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Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: 2

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Sebastian: A romance novel with some fantasy concepts

Sebastian by Anne Bishop

It always saddens me when an author I thought was good turns out to be…well, not so good. I was willing to forget about Anne Bishop’s previous trilogy (Tir Alainn) and go into Sebastian with her original Black Jewels Trilogy in mind.
This just was not a good book. It was not a fantasy novel, so much as a romance novel with some fantasy concepts. And they are interesting concepts, as Bishop’s often are (although a bit confusing until you get far enough into the book to make the right connections).


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March 31st, 2008. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Alector’s Choice: Shampoo-rinse-repeat

Alector’s Choice by L.E. Modesitt Jr

There’s no longer any doubt — Modesitt has fallen into the “shampoo” mode of series writing: rinse-shampoo-repeat. Alector’s Choice, while not a bad book if read on its own (which it can be), is, for fans or former fans of Modesitt’s other work, merely a rehash of the same old same old. Same old plot. Same old characters. Same old conflicts. Same old resolutions. Only the names have been changed to protect the profits (and a possible plagiarism suit if one could sue oneself).


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March 3rd, 2008. and ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Tehanu: So much misery

Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin

Hmmm. Where to begin.

First, a confession: despite my high marks for this and other installments of the Earthsea series, I never really warmed up to Ursula Le Guin’s masterworks. It’s like appreciating a painting by Picasso: I know that it’s a magnificent piece of art, but that doesn’t mean I’d want it hanging on my living room wall. Likewise, I can recognize the craftsmanship and skill that went into creating The Earthsea Cycle; there’s so much skill in the writing,


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February 16th, 2008. ´s rating: | | , | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |

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Dingo: Recycled material

Dingo by Charles de Lint

Dingo is a YA novel that tells the story of a young woman who has the ability to turn into a dingo because she is a descendant of the original animal people from the beginning of the world. Her breeding causes problems for her and her family when other animal people need her for a mysterious ritual. Fleeing Australia to Canada to find safety, Lainey meets Miguel and together they hatch a plan to win her freedom.

Charles de Lint is recycling previous material for this book.


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February 16th, 2008. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Scepters: Not bad on its own but been down this road too often

Scepters by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

Scepters, the third book of The Corean Chronicles, isn’t a bad book in its own right. If it could be read on its own (one really needs to have read the two previous books to follow this one), it would have been a decent if not great or even really good read. But coming as it does after the first two, my largest reaction was: haven’t we seen all this before?

By now the pattern of plot and character has become pretty rote.


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February 11th, 2008. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Redeeming the Lost: Short on redeeming qualities

Redeeming the Lost by Elizabeth Kerner

Sometimes authors lose the plot. In Redeeming the Lost, Elizabeth Kerner loses… everything.

She loses what restraint she had on her overly flowery writing style. It reached a point where some of the language was laughable and ridiculous, and often it looked like there were several words missing from sentences. Kerner is one of those fantasy authors that unfortunately can’t fight the desire to show off her knowledge of archaic language.

She loses the pacing. In actuality about 72 hours passes from start to finish of the book.


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January 31st, 2008. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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In the Eye of Heaven: Good for a first draft

In the Eye of Heaven by David Keck

In the Eye of Heaven has potential, but unfortunately the writing drags it down considerably. It really needed to be polished. At the moment it reads almost like a first draft, without anything properly fleshed out.

The first problem is that scenes are poorly described, when they are described at all. I felt almost blind as I was reading, because David Keck gives you nearly no idea of the places or people that the characters find themselves around.


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January 27th, 2008. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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To Catch a Mermaid: Life is tough, kid. Get used to it.

To Catch a Mermaid by Suzanne Selfors

I don’t usually read children’s novels and I probably will demur in the future, except for young adult. I did my homework on To Catch a Mermaid and read a bunch of other reviews out there, and none of them are in the least bit negative.

The writing itself is great. It’s about a boy named Boom Broom who brings home a wild baby mermaid (actually more like a toddler) from a reject seafood bucket. The merbaby brings a curse that Boom must break in order to save his sister.


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January 7th, 2008. ´s rating: | | , | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Harshini: It all comes crashing down

Harshini by Jennifer Fallon

Up till now I’ve enjoyed Jennifer Fallon‘s Demon Child trilogy; her writing is competent (not beautiful, but competent), her characters intriguing, and the story was interesting enough. But I always had this feeling… the same feeling I get when I watch my 2 year old daughter constructing a tower of blocks by stacking the big ones on top of the smaller ones…

Sure enough, just like my daughter’s tower, in Harshini, it all comes crashing down.


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December 10th, 2007. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Charlie Bone and the Time Twister: Lots of flaws

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister by Jenny Nimmo

The first Charlie Bone book had lots of basic flaws in it: lack of story or character development, a sense of arbitrariness, an overly familiar feel to it, etc., but the premise was just interesting enough, and the characters’ magical “endowments” just quirky enough that one hoped Jenny Nimmo could improve in book two and start putting together a worthwhile series. Sadly, based on this second effort, that hope isn’t borne out.

First, Charlie Bone and the Time Twister simply has a careless feel to it.


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December 4th, 2007. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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