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Starsight by Brandon Sanderson
“A hero doesn’t choose her trials.”
Spensa can’t help but hear her Gran-Gran’s voice saying these words to her every time Spensa balks at a new trouble in her life. And Spensa — a magnet for trouble — has plenty of occasions to remember these words.
In Starsight (2019), the sequel to Brandon Sanderson’s young adult science fiction novel Skyward, the few humans who remain have been trapped on the barren planet of Detritus for several decades,
December 2nd, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Brandon Sanderson | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Night Flights (2018) by Philip Reeve is a collection of three short stories set in the world of the MORTAL ENGINES QUARTET (also known as the HUNGRY CITY CHRONICLES), and focuses on the character of Anna Fang, a fearless aviatrix. Its timing seemed to be connected to the release of Peter Jackson’s filmic adaptation of Mortal Engines, the first book in the series, and Reeve’s touching dedication at the front of the book confirmed this.
November 25th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Philip Reeve | Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Gameshouse by Claire North
Claire North’s The Gameshouse (2019) collects three previously-published novellas — “The Serpent,” “The Thief,” and “The Master,” each previously-reviewed by Kat — into one volume, and after years of hoping for them to be available in physical format, I’m pleased to be able to say that these three stories were well worth the wait. Kat’s reviews of the novellas are thorough and cover every salient detail prospective readers will need (no surprise there) and,
November 22nd, 2019. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Claire North | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Aylmer Vance: Ghost-Seer by Alice & Claude Askew
As I have said elsewhere, this reader has long been a sucker for the Victorian/Edwardian ghost hunter. Previously, I had enjoyed the exploits of Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence — who had tackled, in the author’s five-story collection of 1908, a haunted house, a French town peopled by shape shifters, an Egyptian fire elemental, devil worship, and a nontraditional werewolf — and William Hope Hodgson’s Thomas Carnacki, who had gone up against, in the six-story collection of 1913 that was expanded to nine stories 35 years later,
November 14th, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Alice & Claude Askew | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton
Perhaps because she is one of the most esteemed writers of the 20th century, Edith Wharton may not be immediately associated with the genre of horror. Today, she is probably best remembered for her novels The House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920), which latter book copped her the Pulitzer Prize, as well as for her classic novella from 1911, Ethan Frome, a staple reading assignment for all English majors.
October 30th, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Edith Wharton | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In Night Flower, Kiya and Esladas met and fell in love, beginning a journey that would, eventually, shake the city of Saryenia to its very foundation. In Court of Fives, their daughter Jessamy got her heart’s desire, the chance to train as a Court of Fives runner, at the cost of her family’s safety. In Poisoned Blade, Jes did everything she could to reunite her loved ones while rooting out royal corruption,
October 15th, 2019. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Kate Elliott | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Despite being a slim novel of only ten chapters, this novel packs a punch. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) is an unsettling, nerve-inducing exploration of what it is to give into your base desires, and the inability to escape them once you have succumbed.
The tale is largely narrated by Mr Utterson, a lawyer. His good friend Dr Jekyll has been acting strangely of late, and our story opens with Mr Utterson and his cousin Mr Enfield discussing the matter of their mutual acquaintance.
October 8th, 2019. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4.5 | Robert Louis Stevenson | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce
Tamora Pierce takes the best elements of the three preceding SONG OF THE LIONESS books and polishes them to a fine sheen in Lioness Rampant, the final book of the quartet. She manages to pack swords-and-sorcery, a quest narrative, kind-hearted nobles and charming scoundrels, dastardly villains, truly affecting emotional arcs, and Alanna’s never-ending journey of self-discovery into a single volume without it feeling over-stuffed or slowing the narrative. Pierce’s skills as a writer were visibly improving as she worked on this series,
October 4th, 2019. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Tamora Pierce | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Poisoned Blade by Kate Elliott
Warning: may contain mild spoilers for the previous book, Court of Fives
In Poisoned Blade, the second novel in her COURT OF FIVES trilogy, Kate Elliott builds on the strengths of Court of Fives and expands upon it, weaving tangled webs of intrigue, deceit, and impressively multi-layered political schemes. Anyone who thinks Young Adult fiction can’t successfully handle themes like a culture’s endurance in defiance of colonialism,
September 27th, 2019. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Kate Elliott | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Cherie Priest’s 2019 Southern Gothic novel The Toll delivers the creeping terror, the strangeness and the surprises I’ve come to expect from her, since she is the queen of this subgenre. From the weird, dying little town of Staywater, Georgia, to a house haunted by dolls, to “granny women” and ghosts, to that thing in the swamp, The Toll builds and delivers on a mood that progresses from shivery to biting-your-fingernails suspenseful.
September 25th, 2019. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Cherie Priest | Horror, 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.