Month: January 2016

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore

V for Vendetta by Alan Moore

For those who claim that comics lack sufficient depth and complexity, fans generally recommend Alan Moore’s Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell, Frank Miller’s DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and SIN CITY series, and Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN series. These are considered “gateway” titles likely to convince skeptics that comics (often labeled “graphic novels” to lend them more gravitas) are a legitimate artistic medium for sophisticated and compelling storytelling for adults.

How to Make Fictional People Do All the Work, Part 2

Welcome to another Expanded Universe column where I feature essays from authors and editors of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, as well as from established readers and reviewers. My guest today is Sarah Gailey. Gailey is a Bay Area native and an unabashed bibliophile, living and working in beautiful Oakland, California. She enjoys painting, baking, vulgar embroidery, and writing stories about murder and monsters. She livetweeted Star Wars and the internet got very excited about it, but mostly she writes short SFF and horror. Her fiction has appeared in Mothership Zeta and The Colored Lens,

January 15th, 2016. Kate Lechler | Sarah Gailey | Expanded Universe | 3 comments |

Ash and Silver: A lushly written novel of transformation

Ash and Silver by Carol Berg

At the edge of the eastern sea, the Fortress Evenide holds the Order of the Knights of the Ash. Greenshank is a paratus, one level below a knight, and is working day and night to be deemed ready for promotion. Greenshank is completely loyal to the Knights of the Ash, in part because he has to be. He has no memory of any life before two years ago when he was brought to the citadel. Then one day, returning from an assignment, he is accosted by an otherworldly woman,

January 15th, 2016. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Carol Berg | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Libellus de Numeros: An admirable goal, but execution doesn’t deliver

Libellus de Numeros by Jim West

Libellus de Numeros by Jim West is a self-published well-intentioned earnest debut middle-grade novel that reads, well, like a self-published well-intentioned earnest debut middle-grade novel. One certainly can’t quibble with its goal, presenting young readers — especially girls — with an engaging fantasy tale that incorporates math into its plot so that the audience might become more interested in mathematics, as well as believe that they too can “do” math (and that they can also be the hero of their own lives).

The Fifth Season: Stunning imagination

Editor’s update: The Fifth Season won the 2016 Hugo Award.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

I am awestricken by the imagination of N.K. Jemisin, but it isn’t just her wild vision of a seismically turbulent planet that makes The Fifth Season so successful. Jemisin depicts her strange and harrowing world through the old-fashioned tools of fine writing and hard work, done so well that it looks easy – transparent – to the reader.

The world of The Fifth Season,

Reading Resolutions 2016

It’s that time of year again; full of optimism and champagne, we set a great list of goals for ourselves. Gyms, exercise machines sales reps and diet programs do gangbuster business the first two months of the year.

I take the easy way out and make reading resolutions. Here are mine for 2016:

I resolve to make my writing a priority.
I resolve to delve deeper into the sub-genre of Military SF.
I resolve to go to more conventions.

I’ve already registered for Northern California’s small and dynamic FogCon in March,

January 14th, 2016. Marion Deeds | Thoughtful Thursday | 19 comments |

The Humans: How alien the human race can seem

The Humans by Matt Haig

Andrew Martin is a distinguished mathematics professor at Cambridge University who has just discovered the solution to the Riemann hypothesis, thereby solving the secret of prime numbers and unlocking the secrets of the universe. That is, at least, until he is assassinated by an alien race and his body is taken over by a Vonnedorian agent intent on wiping out all traces of his mathematical discovery so that the puny human race will never hold the secret of the primes.

So begins The Humans,

Needle in a Timestack: Ten wonderful and wonderfully entertaining pieces

Needle in a Timestack by Robert Silverberg

Having read some two dozen novels by Robert Silverberg over the past couple of years, I recently decided that it was high time for me to see what the Grand Master has accomplished in the area of the shorter form. As if by serendipity, while shopping the other day at the Brooklyn sci-fi bookstore extraordinaire Singularity, I found a volume of Silverberg short stories that, as it’s turned out, has fit the bill for me very nicely. Released in 1966, Needle in a Timestack gathers 10 short tales together from the period 1956 – ’65,

The Miniaturist: Compelling and mysterious, but ultimately unsatisfying

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Jessie Burton’s debut novel, The Miniaturist, was undoubtedly a hit. I bought it because I was in an airport rush and it was winking at me from its bestseller, front row spot on the shelves. The Miniaturist’s popularity does not surprise me. It is an enjoyable read, packed with intertwining mysteries that tease throughout. I imagine a lot of people have fond memories of doll’s houses and were enticed by this aspect of the story,

WWWednesday: January 13, 2016

While I was looking for this week’s word for Wednesday I came across two I really liked, so you’re getting both of them. Bardolotry is a noun, and means the excessive (usually humorously so) adoration of William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon. And for all you fantasy writers, Catoptromancy is the term for the use of mirrors in magic. This term probably came into use around 1610, according to dictionary.com, and comes from the Greek word for mirror, katoptron.

Obituary

David Bowie died on Sunday,

January 13th, 2016. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 5 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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