Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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Salute the Dark: A total and utter world war

Salute the Dark by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Salute the Dark is the fourth book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s SHADOWS OF THE APT series. At this point, the world of the Apt and Inapt is in total war. The expansionist Wasp Empire is sweeping across the Lowlands and any outlying city that sparks a glint in Emperor Alvdan II’s eye. War Master Stenwold Maker’s agents are scattered everywhere in attempt to give the Lowlands any sort of advantage against the encroaching horde. Cities like Sarn and Myna are in open rebellion.

December 5th, 2013. Pat Doherty´s rating: 5 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

Range of Ghosts: Best fantasy novel I’ve read all year

Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear

This review turned out a bit rambly, but I’m too lazy to self-edit today, so I’m going to cut to the chase and place my overall opinion right up front for anyone who doesn’t feel like reading over a thousand words of enthusiastic rambling:

Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear is the best fantasy novel I’ve read all year, and you should read it too.

The setting of Range of Ghosts is a fantasy version of a place that vaguely resembles Central Asia around the time of the dissolution of the Mongol Empire.

November 8th, 2013. Stefan Raets´s rating: 5 | Elizabeth Bear | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

Apollo’s Song by The God of Manga (and Comics?)

Apollo’s Song (Parts I & II) by Osamu Tezuka

Apollo’s Song (Part I and Part II) by Osamu Tezuka is a imaginative tale of out-of-body experience, time travel, fantasy, science fiction, mythology and love, all by the God of Manga himself. If you’ve never heard of Osamu Tezuka, you are missing out. He’s best known in the United States for Astro Boy, his very early comic-turned-anime that was broadcast in the U.S. as a Japanese-import English-dubbed cartoon.

October 25th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

The Unwritten by Mike Carey

The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor & the Bogus Identity (Vol 1) by Mike Carey (writer) & Peter Gross (artist)

The Unwritten by Mike Carey is one of the best current series being published right now. It is one of the few titles put out by Vertigo — DC’s mature line of comics — that has kept Vertigo from losing its respected place in the world of comics. Vertgo was started by Karen Berger with Neil Gaiman’s wonderful Sandman stories,

Bone by Jeff Smith: The Lord of the Rings of Comics

Bone by Jeff Smith

This review is my 50th column for Fanlit, so I want to mark this personal milestone by writing about the most important epic fantasy comic in existence. I know a few people might argue with me, but only a few. There’s a general consensus that Bone by Jeff Smith is not only the best epic fantasy comic, but possibly the ONLY epic fantasy comic depending on how you define “epic fantasy.” All arguments are minor quibbles as far as I’m concerned because none of them would call into question the high quality and staggering brilliance of Bone.

Double Star: No second-rate actor could ever become president, right?

Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein

Most of Robert A. Heinlein’s adult novels have interesting ideas or premises but many lack likeable characters and/or fun quickly-moving plots. Fortunately Double Star has all the right elements and is entertaining from start to finish. It’s one of Heinlein’s best novels, I think, and I must not be alone in that opinion since it won the Hugo Award in 1956 and was nominated for Locus’ All-Time Best Science Fiction Novels. Double Star is a character-based novel that explores some important political issues without getting preachy.

Ikigami, Volume 1 OR How to Read Manga, Part 1

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit, Volume 1 by Motoro Mase

or “How to Read Manga, Pt 1”

Though I haven’t read too much manga — pronounced “mahn-gha,” in case you were wondering — I am starting to acquire a taste for it. I think part of my problem was trying to read it slowly like I do American comics (and like I recommend in my essay here on FanLit, “How To Read Comics“). Watching my daughter devour quickly the entire 20-volume set of Bakuman,

September 27th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics, Reading Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Foiled by Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallaro: Instant Classic

Foiled by Jane Yolen (writer) and Mike Cavallaro (illustrator)

The past few weeks I’ve been spending time writing reviews that focus on new Monthly Comics I think would make good entry points for new comic book readers who have never had pull lists, and I have several more new comics I want to promote. The end of 2013 is an excellent time to be a new reader of comics. However, I must break this series on Monthly Comics because I just read a graphic novel too good for me not to immediately write a review of it: Foiled,

Emperor of Thorns: The ideal ending to an excellent trilogy

Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

King Jorg, at the ripe ol’ age of 20, rules over seven nations, but that’s not enough — it’s never enough. He’s now ready to make his bid for emperor of the Broken Empire which has been vacant for many generations. This is a position that is technically won by vote, but how one goes about getting those votes is the trick. Also Jorg hasn’t yet accomplished his life-goal; bloody vengeance against his father. All Jorg’s surviving enemies continue to dog his trail but now Jorg has a chink in his armor;

September 11th, 2013. Greg Hersom´s rating: 5 | Mark Lawrence | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Cold Magic: A cold and exhilarating roller-coaster ride

Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

I feel like I’ve been waiting a very long time to read and comment on this book, not only because it was recommended to me ages ago, but because it contained everything I love in a novel (which have been missing from various other books on my reading list for quite a while). Not only a complex and appealing female lead, but also a strong bond between two women which makes up the emotional centre of the narrative, solid and fascinating world-building, political intrigue on a wide scale,

September 10th, 2013. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Kate Elliott | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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