Tim Susman

A magical world, an intriguing plot, and an excellent character arc are waiting inside this book. Nivvy is a great MC, and he changes a lot over the course of the book. Bella is interesting, and I was dying to know more about her story once she was introduced. The magic system is unique and well-developed, and adds to the richness of the world. A very big part of this story revolves around telling stories, and how those stories can impact and change things, which I found interesting. It all kept the plot moving along pretty smoothly from start to finish. I'd absolutely love to read more stories and adventures set in this world in the future!… (plus d'informations)

I came across this as part of the Storybundle on Magic Schools, a sub-genre I've always enjoyed - learning more about the world around you however strange it seems. This was a particularly good example! Even though it's also in a historical setting which I'm generally not so keen on.

Kip is a Fox-Catalonian, a human-fox mix created by a Magical Feat a hundred odd years ago, but as far as he knows the first of his kind, any Catalonian-kind to attempt to join the human-only Sorcerer's guild and learn the secrets of magic. He knows he has some ability, because he can already summon magic, as can a small percentage of humans, but its the control he needs to learn. Facing extreme prejudice he learns as best he can along with his best friend an otter (not normally an animal that associates with foxes, but there's also reference to mice etc, so many of their normal traits are ignored) and another new recruit testing the acceptance of the Master, a girl names Emily.

The setting is colonial america, with Independence just starting to be considered by the uprising Separatist Movement, and obviously the parallels to slavery are clear and obvious, but not massively belabored. It works well, it's a clever setting interesting characters, the expected bully, reluctant and unbelieving teachers, and wider back-story that slowly emerges.

Looking forward to the rest of the series… (plus d'informations)

"Shadows In Snow" is Sofawolf's second short story anthology set in New Tibet, a colony of anthropomorphic animals on the icy, cold northern edge of a mostly uninhabited planet. The stories are perhaps understandably not very optimistic - it's the kind of place you want to escape, not live in.

This anthology isn't actually up to the level of the first ("Breaking the Ice") - the long piece ("Spook") that takes up over half the volume is quite good, but the other 4 pieces aren't of the same quality. "Sprinting" is solid enough, and "Life is Beautiful" is sweet and sad, but "Chains of Circumstance" and "Isolation Policy" are forgettable. "Spook" focuses on a wolf working among the Vishons - an organized crime family of bears - and consequences when he adopts an innocent child left after a mob hit. The side characters are handled competently, and the wolf - who lives mostly without a name - is quite interesting.

While "Shadows in Snow" has a couple weak stories in it, it's still worth reading for the good parts; it's a great setting and occasionally used well here.… (plus d'informations)