Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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Pump Six and Other Stories: A stunningly good collection

Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi

In Pump Six and Other Stories, which won the Locus Award for Best Collection, Paolo Bacigalupi treats us to these ten excellently written biopunk stories:

“Pocketful of Dharma” (1999) — a young street urchin finds a digital storage device which contains some startling data. This is Bacigalupi’s first short story — and it’s impressive. I love the premise of this story and its ambiguous ending. It would be fun to see Bacigalupi extend this one into a novel.

Graceling: A breath of fresh air in the YA genre

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

I had heard the buzz surrounding Kristin Cashore’s Graceling and my curiosity was piqued. Sitting down to read, I hoped that it hadn’t been over-hyped, but was pleasantly surprised to find myself reading a fast-paced, intriguing fantasy novel with a wonderfully real and sympathetic female protagonist — which is rarer than you might think.

The world in which Katsa lives has amidst its population people known as Gracelings: individuals with extraordinary, but rather arbitrary talents. Identified by their mismatched eyes,

The Habitation of the Blessed: Perfect source material for Valente

The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne M. Valente

[Note: I listened to Brilliance Audio’s version of The Habitation of the Blessed read by Ralph Lister. It took me a while to adjust since I have recently listened to Lister read three installments of THE GOREAN SAGA and I at first had a hard time hearing the priest Prester John instead of the sadistic misogynist Tarl Cabot. But I got over this soon enough and thought that Mr. Lister did a great job with this one.]

In The Habitation of the Blessed,

Hellforged: The total package

Hellforged by Nancy Holzner

After saving the world from the clutches of the Destroyer Demon and its evil puppeteer, Victory Vaughn is finally falling back into the routine of professional demon hunting. Victory pays the bills by exterminating the myriad of demons that inhabit the Deadtown world. While on a routine case Victory is paid a visit in a dream by the Destroyer she thought she had banished. She might have been able to handle the fact that the Destroyer has returned, but that’s not quite all… Every time the demon stops by to say hello and deliver an evil message,

December 27th, 2010. Justin Blazier´s rating: 4.5 | Nancy Holzner | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Shadowheart: Great ending

Shadowheart by Tad Williams

Shadowheart is the concluding fourth volume of Tad Williams’ most recent trilogy (yes, yes, I know), following Shadowmarch, Shadowplay, and Shadowrise. The last was originally intended to finish the series but instead was split in half, leading to Shadowheart. The first book, Shadowmarch, started off a bit slow and had some issues I thought with pace and cliché.

December 15th, 2010. Bill Capossere and Robert Thompson´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Tad Williams | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Vicious Grace: What urban fantasy can be at its very best

Vicious Grace by M.L.N. Hanover

Have you ever been in one of those cobbled-together buildings where the 1st floor of the original structure opens onto the 3rd floor of the new wing, and you can only access the fourth floor by a staircase at the far end of that older building that got swallowed up into the whole mass at some point, and so on? I work in one, and after reading Vicious Grace, I don’t think I’ll ever see it the same way again! (Gee, thanks,

November 24th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | M.L.N. Hanover | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |

Black Wings: I loved meeting Madeline Black

Black Wings by Christina Henry

“Besides, look at you. I’m supposed to believe you’re an Agent of death? You’re covered in flour.”

“I was in the middle of making a pear tart dotted with gorgonzola. You’re an unscheduled call.”

That’s on page 3 of Black Wings, and that’s when I knew I was going to enjoy the heck out of Christina Henry’s voice.

The flour-covered Agent is Madeline Black, whose job it is to collect the souls of the newly dead and escort them to the Door that leads to the afterlife.

November 22nd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Christina Henry | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Geist: So much to appreciate!

Geist by Philippa Ballantine

Sometimes you read a book and enjoy it while reading, only to find it falls apart when you think about it later. The inverse happened to me with Philippa Ballantine’s Geist. I enjoyed it, and then the more I thought about it, the more I found to appreciate.

Geist is a secondary-world fantasy, set on the continent of Arkaym. The residents of Arkaym fear the geists, powerful otherworldly spirits that can enter the physical realm and possess people.

November 16th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Philippa (Pip) Ballantine | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |

The Ring of Solomon: Bartimaeus is back!

The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud

Fans of Jonathan Stroud’s fantastic Bartimaeus Trilogy, which began with The Amulet of Samarkand and ended with Ptolemy’s Gate, will be happy to know that the title character — the wise-cracking fourth-level djinn who has long-standing issues with authority — is back and funny as ever in The Ring of Solomon.

Rather than continue the story of the first trilogy,

The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge: Definitely a series to read on audio!

The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge by Harry Harrison

Listen to the beginning of The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge here.

Warning: Don’t read this review if you haven’t read the first Stainless Steel Rat novel.

Several nights ago I was in a bad mood. I had asked my husband to pick up M&M’s while he was at the grocery store because my daughter needed them for a school party the next morning. Due to a bad cell phone connection, he came home with the wrong thing and I didn’t discover this until 11 pm,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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