Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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Rise of the Wolf: Engaging and fun YA

Wereworld: Rise of the Wolf by Curtis Jobling

Drew Ferran was raised on a rural farmstead in an area called the Cold Coast. Drew lived the simple life with his family until tragedy struck one night while his father and brother were away at market. A monster invades their home. While terrified, Drew unleashes a beast from within himself that he never knew existed. His father and brother return to a gruesome scene of Drew huddled over his bloodied mother. Confusion and rage ensue as the blame quickly falls on Drew. He is forced to flee his own home to the forests where he has to survive on his own.

In the Palace of Repose: These stories are uniformly excellent

In the Palace of Repose by Holly Phillips

Holly Phillips is a brilliant prose stylist, and it shows in her first collection of short stories, In the Palace of Repose. These stories, all but two of them original to this volume, range from the joyful to the mysterious to the ominous. They are uniformly excellent. Phillips uses words the way a musician uses notes, playing a resonant, fey tune. It is easy to journey with her into the foreign and fantastic worlds she builds, just as one might follow a gentler Pied Piper.

Pirate Freedom: Unique, thought-provoking, elegant

Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe

It’s hard not to approach a Gene Wolfe novel with high expectations. After all, the man is responsible for some of the most brilliantly mind-bending science fiction and fantasy written in the last few decades. Such high expectations can make it hard to write an objective review (if such a thing is even possible) when the new book in question is quite good but just doesn’t blow you away like, say, his Book of the New Sun or The Wizard Knight.

Heart-Shaped Box: The best kind of scary pleasure

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Joe Hill is the most promising new horror writer on the horizon. His first book, a collection of short stories called 20th Century Ghosts (2007). It was a revelation: quirky, brilliant and scary. I gave it a rave review when I first read it, and I still return to those stories every now and then just to take pleasure in seeing how Hill pulls it off.

Joe Hill’s first novel, Heart-Shaped Box (2007),

The Night Watch: Fuzzy, but suspenseful and compelling

The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

Anton Gorodetsky is a magician-detective from Moscow’s Night Watch, an organization of light wizards and sorceresses that police the dark magicians. In spite of all the Night Watch’s claims about self-sacrifice and goodness, Sergei Lukyanenko’s urban fantasy takes place in a world that exists beyond the borders of good and evil. The light magicians are just as prone to illicit activities and there is a Day Watch that monitors the activities of wizards like Anton before they can go overboard in their attempts to save the world.

January 9th, 2011. Ryan Skardal and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Sergei Lukyanenko | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

Stonewielder: Esslemont’s best book so far

Stonewielder by Ian C. Esslemont

Stonewielder is Ian C. Esslemont’s third book in the Malazan series co-created with Steven Erikson, and which Erikson has been exploring for years with his own series. If you look over my reviews for Esslemont’s first two Malazan books, Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard, you’ll see I’ve given them mixed reviews, though I thought Return of the Crimson Guard was an improvement on Night of Knives and boded well for the next book in the series.

January 7th, 2011. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Ian C. Esslemont | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Crimson Wind: A heck of a ride!

Crimson Wind by Diana Pharaoh Francis

Reading a Horngate Witches book is a bit like watching a big summer movie. Action! Explosions! Impossibly tough characters doing awesome things! It’s a heck of a ride. Crimson Wind, the second installment in the series, is better than the first and quite enjoyable.

Crimson Wind benefits, in part, from my having read Bitter Night and gotten an idea of what to expect from the series. These really aren’t much like the usual urban fantasies.

January 6th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Diana Pharaoh Francis | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Saxon Shore: This series begins to pay dividends

The Saxon Shore by Jack Whyte

When we think of Arthurian legends, we tend to imagine certain things. Merlyn is ancient and wise, and Arthur is strong and a leader of men. In his A Dream of Eagles series (Camulod Chronicles in America), Jack Whyte does his best to undermine these expectations. When we meet Merlyn in The Eagle’s Brood, the third book of the series, he is a warrior. Now, we meet Arthur, a toddler with golden eyes. Will he prove fit to carry the sword that Publius Varrus forged in The Singing Sword?

January 4th, 2011. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Jack Whyte | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Lost Gate: Intriguing new fantasy universe

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

In the fictional universe of Orson Scott Card’s latest novel The Lost Gate, what we think of as gods were actually people from another planet (called Westil), who arrived here through magical “Gates.” Passing back and forth through these Gates gave people with minor or latent magical powers huge boosts to their skills, resulting in god-like abilities — and as a result, they were often thought of as actual gods and entered Earth’s mythology. Some time in the 7th century,

The Book of the Short Sun: A fine finish to a distinguished cycle of stories

THE BOOK OF THE SHORT SUN by Gene Wolfe

Gene Wolfe has earned a reputation for writing novels that benefit from being read twice. His works are often complex and they do tend to reward careful reading, so much so that it’s not uncommon to hear prospective readers asking which of his Solar Cycle works is the easiest to read. Wolfe’s Book of the Short Sun trilogy is certainly not the place to start, but it is an otherwise fine finish to this distinguished cycle of stories that bridge the gap between fantasy and science fiction,

December 31st, 2010. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Gene Wolfe | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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