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The Adjustment Bureau by Philip K. Dick
Brilliance Audio has recently put Philip K. Dick’s short story The Adjustment Team on audio and they sent me a copy. This is the story that the movie The Adjustment Bureau was based on (and the name of the audiobook is The Adjustment Bureau). The story is 57 minutes of tension and psychological terror as Ed Fletcher gets to work late and accidentally sees The Adjustment Team “adjusting” his office building and its occupants.
April 28th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Philip K. Dick | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted by Harry Harrison
This seventh novel in Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series is actually the sequel to the prequel A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born. Young Jim DiGriz is alone, back in prison, and out for revenge. After he escapes and is tracking his nemesis, he gets captured and drafted into the military.
At this point, The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987) turns into anti-military propaganda that doesn’t even try to be circumspect.
April 26th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Harry Harrison | Audio | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
The Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden
I was surprised to discover that Conn Iggulden’s The Gates of Rome isn’t a fantasy novel.
Sure, The Gates of Rome is about Julius Caesar. And there is an author’s note discussing historical authenticity at the end of the story. Clearly, this is supposed to be a work of historical fiction. Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop Conn Iggulden from borrowing liberally from fantasy’s most enduring tropes, ranging from the defiance of bullies to the ascension of a child of fate.
April 22nd, 2011. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3 | Conn Iggulden | Edge | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Surrender the Dark by L.A. Banks
The angel Azrael has been sent to earth in a human body, with a very important mission. He must find Celeste Jackson, a woman who is one of the Remnant, the last remaining descendants of angel/human couplings in ages past. The Remnant must be gathered so they can lead the human race when all hell breaks loose in 2012.
When we first meet Celeste, she’s an unlikely leader. Labeled “crazy” all her life because she sees demons, she has fallen into an abusive relationship and heavy drinking.
April 18th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | L.A. Banks | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
Richard K Morgan’s Altered Carbon, the first Takeshi Kovacs novel, is a roller-coaster ride. Morgan cycles us through traditional science-fiction, some mean-streets detective drama and a fine caper story before the book ends, all told by Kovacs himself, a disillusioned killer, a futuristic Sam Spade only slightly less dirty than the dirty business he’s in, a battered knight in tarnished armor.
In Altered Carbon’s future world, science has given humanity the ability to digitize consciousness and store it in a tiny canister embedded in a vertebra at the base of the skull.
April 16th, 2011. Marion Deeds, Greg Hersom and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3, 5 | Richard K. Morgan | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
M.J. Putney, a.k.a. Mary Jo Putney, is a well-known author of romance novels. In Dark Mirror, Putney makes her young adult debut. Dark Mirror is a blend of fantasy and historical romance set in an alternate history in which magic exists and is legal, but is considered gauche, fit only for the lower classes.
In 1803, young Victoria Mansfield learns she has magic and knows she must keep it secret if she is to make a good marriage.
April 15th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Mary Jo Putney | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The cover of Matt Forbeck’s Vegas Knights describes the novel as “Harry Potter meets Ocean’s Eleven,” but it may be slightly more accurate (if not quite as effective, marketing-wise) to replace Harry Potter with Lev Grossman’s The Magicians. Vegas Knights’ main characters, Bill and Jackson, are two college students on Spring Break in Las Vegas. Sounds fairly normal — except the topic of their studies is magic,
April 13th, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 3 | Matt Forbeck | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
May is the second in Kathryn Lasky’s Daughters of the Sea series, which tells the story of three orphaned sisters, separated as infants, who discover they are mermaids. In the previous book we met Hannah, who found her true nature while working as a maid to a wealthy family. Here we meet the second sister, May, who was adopted by a lighthouse keeper and his manipulative wife. Her parents have kept something from her, and when she is fifteen she works up the courage to learn what it is.
April 6th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Kathryn Lasky | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Seer and the Sword by Victoria Hanley
It’s hard to muster up any particularly strong feelings for The Seer and the Sword. It is your standard medieval-adventure-fantasy, with every plot development and character arc foreseeable far in advance, told in sparse and simple prose. It’s hard to be too enthusiastic about it, yet at the same time I can’t be too dismissive either.
The story revolves around two young royals: red-headed Princess Torina of Archeld, and Prince Landen, whose country of Bellandra has just been defeated by Torina’s father.
April 5th, 2011. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Victoria Hanley | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
The Day Watch is the second novel in Sergei Lukyanenko’s Watch series. Like its predecessor, The Day Watch contains three short stories set in Russia and Europe that can be read independently or as part of a larger narrative arc. His work has once again been skillfully translated from the Russian by Andrew Bromfield.
Unlike its predecessor, Anton Gorodetsky is not the narrator of The Day Watch. Instead, all of our heroes are from the “Day Watch,” ostensibly a villainous faction of magic users known as “Dark Others.” However,
March 19th, 2011. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3 | Sergei Lukyanenko | SFF Reviews | no 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.