was me who nearly died of boredom), but, unfortunately, he doesn’t. And so we accompany him on his journeys which read more like a book report than an adventure.

February 21st, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Patricia Bray | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Sword: Quintessential B-grade sword-n-sorcery

The Sword by Deborah Chester

The Sword is the first of a high-fantasy trilogy and is little more than a prologue for whatever follows. What I mean by that is this: in terms of actual plot development, very little happens here. Each paperback in this trilogy is about 400 pages long (1200 total), so this could easily have been a 2-book saga with little to no impact on its quality.

As for the story itself… There are some books you can read when you’re tired, some you can’t,

February 21st, 2010. Rob Rhodes´s rating: 2.5 | Deborah Chester | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Days of Blood and Fire: Disappointed

Days of Blood and Fire (US) or A Time of War (UK) by Katharine Kerr

A Time of War (Days of Blood and Fire in the US) is the third book in the second Deverry quartet. Here all the action takes place in the present — we meet the Rhiddaer folk and the Gel Da’Thae (in the form of Jahdo and Meer) who quest to Deverry in search of Meer’s brother. When they find him,

February 3rd, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 2.5 | Katharine Kerr | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Fairest: Aza is no Ella

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

Just as Gail Carson Levine‘s award-winning Ella Enchanted tackled the story of Cinderella, giving the story depth and meaning whilst simultaneously treating the reader to one of the best heroines and most realistic romances in all of Young Adult literature, Fairest purports to retell the fairytale of Snow White with a few twists.

Aza was abandoned as an infant at the Featherbed Inn and adopted by the innkeeper and his wife. Though loved by her family,

Bones of Faerie: Faults and sparks of brilliance

Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner

The human world has been rendered almost unlivable, victim of the wild magic unleashed by the faeries in their war with the humans twenty years earlier. Liza, a teenage girl, tries to survive in a small community in the Midwestern United States that has been savaged by the remnants of the war. The corn fights back against the humans harvesting it, and the blackberry vines seek flesh. Everyone who survived the war knows that magic is dangerous and cannot be tolerated, so when Liza’s sister is born with the clear hair that marks her as magically tainted,

A Time of Omens: Treading water

A Time of Omens by Katharine Kerr

A Time of Omens, the second book of the second Deverry quartet, is no more than a competent entry. Despite the easy reading, it took me days to get through and I really struggled at times to muster much interest in the doings of Rhodry.

Rhodry spends a number of years wandering in the Westlands, integrating himself into the lives of the Elcyion Lacar. Jill has gone seeking the remnant of the Elven race that fled south when the Hordes destroyed their homelands.

January 27th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 2.5 | Katharine Kerr | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Unseen Academicals: Comfort food

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Many Terry Pratchett fans will tell you that his DISCWORLD novels are really social satire masquerading as fantasy. With the more recent installments, this has become even more apparent, as they have often taken on a very specific subject or theme. The Truth: Terry Pratchett about journalism. Making Money: banking. Going Postal: well… the postal service. The most recent addition to the series, Unseen Academicals,

January 23rd, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 2.5 | Terry Pratchett | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side: Brain candy for teen girls

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side is a fun piece of brain candy for teen girls. Imagine the “girl finds out she’s a long-lost princess” fantasy combined with the “girl finds out she’s the destined true love of a hot vampire guy” fantasy, and you’ve pretty much got the gist. I enjoyed the novel while reading it, but I think I’d have liked it better when I was in the target audience, and there were some aspects that really troubled me.

Flesh and Fire: Where’s the fire?

Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman

Jerzy is a slave. He has never known anything but slavery in the Master Vineart’s fields, toiling away at the grape vines that create the magical wine that is so coveted by the powerful and all of the Vinearts. Jerzy’s life is uneventful until one fateful day when he happens to get a face full of the grape mash and feels something magical in the wine. Knowing death is certain now that he, a lowly slave, has tasted the magical brew, the Master summons Jerzy to the main house.

January 16th, 2010. Guest´s rating: 2.5 | Laura Anne Gilman | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Game of Sunken Places: Bit muddled

The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson

The Game of Sunken Places has at its core several relatively humdrum concepts: a board game that plays for real, a hidden kingdom, two friends (one timid, one outgoing), a race to save the (or a) world. This isn’t so bad since so much fantasy works with the same basic materials. The question is whether the author transcends the familiar and here the answer tends to be no.

The story follows a pair of thirteen-year-old friends, Gregory and Brian,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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