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Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole
It’s amazing how a main character can spoil a book. Shadow Ops: Fortress Frontier is the second book in the SHADOW OPS series by Myke Cole. I didn’t like the first book, Control Point, very well because I loathed Oscar Britton, the main character. He offended my pride as a soldier. Yet I decided to try the second book and this time I have to give Myke Cole some real credit for giving me a reason not to hate his SHADOW OPS series….
January 3rd, 2020. John Hulet and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Myke Cole | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Quantum Garden by Derek Künsken
The Quantum Garden (2019) is the second installment of Derek Künsken’s QUANTUM EVOLUTION series, following the adventures of conman Belisarius Arjona, one of a few thousands of “Homo quantus” — a bio-engineered species able to deal with floods of data, strange math, and quantum effects. The first book in the series, The Quantum Magician, saw Belisarius gather a crew of misfits in order to help an oppressed “client culture” smuggle a fleet of uniquely advanced spaceships through a wormhole so as to gain their independence from the powerful Congregate.
December 31st, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Derek Kunsken | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Labyrinth’s Archivist by Day Al-Mohamed
Before I review The Labyrinth’s Archivist (2019), some disclosure. The author, Day Al-Mohamed, and I share a small press publisher, Falstaff Books, and we shared an editor. The Labyrinth’s Archivist shares a general theme with my novella and both are part of the press’s BROKEN CITIES line. I haven’t met Al-Mohamed and I get no compensation for reviewing the book. I bought the book on my own. If I hadn’t enjoyed it,
December 20th, 2019. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Day Al-Mohamed | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Waste Tide (2019) by Chen Quifan (tr. Ken Liu) is a book that I wanted to like thanks to its compassionate exploration of its topical subject. And it’s certainly not a bad book by any stretch. But it also wasn’t a compelling book, and I found myself putting it down way more than is usual for me and being at least a little resistant to picking it up again each time.
The novel is set on the modern hell (a comparison made explicit — perhaps too much so — by a Dante reference) that is Silicon Isle,
November 27th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Chen Quifan | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
Peter Grant, mediocre policeman and inferior wizard, is back. Broken Homes (2013) is the fourth instalment of Ben Aaronvitch’s PETER GRANT series, and the detective returns with his love of acronyms and Red Stripe. Once more under the supervision of DCI Thomas Nightingale, Peter, Lesley and (the newly initiated) thirteen-year-old Abigail, must police the supernatural elements of London’s crime scene.
The story opens with a series of seemingly unconnected crimes: a car accident,
November 25th, 2019. Ray McKenzie and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Ben Aaronovitch | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Laugher at the Academy by Seanan McGuire
Laughter at the Academy (2019) is Seanan McGuire’s first short story collection as Seanan McGuire (apparently there is a Mira Grant collection). McGuire is amazingly prolific, and this expensive Subterranean Press anthology showcases that. In her foreword, McGuire tells us that she chose these specific stories because she loves them the most. The contents were published between 2009 – 2017. They all take place outside her “pre-existing universes,” as she calls them, but there are resonances with October Daye,
November 22nd, 2019. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Seanan McGuire | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Chinese science fiction author Cixin Liu has had a successful career in China for many years, winning China’s prestigious Galaxy Award nine times. But it wasn’t until 2014, when his 2007 novel The Three-Body Problem was first published in English, that he became well-known outside of Asia. Since then, some of his earlier novels, like Ball Lightning (originally published in China in 2004), have been translated and published in English. Supernova Era (2019,
November 21st, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Cixin Liu | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Fate of the Fallen by Kel Kade
Fate of the Fallen is the first book in Kel Kade’s SHROUD OF PROPHECY series and makes for an enjoyable if meandering invitation despite some issues. It’s going to be pretty impossible to discuss what Kade does here without an early spoiler, though since the event happens only 40 pages into the nearly 400-page book, I don’t think it’s a huge deal. That said, you’ve been warned.
The novel opens by introducing two close friends: charming, roguish,
November 20th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Kel Kade | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Name of All Things by Jenn Lyons
The Name of All Things (2019) follows up Jenn Lyons’ debut novel The Ruin of Kings, though “follows” is a bit of a misnomer since the vast majority of the book actually takes place concurrent with its predecessor’s action. I had some issues with book one, mostly with the structure, and while some of that carries over, albeit in different fashion, I found The Name of All Things to be an improvement overall.
November 18th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Jenn Lyons | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates is, of course, supremely well-known, and justifiably so, for his non-fiction, whether that be his essays/columns, or his long-form works such as We Were Eight Years in Power or Between the World and Me. Now he’s out with his first fiction work, The Water Dancer (2019), a blend of realism and the supernatural set in the antebellum period. While Coates’ already-documented strengths as a writer are evident, particularly on a sentence level,
November 12th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Ta-Nehisi Coates | Stand-Alone | 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.