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Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”
The “angels” and “devils” of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone (2011) are not quite what those words would lead you to expect, but are given an original twist. The angels are closer to the angels we know — specifically the fearsome, fiery warrior type of angel, not the gauzy kind that helps adorable children cross bridges.
September 26th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter, Tadiana Jones, Marion Deeds, Terry Weyna and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4, 4.5, 5 | Laini Taylor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
The people who live on Mount Eskel mine linder, the marble-like substance that’s highly prized by those who live in the lowlands. Even though they’ve always supplied the linder for the King’s palace and other important buildings, the mountain folk have their own culture and know very little about what happens beneath their mountain. Therefore, they’re just as surprised as the lowlanders are when the priests ordain that the prince’s bride will come from Mount Eskel. Since the mountain girls are uneducated, a temporary school will be established so they can be brought up to snuff before they meet the prince.
September 24th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Shannon Hale | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
They plot with men, my other selves, and men imagine they are gods.
Several years have passed since Molly and Case freed the AI who calls himself Neuromancer. Neuromancer’s been busy and now his plots have widened to involve several people whom we meet in Count Zero:
Turner is a recently reconstructed mercenary who’s been hired by the Hosaka Corporation to extract Christopher Mitchell and his daughter Angie from Mitchell’s job at Maas Biolabs.
September 22nd, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | William Gibson | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Hazel and Jack have always been best friends, bonding over their shared love of science fiction and fantasy. They play make-believe “superhero baseball” and hang out in a derelict house they call the Shrieking Shack. But now that they’re eleven, Hazel’s mom is pushing her to make some female friends, and Jack is more interested in hanging out with his male friends than with Hazel. Then the impossible happens: Jack is taken away by a mysterious witch, and Hazel is the only one who can rescue him. Anne Ursu’s Breadcrumbs is a retelling of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” and it’s fantastic.
September 21st, 2011. Kelly Lasiter and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5, 5 | Anne Ursu | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
After a decade of novels set in 18th century Europe and in alternate universes, Neal Stephenson triumphantly returns as a bestselling author to contemporary America.
But he doesn’t stay in Seattle for long. Reamde wastes no time crossing borders, taking us — usually illegally — to Xiamen, the Philippines, and British Columbia. Chronologically, our first border crossing is Richard Forthrast’s decision to move to Canada to dodge the draft. Working as a wilderness guide, Richard discovers a smugglers’ route from the prohibition days,
September 20th, 2011. Ryan Skardal, Stefan Raets and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Neal Stephenson | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Night’s Master is the sort of book that not everyone will like, but for what it is, it’s brilliant. The styling is exquisite, the characterization direct and to-the-point in a way I’ve rarely seen before, getting right to a character’s essence without any muddying around. The plot concerned me at times while reading, but eventually proved itself beyond my expectations. I rarely say this, but this is a novel that stays with you.
As I said above, I did have my doubts coming into it.
September 14th, 2011. Tim Scheidler and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5, 5 | Tanith Lee | Audio | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
Southern Gods by John Hornor Jacobs
Bull Ingram is a very big fellow. He’s a former Marine who is still a little raw from the war like most men in the early 1950s. Bull works as paid muscle and his primary job is finding people who owe his employers money. When he finds them, he “convinces” them to pay back their debts. He is very good at his job. A folk music dealer wants Bull to locate a mysterious blues man by the name of Ramblin’ John Hastur. Hastur’s music has strange effects on those who listen to it,
September 7th, 2011. Justin Blazier´s rating: 4.5 | John Hornor Jacobs | Audio, Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Prince of Annwn by Evangeline Walton
Evangeline Walton first wrote the MABINOGION TETRALOGY in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Only the fourth book in the sequence was published at the time, under the title The Virgin and the Swine. The series was rediscovered in the early 1970s; The Virgin and the Swine was reprinted as The Island of the Mighty, and the other three books saw publication for the first time. Prince of Annwn is the first in the sequence but was the last to be published.
August 28th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Evangeline Walton | SFF Reviews | no comments |
For pure storytelling, don’t-want-to-stop-reading-it fun, Mary Gentle’s two Ilario books, Ilario: The Lion’s Eye: A Story of the First History, Book One and Ilario: The Stone Golem: A Story of the First History, Book Two, are among the best I’ve read. I lived in Gentle’s world even when I wasn’t actively reading the books. I dreamt of her Mediterranean Renaissance. I fretted about Ilario. I couldn’t wait to get back to the books when I’d set them down.
August 24th, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Mary Gentle | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Squire’s Tale by Gerald Morris
The Squire’s Tale is what I love to see out of kids’ fantasy. It’s charming, it’s well-told, it’s entertaining for a number of age groups, and even as it simplifies and plays with the mythology it uses, it remains lovingly respectful of the original texts.
I was actually surprised by how closely the novel sticks to the Arthurian legends. The Squire’s Tale introduces the character of Terence, Sir Gawain’s squire, and gives the magical end of things more of an Irish mythological slant,
August 16th, 2011. Tim Scheidler´s rating: 4.5 | Gerald Morris | Children | 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.