Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: 4

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Faith: A science fiction debut of the highest order

Faith by John Love

Three hundred years ago, a strange and seemingly invincible alien ship visited the Sakhran Empire. Exactly what happened is unclear, because the events were only recorded in the Book of Srahr, a text only Sakhrans are allowed to read. After the ship left, the Sakhran Empire went into a slow but irreversible decline.

Three centuries later, the Sakhrans have been assimilated into the larger interstellar empire known as the Commonwealth, when suddenly the strange, immensely powerful ship returns. The Commonwealth dispatches an Outsider, one of only nine in its ultimate class of warships,

January 12th, 2012. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | John Love | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Darkness Falls: Can’t wait to see what happens next

Darkness Falls by Cate Tiernan

Darkness Falls is the second in Cate Tiernan’s IMMORTAL BELOVED trilogy. In Immortal Beloved, the first book, we met Nastasya, a burned-out immortal seeking enlightenment and redemption at the pastoral River’s Edge community. Darkness Falls continues her story, and book three will be titled Immortal Light.

Darkness Falls has the polar opposite of middle-book syndrome. Nastasya has a fantastic character arc here.

Debris: A strong, exciting debut

Debris by Jo Anderton

Tanyana is a talented and celebrated architect. She’s one of the elite, someone who can control “pions,” allowing her to manipulate matter with a thought. She’s high up in the air, working on a towering statue, shaping the raw matter around her into art, when suddenly she finds herself under attack by strange, uncontrollable pions. When she regains consciousness after a horrible fall, it becomes clear that she has suffered more than just physical injuries: she’s lost the ability to see pions and can now only see “debris,”

January 10th, 2012. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Jo Anderton | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Leaves of Flame: Does what any good second book should

Leaves of Flame by Benjamin Tate

Leaves of Flame is the follow-up to Well of Sorrows by Benjamin Tate (pen name of Joshua Palmatier) and while it isn’t quite as good as its predecessor, since Well of Sorrows was one of my favorite reads last year, that’s a pretty high bar to meet. The sequel has more issues in terms of pacing and organization, but still remains a good novel and its latter third or so is especially strong.

January 3rd, 2012. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Benjamin Tate | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Left Hand Magic: Satisfying sequel

Left Hand Magic by Nancy A. Collins

In Left Hand Magic, Nancy A. Collins delivers a satisfying follow-up to last year’s Right Hand Magic. Tate Eresby, a trust-fund baby turned avant-garde sculptor, is still living in the rich setting of Golgotham with her Kymeran lover, Hexe. But new troubles are brewing in Golgotham. A magazine spread has made Golgotham a hip hot spot for human tourists, and racial tensions are growing between these tourists and Golgotham’s magical natives.

The racism that Collins depicts is,

December 30th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Nancy A. Collins | SFF Reviews | no comments |

All About Emily: Blends Broadway and science fiction

All About Emily by Connie Willis

Claire Havilland is an aging Broadway actress who considers herself too old to wear a leotard and fishnets, but is not quite ready to be called a “legend.” One of her most successful roles was playing Margo Channing in the Broadway musical adaption of the film All About Eve. When Claire meets a charming young woman named Emily, who seems to know all about Claire’s career, Claire feels threatened. Could Emily be planning to steal Claire’s career, as Eve Harrington did to Margo Channing in All About Eve?

Seed: An excellent debut novel

Seed by Rob Ziegler

About a century from now, when Rob Ziegler’s excellent debut novel Seed (2011) starts, climate change has caused a new Dust Bowl in the Corn Belt, resulting in major famine across the United States. Most of the surviving population leads a nomadic existence, migrating across the ravaged landscape in search of habitable, arable land. Decades of war, resource depletion and population decline have left the government practically powerless. Gangs and warlords rule the land.

The only thing staving off full-blown starvation is Satori,

December 28th, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Rob Ziegler | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow: As grim as it gets for Cory Doctorow

The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow by Cory Doctorow

When we meet Jimmy Yensid, the hero of Cory Doctorow‘s novella The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, he is aboard his giant mecha and hunting down a wumpus in the abandoned city of Detroit, until he comes under attack from a rival group of mechas. The resulting action scene is spectacular — and really made me want to dig out my ancient Mechwarrior games — but as you’d expect from Doctorow, there’s much more going on than meets the eye.

All Men of Genius: Light-hearted good fun

All Men of Genius by Lev AC Rosen

All Men of Genius (2011) by Lev AC Rosen takes Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and, um, “twins” them with the steampunk genre to offer up a mostly entertaining tale of dual identities, proto-feminism, the art of invention, and the complexities of love. It’s light-hearted good fun and generally succeeds.

If you know the above plays, the plot and the names will be mostly familiar, though they’ve obviously been tweaked to varying amounts: Viola from Twelfth Night becomes Violet here,

December 21st, 2011. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Lev AC Rosen | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Planesrunner: Airships, quantum mechanics and a hero you care about

Planesrunner by Ian McDonald

I’m a pretty big fan of Ian McDonald, so when I learned that a brand new novel by the author was on the way, I got suitably excited. Then, when I found out that the new novel would be the start of a series, and that this series would deal with alternate dimensions and multiverse-type ideas (very different from his last few books), I got really excited. And then, when I discovered that the series would be a young adult series — well, it took me a while to come down from that one.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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Recent Discussion:

David C Walton on Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Ambitious, atmospheric, and ultimately unevenJuly 5, 2025
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
Marion Deeds on Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Ambitious, atmospheric, and ultimately unevenJuly 5, 2025
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
Bill Capossere on Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Ambitious, atmospheric, and ultimately unevenJuly 3, 2025
We’re in total agreement David!
David C Walton on Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Ambitious, atmospheric, and ultimately unevenJuly 3, 2025
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Marion Deeds on Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Ambitious, atmospheric, and ultimately unevenJuly 3, 2025
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.