Previous SFF Author: Frank Aubrey
Speculative fiction in audiobook format.
The Orphans of Raspay by Lois McMaster Bujold
Those of us who are big fans of Lois McMaster Bujold, now age 71, are always thrilled to have a new story from her. These days she’s been writing novellas and most of them are PENRIC AND DESDEMONA stories, a spin-off from her award-winning FIVE GODS / CHALION trilogy.
The Orphans of Raspay (2019) is the seventh of these novellas, if we go by publication order,
January 19th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Lois McMaster Bujold | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Girlfriends Mal and Lee are cryptid hunters. They don’t believe in any of the monsters they hunt, of course, but it’s fun to follow the clues and debunk the myths for their blog. But on their last adventure, they saw some weird stuff and Mal disappeared.
That was four years ago. Now, suddenly, Lee runs into Mal on the street in London and she’s with a man who looks like a Neanderthal. Where has she been and why is she with that guy?
January 14th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn by Tyler Whitesides
Ardor Benn and his friend and partner Raekon Dorrel are con artists. They live in a world where a substance called grit (extracted from dragon poo) has magical properties.
There are different types of grit, depending on what the dragon ate, and they can be used to create various magical effects. Drift grit, for example, lets the user float in the air like a helium balloon, and barrier grit creates a temporary invisible wall.
Ard and Raek are clever and resourceful,
January 13th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Tyler Whitesides | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Artificial Kid by Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling’s 1980 novel The Artificial Kid wasn’t on my TBR list until Brilliance Audio published an audiobook edition a couple of months ago. I’m so happy to see these older science fiction novels being revived and made even more accessible to a new generation of speculative fiction readers. Last month I reviewed the new audio edition of Sterling’s first novel, Involution Ocean, also by Brilliance Audio. I hope we’ll be seeing more of his novels coming out in audio soon.
January 11th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Bruce Sterling | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Somebody People by Bob Proehl
I wasn’t crazy about Bob Proehl’s The Nobody People. While the premise was intriguing (kids with supernatural powers being raised and trained in a boarding school without the public’s knowledge), the novel, for reasons I’ve described in my review, was not compelling. I struggled to finish it but, in the end, I was curious about where Proehl was going with the story. For that reason, I picked up the sequel, The Somebody People,
January 6th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Bob Proehl | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer
In this worthy Nebula (Andre Norton Award) finalist by Naomi Kritzer we meet Steph, a girl who has spent most of her life on the run with her mother. According to her mom, Steph’s abusive father is extremely dangerous and, after spending a couple of years in jail for arson, he’s stalking them. Steph and her mom keep fleeing to small towns, trying to get lost, but eventually her mom gets nervous again and wants to move on. This means that Steph keeps starting at new schools and never has time to settle in and make friends.
January 5th, 2021. Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Naomi Kritzer | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Ministry for The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson’s new novel, The Ministry for The Future (2020), feels like a blueprint. Set in our near future, it follows a set of diverse characters living all over the world who are trying to solve the climate crisis, repair our world and, essentially, save the human race.
The novel begins in India where Frank May is working at a charity organization’s neighborhood clinic. Heatwaves have become a regular occurrence there. When the worst one yet arrives and power is shut off,
December 29th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Reposting to include Maron’s new essay.
Neverwhere is a novel that improved dramatically for me on reread, which actually was a surprise to me. I originally read it about six years ago when, in an odd twist worthy of London Below, it mysteriously appeared one day on my clunky Kindle 2, without my having ordered it. About a month later it just as mysteriously disappeared again (luckily I had finished it just in time). I was fascinated by the marvelous and imaginative setting of Neverwhere and London Below,
December 18th, 2020. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Kat Hooper, Stuart Starosta and Marion Deeds | Neil Gaiman | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 12 comments |
The Tower of Fools by Andrzej Sapkowski
Fans of THE WITCHER will be happy to see that another of Andrzej Sapkowski’s works has been translated into English. The Tower of Fools, the first in his HUSSITE TRILOGY, was published in Polish in 2002 (Polish title: Narrenturm), then other Eastern European languages, and has this year been translated into English by David French (translator of THE WITCHER) and published by Orbit (US) and Gollancz (UK).
December 17th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Andrzej Sapkowski | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Monday Starts on Saturday by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky
In the Strugatsky brothers’ Monday Starts on Saturday (1965), Sasha, a young Russian man, is about to start his vacation when he picks up a couple of hitchhikers. They are excited to discover that Sasha is a computer programmer because the organization they work for is looking for someone just like him. Curious about these likeable fellows and the work they do, Sasha accompanies them to Solovets to find out what’s happening at the National Institute for the Technology of Witchcraft and Thaumaturgy (NITWIT).
December 14th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Boris and Arkady Strugatsky | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Previous SFF Author: Frank Aubrey
COMMENT Book #3 of this trilogy is very much a heist story, and I quite enjoyed it!
Pirate stories and heist stories... Do we ever get enough of them?
Very interesting, Ulrich! Thanks for clueing me in!
So happy to hear that you enjoyed this article, Spacewaves! It was something of a labor of love for me,…
I absolutely loved this exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! Her unique blend of charm and thriller…