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No Such Thing as Dragons by Philip Reeve
No Such Thing as Dragons, by Philip Reeve, is aimed at a somewhat younger group than his excellent Mortal Engines series, though it has moments that might be a bit beyond that younger target audience.
Set in a medieval time period, No Such Thing as Dragons follows a young mute boy named Ansel who is sold by his father to Brock, the famed itinerant dragon-slayer. As Ansel soon learns,
October 23rd, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Philip Reeve | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Strange Wonders: A Collection of Rare Fritz Leiber Works by Fritz Leiber
Strange Wonders is an eclectic collection of Fritz Leiber‘s lesser-known stories, poems, fragments, rough drafts, and daily writing exercises collected by Benjamin Szumskyj who, in his introduction, admits that he’s not certain Leiber actually would have approved of their publication. He justifies himself by explaining that because Leiber didn’t destroy the material (which was mostly printed on cheap typing paper) before his death, he knew it would be found and possibly exposed some day.
October 20th, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Fritz Leiber | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
[The audiobook contains Book 1 of the print edition of the Quicksilver omnibus. Book 2 is King of the Vagabonds. Book 3 is Odalisque.]
I’m a scientist by profession and I love history. Thus, I’m fascinated by the history of science, especially the era of Isaac Newton et al. So, Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver should be just my thing and I was fully expecting to love this book (it’s been on my list for years),
October 19th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3.5, 4 | Neal Stephenson | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Robert J. Sawyer is a very reliable writer. His books rarely blow you away, but they’re always thought provoking, well crafted and very readable — and Rollback is no exception. In this novel, the SETI effort finally pays off when a message arrives from the distant star Sigma Draconis. Professor Sarah Halifax is instrumental in decoding the message and composing a response, but because the star is over 18 light years removed from Earth, it’ll take nearly 40 years before a response can be expected.
October 18th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 3.5 | Robert J. Sawyer | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
One of the challenges of having read a fair amount of fantasy is that I find myself comparing the novels I’ve read. I look for similarities between books, characters and storylines. James Enge’s The Wolf Age is built around the anti-hero who rebels against the existing order, a well used archetype. Fortunately, Enge still manages to put his story together in such a way that makes for a compelling read.
Morlock Ambrosius is a stranger traveling through lands that are being raided and pillaged by a nation of werewolves.
October 13th, 2010. John Hulet and Greg Hersom´s rating: 3.5 | James Enge | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Dragon’s Apprentice by James A. Owen
The Dragon’s Apprentice is a delightful blend of historical fiction and urban fantasy. Written specifically for the young adult audience, James A. Owen’s latest installment in The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica is really quite fun. For someone starting the series here, it is easy to adapt to the storyline and enjoy this novel.
The principle characters in The Dragon’s Apprentice are a group of English intellectuals, adult men who live in the 1940s,
October 8th, 2010. John Hulet´s rating: 3.5 | James A. Owen | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Blade of Tyshalle by Matthew Woodring Stover
Several years after the events in Heroes Die, Hari Michaelson, known as Caine on the fantastical inter-dimensional planet called Overworld, is now wheelchair bound. Despite this he still holds onto administrator status in the martially enforced caste system of Earth’s grimly overpopulated and ultra-corporate controlled future. When Hari/Caine discovers a plot to gain control of Overworld’s desperately scarce natural resources by infesting its people with a deadly virus, all hell breaks loose. Caine’s many enemies take the opportunity to strike at him,
October 7th, 2010. Greg Hersom´s rating: 3.5 | Matthew Woodring Stover | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Omnitopia Dawn is the start of a new series by Diane Duane, who is probably best known for her excellent Young Wizards fantasy series. Young Wizards has always been a fantasy with some science-fiction underpinnings, but in Omnitopia Dawn Duane reverses that balance, giving us a near-future science fiction tale with some fantasy possibilities. It’s mostly a fun read, though I don’t think it so far matches the quality and depth of Young Wizards.
October 4th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Diane Duane | SFF Reviews | no comments |
China Miéville has become known for his genre-defying work, but to some extent many of his novels embrace a specific genre. As much as Iron Council is a western and The City & The City is a police procedural, Un Lun Dun is a young adult urban fantasy. Of course, with Miéville, these sorts of distinctions are usually just amusing starting points before readers revel in genre twists and unusual monsters.
September 16th, 2010. Ryan Skardal and Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3, 3.5 | China Mieville | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Lorna Freeman’s Borderlands series has seen its ups and downs for me. Shadows Past is cut from the same cloth; I just felt like it took a long time to tell next to no story, and then all the good parts were crammed into the end.
The main character, Rabbit, has been constantly changing throughout this series. His story is very interesting, between his upbringing in a wild and magical part of the world and his ties to the royalty of a nearby nation.
September 15th, 2010. John Hulet and Ruth Arnell´s rating: 2.5, 3.5 | Lorna Freeman | SFF Reviews | no comments |
BTW, Steve Sterner will be performing at seven films during this upcoming fest: https://filmforum.org/series/clara-bow
As far as I know, Bill, Steve Sterner is the only person who does the live accompaniment to silent movies…
And I'm positive that Kaidan will fondly remember watching these movies with his old man for the rest of his…
You bet, Marion!
Black Scorpion was one of the movie I watched with my son Kaidan as I introduced him to a AT-Home-Film-Festival…