Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: January 2014

All You Zombies: Five classic stories by Heinlein

All You Zombies: Five Classic Stories by Robert A. Heinlein by Robert A. Heinlein

All You Zombies: Five Classic Stories by Robert A. Heinlein is a short (3 hours) audio collection of five speculative fiction stories written by Robert A. Heinlein and read by Spider Robinson. I like it a lot. This is a diverse set of tales (fantasy, science fiction, magic realism) that display some of Heinlein’s favorite themes as well as some aspects of Heinlein’s imagination that you may miss if you’ve read only his more popular novels.

Rename this horrible cover!

No, gentle readers, your eyes are not deceiving you.

This is the cover for the 1975 Ballantine issue of William Goldman‘s classic novel The Princess Bride.

Yes, we are just as offended as you are. It’s INCONCEIVABLE! This horrid cover does not belong on one of our favorite books and, therefore, it needs a new title. Can you help us provide one that’s more appropriate?

January 23rd, 2014. Kat Hooper | William Goldman | Thoughtful Thursday | 24 comments |

The Caves of Steel: An SF mystery story

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

In 1966, Isaac Asimov’s first three FOUNDATION novels won a one-time Hugo Award as the “Best All Time Series” for science fiction. While I still think the award was a reasonable (albeit highly subjective) one for the time, I’m becoming more and more convinced that Asimov’s three “Robot/Mystery” novels starring Earthly detective Elijah Bailey and his partner R. Daneel Olivaw (the “R.” stands for Robot, naturally) are better books, and quite possibly would have been a better choice for the award.

January 23rd, 2014. Steven Harbin´s rating: 5 | Isaac Asimov | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

WWWednesday: January 22, 2014

Lists and awards

Realization: There will never be a time when I do not have lists of books that all of us want and only some of us can afford and none of us have time to read. Here’s Wilder’s Book Review’s 10 books to look forward to in 2014. Am now interested in The Incorruptibles based purely on the woodblock sexiness of the cover.

Jonathan Strahan has also recently released the table of contents for Volume 8 of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year,

January 22nd, 2014. Alix E. Harrow | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |

King Arthur: Admirable

King Arthur by Daniel Mersey

King Arthur is another in Osprey Publishing’s MYTHS AND LEGENDS series, this one written by Daniel Mersey and illustrated by Alan Lathwell. Compared to the subjects of the prior two I’ve reviewed (Jason and the Argonauts, Thor), King Arthur is a much more complex and difficult figure to try and explain in concise fashion, seeing as how his stories span multiple centuries,

Siege of Darkness: Needs more siege. Also more darkness.

Siege of Darkness by R.A. Salvatore

The major problem with Siege of Darkness is not, hopefully, R.A. Salvatore’s fault. The issue is that this is the point in THE LEGEND OF DRIZZT saga when a particularly noxious example of the “Shared Universe Event” decided to rear its ugly head, getting in everyone’s way and disrupting the meta-narrative. Its long-dreaded appearance does absolutely nothing aside from ticking a box on a checklist, so much so that I’m giving Salvatore the benefit of the doubt here and imagining that the material “had” to be there on the word of the mighty Wizards of the Coast,

January 22nd, 2014. Tim Scheidler´s rating: 2.5 | R.A. Salvatore | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

Generation V: Not a typical vampire novel

Generation V by M.L. Brennan

Adolescent vampire novels are a dime a dozen and most of them revolve around a teenage girl with a love interest who happens to be a not-so evil, impossibly sexy vampire. It’s the kind of boring cliché that drives the male segment of the populace away from urban fantasy. There are exceptions to the rule and these stories can be not only fun to read, but also refreshing because they don’t follow the expected paths.

If you worked at a coffee shop, drove a terrible car,

January 21st, 2014. John Hulet´s rating: 4 | M.L. Brennan | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Protector: A novel of ideas

Protector by Larry Niven

Phssthpok is a protector of his race, the Pak. For thousands of years he’s been traveling space, looking for the Pak breeders that left his war-torn planet millions of years before. This is, biologically, the only thing Phssthpok lives for and if he doesn’t find them soon, he’s likely to stop eating and die. Finally, in our year 2125, Phssthpok thinks he may have found the lost breeders, though they have evolved so differently than they would have if they had remained at home that they are almost unrecognizable.

Dark Duets: A horror anthology

Dark Duets edited by Christopher Golden

Christopher Golden explains in his introduction to Dark Duets that writing is a solitary occupation right up until that moment an alchemical reaction takes place and a bolt of inspiration simultaneously strikes two writers who are friends. Golden has found that the results of collaboration are often fascinating and sometimes magical, as when Stephen King and Peter Straub teamed up to write The Talisman. Writing is an intimate,

January 21st, 2014. Terry Weyna´s rating: 3 | Amber Benson, Carrie Ryan, Cassandra Clare, Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden, Gregory Frost, Holly Black, Joe R. Lansdale, Jonathan Maberry, Kevin J. Anderson, Rachel Caine, Rick Hautala, Robert Jackson Bennett, Sarah Rees Brennan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Tim Lebbon | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Ghost Pirates: Succeeds marvelously

The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson

William Hope Hodgson‘s first published novel, The Boats of the Glen Carrig (1907), is a story of survival after a disaster at sea, and of the monstrous plant and animal life-forms that the survivors encountered while trying to reach home. In his second book, the now-classic The House on the Borderland (1908), Hodgson described an old recluse’s battle against swine creatures from the bowels of the Earth, and the old man’s subsequent cosmic journey through both time and space.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

We have reviewed 8390 fantasy, science fiction, and horror books, audiobooks, magazines, comics, and films.

Subscribe to all posts:

Get notified about Giveaways:

Support FanLit

Want to help us defray the cost of domains, hosting, software, and postage for giveaways? Donate here:

You can support FanLit (for free) by using these links when you shop at Amazon:

US UK CANADA

Or, in the US, simply click the book covers we show. We receive referral fees for all purchases (not just books). This has no impact on the price and we can't see what you buy. This is how we pay for hosting and postage for our GIVEAWAYS. Thank you for your support!

SFF Deals

Recent Discussion:

eva on A Thousand Ships: Familiar stories with a feminist focusNovember 14, 2024
I believe you are missing the point of this book here. I don't believe the purpose is to tell a…
Marion Deeds on Doctors Wear Scarlet: Hated the movie, loved the bookNovember 12, 2024
I love it!
Sandy Ferber on Doctors Wear Scarlet: Hated the movie, loved the bookNovember 12, 2024
Almost as good as my friend: up-and-coming author Amber Merlini!
Marion Deeds on Doctors Wear Scarlet: Hated the movie, loved the bookNovember 12, 2024
I don't know what kind of a writer he is, but Simon Raven got the best speculative-fiction-writing name ever!
2024 Eligibility (Visibility) Post, Or, A Humble Offering To The Great And Infinite Awards Cycle. | Wole Talabi on Convergence Problems: A strong collectionNovember 11, 2024
[…] Its gotten great reviews from Publishers Weekly (starred review!), Kirkus, Locus, Booklist, Lithub, FantasyLiterature, and more. Some of whom…