Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski
Sword of Destiny is the second story collection in Andrzej Sapkowski’s WITCHER books which are the basis of the popular video game. Sword of Destiny should be read second in the series. (This is confusing because the English translations of the WITCHER books were not published in chronological order.) I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the first WITCHER book, The Last Wish,
September 27th, 2016. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Andrzej Sapkowski | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Monsters directed by Gareth Edwards
Fortunately enough for me, I first saw Gareth Edwards’ 2010 sci-fi debut, Monsters, as a middle-aged adult, rather than when I was a kid. Decades back, any monster movie that didn’t deliver the titular creature within the first 1/2 hour would invariably leave me very restless; even the great ’50s shocker The Giant Behemoth was pooh-poohed by me back then for withholding its initial glimpse of the film’s radioactive brontosaurus for “too long.” (Hmmm … maybe this partially explains why I STILL consider The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms — in which we see the monster in the film’s first 10 minutes and regularly thereafter — the greatest such film ever created.) So what would I have made of a film like Monsters,
September 27th, 2016. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
“More Full of Weeping Than You Can Understand” by Rosamund Hodge (2010, free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 99c Kindle magazine issue)
Violet always knew she was different: she’s unable to feel deep concern or love for others, whether it was her kitten that died or her Grandmama. So she isn’t too surprised when a tall pale woman with huge butterfly wings appears to her and tells her that she is her real mother,
September 26th, 2016. Tadiana Jones, Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere | Carrie Vaughn, Kristen Simmons, Ted Chiang | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The White-Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom directed by Jacob Cheung
I’m always in the mood for a good wuxia-fantasy, and The White-Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom has everything you’d expect from the genre: a noble hero, a sprawling plot, a number of gravity-defying action scenes, and an enigmatic woman at its heart.
Based on the novel Baifa Monü Zhuan by Liang Yusheng, the story is set in the last days of the Ming Dynasty, a time in which China is threatened by both foreign invaders and internal corruption.
September 26th, 2016. Rebecca Fisher | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Twilight Zone: Shadow and Substance by Mark Rahner, Tom Peyer, and John Layman Illustrated by Edu Menna, Randy Valiente, Rod Rodolfo, Jose Malaga, and Colton Worley.
Twilight Zone: Shadow and Substance is a large (250 pages) collection of, well, new Twilight Zone stories in graphic form. Or maybe “newish” might be better, as several have deliberate (I’m assuming) echoes of classic Twilight Zone tale, and most have, at least in my mind, a bit of a retro feel to them. I’m not sure this element however is as intentional,
September 24th, 2016. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A. J. Smith has been devising the worlds, histories and characters of THE LONG WAR CHRONICLES for more than a decade. He was born in Birmingham, UK, and works in secondary education. He is the author of The Black Guard (October 1, 2016) and The Dark Blood (December 1, 2016) from Head of Zeus, distributed by Trafalgar Square Publishing.
Swords are big chunks of toughened, often sharpened, metal. They have one practical application – to cut or pierce flesh. Some are better at cleaving or crushing armour, some are designed to be light and others designed to be duelling weapons –
September 23rd, 2016. Kate Lechler | Expanded Universe, Giveaway! | 4 comments |
Listening to Cixin Liu’s THREE-BODY trilogy reminds me of those graphics on cosmology that illustrate our relative scale in the universe. It starts with the microscopic world of individual atoms and molecules (or even subatomic particles like quarks and neutrinos), expands outward to individual cells, organisms, and larger creatures, then jumps out further to continents and the planet Earth, zooming back to encompass our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and then pulling out further to an endless sea of galaxies that make up our universe.
September 23rd, 2016. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Cixin Liu | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
I’m certainly late to the party when it comes to reading Audrey Niffenegger‘s first novel — I remember it making a huge splash when it was first published, and was astonished to flip open my copy and realise it was released back in 2003. Time certainly flies, which is an apt idiom to recall when reading The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Clare meets Henry for the first time when she’s six and he’s thirty-six.
September 23rd, 2016. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Audrey Niffenegger | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Saliva Tree by Brian W. Aldiss
In 1966, with the 100th anniversary of H.G. Wells’ birthday approaching, Brian W. Aldiss wrote a story in tribute of one of, if not, the genre’s grandfather. The resulting novella, The Saliva Tree, distills elements of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds into a suspenseful horror story that has just the socio-political agenda ‘grandpa’ would have approved of.
Set in the late 19th century,
September 23rd, 2016. Jesse Hudson | Brian W. Aldiss | Horror, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
It’s been nearly a year since we played “Rename This Horrible Cover.” Far too long!
Please help us rename this atrocious-looking science fiction novel by Catherine Asaro. Wow. It’s really bad… Well, at least the cover is… We haven’t worked up the nerve to actually read the book yet.
The creator of the title we like best wins a book from our stacks. (Sorry, we don’t have Diamond Star.)
Got a suggestion for a horrible cover that needs renaming? Please send it to Kat.
September 22nd, 2016. FanLit | Catherine Asaro | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 21 comments |
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…
Gentlemen, I concur! (Forgive me for jumping into your convo)
The cover is amazing. I love how the graphic novel (and the review!) hewed close to the theme of "good…