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The Brink by James S. Murray & Darren Wearmouth
Human monsters take precedence over the creature type of monsters in The Brink (2019), the sequel to last year’s SF horror novel Awakened. (Some spoilers for the first book are in this review, but are also in the publisher’s blurb for this book, so they’re nearly impossible to avoid.) Awakened was pulpy fun if you like SF horror and mysterious, murderous threats lurking beneath the surface of the earth.
August 8th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 2 | James S. Murray | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton
The Everlasting Rose (2019) is the sequel to Dhonielle Clayton’s The Belles, a novel that is a finalist for the Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Young Adult novel this year. I enjoyed The Belles despite some problems with characterization such as a boring romance and a totally over-the-top villain. If you haven’t yet read The Belles, but intend to, it’d be best to skip this review since I can’t help but spoil some of its plot here.
May 27th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Dhonielle Clayton | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
I’m a big fan of most of Kim Stanley Robinson’s output, especially his MARS trilogy, and so when I saw that he was out with a book entitled Red Moon (2018), with its echoes of said trilogy (Red, Green, and Blue Mars), that it had an AI character like Aurora,
May 16th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The War Within by Stephen R. Donaldson
I was sorely disappointed in Seventh Decimate, the first book in Stephen R. Donaldson‘s new series, THE GREAT GOD’S WAR. Luckily, the second book, The War Within (2019), shows improvement, but it’s a pretty low bar and so I can’t say it’s enough to convince me the series is worth starting (at least at this point).
(Here is your warning that this review will contain spoilers for book one).
May 8th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Stephen R. Donaldson | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Sanctuary (2005) is the third book in Mercedes Lackey’s DRAGON JOUSTERS quartet. You need to read Joust and Alta first. There will be spoilers for those first two books in this review of the third.
Vetch has come a long way. When we first met him in Joust, he was the servant of a cruel master in his home country of Alta.
May 1st, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Mercedes Lackey | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Municipalists by Seth Fried
I loved the opening chapter of Seth Fried’s debut The Municipalists, writing “nice” several times in the margins just in the first few pages, as when the narrator, recalling his parents’ death when he was young, notes how the old grocery “seems to have forgotten him. The flat, glass storefront stares straight ahead without so much as a glimmer of recognition.” Unfortunately, that was the high point for me and the book, while it had its moments, eventually devolved into a bit of a slog.
March 18th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Seth Fried | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey
The Oathbound (1987) is the first book in Mercedes Lackey’s VOWS AND HONOR series, a trilogy in her larger VALDEMAR saga. You don’t need to be familiar with VALDEMAR before picking up The Oathbound.
The story focuses on two heroines who suffered traumatic events, re-made themselves, and are on separate quests for revenge. Tarma is a clanswoman from a nomadic tribe that got wiped out by raiders.
February 22nd, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Mercedes Lackey | Audio | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Sarah Tarkoff follows up her debut YA novel Sinless with Fearless (2019), the second installment in the EYE OF THE BEHOLDER trilogy. I didn’t enjoy Sinless and this trilogy’s middle book didn’t get its hooks in me either, carrying over a lot of the issues I had with book one and creating some entirely new ones that don’t bode well for the trilogy as a whole.
Grace Luther remains preternaturally lucky,
January 21st, 2019. Jana Nyman´s rating: 2 | Sarah Tarkoff | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Kingdom of Exiles by S.B. Nova
Here we have the tale of Serena Smith, blacksmith’s daughter exiled from her puritan-like settlement and then kidnapped by fairies and sold in the Kingdom of Aldar, which has much worse political problems than the oppressive community from which she’s taken. The difference is, she finds a way of making a difference — a thing she could not do in her human home.
I feel like this kind of fairy story is a bit at war with itself. Kingdom of Exiles (2017) bills as a feminist tale and means to make Serena fierce and self-actualizing,
January 14th, 2019. Taya Okerlund´s rating: 2 | S.B. Nova | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Echo Room by Parker Peevyhouse
In The Echo Room (2018), which is sort of a Groundhog Day meets The Maze Runner, Parker Peevyhouse takes on one of the most difficult narratives for an author — the time loop story. Unfortunately, while Peevyhouse has her moments, the time loop comes out victorious.
The story opens up intriguingly enough, when Rett Ward wakes up in a strange and seemingly abandoned building with no memory of how he got there,
December 19th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Parker Peevyhouse | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
There were two interesting articles about publishing that I ran across, the first via a link in the second: No…
My pleasure, Robin! And yes, it surely is some kind of an experience, to be sure....
Thanks for the solution to a mystery many decades old. One of my favourite novels, this. Hilariously funny, completely unpredictable,…
Thank you. I’m all caught up. Back to reading Crimson Embers.
Enjoyed your review. I’m reading A War in Crimson Embers and am having the hardest time reminding myself where everybody…