Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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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.

Straken: Disappointment

Straken by Terry Brooks

“Hate That Everything We Do is Dictated by These Secret Keepers…”

What was shaping up to be the best SHANNARA-based serial since THE HERITAGE OF SHANNARA stumbles on the finish line. Despite a promising start and a strong middle, THE HIGH DRUID OF SHANNARA goes out more with a whimper than a bang, due to several pointless chapters, unbelievable coincidences, the undermining of previously established plot-points and too much stupid behavior on the part of its antagonists.

Grianne Ohmsford was banished into the world of the Forbidding by her treacherous fellow Druids,

November 26th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2 | Terry Brooks | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Knight of the Dove: Vintage blade needs polishing

Knight of the Dove by William A. Kooiker

Amaria Eversvale, known as The Knight of the Dove for her unusual, ivory-colored hair, is a peerless and respected warrior; but her physical prowess belies her inner turmoil. After calling upon evil gods for the power to avenge her husband by slaughtering an entire fortress, she goes into self-imposed exile, wandering for months until she at least reaches Valgamin, the last city before the mountain range known as Urak’s Edge/The World’s Edge. There, she finds herself drawn into a secret conflict between the priesthoods of two evil gods,

The Swans’ War: I never knew what was at stake

THE SWANS’ WAR by Sean Russell

I struggled through these books and I only read them because Stephen Donaldson and Robin Hobb gave them high praise.

What I did like is that the characters were unique, with the exception of Tam and Prince Michael — they seemed to be the same character. All other characters seemed to be woven from a fresh cloak — they were different people who came from different backgrounds but learned to live together.

What I didn’t like was that there was a distinct lack of urgency.

November 6th, 2007. Guest´s rating: 2 | Sean Russell | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Witchling: Expository Lump

Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn

Let me start by saying that I like Yasmine Galenorn‘s writing quite a lot. I love her pagan/metaphysical books — she’s one of the few authors out there who seems to have a genuine passion for the subject matter—and I’ve also enjoyed the one installment of Chintz ‘n’ China that I’ve read.

That said, I didn’t really enjoy Witchling, the first novel of her Sisters of the Moon series, though I feel kind of bad saying so about something she’s obviously worked hard on and feels strongly about.

October 25th, 2007. Kelly Lasiter and John Hulet´s rating: 2 | Yasmine Galenorn | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Leopard in Exile: Zzzzzzz….

Leopard in Exile by Andre Norton & Rosemary Edghill

Is it a bad sign that I just finished Leopard in Exile the night before last, and now I’m hard-pressed to remember much of the plot?

This book’s predecessor, Shadow of Albion, was fun in a light sort of way, with the promise of sequels that would delve deeper into the faery magic at which it hints. I should have gotten my first clue about Leopard in Exile when I looked at the cover art.

September 16th, 2007. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Andre Norton, Rosemary Edghill | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Rusalka: I didn’t like it

Rusalka by C.J. Cherryh

I like folklore, and I like novels based on folklore, and I was prepared to like C.J. Cherryh‘s Rusalka, especially after seeing it reviewed elsewhere. It did hold my attention long enough that I was able to finish it, but in the end I had to admit that I didn’t like it.

First gripe: the endless and tedious scenes of Pyetr, Sasha, and Uulamets wandering around in the woods acting like jerks to one another. Pages upon pages of one of the characters musing about what morons the other two are.

September 14th, 2007. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | C.J. Cherryh | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Kitty and the Silver Bullet: Seen it all before

Kitty and the Silver Bullet by Carrie Vaughn

Carrie Vaughn’s KITTY NORVILLE series is yet another example of what’s happened to the typical urban fantasy series. For the most part, you could take stories we’ve seen before, cut and paste pieces of them together, and getKitty and the Silver Bullet.

Kitty, an infected werewolf, is still an outcast from her pack. She is still doing her radio show about the paranormal community and she gets involved in a direct challenge for dominance of a city between two powerful vampires. The local werewolf pack gets caught up in it,

September 12th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 2 | Carrie Vaughn | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Cerulean Sins: Someone needs to give LKH some help

Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton

Cerulean Sins is book 11 in Anita Blake’s story and Anita is disgusting at this point. Whatever the excuse, she is a total tramp and has finally embraced it. That is so ridiculous for a character who kept Richard and Jean-Claude waiting for months without giving in to them. Maybe Laurell K. Hamilton’s editor told her that the books need more sex to be interesting because there is no good explanation otherwise.

The storyline is still interesting if you just want to know how things will turn out,

August 11th, 2007. John Hulet´s rating: 2 | Laurell K. Hamilton | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Dark Hills Divide: Interesting premise but little spark

The Dark Hills Divide by Patrick Carman

Patrick Carman’s The Dark Hills Divide has a good if not all that original premise at its core — a kingdom of four cities completely walled in and a 12-yr-old heroine who longs to see what’s beyond the walls. The walls were built a generation ago by Thomas Warvold, a well-traveled adventurer who came up with the idea to overcome people’s fears of expansion into unknown and allegedly dangerous lands by building walled roads and towns using temporarily freed convicts as laborers.

July 14th, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Patrick Carman | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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