…Where Angels Fear to Tread by Allen Steele
Allen Steele promised himself he’d never write a time-travel story, but nevertheless, here it is. In his introduction to this audio version, he explains that he didn’t want to write about something he thought was impossible, but one of his friends challenged him to write a story that could overcome his own doubts. And thus we have …Where Angels Fear to Tread.
There are two timelines going on in …Where Angels Fear to Tread.
July 7th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Allen Steele | Audio, Hugo Award | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
by Dr. Brad K. Hawley
Now that we’ve discussed the reason why there can be multiple #1 issues for the same comic book title (different volumes, or series) and have seen how valuable Wikipedia is in finding current publication and reissue information on comic books, we need to consider reviews of trade collections and purchasing options.
July 6th, 2012. Brad Hawley | Comics, Reading Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale
Bobby Pendragon is a normal middle-school kid and life is good. He’s the most valuable player on the basketball team and he’s just found out that Courtney, the girl he’s had a crush on for years, has a crush on him, too! Life could not be better… until Uncle Press arrives while Bobby is kissing Courtney and drags Bobby away to a medieval world where some oppressed people need Bobby’s help. For Bobby has special powers and: A Destiny! When Bobby disappears, Courtney and Mark,
July 6th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | D.J. MacHale | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch
Science fiction is, at times, pretty serious stuff. We try, as readers, to wrap our minds around the evolution of history in terms of how we live and how technology has changed. At times this can be deep and thought-provoking material that challenges us to work with ideas and concepts that are radically different from what we are used to. G.J. Koch, in contrast, takes a much easier path to tell the story of roguish hero Alexander Outland and his spaceship crew.
July 5th, 2012. John Hulet´s rating: 3 | Gini (G.J.) Koch | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Winds of Marble Arch by Connie Willis
Tom and his wife are visiting London so Tom can attend an academic conference while his wife goes shopping with a friend. When Tom takes the Tube to the conference, he feels a strange wind in the Underground. It’s more than just the normal drafts created by trains coming and going; this wind smells ancient and deadly and makes him feel afraid. Skipping the conference, and forgetting to buy theater tickets, Tom spends the next couple of days riding the Tube all over (under,
July 5th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Connie Willis | Audio, Hugo Award | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Minority Council by Kate Griffin
The thing that gives Matthew Swift, London’s last urban sorcerer and Midnight Mayor, his extraordinary power is that he loves London. He loves the gritty streets, the posh apartment buildings, glowing graffiti, the blowing trash, the murky river, the pigeons, rats and urban foxes. He loves the underground, the trains, buses and cars. He loves the hole-in-the-wall diners and take-outs, the stink of diesel and petrol fumes, curry and incense. It is this love that gives him his power, and this love that makes Kate Griffin’s The Minority Council the best MATTHEW SWIFT book since A Madness of Angels.
July 4th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Kate Griffin | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm
Wizard of the Pigeons is one of the last books Megan Lindholm wrote under this pen name, before moving on to her Robin Hobb alter ego. Once again I am impressed with the diversity of Lindholm’s writing; Wizard of the Pigeons is unlike any of the others I’ve read. I guess you could call it an urban fantasy before the werewolf boyfriends took over, or maybe magical realism would fit better. It is a very good book,
July 4th, 2012. Rob Weber | Megan Lindholm | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Giant Thief by David Tallerman
Easie Damasco is caught stealing and sent to war. He manages to escape, taking a giant named Saltlick and some other items with him, mostly out of habit since he is a thief by trade. Unfortunately, Easie does not realize the full significance of the items he has stolen, and he is forced to run for his life. Fortunately, he hadn’t intended to fight in the battle anyway.
David Tallerman’s Giant Thief is an amusing rogue’s tale, and Easie is just the sort of hero that one might expect from a rogue’s tale: clever and not above bending the rules and the truth to get ahead.
July 3rd, 2012. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 2.5 | David Tallerman | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
The Ask and the Answer is the second book in Patrick Ness’ CHAOS WALKING trilogy and picks up immediately where The Knife of Never Letting Go ended, with Todd surrendering to Mayor Prentiss in order to save Viola. This is the beginning of a complex relationship between the two as well as the bifurcation of Todd and Viola’s storylines. In the first, Todd, thanks to the Mayor’s control over what happens to Viola,
July 3rd, 2012. Bill Capossere and Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4 | Patrick Ness | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Shirley Jackson Awards will be handed out in just less than two weeks, at Readercon in Burlington, Massachusetts. This is the third of three columns about the short fiction nominees, this column covering the novellas; the short stories are discussed here, and the novelettes are discussed here (now updated to include a discussion of Jeffrey Ford’s wonderful novella, “The Last Triangle” from the Ellen Datlow-edited anthology, Supernatural Noir).
Michael Morano’s “Displacement” from Stories from the Plague Years begins with a chilling picture: a serial killer is “showing” a victim’s body to her decapitated head,
July 2nd, 2012. Terry Weyna | Elizabeth Hand, Lucius Shepard, Tim Waggoner | Horror, Shirley Jackson Award | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…