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The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is a great book, deservedly earning its accolades as a masterpiece and a contemporary classic as it brilliantly weds her substantial gifts as both a poet and a prose writer in the service of one of the most potentially powerful genres, dystopian literature. Her sequel, The Testaments (2019), is not a great book. But it is a good one (and really, Atwood has more than one great book to her credit,
September 20th, 2019. Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Margaret Atwood | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The River South by Marta Randall
Iset, nicknamed Shrug, is the daughter of Kieve Rider, the heroine of Marta Randall’s Mapping Winter. Please note that this review contains some spoilers for Mapping Winter.
The River South (2019), the second RIDERS GUILD book, picks up Iset’s story starting when she is thirteen. This isn’t a warm and fuzzy mother-daughter relationship. Kieve left Iset with the Guild as an infant,
September 19th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Marta Randall | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Because author Rex Stout is so closely associated with his most famous fictional character, housebound detective extraordinaire Nero Wolfe, fans may find it hard to believe that the Indiana-born writer ever wrote anything else. And that, I suppose, is understandable, seeing that between 1934 and 1975, Stout came out with no fewer than 33 novels and 40 or so novellas featuring one of crimedom’s most well-known sleuths. But just as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in many other genres besides the one featuring Sherlock Holmes,
September 17th, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Rex Stout | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Chronin Vol. 2: The Sword in Your Hand by Alison Wilgus
Chronin Vol. 1: The Knife at Your Back introduced readers to Mirai Yoshida, a wise-cracking time-traveling university student who became stranded in the city of Edo (current-day Tokyo) just before Japan’s Meiji Restoration period. Posing as a male ronin and running errands for the locals has kept her alive and fed, but she was never intended to spend years living in the past, and the danger that her multiple secrets could be exposed is very real.
September 11th, 2019. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Court of Fives by Kate Elliott
Kate Elliott has a well-deserved reputation for writing excellent science-fiction and fantasy for adults. Her characters, world-building, and societies are not only entertaining but well-crafted. It seems only natural that, at some point in her career, she would try her hand at Young Adult fiction. The result is Court of Fives, the first in a planned fantasy trilogy which is sure to appeal to younger readers as well as Elliott’s established fan base. While I’ve seen the novel described as “YA meets Game of Thrones,” Elliott herself has said,
September 4th, 2019. Jana Nyman, Tadiana Jones and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Kate Elliott | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
The King of the Dead by Frank Aubrey
As I have written elsewhere, Armchair Fiction’s current 24-book Lost World/Lost Race series is a godsend for all readers who enjoy this particular subgenre of fantastic literature, as jump-started and popularized by English author H. Rider Haggard in the mid-1880s. I’ve recently written about two of these 24, David Douglas’ The Silver God of the Orang Hutan and John Taine’s The Purple Sapphire,
August 13th, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Frank Aubrey | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Three Laws Lethal by David Walton
Best friends Tyler and Brandon are building a new ride-hailing service that uses autonomous vehicles. Their software is spectacular, especially with the secret AI algorithm developed by Naomi, one the two sisters they’ve partnered with. When a tragedy occurs during their public media demo, all of their plans and hopes are dashed and the college friends all go their separate ways. Within a few years, Tyler and Brandon become competitors and their feud gets ugly, leading to more tragic accidents and even murder.
Meanwhile,
August 9th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | David Walton | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Kellanved’s Reach by Ian Cameron Esslemont
Kellanved’s Reach concludes Ian Cameron Esslemont’s PATH TO ASCENDANCY, his prequel series of MALAZAN books (as opposed to Steven Erikson’s prequel series of MALAZAN books) and while three is the classic book number in fantasy series, I personally wouldn’t mind if he snuck in another volume or two between this and Night of Knives, the next book chronologically in the series’ events.
July 25th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Ian C. Esslemont | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The finale to Yoon Ha Lee’s MACHINERIES OF EMPIRE trilogy, Hugo-nominated Revenant Gun (2018) tells the story of what remains of the Hexarchate ten years after Kel Cheris/Jedao threw it headfirst into civil war. On one side of the war, the Protectorate attempts to reunite the former Hexarchate and restore its violent calendrical (magic) system. On the other side of the war is the Compact, Cheris’s newborn state founded on a completely different calendrical system that simultaneously ends the gory human sacrifices of the Hexarchate and grants its subjects a higher level of individual choice and control over the system’s calendrical effects.
July 18th, 2019. Kevin Wei´s rating: 4.5 | Yoon Ha Lee | SFF Reviews | no comments |
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
To: Reviewer
Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone are coming out with a new book — This Is How You Lose the Time War — and I was wondering when you would finally get around to reviewing it.
Reader
To: Reader
Contrary to what you apparently think, we reviewers don’t get the pages as the writers compose them.
July 10th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 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.