Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Rating: 4

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The River at Green Knowe: A different direction

The River at Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston

As the third book in Lucy Boston’s Green Knowe series, readers who are moving through the books chronologically may be a bit surprised at the extreme change of formula in the story that dictated the two previous books. There is no Tolly or Grandmother Oldknow and their discoveries of past inhabitants of the house, but rather two elderly women who rent the house and send away for a niece and two children from “the Society for the Promotion of Summer Holidays for Displaced Children.”

Sorcery and Cecelia (The Enchanted Chocolate Pot)

Sorcery and Cecelia (The Enchanted Chocolate Pot) by Patricia C. Wrede

To best understand Sorcery and Cecelia one has to first flick to the back of the book in order to read the authors’ afterword in which they explain the format and history of their story. After hearing of a game called “The Letter Game,” Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer decided to have a go — each took on the persona of two young women in a more magically flavoured 1800’s, and wrote to each other concerning their activities.

Memories of Ice: This is one of those stories that hooked me

Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

I sometimes find myself lost in this story’s complexity. I think I’m getting the general idea that the gods of this world have a more direct relationship with the mortals than what we’re used to, and that the tale here really started hundreds of thousands of years ago. Also, sometimes when it seems like I’ve missed something, it eventually comes together, more or less.

I also get very frustrated over the lack of visual descriptions. That may be only my own personal pet-peeve, because I have this complaint for a lot of today’s fantasy writers.

August 2nd, 2007. Greg Hersom´s rating: 4 | Steven Erikson | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Melusine: The characters are the strong suits here

Melusine by Sarah Monette

Melusine has some definite issues as a first novel. It’s setting doesn’t feel quite fully fleshed out — even if one gives the author the benefit of the doubt and believes things are left unanswered for plot purposes and are “to be revealed later.” If that’s the case, the reader could have done with a bit more revelation early on, especially with regard to the politics which drive so much of the characters’ motivations. Without that background, their actions run the risk of seeming arbitrary just for the sake of plot.

August 2nd, 2007. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Sarah Monette | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Running With the Demon: Brooks’ best novel

Running With the Demon by Terry Brooks

Did You Sell Your Soul for So Little?

Terry Brooks is best known for his Shannara series, which is immensely popular despite being rather obviously inspired by Tolkien’s plots, characters and themes. For reasons even I can’t explain, I’ve read quite a few of these novels (despite my disdain for them) and so I can say with a fair amount of confidence that Running With the Demon is undoubtedly Brooks’s best novel.

July 31st, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Terry Brooks | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Flesh and Spirit: Elegant, beautifully crafted

Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg

With the second book of The Lighthouse Duet, Breath and Bone, now out, I decided to refresh my memory, as it’s been a full year since I last read this one. I can remember being distinctly disappointed with it. Yet after some of what I’ve read this year (some of it being absolutely awful) I’d have to say my mind has changed somewhat.

This year my poor eyes have suffered so much awkward prose and poorly placed punctuation that Carol Berg’s elegant,

The Druid of Shannara: The best of Shannara

The Druid of Shannara by Terry Brooks

“I Envy Your Past… I Have None…”

The second book in the four-part series THE HERITAGE OF SHANNARA focuses on Walker Boh, the most unique and intriguing character that Brooks has ever created. In an ongoing series that is filled with grim wizards, plucky farm-boys, feisty love-interests, and bland members of the Leah family thrown in for good measure, Walker Boh is a breath of fresh air and makes a compelling protagonist for the best installment of Brooks’s best SHANNARA-based series.

July 28th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Terry Brooks | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Thunderer: A lot to like

Thunderer by Felix Gilman

It seems lately that a lot of books have come out where setting plays as large a role as character. I’m thinking of Jeff VanderMeer’s Ambergris, China Miéville’s New Crobuzon, Gregory Frost’s Shadowbridge, and Jay Lake’s Mainspring. Books that haven’t simply created a new world, but whose world itself is an integral part of the story, rather than just the physical part the story moves across.

Felix Gilman’s Thunderer certainly falls into that category — more successfully than some and less so than others.

July 25th, 2007. Bill Capossere and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Felix Gilman | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

The First Chronicle of Druss the Legend

The First Chronicle of Druss the Legend by David Gemmell

The First Chronicle of Druss the Legend is the sixth book in David Gemmell’s non-sequential series, the Drenai Saga. It’s a prequel to the first Drenai book, Legend, and I think it’s the perfect prequel because it actually enhances his Druss stories by not being in chronological order.

Renegade soldiers turned slavers massacre a mountain village and take Druss’s wife, the seeress, Rowena. Desperate and enraged, the young country bumpkin takes up a battle-ax (inherited from his infamous grandfather) to begin a quest that will take him across half the world and last over seven years.

July 25th, 2007. Greg Hersom´s rating: 4 | David Gemmell | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Ruins of Gorlan: Felt like an old favorite

The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan

Will, the hero of The Ruins of Gorlan, could probably have been taken in entirety from any number of authors who have written this sort of children’s/YA stuff, but for me it was like I was 13 years old and reading Magician’s Apprentice by Raymond Feist. That is high praise because I read that book over and over until the cover literally fell off and the binding no longer held the pages together.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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