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Under the Dome by Stephen King
Stephen King’s Under the Dome is long. I mean, long. The manuscript weighs in at 8.6 kg and Time magazine quoted King himself saying he’d be “killing a lot of trees” with his next novel. But when you read the book’s premise, and begin to understand what King had set out to do, it begins to make sense…
Under the Dome opens in Chester’s Mill, a small Maine town which is suddenly and inexplicably cut off from the rest of the world by a dome.
December 29th, 2014. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3.5 | Stephen King | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Lone Wolf and Cub (Vol. 4): The Bell Warden by Kazuo Koike
The Bell Warden, Volume 4 of Lone Wolf and Cub, is still obviously chock full of action and bloodshed as Ogami continues cutting a swath through Tokugawa-era Japan on his path of vengeance. The main story arc doesn’t get a significant push forward here, hence the slightly lower rating from previous volumes, though we do get a lot of details on Tokugawa-era Japan and more than a few interesting things in the stories Koike &
December 26th, 2014. Terry Lago´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Well of the Worlds by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore
Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore’s final science fiction novel, Mutant, was released in 1953. There would be sporadic short stories from the famous husband-and-wife writing team throughout the ’50s, as well as a mystery series from Kuttner featuring psychoanalyst/detective Dr. Michael Gray, not to mention a superior sci-fi novel from Moore herself, Doomsday Morning, in 1957, but Mutant was, essentially, the last word,
December 24th, 2014. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Jacaranda is a horror novella set in Cheris Priest’s CLOCKWORK CENTURY universe. This story, set after the end of the USA’s long civil war, is a shivery tale that focuses on supernatural evil rather than the sap-infected zombies of the series.
Priest brings three characters to the Texan island of Galveston, to investigate a long string of strange deaths at the cursed Jacaranda Hotel. Horatio Korman is a Texas Ranger, a smart, clever investigator. Father Juan Quinteros Rios is a Catholic priest with a dark past and a supernatural gift.
December 22nd, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Cherie Priest | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Suki: A Like Story by Clamp
Suki: A Like Story is a three-book story by Clamp. Clamp is one of my favorite modern creators of manga, and I’m particularly intrigued by the fact that Clamp is an all-female collective. Though they’ve had in the past a rotating membership, for the most part, Clamp now consists of a fairly stable roster of four women: Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi. They started out in the 1980s as an eleven-member group of amateur, self-published indie writers (known as “dojinshi” in Japan),
December 22nd, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Foundry’s Edge by Cam Baity & Benny Zelkowicz
The Foundry’s Edge, by Cam Baity and Benny Zelkowicz, is a solid MG/YA entry that, I’d say, had more potential than was met. In failing to fully take advantage of its possibilities, it never falls so far as to be a “bad” read, but it also rarely inspires or enthralls, though it picks up in the latter quarter of the novel, both in terms of action and emotion.
The story is set at first in the city of Meridian, a technologically advanced (well past any other regions) city thanks to being the home of the Foundry,
December 16th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Cam Baity | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dark Screams: Volume One edited by Brian Freeman and Richard T. Chizmar
Dark Screams: Volume One is the first of at least four volumes of short horror anthologies that are projected for publication through August 2015. The books are being published as ebooks only through Random House’s digital-only genre imprint, Hydra, for a bargain price of $2.99.
Volume One starts out with one of the most popular horror writers ever: Stephen King. “Weeds” was originally published in Cavalier,
December 15th, 2014. Terry Weyna´s rating: 3.5 | Kelley Armstrong, Stephen King | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“I miss the days when I used to be nostalgic.” ~Vlad Taltos
I’ve been slightly disappointed with the last few novels in Steven Brust’s VLAD TALTOS series, but with Issola, book 9, Brust returns to what I liked about the earlier books. While I admired Brust’s willingness to experiment with his world, his characters, and especially the narrative structure of his novels, I think he’s best when the overall plot is moving forward and Vlad is using his assassin skills to solve mysteries and help his powerful Dragonlord friends.
December 12th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Steven Brust | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Inside Straight edited by George R.R. Martin
The year 2008 saw the (second?) rebirth of the WILD CARDS series edited and co-written by George R.R. Martin. These are ‘mosaic’ novels — stories written by several authors and set in a shared universe. The first book, Wild Cards, appeared in 1987. Inside Straight (2008) is book 18. To make this 18th book a good entry point, Martin and his companions created something of a Wild Cards: the Next Generation to reboot the series.
December 12th, 2014. Rob Weber´s rating: 3.5 | Carrie Vaughn, Daniel Abraham, George R.R. Martin, Ian Tregillis, Melinda Snodgrass, S.L. Farrell | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The King’s Deryni by Katherine Kurtz
I first encountered Katherine Kurtz’s DERYNI series back in high school with Deryni Rising, the first of her more than dozen novels in the long-running series. The newest entry, The King’s Deryni, is the third in the CHILDE MORGAN sub-series, and it brings her original readers full circle, since it ends just a few years before Deryni Rising begins. As with any series of this length, the quality of each book,
December 10th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Katherine Kurtz | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
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.