Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: 3

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The Bone Key: Tales of weirdness and horror

The Bone Key by Sarah Monette

I’ve been seeing Sarah Monette’s name for a while but, for the most part, this collection of short stories was a blind purchase. The Bone Key deals with the exploits of Kyle Murchison Booth which are homages to M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft. Now I’m not familiar with the former but I can attest that Monette captures the mood of the latter with this book. Even the protagonist himself is similar to Lovecraft’s “heroes” although Monette improves upon the concept and provides us at the very least with an interesting character instead of simply delivering a verbose narrator who can’t hold a decent conversation.

Wolf Queen: Complicated

Wolf Queen by Tanith Lee

Wolf Queen (or Queen of Wolves in some publications) is the third of four books in the Claidi quartet, a series of books that are told in diary-form by the young heroine Claidi and her travels throughout a fantasy land. In the previous installments, Wolf Tower and Wolf Star, she has escaped slavery, destroyed a corrupt system, found her true love, been kept prisoner in a moving castle and escaped once more in a controllable star.

Knife of Dreams: Moves story forward

Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan

Knife of Dreams has several things going for it. It isn’t as bad as the last few for one, no slight achievement. It is relatively crisp in prose and pace. It advances story and character at a more enjoyable pace. It even has a few (though too few) strong scenes that evoke fond memories of earlier (much earlier) books in the series. It is without a doubt an improvement on the past few and anyone who has put the time into this series and felt like they were scraping along will breathe a sigh of relief.

May 26th, 2008. Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Crown of Stars: Stunning in scale and complexity

CROWN OF STARS by Kate Elliott

CROWN OF STARS is well-thought out and obviously well-planned. It’s epic in scope and it’s got a lot of texture. There are many complex characters who we follow in parallel, as in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Some of them are very likeable, and there are some really excellent villains (e.g., Hugh). Kate Elliott’s creatures are imaginative and enjoyable, and I especially liked the way they interact with the humans. Ms. Elliott uses a lot of description and intricate world-building and therefore her plot moves very slowly (again,

May 16th, 2008. Kat Hooper and John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 3, 3.5 | Kate Elliott | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Mirror of Her Dreams: Different, but disappointing

The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R. Donaldson

The Mirror of Her Dreams is a low fantasy that chronicles the “translation” of the beautiful but insipid Terisa Morgan into the besieged realm of Mordant by way of “Imagery,” sorcery that brings things out of mirrors. In this case, a clumsy apprentice, Gerarden, enters a mirror in Mordant in hope of finding the “champion” that the mirror depicts. Instead, he finds himself in Teresa’s sterile New York penthouse and, thinking that she may instead be Mordant’s savior, persuades her to return with him.

May 16th, 2008. Rob Rhodes´s rating: 3 | Stephen R. Donaldson | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Unshapely Things: Lacks the spark

Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco

Mark Del Franco’s Unshapely Things is another addition to the urban fantasy universe. I bought it for a break from all the female authors and their super powerful sassy female characters. That’s not criticism of those authors or their characters — just my desire to read something different.

Del Franco’s main character, Connor Grey, is a formerly powerful investigator for the Guild, a sort of FBI for fey. Elves, fey, and many other permutations of non-humans have become part of the world we live in due to a magic cataclysm.

May 16th, 2008. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Mark Del_Franco | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

When the Gods Slept: Go to the library

When the Gods Slept by Allan Cole

When the Gods Slept is the first book in Allan Cole’s Timuras trilogy and I am debating whether I should read the other two books or not. Generally, I don’t like writing a review until I have read all the books in a trilogy, but I also have a strict rule against paying for additional books when the initial story is pedestrian at best. If I could develop a rating system it would not be based on stars or numbers or thumbs,

May 14th, 2008. Guest´s rating: 3 | Allan Cole | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Wolf Star: Muddled but interesting story

Wolf Star by Tanith Lee

Wolf Star (also published as Wolf Star Rising) is the second of four books known as the Claidi Journals, stories told in the format of a diary by the young escaped-slave Claidi and her travels throughout a fantasy world in search of her origins and a home of her own. In the first installment, Wolf Tower, which you really must read if you want to understand what’s going on in this story, Claidi escaped the confines of the House with the handsome Nemian,

The Witch Queen: Weakest in the trilogy

The Witch Queen by Jan Siegel

The three-part story of Fernanda “Fern” Capel that began in Prospero’s Children and continued in The Dragon Charmer comes to its conclusion in The Witch Queen. A young woman now, Fern has resigned herself to the presence of magic in her life and accepted (however reluctantly) that her Gift means that the life of a witch is the only one she can lead. In Prospero’s Children Fern time-traveled back to the City of Atlantis,

The Queen’s Bastard: Prose is lovely; can’t get a grip on the heroine

The Queen’s Bastard by C.E. Murphy

On paper, The Queen’s Bastard is right up my alley. Court intrigue plus magic plus sex? Where do I sign up? I’ve seen comparisons to the Kushiel series and it’s not hard to see why; it’s partly the intrigue/magic/sex combination and partly the prose, which is lush and has moments of exquisite beauty. It was the prose that hooked me from the first page.

Unfortunately, other factors “unhooked” me later in the book, and now I’m three-quarters of the way through The Queen’s Bastard and not really feeling the urge to go on.

April 29th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | C.E. Murphy | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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