Here are some of the stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about. For the next few weeks we’ll be focusing on 2015 Nebula-nominated short fiction.
Waters of Versailles by Kelly Robson (2015, free at Tor.com, $0.99 for Kindle). Nominated for the 2015 Nebula Award (Novella).
Waters of Versailles centres on an unorthodox protagonist in Sylvain de Guilherand. Sylvain is the mastermind behind the water system in Versailles. That is to say,
February 29th, 2016. Skye Walker, Tadiana Jones, Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper | David D. Levine, Jonathan Maberry, Kelly Robson, Naomi Kritzer | Hugo Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Orion Plan: A Thriller by Mark Alpert
A homeless man sleeps fitfully in a park in New York City. He’s startled awake when an object crushes the box that affords him only a modicum of protection for the elements. He clambers out of the box and gapes at a:
black sphere at a center of a pit, half-buried in the mud. It looked like a bowling ball but slightly bigger, about a foot across. Its top half shone in the moonlight … it was as black as coal and yet its surface gleamed as if it were polished …
February 29th, 2016. Jason Golomb´s rating: 2.5 | Mark Alpert | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
Batman: Dark Victory (2000) takes place immediately after Batman: The Long Halloween (1997). In the aftermath of the Holiday Killer, Gotham’s Falcone and Maroni crime families are in chaos. Dark Victory is steeped in the same dark crime noir atmosphere as Long Halloween, so if you liked the first title you will like this one too. It’s all about mysterious killings, Mafia wars, the rise of the arch-villians,
February 27th, 2016. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Comics, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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 Jacquelyn Bengfort. Bengfort was born in North Dakota, educated at the U.S. Naval Academy and Oxford University, and now resides in Washington, DC. Her work has appeared in Gargoyle, Storm Cellar, District Lines, and the anthologies Magical and Dear Robot, among other places. Find her online at www.JaciB.com.
February 26th, 2016. Kate Lechler | Expanded Universe, Giveaway! | 8 comments |
Black City Saint by Richard A. Knaak
Richard A. Knaak’s Black City Saint combines 1920’s Chicago crime gangs with pre-Christian and early Christian mythology, serving up an exciting start to a new urban fantasy series. The setting is good and the hero is memorable.
Nick Medea is functionally an immortal. Under a different name, he became the guardian of the portal between the realms of the mundane world and that of Faerie. He is a man with many secrets, and the most deadly is the one he carries inside him,
February 26th, 2016. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Richard A. Knaak | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Lost Mask is book two of THE BONE MASK TRILOGY by Ashley Capes, set in a world that has as its most notable feature the existence of sacred bone masks that allow the wearer to communicate with mysterious god-like entities. From them derives the trilogy’s name, and it makes for an intriguing concept that provides a doorway between the material and spiritual realms; worldly politics and numinous mystery.
As in the previous book,
February 26th, 2016. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Ashley Capes | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
I loved Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword, but as I got to the end of Ancillary Sword, I began to have some doubts. As good as the books were, and as good as Ann Leckie is, I didn’t see how she could possibly wrap up such an elaborate story. I should have had more faith! Ancillary Mercy completes Breq’s tale, resolves the story of the intelligent Ships and tells a bit more about what’s beyond the Ghost Gate,
February 26th, 2016. Marion Deeds and Stuart Starosta | Ann Leckie | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
It’s time again for one of our favorite games!
Please help us rename this strange-looking science fiction novel by Chester Anderson and Pocket books. The Butterfly Kid, which is a semi-autobiographical fantasy about LSD hallucinations (surprise, surprise), was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1968 but didn’t win. Has anyone read it?
The author of the new title we like best wins a book from our stacks.
Got a suggestion for a horrible cover that needs renaming? Please send it to Kat.
February 25th, 2016. Kat Hooper | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 21 comments |
Robison Wells’ Blackout is, at first glance, just another typical dystopian YA novel. The chapters are short, the sentences shorter, and the vocabulary wouldn’t be a stretch for most junior high students. Good teenagers are in conflict with bad teenagers and seemingly every adult in existence; adults can’t be trusted as authority figures because they aren’t special and they exploit the people who are. I would guess that a potential blurb for the book might read as, “Who can you trust when your own body might betray you?”
February 25th, 2016. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Robison Wells | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ponter, the Neanderthal from another dimension, is back on Earth – our Earth.
This time, Ponter has brought nearly a dozen of the most celebrated scientists and intellectuals from his world. Though we humans are a difficult bunch to deal with, the Neanderthals seem determined to make contact work. Thank goodness, since a lone gunman on our side shoots a member of their delegation as soon as he gets the chance. Mary, meanwhile, is recruited into an American think tank that is determined to figure out how the Neanderthals and their technology work.
February 25th, 2016. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3 | Robert J. Sawyer | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…