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Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce & Laura Geringer
Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King (2011) is an early installment in THE GUARDIANS OF CHILDHOOD, a planned series of books incorporating and re-tooling (or re-mythologizing) those familiar icons of childhood: Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, etc. A long picture book, The Man in the Moon, begins the series and is the story of Tsar Lunar,
December 13th, 2011. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Black Light by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan & Stephen Romano
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan wrote the screenplays for Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Saw 3D, and The Collector, which Dunstan also directed. Currently, they are filming The Collection — a sequel to The Collector — and have written Piranha 3DD, which came out this Thanksgiving from Dimension Films. Black Light is their debut novel.
December 5th, 2011. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Emperor’s Knife by Mazarkis Williams
The Emperor’s Knife first came to my attention thanks to an interview I did with Night Shade author Teresa Frohock. Because of Teresa’s glowing comments about the book and Night Shade’s recent track record with debut authors, expectations were high for The Emperor’s Knife, and for the most part, Mazarkis Williams’ debut lived up to those expectations. What impressed me the most about The Emperor’s Knife were the characters, specifically the main POVs of Prince Sarmin,
December 2nd, 2011. Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Mazarkis Williams | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Hour of Need is the concluding book in Michael Pryor’s LAWS OF MAGIC series and it brings a good series to a fitting and satisfying close. I won’t bother recapping the general premise as you’ll want to have read the prior (or should that be Pryor?) books first; you can check out the setting, etc., in my earlier reviews. Suffice to say the series is set in an alternate Edwardian time period that has been moving toward and then finally arriving at their version of World War I involving both technology and magic.
December 2nd, 2011. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Michael Pryor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories by Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (eds.)
Steampunk!: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories is a new young adult collection edited by veteran anthologists Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant. Featuring twelve conventional short stories and two graphic entries, Steampunk! showcases a wide variety of ideas and styles that fall under the steampunk umbrella. The collection is entertaining and is lent extra freshness by the variety of settings explored by the authors: none of the stories are set in Victorian London.
December 1st, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Cassandra Clare, Cory Doctorow, Delia Sherman, Garth Nix, Holly Black, Kelly Link, Libba Bray, M.T. Anderson, Ysabeau S. Wilce | Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Folded World by Catherynne M. Valente
Prester John has been king in Pentexore for many years now, aided by his wife Hagia the blemmye. He loves the creatures he rules and has spent his time teaching them about Jesus Christ and trying to reconcile the creation story in Genesis with his new knowledge of the world. When one of John’s daughters brings a letter from Constantinople, asking John to bring his army of monsters to fight the Muslims in Jerusalem, he decides that they’ll go. Although he is happy with his new life in Pentexore,
November 28th, 2011. Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Catherynne M. Valente | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
Joe Hill is Stephen King’s son. Good, now that’s out of the way. 20th Century Ghosts (2007) is a prime collection of short fiction. Some stories are horror, some are literary horror and some aren’t horror at all. Hill has a strong style, a distinctive voice, and a willingness to indulge in post-modernism. This means that the conclusions of some stories are left up to the reader. This is not the undisciplined writing of someone who can’t commit to a resolution,
November 27th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Joe Hill | Short Fiction, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
In our Edge of the Universe column we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.
It’s difficult to talk about Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, though not because the novel’s plot and characters are especially complex. They aren’t.
Alan Grant is a paleontologist who is asked to vet a new theme park that has brought dinosaurs back to life.
November 25th, 2011. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Michael Crichton | Edge | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
When Hollywood makes a movie of Ganymede — and they have to — I hope they subtitle it “The Battle of Barataria Bay.” That sequence comes near the end of Cherie Priest’s latest CLOCKWORK CENTURY novel, and is fasten-your-seatbelt, grip-the-arms-of-your-chair exciting.
Priest’s books always feature strong women, and in Ganymede, the main character is Josephine Early. Josephine lives in New Orleans, running an upscale bordello. Nearly twenty years into the American civil war,
November 24th, 2011. Marion Deeds and Robert Thompson´s rating: 4 | Cherie Priest | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber
I never get tired of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser — I adore those two rogues! In The Swords of Lankhmar (a full novel rather than the usual story collection), the boys have been hired as guards for a fleet of grain shipments because several ships have recently disappeared. Aboard the ship they meet a couple of enchanting women who are escorting a troupe of performing rats across the sea. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser soon discover that these are not ordinary women,
November 19th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Fritz Leiber | Audio | 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.