Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: 3.5

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The Hero of Ages: Put Mistborn on your TBR list

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

I’m impressed with Brandon Sanderson’s first fantasy trilogy. The entire story was carefully thought out, well-plotted, and well-paced. What impresses me most is that in this last installment, The Hero of Ages, there are plenty of wonderful surprises left. But these surprises aren’t little add-ons that Sanderson lately thought up and decided to throw in just to keep up the interest and excitement. These are major pieces of the puzzle that have purposely been left for the characters (and therefore the readers) to discover.

Promises to Keep: Prequel to the Newford Stories

Promises to Keep by Charles deLint

Promises to Keep is the story of the early Jilly Coppercorn, how she meets so many of the other central characters from the Newford stories, and the adventure that results when she unexpectedly bumps into Donna, a friend from her past who she had met while in the Home for Wayward Girls. Jilly used to be a victim of abuse, a junkie, and a hooker, but she’s changed her life, is clean, and is attending college and working.

June 22nd, 2009. Ruth Arnell´s rating: 3.5 | Charles De_Lint | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Gears of the city: Outstanding prose and imagination

Gears of the City by Felix Gilman

Despite a somewhat slow and haphazard beginning, I thought Felix Gilman’s Thunderer was one of the best debuts I read in 2007 and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel. Alas, Gears of the City was a bit disappointing in comparison, but still a very good book.

I think the biggest issue I had with the book were the characters. Simply put, I just didn’t care about any of them,

June 11th, 2009. Robert Thompson´s rating: 3.5 | Felix Gilman | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Disappearing Nightly: Some fluffy urban-fantasy fun

Disappearing Nightly by Laura Resnick

Funny fact: This book got lost in the mail on its way to me and took almost a month to arrive. I started wondering if it was a bad idea to order a book with “Disappearing” in the title! It turned up in the end, though, and I’m glad. Disappearing Nightly is a lot of fun. It was just what I needed after reading a couple of really dark novels.

Both the heroine and the plot are highly original in the urban fantasy subgenre.

June 10th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Laura Resnick | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Bone Song: Gritty futuristic noir with gothic fantasy

Bone Song by John Meaney

British author John Meaney is primarily known as a writer of hard science fiction. In his latest offering however, he changes tack a bit and delivers a novel in Bone Song that is described as blending “gritty futuristic noir with gothic fantasy.” A fairly accurate description, although personally I would categorize the book as urban fantasy because the backdrop is definitely present day, the main character is a police lieutenant, and the story is driven by a murder investigation that features plenty of familiar police procedural elements and subplots like a romance,

May 29th, 2009. Robert Thompson´s rating: 3.5 | John Meaney | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Heroes of the Valley: A quick, enjoyable, often funny YA read

Heroes of the Valley by Jonathan Stroud

In the long ago history of Jonathan Stroud’s YA fantasy Heroes of the Valley, the great hero Svein gathered the other 11 heroes of the Valley to fight the Battle of the Rock against the ravening inhuman Trows who had long terrorized the Valley residents, snatching babies and killing women and children at night — the only time the Trow came out. At the end of the battle, the heroes were all dead but the Trow were driven utterly out of the valley and into the heights.

The Night World 1: For teen vamp stories, you could do worse

THE NIGHT WORLD: Volume 1 by L.J. Smith

“So This is the Night World…”

First published between 1996-1998, Lisa Jane Smith‘s NIGHT WORLD series was released as a ten-book series…only the final book never arrived. Smith took a ten-year hiatus from writing, leaving the final book unwritten and the steadily-building story incomplete. But now, finally, the end is in sight. Simon and Schuster are republishing the series in three-book omnibuses in anticipation for Strange Fate the last in the series that has left us hanging for over ten years.

Hot Mama: Book candy

Hot Mama by Jennifer Estep

Settling down to read Hot Mama was like settling down to have a piece of book candy. (I didn’t originate this term; I discovered it on Jennifer Estep’s Blog.) You know it is going to be a fast read with lively, snappy dialog and laugh-out-loud humor. And Hot Mama did not disappoint!

It begins with Carmen Cole’s wedding to Sam Sloane, the uberdude in Karma Girl.

May 17th, 2009. Tia Nevitt (guest)´s rating: 3.5 | Jennifer Estep | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Adamantine Palace: Missing the hero?

The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas

The Adamantine Palace is classic fantasy with all the major ingredients: magic, dragons, knights, castles and all the trimmings. There is, however, one missing element: the hero. Stephen Deas writes a really interesting, very complex first novel, kicking off the Memory of Flames series, but I can’t figure out who the hero is.

The point of view in The Adamantine Palace switches among five major characters. At times Deas takes us behind the eyes of a few other characters,

May 16th, 2009. John Hulet and Robert Thompson´s rating: 3.5, 4.5 | Stephen Deas | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Kings and Assassins: The prose kept me going

Kings and Assassins by Lane Robins

I wasn’t sure I’d like this one. Janus Ixion as the protagonist? I hated Janus in Maledicte. I started reading Kings and Assassins with that loathing firmly in place, and in the early pages of the book, he didn’t do much to make me like him any better. I didn’t like the other characters either. I didn’t care about Janus, I didn’t care that he missed Maledicte, I didn’t care about his wife or about their endless quarrels,

May 14th, 2009. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Lane Robins | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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