The Broken Ones by Stephen M. Irwin
It is difficult to write a mash-up between dark fantasy and a police procedural. There must always be a temptation to bring in a deus-ex-machina to solve difficult plot points, as well as to keep the mystery fair, so that a reader can make a good, educated guess as to how the mystery will be resolved. Irwin accomplishes the blending of the genres to excellent effect in The Broken Ones by Stephen M.
March 25th, 2013. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Stephen M. Irwin | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Neil Gaiman’s Murder Mysteries adapted for comics by P. Craig Russell
P. Craig Russell’s artwork is stunning in his adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Murder Mysteries. And since the story has all the other-worldly hallmarks of a Neil Gaiman Sandman story, Russell really gets a chance to show off his talent as he bounces from the angelic Silver City to the cityscapes of our mundane world.
This graphic novel is based on what was originally a short story by Neil Gaiman (and eventually a radio drama in the spirit of The Shadow);
March 22nd, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Neil Gaiman | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa
[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]
We get precious little science fiction, fantasy and horror in translation, which means most of our reading is Eurocentric and a lot of it, though enjoyable, is anything but challenging. That’s why, when I saw Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales,
March 22nd, 2013. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Yoko Ogawa | Edge, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Monster Hunter Vendetta by Larry Correia
“When monsters have nightmares, they’re dreaming about us.” — MHI handbook
Monster Hunter Vendetta is the second installment of Larry Correia’s MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL series. In the first book, Monster Hunter International, we met Owen Zastava Pitt who used to be an accountant and gun hobbyist until his boss turned into a werewolf and Owen had to kill him. Now Owen is one of the best agents MHI has ever had.
March 22nd, 2013. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Larry Correia | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
Since this is a fantasy review site, let’s get this out nice and early. Outside of its setting — a fictionalized and truncated version of China’ s 11th century Northern Song Dynasty — there is next to no fantasy in River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay’s newest work. A few ghosts, an occasional fox-woman, and that’s it. So fantasy readers will have to take those few bones tossed their way and then settle for graceful, lyrical prose, beautifully drawn characters,
March 21st, 2013. Bill Capossere and Rob Rhodes´s rating: 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Victory Conditions by Elizabeth Moon
Victory Conditions is the fifth and final book in Elizabeth Moon’s VATTA’S WAR saga. This has been a solidly entertaining story with appealing characters and an unpredictable plot but it never quite pulls itself past its classification of “space opera.” If space opera is what you’re looking for, VATTA’S WAR delivers and this last installment, Victory Conditions, brings the Vatta story to a satisfying end. If you haven’t read the first four books, go find the first book,
March 21st, 2013. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Elizabeth Moon | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
io9 is hosting a March Madness tournament to decide which TV science-fiction franchise is the greatest.
Middle Earth is having their own March Madness. Will Frodo upset Sauron?
And if you have no idea what March Madness is all about, here’s a video that explains it using Star Wars.
io9 also tells up about a project that generated reading lists based on your Hogwarts house, complete with photos of the bookshelves.
The women over at The Book Smugglers posted the results for their Old School Wednesday Readalong –
March 20th, 2013. Ruth Arnell | World Wide Wednesday | 7 comments |
With the Night Mail: Two Yarns About the Aerial Board of Control by Rudyard Kipling
I didn’t know that Rudyard Kipling wrote steampunk, especially since that moniker didn’t exist during his lifetime. Kipling’s novellas “With the Night Mail” and “Easy as A.B.C.” have airships, vaguely defined etheric power sources and more energy weapons than you can hit with a stick. He may not have written steampunk, but he might be one of its literary grandfathers.
Written in 1905, “With the Night Mail,” narrated in the first person by a young journalist,
March 20th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Rudyard Kipling | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
“Our business is monsters. And business is booming.”
Owen Zastava Pitt was just trying to be normal. He used to be a bouncer who spent his evenings participating in illegal pit fights, but he managed to earn a CPA and became a boring accountant for a big corporation — pension and dental benefits included. Being tall and weighing in at 300 lbs, he didn’t quite look like an accountant — and he still spent his weekends as a gun hobbyist — but he was making progress….
March 20th, 2013. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Larry Correia | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
David Walton is the author of Quintessence (which I highly recommend) and Terminal Mind, which won the 2008 Philip K. Dick Award for best paperback science-fiction novel that year. David recently took some time out to answer some of my questions and to let us know what he is currently working on. More information can also be found at his website. One commenter will win a hardback copy of Quintessence.
Bill Capossere: Why did you set Quintessence in the sixteenth century?
March 19th, 2013. Bill Capossere | David Walton | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 18 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…