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Starred Review: Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer

Jul 192017
 

Cover of Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer.Publishers Weekly: Tanzer mixes Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Gray with queer romance and demonology in this subtle, beautiful Victorian-era fantasy novel….The perfectly depicted relationship between the sisters takes center stage in a complex (though never overplayed) web of art, swordplay, romance, and, much to the sisters’ surprise, actual demons. Gorgeously portrayed three-dimensional characters and sensual prose propel this smoothly entertaining story to an emotionally affecting end.

 

 July 19, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden

Jul 052017
 

Cover of The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden.B&N SFF Review: Her style is utterly unique. There’s a freshness in the tone and pace that ensures The Prey of Gods isn’t just going to be one of the best science fiction (or is it fantasy?) novels of the year, but also, hopefully, a launching point to many more raucous, evocative works from its author.

What Drayden has accomplished is important and impressive, particularly for a debut. She has populated a sci-fi universe with fully fleshed personalities spanning disparate walks of life, some more underrepresented than others, and has made each of them into characters complete and compelling-irreverently funny, beautifully and empathetically drawn. There are depths to The Prey of Gods that make it both an endlessly enjoyable read and the start of something truly promising-not another sci-fi trilogy, but a career to follow.

 July 5, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: Feral Youth by Shaun David Hutchinson

Jul 032017
 

Cover of Feral Youth by Shaun David Hutchinson.Kirkus: Ten teenagers have been blindfolded by their camp counselors, taken into the woods, and left to find their way back to the main camp, in three days. Camp Zeppelin Bend isn’t a fun summer camp. It’s a mandatory camp created for teens whose lives have led them there as a last stop before jail or juvie. As a coping strategy, each teen takes a turn to tell a story, and no one knows what is true and what isn’t.

The main character who carries the narration of this book, Gio, prompts the storytelling challenge. In alternating chapters, written by different authors, each teen shares the disturbing experiences that led them to Zeppelin Bend. Wealthy, white Georgia shares a ghost story connected to being bullied. Jenna, also rich and white, reveals the deteriorating mental state that led her to pyromania. Tino, who’s Mexican, like Gio, boasts of the actions he took to avenge his father’s death in a haunting tale set in a small California college town.

As the collection progresses, each story grows more fantastical, with many that allude to mythology and fairy tales. From the first sentence (“I’m not a liar”), collection editor Hutchinson grabs readers with a raw, spot-on monologue that invites readers into heavy issues teens are struggling to navigate, many with distant or absent parents. Due to the mature, often raw content, this is a book that would also be valuable for adult readers who have the courage to face the darker things teens don’t tell them. A compelling, uncomfortable narrative that lets readers know that the tragedy the world can bring to teens transcends socio-economics, gender, and race.

 

 July 3, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Starred Review: A Song for Quiet by Cassandra Khaw

Jun 282017
 

Publishers Weekly: [Khaw] blends 1959 cultural cadences with the visceral language of Lovecraftian horror and disturbingly lyrical descriptions of music that won’t let go until it destroys the player…Khaw continues to demonstrate her mastery of seductive short-form horror, juxtaposing the disgusting and relentlessly terrifying with moments of exquisite beauty in ways that make it impossible to look away.

 

 June 28, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee

Jun 232017
 

B&N SFF Review: Yoon Ha Lee blew up like a supernova last year with the release of his debut novel, Ninefox Gambit, earning a double fistful of award nominations (among them the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke awards) for a brainy, intricate space opera as much about identity, the politics of empire, and grief, as it is about flashy space battles and a revolution within a mathematically constructed super-empire known as the Hexarchate.

Lee’s ability to balance high science fiction concepts­, worlds, cultures, and weapons­-with a deep examination of character-tragic flaws, noble purpose, and societal ideas ­is nigh unprecedented in space opera.

Raven Stratagem more than lives up to the promise of its predecessor, continuing the intriguing double-sided story of Shuos Jedao, the enigmatic tactician reborn and looking to make things right once and for all. It is a challenging read, but it’s not all philosophizing and waxing poetically about scattering of stars in the Hexarchate. There’s a ton of action, and when it hits, it hits hard. There’s literally a climactic battle in which two space fleets just throw math at each other, and it’s spectacular. Only a mad genius could pull off that maneuver in style­ and that madman’s name is Yoon Ha Lee.

 June 23, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: Bone White by Ronald Malfi

Jun 222017
 

RT Book Review: Malfi’s latest is a brilliantly weird, haunting blend of folklore, murder-mystery, and gothic terror that draws readers into an unsettling world filled with the kind of detail and insight that evoke early Stephen King. There is plenty of material here to prey on the most basic of human terrors, beneath the fear and the eeriness is an understated but no less effective story about the hollowing effect of loss on those left behind. The result is an elegant, twisted, gripping slow-burn of a novel that burrows under the skin and nestles deep.

 June 22, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Jun 202017
 

Tor.com: The action-mystery-adventure element to All Systems Red is a lot of fun. Wells has a really tight grasp of tension and pacing, and a truly polished skill with turning a phrase. The language in All Systems Red draws no attention to itself, but Wells has a knack for making even unobtrusive prose slide into a vivid line that brings a whole paragraph to life. But the real appeal of All Systems Red is the voice…All Systems Red is a really fun piece of science fiction adventure with compelling characters and great pacing.

 June 20, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden

Jun 162017
 

RT Book Reviews: You’ll need to clear your schedule as soon as you get your hands on a copy of Drayden’s debut novel! Taking place in a near-future South Africa, Drayden introduces us to a diverse and endearing cast of characters and mind-blowingly cool concepts. She expertly blends together science fiction and fantasy for a wild ride that gives readers both a robot uprising and a vengeful demigoddess craving power. LGBT characters are also introduced organically, and their personal stories will leave readers cheering. Drayden has certainly made herself an author to watch out for.

 June 16, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee

Jun 122017
 

Locus: Lee’s world building remains fascinating and complex, with a great deal implied in what is not said. The narrative of Raven Stratagem is a twisty one… It feels intricate, like a piece of clockwork in which every cog and gear has a job: it feels deeply thought, and powerful. Lee deepens here his interrogation of the themes that came so strongly to the surface of Ninefox Gambit: loyalty and trust, free will and self-determination, the personal costs involved in doing a right thing, and the problems of empire. Raven Stratagem offers an argument rather than an answer, and is more effective for it. If you liked Ninefox Gambit, this is a really great sequel, and an excellent novel in its own right.

 June 12, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Jun 082017
 

Locus: “Murderbot,” as the sardonic first-person narrator in Martha Wells’s All Systems Red refers to itself, would simply prefer to be left in peace to watch serialized entertainments in its own high-tech suit. Sadly, given that the planetary expedition Murderbot is part of goes horribly wrong when one of the scientists is almost eaten by the local fauna, it isn’t going to get its wish.

All Systems Red is a light but interesting story about a creation that is half human (maybe) and half non-organic parts, who is learning to deal with actual humans. Murderbot resists being pulled into the circle of fleshy creatures around it. Really, it would just as soon stay on the outside.

The humans, too, aren’t so sure what to make of Murderbot, who was foisted upon them by the corporation who owns exploration rights to the planet they are on. They don’t trust it or its motivations, all of which are complicated by its unreadable responses. Add to that inherent tension Wells’s brisk pacing, an intriguing enough mystery, and lucid action sequences, and this story is a great kick-off for a continuing series of Murderbot Diaries, which are being planned. With this novella Wells, who is better known for her fantasy work, proves that she can play in a science fictional world as well.

 June 8, 2017  Tagged with: ,
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