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Way of the Wolf: A strange mix that works well

Way of the Wolf by E.E. Knight

Post-apocalyptic science fiction is one of my favorite sub-genres. Finding a good fantasy equivalent can sometimes be difficult, as it usually gets classified as science fiction. E.E. Knight’s Way of the Wolf has vampires and magic, and clearly falls into the category of fantasy. It also is about a post-nuclear United States with aliens, and scattered communities of humanity fighting for survival. It’s a strange mix, but it all works out well.

In the 2020’s a series of natural disasters struck earth,

A Wizard of Mars: One of the best wizard series going

A Wizard of Mars

A Wizard of Mars is the ninth book in Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series and continues in the same strong vein as the others. At this point, there isn’t much to review in that if you’ve read the eighth book in a series, it’s pretty safe to assume you’re going to be picking up the ninth. But in a nutshell, if you do, you’ll be rewarded with the same quality you’ve become accustomed to and many of the same strengths.

The Iron King: Real pleasure for teen and adult readers

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Iron King (2010) is just plain fun. Julie Kagawa takes sixteen-year-old Meghan Chase on a heroic journey through the lands of Faerie, where she meets a host of vivid characters and crosses unearthly landscapes in search of her missing kid brother. Along the way, she learns a dangerous secret about her parentage, gets caught up in a Faerie political struggle, and finds herself torn between two very different fey boys.

There’s an element of pastiche to The Iron King;

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Great read

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Harry has had a miserable summer. None of his friends have written to him and he wonders whether Hogwarts and the world of wizardry that he discovered the year before is just a dream. Four weeks before he is due to return to school he has a visit from Dobby the House Elf who warns him not to return to Hogwarts. And so we embark on another year at Hogwarts and another mystery — this time involving the Chamber of Secrets.

I enjoyed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,

Mortal Love: A Sensual Tale

Mortal Love by Elizabeth Hand

Elizabeth Hand, who famously dealt with the Mother Goddess myth in Waking the Moon and the cult of Dionysus in Black Light, here tackles the subject of the fatal muse: the White Goddess, the lhiannan-sidhe, the Belle Dame Sans Merci.

Mortal Lovedrifts back and forth between several periods of history, between men throughout the years who have fallen under her seductive spell. Along the way there are Hand’s usual lush fruit-metaphors and insect-metaphors and jewel-metaphors,

Changes: The Dresden Files gets darker

Changes by Jim Butcher

I love Harry Dresden like he’s the crazy scary magical uncle I never had. My wife (The Asian OverLord™) gets annoyed at my exclamations of “Hell’s Bells!” and my constant need to tell people that a scar on my hand came from “Hell Fire” rather than a childhood bicycle wreck. The Dresden Files have become a part of my life in a way that few stories do.

When I first learned about Changes, it frightened me. I thought to myself: if Jim Butcher “Changes” too much,

Ferren and the White Doctor: Vivid representation of a future-Earth

Ferren and the White Doctor by Richard Harland

This Heaven and Earth trilogy is original, exciting, interesting reading, but I still feel that with a little more work it could have gone from good to excellent and been placed among the likes of Philip Pullman‘s His Dark Materials. Like those books, these deal with conflict between the forces of Heaven and the beings on Earth, but are set in this world, many years into the future.

After scientists discovered that there was indeed life after death,

Primavera: A fascinating story

Primavera by Francesca Lia Block

Francesca Lia Block’s novel Primavera is the sequel to an earlier novel Ecstasia, which should probably be read before continuing with this one. I hadn’t read Ecstasia, and though this didn’t prevent me from grasping what was going on here, I couldn’t help but feel that some of the action that takes place would have been better understood and more poignant had I previously read Ecstasia.

From what I gathered here,

Crossover: Action-packed SF adventure

Crossover by Joel Shepherd

Australian author Joel Shepherd came to my attention via his excellent current fantasy series, A TRIAL OF BLOOD AND STEEL, which I was so impressed by that I decided to check out his earlier novels. Crossover is the first novel in his CASSANDRA KRESNOV trilogy, and was also his first published book, back in 2001 in Australia. The series is now also in print in the US thanks to Pyr, with lovely and evocative cover illustrations by Stephen Martiniere.

April 9th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Joel Shepherd | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Auralia’s Colors: A gentle fantasy novel

Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet

Jeffrey Overstreet’s Auralia’s Colors is a bright, colorful fantasy debut. Painting with a unique palette, Overstreet tells the story — both heartening and tragic — of a young girl with a special mission of change.

Auralia is an orphan found by a group of Gatherers, laborers who are indentured to the local Noble family, House Abascar. Living in this rough community she has a chance to grow up untainted by some of the attitudes prevalent in the Householder community that lives in direct contact with House Abascar.

April 8th, 2010. John Hulet´s rating: 4 | Jeffrey Overstreet | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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