Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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The Crystal Mountain: Just lovely!

The Crystal Mountain by Ruth Sanderson

If it were up to me, I’d make sure every single children’s bookshelf had at least one of Ruth Sanderson’s wonderful books. Her stories are simple, sweet, and yet thought-provoking, and her illustrations are clear, uncluttered and utterly beautiful. The Crystal Mountain is no exception, and is definitely up there as one of her best works.

As she did with The Golden Mare, the Firebird and the Magic Ring, Sanderson ingeniously combines more than one fairy or folk tale to create a story that is both new and familiar.

The City of Splendors: Not WOTC’s usual fare

The City of Splendors by Ed Greenwood & Elaine Cunningham

The City of Splendors is very different from Wizards of the Coast’s usual fare. In fact, it’s even unusual for The Forgotten Realms, and that’s saying something.

The story almost seems to have no main character, no central conflict, and no central motivation. It revolves around many characters who live their lives in Waterdeep, also known as the City of Splendors due to its astonishing beauty and variety. The interconnectedness of the central characters and the way that they interact with each other and the city that surrounds them (both the actual city and its citizens) is so cleverly written that the reader is never sure just what might happen next.

June 12th, 2008. John Ottinger (guest)´s rating: 5 | Ed Greenwood, Elaine Cunningham, Mel Odom | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Son of Summer Stars: Unicorns get back their dignity

The Son of Summer Stars by Meredith Ann Pierce

In the last book in the Firebringer trilogy, we finally come to the event that the two previous books have been steadily building toward: the retaking of the unicorns’ ancestral home from the treacherous wyverns. As the prophesied ‘Firebringer’, Prince Alijan is looked to as the means of regaining their Hallow Hills and Jan is certainly up to the challenge. Having finally made peace with the marauding gryphons, and finding happiness in his beloved Tek and their twin children, Jan has readied his tribe to march out to their homelands and do battle.

Bridge to Terabithia: The pain and joy of being a child

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

They say that the book is often better than the movie and that statement definitely applies to Bridge to Terabithia. The movie gets only 2 stars, but the book is worthy of 5 stars. While the movie had very good actors and great special effects, somewhere along the way it lost the soul of the book. No other piece of fantasy writing has so clarified for me the exquisite pain and joy of being a child. Of being terrified of one’s powerlessness,

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories: A wonderful companion to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

The moment I finished Susanna Clarke’s wonderful first novel Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, I wished that there was more of it. It was a long wait, but finally the fans of Clarke’s magically-soaked nineteenth-century Britain have a sequel — of sorts. Clarke presents eight short stories concerned with the presence of Faerie in England, and its influence on human inhabitants, all set in the same universe (with the same magical structure) as her previous work.

The Witching Hour: Imaginary genealogies are more fun than they sound

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Although Anne Rice‘s The Vampire Chronicles are undoubtedly her most famous and best-selling novels, there is much to be said for her witch trilogy: The Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Although none of the characters who populate The Witching Hour are quite as memorable as her vampires, the plot and pacing of her witch-stories appeal to me more than anything else she has written to date. Her skills as a novelist are on fine display here and her storytelling techniques are utterly unique,

May 5th, 2008. Rebecca Fisher and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Anne Rice | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

The Bloody Crown of Conan: Nobody can touch R.E.H

The Bloody Crown of Conan by Robert E. Howard

Nobody can touch Robert E. Howard when he was at the top-of-his-game. The three stories in The Bloody Crown of Conan are not only some of his best, they are some of his best Conan stories and Conan was his greatest creation. Howard was the father of Sword & Sorcery and next only to J.R.R. Tolkien in being the largest influence of fantasy today. His stories have stark imagery that’s nothing short of amazing.

May 2nd, 2008. Greg Hersom´s rating: 5 | Robert E. Howard | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

To Reign in Hell: Fantastic accomplishment

To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust

The accomplishments here are nothing short of spectacular. Imagine writing a book populated with some of the most well known characters in Western history: Yahweh, Jesus, Satan, Lucifer (yes, they are separate), and the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. They all need unique personalities. If they’re not, if they’re retreads of biblical, Dante, Milton, or others, then the book fails.

Then imagine creating a reason for God to create the Cherubs, Seraph, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, etc. Give all of them a purpose. Imagine creating Heaven,

Winter Rose: A dreamy and mysterious tale of family secrets

Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip

The first time I read Patricia McKillip, I didn’t get very far. The book was the Riddlemaster of Hed, and I was completely unprepared for her complex use of language. But there must have been something in her style that intrigued me, because I tracked down Winter Rose not long afterwards, and since then have been a big fan of all her work. Out of all Patricia McKillip’s books (at least the ones I’ve read) Winter Rose is perhaps the most opaque.

An Enemy at Green Knowe: One of my favourites

An Enemy at Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston

The fifth book in Lucy Boston’s Green Knowe series finally brings together our two main protagonists: the house’s blood relative Tolly and the Chinese refugee Ping, both of whom have featured in the previous books, but never together. Unfortunately we do not see their meeting, but instead join the story half-way through the summer, by which time the two are already best friends.

As always, the mysterious Green Knowe is filled with ancient and semi-magical artifacts (all of which are actually real relics that belong in the author’s home on which she based the books) and Grandmother Oldknow tells the children stories concerning the past inhabitants of the house.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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