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Winds of Fury by Mercedes Lackey
I read Winds of Fury (1993) because I owned it at Audible and had already reviewed the previous books in this MAGE WINDS trilogy (Winds of Fate and Winds of Change). I haven’t been enthusiastic about the story or the characters thus far, so if you have enjoyed them, you should ignore this review because it won’t be helpful. If you haven’t read those books yet and are trying to decide whether to read them,
November 10th, 2017. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Mercedes Lackey | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Tremontaine Season One by Ellen Kushner, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Malinda Lo, Joel Derfner, Patty Bryant, Racheline Maltese & Paul Witcover
Serial Box is another way to consume entertainment, pairing the pleasure of episodic television with the joy of a well-written book. Serial Box provides original works of written fiction in the form of a “season,” 10-16 chapters or episodes, released weekly. Like television, they use the metaphor of a “writers room,” and each work is produced by a team of writers, rather than an individual writer. It’s an interesting concept.
October 27th, 2017. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Ellen Kushner, Malinda Lo | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Rapture by Matt Kindt, Cafu, Roberto De la Torre
Rapture is a Valiant omnibus collection of issues 1-4 to collect the entire story arc written by Matt Kindt and drawn by Cafu. I loved the artwork for the most part, and the story began well enough, but events quickly began to feel too rushed and too slightly developed, making for an overall disappointing read, though it’s possible those more familiar with this world and these characters might have a more positive response.
The story opens with a young girl,
October 19th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Cast No Shadow by Nick Tapalansky & Anissa Espinosa
Cast No Shadow, written by Nick Tapalansky and illustrated by Anissa Espinosa, is a mostly muddled graphic story that mixes the paranormal, teen romance/angst, and coming of age in a blend that never really coheres.
Greg Shepard is a boy born without a shadow in a small town whose mayor regularly tries to rejuvenate the town via a string of cheap tourist-trap draws (The World’s Biggest fill-in-the-blank). Being without a shadow is the least of his issues though: his mother died when he was young,
October 16th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
White Cat (2010), the first book in Holly Black‘s The Curse Workers series, focuses on Cassel, a teenage boy born into a family of workers. Working magic is illegal, which means anyone born with the gift — his entire family — either works for the mob or as a con artist. Except Cassel, that is, because Cassel doesn’t have a gift. What he does have is strange dreams that make him sleepwalk, and end up in the strangest places,
October 12th, 2017. Ruth Arnell, Skye Walker and Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5, 4 | Holly Black | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Winds of Fate by Mercedes Lackey
Winds of Fate (1991) is the first book in Mercedes Lackey’s MAGE WINDS trilogy which is, in terms of internal chronology, an early trilogy in her VALDEMAR series. The VALDEMAR universe currently contains dozens of novels and short stories. So far I have read only six of them, but I own several more which I’m planning to review for our readers here at FanLit.
The VALDEMAR books are best suited for readers who enjoy classic high fantasy.
September 20th, 2017. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Mercedes Lackey | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Light Years by Emily Ziff Griffin
Light Years (2017), Emily Ziff Griffin’s debut YA novel, explores a New York teenager’s coming of age and spiritual and emotional awakening in a world rapidly descending into chaos because of a deadly pandemic. Luisa Ochoa-Jones is an unusually bright 17 year old software coder, on the short list of finalists competing for a coveted fellowship offered by a brilliant tech entrepreneur, Thomas Bell. In her face-to-face meeting with Bell, Luisa demonstrates her prized software program LightYears, which scans the Internet for people’s emotional reactions to a video,
September 15th, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 2.5 | Emily Ziff Griffin | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Cloudbound is Fran Wilde’s 2016 sequel to her debut novel Updraft, and if its predecessor was a mixed bag whose balance tipped toward the positive, albeit not as much as one would wish, Cloudbound doesn’t fare quite so successfully, with the needle pointing slightly more toward the negative. Thanks to a continuingly inventive world-building and a somewhat predictable but still intriguing ending, I’ll forge forward to book three,
September 15th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Fran Wilde | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Tales of Falling and Flying by Ben Loory
Ben Loory’s collection Tales of Falling and Flying (2017) falls into that category of “just not for me” books, meaning this will be a relatively brief take on the collection. It’s the sort of writing where I can see where some people would enjoy it, can note the author’s talent, can acknowledge the wit and bright originality, but overall it just doesn’t do it for me. In this case, it begins with my being a tough audience for short stories,
September 4th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Ben Loory | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Twisting the Rope by R.A. MacAvoy
Twisting the Rope (1986) is a sequel to R.A. MacAvoy’s Tea With the Black Dragon. It’s recommended, but not necessary, to have read Tea With the Black Dragon first.
It’s been five years since Martha Macnamara met Mayland Long at the hotel in San Francisco. They’ve been together since. Martha is now approximately 55 years old and Mayland appears to be around the same age,
August 15th, 2017. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | R.A. MacAvoy | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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…