Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
Wyrd Sisters (1988) is a fun, lively book. It’s definitely a bit on the light side compared to some of Terry Pratchett’s later works – more parody and less satire, if you like – but there’s nothing wrong with a jocular, easy-going read. Indeed, while it perhaps lacks something of the punch one might find in Mort or Small Gods, this installment is probably one of the better entry points for DISCWORLD,
April 21st, 2015. Tim Scheidler and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Terry Pratchett | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Sirens of Titan is a tough book to review. And it’s not really SF at all though it adopts the trappings of the genre. The thing about Kurt Vonnegut’s books is that they are so deceptively simple. The prose is spare, humorous, ironic, and to the point. And yet the story is very ambitious, as it seeks to provide answers to some very basic questions. Why do we exist? What is the universe for? Do we have any free will to determine our lives?
April 21st, 2015. Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Kurt Vonnegut | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Forever Magazine is a new venture by Neil Clarke, editor of the esteemed Clarkesworld. He explains in the introduction to the first issue of the magazine that it is a monthly publication focused on previously published works, mostly from this (still new) century. Clarke is the entire staff of the magazine. The Kindle subscription price is currently $1.99 per month.
The first issue opens extremely well, with a novelette by Ken Liu, “The Regular,” about a serial killer who targets high-end prostitutes.
April 20th, 2015. Terry Weyna | Ann Leckie, Genevieve Valentine, Karl Schroeder, Ken Liu, Lauren Beukes, Tobias Buckell | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn
It’s somewhat surprising that this 1954 International Fantasy Award winner has never found a very large audience in the SF genre. The writing style is reminiscent of Theodore Sturgeon or Ray Bradbury, very much focused on the characters and their inner thoughts and struggles, a big contrast with the more pulpy science and space-adventure tales featured in pulp magazines like Galaxy and Astounding.
I knew about A Mirror for Observers only because it was included in David Pringle’s Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels.
April 20th, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 3 | Edgar Pangborn | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Lost Continent by C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne
The Lost Continent first appeared serially in the English publication Pearson’s Magazine in 1899, and in book form the following year. The author, C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne, is not exactly a household name today, but, way back when, was an extremely popular and prolific writer. His serialized tales of Captain Kettle, also in Pearson’s, were supposedly only second in popularity to the Strand Magazine‘s Sherlock Holmes stories, as submitted by Arthur Conan Doyle.
April 20th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne | SFF Reviews | no comments |
On those occasions when I have read sci-fi, I’ve tended to stick to the familiar brand-name authors; tried-and-true old favorites such as Asimov, Bester, Bradbury, Clarke, Dick, Heinlein, Norton, Silverberg, Williamson and the like. But a recent perusal of new author Richard Fazio‘s debut novel, 2010’s The Nexus, has demonstrated that I really ought to be adventurous more often.
April 17th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Richard Fazio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubilee is a fairly obscure alternate-history story published in 1953 in which the South won the “War for Southron Independence.” In this world, Robert E. Lee succeeds Jefferson Davis as the second president of the Confederacy in 1865. The Confederacy steadily expands its empire through Mexico and South America. Its chief rival is the German Union, which splits control of Europe with the Spanish Empire. In response, the Confederacy has allied with Great Britain, creating two opposing empires that straddle the Atlantic.
April 17th, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Ward Moore | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Raven Rise is the penultimate novel in D.J. MacHale’s PENDRAGON series. (Expect spoilers for previous PENDRAGON books in this review.) At the end of the last book, The Pilgrims of Rayne, Bobby destroyed the flume on Ibara, trapping himself and Saint Dane on that territory. Now Bobby can never go home, but at least Saint Dane will not be able to destroy the rest of Halla. Or so Bobby thinks.
April 17th, 2015. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | D.J. MacHale | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson
Adam Fink was just another graphic art student in Toronto before he took InterAlia’a affinity test. The affinity test examines a person’s genes, brain patterns, and behavior and sorts people into one of twenty-two affinities (or into none of them). InterAlia has an algorithm that’s sort of like online dating, but it looks like they got it right this time.
The Affinities are still new when Adam takes the test. Not a lot is widely known about them, but there are twenty-two Affinity groups.
April 16th, 2015. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4.5 | Robert Charles Wilson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Men, Martians and Machines by Eric Frank Russell
More than four decades before Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his mixed crew of Earthlings, aliens and android made their initial appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation, English author Eric Frank Russell was charming readers with his tales of a similarly composed starship crew. Russell (1905 – ’78) had been a contributor to John W. Campbell’s seminal Astounding Science-Fiction magazine since 1937, when it was simply called Astounding Stories (Campbell would, years later, name Russell as his favorite science fiction author,
April 16th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Eric Frank Russell | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Locus reports that John Marsden died early today. Marsden authored the 7 book series that started off with the novel…
Mmmmm!
I *do* have pear trees... hmmm.
There were at least 2 pear soup recipes that caught my eye!
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