Previous SFF Author: Frank Aubrey
Speculative fiction in audiobook format.
I am Legend by Richard Matheson
I don’t like vampire novels much, so I wasn’t planning to read Richard Matheson’s classic vampire story I am Legend which was published in 1954, is also known by the title The Omega Man, and is, of course, the basis for the movie I am Legend.
But then I recently read and was enthralled by two other books by Matheson: The Incredible Shrinking Man and Steel and Other Stories.
November 23rd, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Richard Matheson | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
In the early 21st century, Earth has become overcrowded and has begun to look toward space as a potential new home. Only one habitable planet has been found — Whale’s Mouth — and it’s said to be a paradise. Rachmael ben Applebaum’s company has developed a spaceship that will take settlers there, but the trip takes 18 years. Just as business is about to begin, it’s undercut by Trails of Hoffman, Inc., a company who has developed a new teleporting technology that will get settlers to Whale’s Mouth in only 15 minutes.
November 21st, 2011. Kat Hooper and Sandy Ferber´s rating: 2.5, 3 | Philip K. Dick | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 31 comments |
The Swords of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber
I never get tired of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser — I adore those two rogues! In The Swords of Lankhmar (a full novel rather than the usual story collection), the boys have been hired as guards for a fleet of grain shipments because several ships have recently disappeared. Aboard the ship they meet a couple of enchanting women who are escorting a troupe of performing rats across the sea. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser soon discover that these are not ordinary women,
November 19th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Fritz Leiber | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Dragon of Doom by Bruce Coville
When Moongobble the magician moves to town, Edward is eager to become his new apprentice. It turns out, though, that Moongobble isn’t much of a magician after all — every time he tries a spell, he ends up turning something into cheese. In fact, he’s about to lose his authority to practice magic if he can’t prove himself proficient by completing three difficult tasks. The first task is to steal some special acorns from the Dragon of Doom, so Moongobble and Edward set off with Urk,
November 16th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Bruce Coville | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Every once in a while a novel comes along that’s touted as new, exciting, daring, meaningful, poignant, fresh, full of big ideas, etc. That’s what I’ve heard, so that’s what I was expecting and hoping for in Lauren Beukes’ novel Moxyland — especially since it has a nice blurb from William Gibson and has been compared to Neuromancer.
Moxyland takes place in a futuristic (2018) Cape Town, South Africa. The Cape Town setting is unique,
November 14th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Lauren Beukes | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
The 14th century alchemist alchemyst Nicholas Flamel has the secret codex containing the recipe for the elixir of life hanging around his neck. For centuries, Dr. John Dee has been hunting for him because he wants that book. Dee has finally traced Flamel to his bookstore in 21st century California. He busts in, gets all but the last two pages of the book, and kidnaps Flamel’s wife. Now the world is in danger because Dee plans to bring the dark Elder gods to power and they will enslave humans.
November 12th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Michael Scott | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin
Airports are horrible places — the boring waits, the noisy rush, the germy stale air, the ugly utilitarian décor, the nasty food. That is, until Sita Dulip, while waiting for her delayed flight from Chicago to Denver and noticing that “the airport offers nothing to any human being except access to the interval between planes,” developed a technique to change planes inside the airport. She discovered that in the airport the traveler is uncomfortable, displaced, and already between planes and can therefore easily slip into other planes of existence while waiting for a flight.
November 11th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Ursula K. Le-Guin | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Howl’s Moving Castle is a book that is very easy to love. Diana Wynne Jones is a consistently entertaining author, and her prose seldom fails to be enticing and comfortable as settling into a favorite armchair, even when opening one of her books for the first time. What is perhaps even more impressive is that it’s generally very hard to discern any effort beneath the workings. Jones almost gives the impression that she writes at perfect ease, never agonizing but instead kicking back and letting the words flow in an uninterrupted,
November 11th, 2011. Tim Scheidler, Tadiana Jones, Rebecca Fisher, Ryan Skardal and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 5 | Diana Wynne Jones | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
I loved Brandon Sanderson’s MISTBORN series, so I was excited to learn that he was publishing another novel set in the MISTBORN world. The Alloy of Law (2012) takes place a few hundred years after the events in the original trilogy. By this time, society is in the midst of an industrial revolution and is expanding into uncivilized frontier lands, making The Alloy of Law, I suppose, a Western Steampunk or Weird West tale.
November 8th, 2011. Kat Hooper, Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5, 4, 4.5 | Brandon Sanderson | Audio | SFF Reviews | 22 comments |
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
Torak and his father have been living alone, away from their clan, for as long as Torak can remember. When a demon-possessed bear attacks them one night, Torak’s father is mortally wounded. Before he dies, he makes Torak promise to seek the Mountain of the World Spirit. On his journey to the mountain, Torak meets a recently orphaned wolf cub who becomes his guide, and then the boy and his wolf are captured by a tribe who wonder if Torak will fulfill their prophecy and save them from the demon-bear.
November 7th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Michelle Paver | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Frank Aubrey
I think you'll enjoy it.
sounds fascinating--on my list!
Definitely a fun ride, even if a little outside my usual tastes. It'll be a great TV series if they…
I've been wondering about this book!
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