Hellboy in Hell (Vol. 1): The Descent by Mike Mignola
I’m a huge fan of Hellboy. I love all the books and both movies. I think the character is funny and endearing and perfect in every way. I really like Mike Mignola’s art, too. So it was with great pleasure that I read Hellboy in Hell: The Descent, which is the first Hellboy book in many years both written and drawn by Mike Mignola. Though he’s continued to write many if not most of the Hellboy tales,
May 30th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Mike Mignola | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Mandala by Stuart Moore (script) and Bruce Zick (art)
Mandala is the story of Michael Patrick Murphy who has the potential to be a mythic hero, Morningstar, savior of all mankind, but often he is just Michael, a confused man, or even worse, he turns into his lower, demonic self. Borrowing a page from Michael Moorcock, author Stuart Moore has Morningstar drift from one reality to another, trying in each new plane of existence to fight the serpents and evil gods who control all humans in a post-apocalyptic world.
May 30th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 2.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Valley of the Flame by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore
Yeah, I know that one has to take inflation into account when computing these things, but still, what incredible deals the sci-fi lover could acquire 60 or so years ago! Take, for example, the March 1946 issue of Startling Stories, with a cover price of just 15 cents. For that minimal charge, the reader got stories by sci-fi greats Frank Belknap Long, Jack Williamson and Henry Kuttner, PLUS the entire novel Valley of the Flame,
May 30th, 2014. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison
M. John Harrison’s 1975 The Centauri Device is a rare beast in science fiction. Short (200 pages), prosaic (the language is at most times brilliant), and with literary aims, it is sure to draw the disapproval of any genre fans expecting the easy-to-digest hero’s story typical of space opera. Harrison’s offering to the sci-fi world is instead one for connoisseurs who appreciate well-written stories with a driving — though it at times seeming fantastical and obtuse — purpose.
The Centauri Device is on the surface a rather simplistic story.
May 30th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4 | M. John Harrison | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Fantasy Literature welcomes back Sarah Beth Durst, whose new novel, The Lost, is out this week. I’m currently reading The Lost and really enjoying it — it’s eerie, and filled with mysteries. In the spirit of The Lost, Sarah has a question for you. One commenter (U.S. address) will win a signed copy of The Lost. Thanks for stopping by, Sarah!
My question for you this Thursday is: What have you lost that you’d like to find?
I’ve lost earrings — a little silver gecko,
May 29th, 2014. Kelly Lasiter | Sarah Beth Durst | Thoughtful Thursday | 8 comments |
The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein
Castor and Pollux Stone are 15-year-old red-headed twin boys who live in Luna City (a moon colony). They are young entrepreneurs and are making plans to buy a spaceship so they can start a trading business. When their father Roger Stone, a retired engineer and former mayor of Luna City whose current job is to write cheesy sci-fi stories for a television show, finds out about their plans, he decides to buy a space yacht and take the whole family on a trip. That includes their baby brother,
May 29th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Robert A. Heinlein | Audio, Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Ghosts of Watt O’Hugh by Steven S. Drachman
I confess to having mixed feelings when I was done with The Ghosts of Watt O’Hugh, by Steven S. Drachman, but the book’s relative brevity, strong finish, and the fact that its sequel, Watt O’Hugh Underground, was an improvement, means in the end I feel OK in recommending it, with a few caveats.
The cover will tell you right away we’re in Western world, with its neckerchiefed,
May 29th, 2014. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Steven S. Drachman | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Doomsday Morning by C.L. Moore
By the mid-1950s, science fiction’s foremost husband-and-wife writing team, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, could be regarded more as coeds than working authors. After the release of their “fix-up” novel Mutant in late 1953, the pair released only five more short pieces of sci-fi over the next five years. And while it is true that Kuttner did come out with a series of novels featuring psychoanalyst/detective Dr. Michael Gray, for the most part, the two concentrated on getting their degrees at the University of Southern California.
May 29th, 2014. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | C.L. Moore | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Toovia suggests six of the best fantasy comics around. I’ve read a few volumes of LOCKE & KEY, and they’re great (the whole series is going on vacation with me soon, and I plan to read them straight through and then write about them). I really enjoy FABLES, too; and based on our very own Brad’s rave review, I’ve got three volumes of SAGA patiently waiting on my shelf for me to get to them.
May 28th, 2014. Terry Weyna | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |
Waldo & Magic, Inc by Robert A. Heinlein
Waldo & Magic, Inc is a collection of two seemingly unrelated stories by Robert A. Heinlein (though both involve magic “lose in the world”). I listened to the recent audio version produced by Brilliance Audio. MacLeod Andrews, who I always like, narrates. William H. Patterson Jr provides an introduction to the stories and Tim Powers provides an afterword.
The first story, “Waldo,” was originally published in Astounding Magazine in 1942 under Heinlein’s penname, Anson MacDonald. The titular character is a man who has myasthenia gravis,
May 28th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Robert A. Heinlein | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I love it!
Almost as good as my friend: up-and-coming author Amber Merlini!
I don't know what kind of a writer he is, but Simon Raven got the best speculative-fiction-writing name ever!
[…] Its gotten great reviews from Publishers Weekly (starred review!), Kirkus, Locus, Booklist, Lithub, FantasyLiterature, and more. Some of whom…
The Changeling is everything you say it is Sandy. It is well-crafted and low-key in a way that lends considerable…