Matthew Hunter

Smoke and Shadows is Tanya Huff’s attempt to resurrect her Vicki Nelson Investigations series. This time, one of the bit characters from the earlier series is faced with a supernatural threat while working odd jobs on a movie set, and he must manage to respond to it without the benefit of Vicki’s experience. His only ally is Henry, another of the original characters, and Henry has a problem with daylight…

Something from the Nightside is another piece of formulaic fantasy from Simon Green, who seems quite capable of writing formulaic fantasy or science fiction with his eyes closed and quite possibly while unconscious. His books are characterized by unique people with unique items wielding unique powers, to the point where the sheer uniqueness of everything (complete with capitalization) becomes tiresome and repetitive. This book is a fairly normal application of his formula.

This is the 6th book in King’s Dark Tower series. I’ve been a fan of that series for years, ever since I first discovered it, and have watched its slow progress with a great deal of anticipation. I’m not generally an avid King follower, to be sure, but this series is an exception, and a few of his stand-alone novels (IT, The Stand, Salem’s Lot) are works I think highly of.

Imagine a world in which Europe does not exist; the Vikings (Eyrans) trade directly with the Muslims (Istrians) at the fabled Allfair, and the Footloose, nomadic gypsy peddlers familiar from a myriad of traditions, converge to swindle them both with false magic, tall tales, and petty thievery. To the Allfair come the cast of characters, seeking adventure, excitement, a beautiful southern wife… and, of course, a handsome profit. But such is not to be found this year.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was almost universally panned by fans of the original trilogy, and deservedly so. Hopes, and expectations, were high following the smashing success of the earlier films and the intervening two-decade improvement in technology. What the fans received was not what they had desired: a children’s movie that replaced many of the most popular elements with a cute kid and a racist portrayal of a repulsive amphibian.

Startide Rising picks up about 200 years after Sundiver left off. The first mostly-dolphin starship crew is assembled and sent on a survey mission. Upon finding a huge derelict fleet of unknown origin and sending a message home about it, several hostile races hound the small survey craft until she crashes in the ocean of a metal-rich waterworld. Apparently, the hostiles are all quasi-fanatical races who believe in the eventual return of the Progenitors, the race or races who began the practice of Uplift.

Brandon Sanderson’s excursion into young adult literature, Steelheart (The Reckoners) explores the world of superheroes and supervillains… or more accurately, explores a world where there is a surfeit of supervillains and absolutely no superheroes whatsoever. The world is based roughly on our own present, but with variations ranging from the surreal (supervillains ruling various cities as dictators) to the bizarre (transforming entire cities into steel, with super-moles digging vast tunnels for people to live and work within).

Valentine Michael Smith was the first human born on Mars, and shortly thereafter the crew of the first exploration vessel to Mars died, leaving the infant in the hands of Martians. As a young adult, Michael is discovered, ‘rescued’, and brought back to earth - where he unknowingly causes a storm of political turmoil by being the only living heir of a huge corporation - and the potential ‘owner’ of Mars itself.

Across known space, Humanity is a rare example of a species that achieved sentience and a starfaring civilization without the evident help of a Patron race. In the eyes of some aliens, this makes them unique; in others, it makes them outcasts. Humans have earned themselves a tenuous status in Galactic society, however, as they had already Uplifted two other races - chimpanzees and dolphins - by the time of First Contact.

Sword of Shannara has a well-deserved reputation for being a near-total imitation of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, with only the serial numbers filed off to aid the deception. It’s not even told particularly well. Readers are advised to skip it.