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Touch the Dark by Karen Chance
Touch the Dark is the first in Karen Chance’s Cassandra Palmer urban fantasy series. Cassie is a seer; she can foretell the future and speak with ghosts. Later, she learns she has another power too: the ability to travel back in time and change events in the past. The time-travel element is unusual in urban fantasy and lends some freshness to what would otherwise be a pretty standard plot about a young woman embroiled in the politics of gorgeous,
June 22nd, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Karen Chance | SFF Reviews | no comments |
For much of her life, Pierce has been haunted by a mysterious young man. She first met him when she was a little girl, but was told he was a figment of her imagination. When she was fifteen, she had a near-death experience and met him again in a strange landscape. Several times since, when she was threatened, the man appeared and put the threatening party in a world of hurt. Now, Pierce and her mother have moved to Isla Huesos, Florida — Mom’s hometown — for a fresh start.
May 20th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Meg Cabot | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Steampunk’d by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg
Steampunk’d is an anthology edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg. The most common premise of steampunk is an idea that technology — steam-driven technology — went in a different direction during the Victorian era. The best steampunk stories create a sense of otherness, a truly different world, while some tales just dangle steampunk tropes like jewelry or fashion accessories.
I’m a cautious consumer of themed anthologies because the work can be uneven,
May 19th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2 | Bradley P. Beaulieu, Jean Rabe, Michael A. Stackpole | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Goddess Test by Aimée Carter
I was excited about The Goddess Test from the moment I first heard about it. The myth of Persephone and Hades has always held a certain fascination for me, and I enjoy reading adaptations of it and seeing what different authors do with the story. In Aimée Carter’s version, Persephone left Hades some time ago and Hades needs a new queen to help him rule the underworld. The queen candidates must first pass a series of tests, however, and someone keeps murdering the young women before they can complete the tests.
May 1st, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Aimée Carter | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Enchanted No More by Robin D. Owens
I was drawn to Enchanted No More by the vibrant hues of the cover art and because the plot summary — centering on a half-faerie woman sucked back grudgingly into court affairs — reminded me of one of my favorite urban fantasy series, Seanan McGuire’s October Daye.
Jenni is a halfling, half human and half Lightfolk (fae). She wants nothing to do with her Lightfolk heritage after a magical disaster fifteen years ago in which most of her family was killed.
April 21st, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Robin D. Owens | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]
When Michael Crichton wrote The Andromeda Strain, he was not just writing a mediocre novel about extra-terrestrial bacteria. He was founding a (sub) genre of SFF that found a massive mainstream audience.
The techno-thriller has all of the pacing and suspense that we might expect of a John Grisham novel,
April 8th, 2011. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 2 | Michael Crichton | Edge | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Nomads of Gor is the fourth installment in John Norman’s series about Tarl Cabot, the professor from Earth who is now a warrior on the planet Gor (the Counter-Earth). In the last book, Priest-Kings of Gor, Tarl was instructed by the Priest-Kings to find their egg — the last hope of the insectoid Priest-King race. The egg is in the keeping of the wagon people, a fierce group of nomadic tribes. Tarl needs to find these people,
March 21st, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | John Norman | Audio | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Hounding the Moon by P.R. Frost
Fantasy author Tess Noncoiré’s latest novel is her biggest success yet, but all is not going smoothly for her. She’s still mourning her late husband, Dill, who died in a hotel fire two years ago after a brief marriage. Then there’s the pesky issue of demons. Right after Tess was widowed, a mysterious fever led her to a secret Sisterhood dedicated to fighting demons. Tess never fit in and was asked to leave, but the training has stuck with her — along with her familiar imp,
March 11th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | P.R. Frost | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Dr. Diana Bishop, descendant of the famous Bridget Bishop of Salem, Massachusetts, turned her back on her natural powers after her parents were killed when she was a child. Instead, she relied on her brain power, went to Oxford and Yale, and became a well-known researcher in the field of history of science. Now she’s back at Oxford, spending the year studying old alchemical texts archived at the Bodleian Library. But when she calls the book known as Ashmole 782 from the stacks, she can feel its power and she can see hidden writing moving on its pages.
March 2nd, 2011. Kat Hooper and Ray McKenzie´s rating: 2 | Deborah Harkness | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
The Dark Griffin by K.J. Taylor
K.J. Taylor’s The Dark Griffin is billed as “the first book in an edgy new trilogy,” but felt like reading a very long prologue. Unfortunately for the reader, the gist of the story is told in the couple of paragraphs on the back cover, taking away any suspense. I hate when the back cover gives too much away. We go into the story knowing Arren is going to end up in the arena and that he will end up partnered with the wild,
February 19th, 2011. Sarah Webb (guest)´s rating: 2 | K.J. Taylor | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.