Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth L Powell
“Let me get this straight. You’re a World War II fighter pilot,” I say to Ack-Ack, the one-eyed, cigar-chomping macaque as he leads me through the corridor of the airship.
“Right.”
“But it’s 2059.”
“What’s your question?” He glares, a daiquiri glass clenched in his left paw.
“How do you fit in, exactly?”
He spins to face me. “I’m the main character, aren’t I? Ack-Ack Macaque, that’s the book’s name. See?
September 30th, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Gareth L. Powell | BSFA Award | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Robin Hobb’s TAWNY MAN trilogy, and the FARSEER trilogy that precedes them, are some of the finest epic fantasies ever written. FitzChivarly Farseer is probably my favorite character in all of fantasy literature and he’s at his best in the TAWNY MAN books. Golden Fool, the middle book in the trilogy, is nearly a perfect novel, and so is its successor, Fool’s Fate. I re-read Golden Fool last week because it’s just been released in audio format by Brilliance Audio (superbly narrated by James Langton) and I wanted to re-visit the series before reading Hobb’s newest book,
September 30th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Robin Hobb | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos
Andrew Grayson wants out. Growing up in the wretched urban tenements of the North American Commonwealth in the year 2108 has left him bitter, jaded and willing to risk his life to avoid becoming another barely surviving victim of a failed social system. His mother and father are no longer together and Andrew knows that if he wants a future the only real way out is to join the Armed Forces of the North American Commonwealth.
In the world of 2108 war is constant.
September 30th, 2014. John Hulet´s rating: 2.5 | Marko Kloos | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The sixth anniversary edition of Beneath Ceaseless Skies is a double issue, with four excellent stories.
The first is “The Sorrow of Rain” by Richard Parks, one of his Lord Yamada stories. Lord Yamada is a demon hunter in medieval Japan who tells his stories in the first person. On this occasion, he has been asked to stop incessant, late season rains; if the rains do not stop long enough to allow for a harvest within the next three days, the rice will spoil in the fields, leading to famine.
September 29th, 2014. Terry Weyna | Aliette De_Bodard, K.J. Parker | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley & Kat Howard
Malcolm Mays is very close to the end of his rope. After the collapse of his terrible marriage, after a horrific tragedy, he has spent close to his last dollars on a house in rural Ione, Oregon. His first sight of the house confirms that there’s plenty of work to be done, but also that there’s something good to work with. When he opens the front door to his new home for the first time, he finds a huge pile of mail written to the dead owner of the house from an inmate at the federal prison two hundred miles away in Salem.
September 29th, 2014. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Kat Howard, Maria Dahvana Headley | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The New Gothic edited by Beth K. Lewis
The New Gothic, an anthology of twelve stories, is edited by Beth K. Lewis and published by Stone Skin Press. It’s a good collection, worth reading.
Gothic horror usually counts on a mounting sense of dread and/or disgust to carry the reader, rather than shock or terror. The fear comes on more slowly, with that faint tickle at the back of your neck, and at its best, a gothic tale creates a sense of otherworldliness,
September 29th, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Jesse Bullington | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Direct Descent by Frank Herbert
Direct Descent (1980) is by a fair margin the weakest novel by Frank Herbert I’ve read.
In the far future the whole of Earth’s interior has been taken up by a gigantic library. Ships travel the known universe to collect information about just about everything and bring it back to Earth to archive it and make it available to the entire galaxy. The first and foremost rule of this organization is always obey the government whomever that may be — a rule meant to underline the library’s strict neutrality.
September 29th, 2014. Rob Weber´s rating: 1 | Frank Herbert | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The DC Infinite Crisis and the “Old” 52 (Part 2): “Lightning Strikes Twice” by Judd Winick
In Part One, I gave an introduction to this series and discussed Countdown to Infinite Crisis #1 (it’s available on Comixology or in the trade paperback The OMAC Project). This second review is about the first three issues included in the trade paperback Day of Vengeance. These issues, by Judd Winick, tell the three-part “Lightning Strikes Twice”
September 26th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Schemers by Robin D. Laws (editor)
Schemers is a collection of short stories by an excellent list of authors: Jesse Bullington, Tobias Buckell, Ekaterina Sedia, Jonathan L. Howard, Nick Mamatas, Elizabeth A. Vaughan, Tania Hershman, Kyla Lee Ward, Robyn Seale, Laura Lush, Molly Tanzer, John Helfers, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, and Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer. These are stories of complex plans and gut wrenching betrayals. It is a great theme for a collection of short stories.
September 26th, 2014. Justin Blazier´s rating: 4 | Ekaterina Sedia, Elizabeth Vaughan, Jesse Bullington, Jonathan L. Howard, Nick Mamatas, Tobias Buckell | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Crimson Shield by Nathan Hawke
Last year I was looking through the Gollancz catalogue and one book in particular caught my eye: Nathan Hawke’s The Crimson Shield. Notice anything unusual about the cover? The title and author aren’t there — they’re on the binding. And with a cover that beautiful, it’s both a bold strategy and a no-brainer.
Nathan Hawke, a pseudonym of Stephen Deas, author of the MEMORY OF FLAMES, THIEF-TAKER’S APPRENTICE, and SILVER KINGSseries,
September 26th, 2014. Pat Doherty | Nathan Hawke | 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…