Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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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.


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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,


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Touch of Evil: Interesting but uneven

Touch of Evil by C.T. Adams & Cathy Clamp

Touch of Evil (2006) is a mixed bag. There were aspects of it that I liked a great deal, and aspects that didn’t work for me.

First, the good: C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp’s vampires and werewolves are different from the usual fare. The vampires in Touch of Evil are victims of a parasite and ruled by a hive mind; the werewolves are matriarchal and not tied to the lunar cycle.


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Ysabel: GGK didn’t work out for me this time

Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay

What can I say about this book? If I see a new Guy Gavriel Kay book on the shelf at the bookstore, I buy it. It didn’t work out this time, though, and the reason is that the way this story is told makes no sense to me as a reader, and I cannot fathom why Kay wrote this book from the perspective of a teenager.

The story is about a fifteen year-old boy from Canada who accompanies his father, a world-renowned photographer,


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Thirteen Orphans: Too talky

Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold

The folklore of the British Isles, and of Western Europe in general, is well-trodden ground in fantasy fiction. So, when I heard that Jane Lindskold had begun a series based on Chinese mythology, I was eager to read it. It would be something fresh and unusual, and I’ve greatly enjoyed Lindskold’s writing in the past.

Thirteen Orphans is the first novel in the Breaking the Wall series, which I would classify as “old-school urban fantasy.” The phrase “breaking the wall” comes from the game of mah-jong,


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Gwenhywfar: Didn’t meet expectations

Gwenhywfar: The White Spirit by Mercedes Lackey

I normally wait a day or two after reading a book to write the review. This gives me time to let the book settle, and for my opinions to solidify. I finished Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit by Mercedes Lackey over a week ago, and am still struggling with this review…

Gwenhwyfar is a retelling of the Arthurian legend, based on an ancient Welsh myth that says that Arthur actually had three separate wives named Gwenhwyfar.


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Noonshade: Hectic, shallow, entertaining

Noonshade by James Barclay

Noonshade is the second book in the CHRONICLES OF THE RAVEN series by British fantasy author James Barclay. At the end of trilogy opener Dawnthief, the legendary group of mercenaries known as the Raven managed to destroy the Wytchlords and save the world of Balaia by casting the powerful Dawnthief spell, but as a side effect of the spell, a magical rift appeared in the sky above Parve.

Very early on in Noonshade,


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In His Majesty’s Service: First book in this omnibus is good…

In His Majesty’s Service by Naomi Novik

In His Majesty’s Service is an omnibus edition containing the first three novels in Naomi Novik‘s TEMERAIRE series. (These 3 novels were also released in a Science Fiction Book Club omnibus edition called Temeraire: In the Service of the King.) Aside from these three books, Naomi Novik has written two more novels in the series, Empire of Ivory and Victory of Eagles,


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Imager’s Challenge: Nothing new

Imager’s Challenge by L.E. Modesitt Jr

I really looked forward to L.E. Modesitt‘s return to the Imager series. The first book, Imager, was typical Modesitt fare, but it felt like he was trying out some new stuff. In Imager’s Challenge, I felt like we went right back to where we were before Imager.

After the events of Imager, Rhennthyl, the main character, had been through the typical Modesitt transition.


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Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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