The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny by Simon R. Green
I just don’t even want to spend the effort to write a real review of this book. The NIGHTSIDE series, which started out so well, has become a joke. With each recent installment, Green repeats the same formula used before. Even the same words! For details, please see my reviews of the previous two novels, The Unnatural Inquirer and Just Another Judgement Day. Honestly, I wouldn’t have even picked up The Good,
December 31st, 2013. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Simon R. Green | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Mistress of the Wind by Michelle Diener
“East of the Sun, West of the Moon” is a Scandinavian fairy tale that’s a bit like “Beauty and the Beast,” and even more like “Cupid and Psyche.” It’s full of striking imagery but has always inspired a bit of ambivalence in me — I love that the girl goes on an epic journey to rescue the guy, but I’m always a smidgen irked that she wins him by doing laundry better than her rival! In recent years, a number of authors have turned their hands to retelling the story in novel form,
December 31st, 2013. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Michelle Diener | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Issue 134 of Beneath Ceaseless Skies opens with “A Death for the Ageless” by Margaret Ronald. Swift, the narrator of this story is a sort of police detective in a world filled with many species. The world is torn by war, and the city in which the narrator lives is a refuge for many from another land known as Poma-mél. Elariel of the Ageless has died, which humans had thought was impossible up until this murder; stab wounds to the Ageless would normally close with no more effect than an annoyed expression from the one stabbed,
December 30th, 2013. Terry Weyna | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf
A novella-length piece written by a Swiss pastor in 1842 that initially seems to serve more as a religious parable than anything else — an unlikely choice as a Top 100 Horror selection, one would think. And yet, there it is, Jeremias Gotthelf’s The Black Spider (or, as it was titled in its original German, Die schwarze Spinne), holding pride of place in Stephen Jones and Kim Newman‘s excellent overview volume Horror: 100 Best Books.
December 30th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Jeremias Gotthelf | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Cosmic Odyssey by Jim Starlin (writer) and Mike Mignola (artist)
On the one hand, the story of Cosmic Odyssey is a simple one — a terrible and dangerous force known as the anti-life equation threatens our universe, and all the good characters must unite with the evil Darkseid to save the day. On the other hand, this story is rich with Jack Kirby’s wonderful cosmic characters that form the background for much of DC’s Cosmic Universe as it remains to this day.
To understand why you should read Cosmic Odyssey is to understand its background,
December 27th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper
Conn Maxwell is returning to his impoverished backwater home planet, Poictesme (a nod to James Branch Cabell), after years at the university where he studied computer science. The leaders of Poictesme sent him to school so that he could learn about MERLIN, a legendary supercomputer that is thought to be located somewhere near their planet. They believe that if they can find MERLIN, they will have the information and guidance they need to raise the economic power and status of Poictesme back to its former glory.
December 27th, 2013. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | H. Beam Piper | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
We’ve just posted our annual Favorites list — the best books we read which were published for the first time in 2013. For today’s discussion, we’ll tell you why we like some of these books and ask you what you thought of them.
One commenter will win these three anthologies from Tor books: Twenty-First Century Science Fiction, Year’s Best SF 18, and Dangerous Women. Thanks, Tor!
You can find our reviews for each of the novels listed below by clicking on the linked author names.
December 26th, 2013. FanLit | Best of the Year, Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 18 comments |
Here are our favorite books published in 2013. Hover over the cover to see who recommends each book. Click the cover to read our review. Please keep in mind that we did not read every SFF book published this year, so we know we’ve missed some good ones! You can read some of our thoughts about these books in today’s later Thoughtful Thursday post, and you can add your comments there — we’d love to hear your opinions about our list.
ADULT SFF
YA FANTASY
ANTHOLOGIES / COLLECTIONS
December 26th, 2013. FanLit | Best of the Year | no comments |
Well, it’s Christmas and we’re all snuggled up with our friends and families, so just a couple of things for you today:
Remember Lauren Zurchin who we met back in February when she told us about the Fantasy Author calendar she was creating for charity? Well, it’s finished and it’s really cool.
The proceeds from the calendars go to two literacy charities: First Book and Patrick Rothfuss‘s Worldbuilders, which we keep reminding you about. Thanks to some funding from Random House, all donations made to First Book during December are being tripled.
December 25th, 2013. Kat Hooper | World Wide Wednesday | 6 comments |
Tarnished and Torn by Juliet Blackwell
Tarnished and Torn is the fifth book in Juliet Blackwell’s WITCHCRAFT MYSTERIES series. If you haven’t read any of the books yet, I’d recommend that you start back at book one, Second Hand Spirits. This is a pleasant cozy mystery series that isn’t going to stun you with brilliant ideas or delight you with its literary finesse, but it consistently does what it sets out to do — it entertains. Its strength is the cast of characters who are likeable right from the start and who grow on the reader as,
December 24th, 2013. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Juliet Blackwell | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Thanks for the kind words, Ira! Much appreciated!
Fine review
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!