Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: 4

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The Old Country: For YAs and adults who like folk and fairy tales

The Old Country by Mordecai Gerstein

Gisella lives in the Old Country, where “every winter lasts one hundred years, and every spring is a miracle.” In one tumultuous day, her brother Tavido is drafted into the army on the eve of war, even though they are Crags, a despised ethnic group. When she goes into the forest to hunt the fox that has been stealing her family’s chickens, she makes the mistake of looking into the eyes of the fox, and finds herself in the body of the fox, and the fox in control of her own body.

Mansfield Park and Mummies: Tricked into reading Jane Austen

Mansfield Park and Mummies by Vera Nazarian

I had always heard great things about Vera Nazarian’s books, both from friends and publications, but I never quite got around to reading any of her work until recently when I picked up her short story collection Salt of the Air, published by Prime Books. The introduction was by Gene Wolfe, a man I have an enormous amount of respect for as a writer. After reading the wonderful things that Gene had to say about her,

Magic Below Stairs: Will delight young readers and amuse older ones

Magic Below Stairs by Caroline Stevermer

Set in the same world as Sorcery and Cecilia — also known by the delightful title of The Enchanted Chocolate Pot — this new book called Magic Below Stairs follows the adventures of one Frederick, an intelligent orphan boy chosen to be a footman in Lord Schofield’s house — yes, Kate and her dashing Lord Schofield are minor characters in this adventure — because he fits the livery from the previous servant who was sent away without references.

A Princess of Roumania: A vivid cast of characters to love and hate

A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park

When I was a preteen, I was a sucker for books about everyday, average girls who turned out to be long-lost princesses of some obscure country or other. A Princess of Roumania is an original take on that old trope, looking at that girlish fantasy from a couple of new angles.

The story begins during a typical summer vacation for high-school student Miranda Popescu. She’s an average teenage girl in every way, except that she has hazy memories of an early childhood in a distant land and a handful of objects that seem to corroborate those memories.

Killswitch: Even more exciting than the first two books!

Killswitch by Joel Shepherd

Killswitch, the final book in Joel Shepherd’s CASSANDRA KRESNOV trilogy, picks up the story 2 years after the end of Breakaway. The Federation is still going through a period of upheaval, with Callayan President Neiland trying to make Tanusha the capital of the formerly Earth-based organization, and numerous powerful factions (including Federation Fleet warships) converging on the planet to try and affect the outcome of this political power play.

Meanwhile, Callay is still in the process of setting up the administrative and military infrastructure necessary for its new function,

June 24th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Joel Shepherd | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Sarsen Witch: Unusually nuanced view of a dated theme

The Sarsen Witch by Eileen Kernaghan

Since her family was killed by the invading horse lords, Naeri has lived a wild and solitary existence, surviving on what she can scrounge or steal. But when she is caught trying to steal a pig, she is caught back up again in “civilized” life. She falls in love with Gwi, a kindly smith, and rediscovers a long-lost cousin, the minstrel Daui, who senses in Naeri a gift for geomancy. Then she catches the eye of the local warlord, Ricca, who believes she will bring him good fortune and that her earth-magic abilities can help him build a great monument to immortalize himself.

June 22nd, 2010. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Eileen Kernaghan | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun: Tolkien’s Norse Eddic poetry

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, the “new” book by J.R.R. Tolkien put together by his son Christopher, is a translation-slash-“unifying” of the great Norse story of Sigurd the dragon-slayer and what happens to his wife and his murderers after his death. The story is told in verse form, two “lays” surrounded by commentary that Christopher Tolkien has taken from his father’s notes and lectures dealing with the Norse legend. Christopher also adds some of his own commentary,

Fell Cargo: Take to the high seas with this motley crew!

Fell Cargo by Dan Abnett

Captian Luka Silvero and his bloody Reivers are the most despicable, cut-throat, greedy sea-wolves of the Old World and they’re just the right stuff to rid the seas of something even more evil: the cursed Butcher Ship. Of course it takes the right incentive of a hefty reward and, for Luka, it’s either sink the Butcher Ship or face his just reward at the end of noose. After all, a buccaneer does have his reputation to think of. Plus there is always the unbreakable pirate code…

I don’t know what it is about pirates,

Black Magic Sanction: Another great installment

Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison

I love the Hollows series. Kim Harrison has taken us on some really great adventures and still manages to keep things from spinning completely out of control. The characters are well developed and the plots typically balance the heavy romantic themes with plenty of story and action to keep things exciting. Black Magic Sanction is another great installment.

Rachel Morgan continues to evolve in Black Magic Sanction. Her training in using “Black Magic”

June 17th, 2010. John Hulet´s rating: 4 | Kim Harrison | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Wings of Fire: I thought I didn’t like dragons

Wings of Fire edited by Jonathan Strahan & Marianne S. Jablon

I don’t like dragons.

This is probably not the first sentence you’d expect to find in a review of Wings of Fire, an anthology devoted exclusively to dragon stories, but I thought it best to get it out of the way right from the start.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with dragons. They’re just terribly overused, one of those tired genre mainstays that people who typically don’t read a lot of fantasy will expect in a fantasy novel because they were practically unavoidable for a long time.

June 16th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Anne McCaffrey, C.J. Cherryh, Charles De_Lint, Elizabeth Bear, George R.R. Martin, Holly Black, James P. Blaylock, Jane Yolen, Jonathan Strahan, Lucius Shepard, Margo Lanagan, Michael Swanwick, Naomi Novik, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Patricia McKillip, Peter S. Beagle, Roger Zelazny, Tanith Lee, Ursula K. Le-Guin | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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