The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross
In my review of the LAUNDRY FILES book before this one, The Annihilation Score, I noted that there was a lot I liked and a few things I disliked. Unfortunately for me, my experience with The Nightmare Stacks (2016) was the reverse. There were a number of things I enjoyed, but overall I didn’t like this book very much. Charles Stross is a smart, funny, inventive writer, and it distresses me to give this book two and half stars,
October 18th, 2016. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Charles Stross | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Tormented directed by Bert I. Gordon
As most fans know, producer/director Bert I. Gordon didn’t receive the pet nickname “Mr. Big” based on his acronym alone. From 1955 to ’77, Gordon came out with a series of beloved films dealing with overgrown insects, reptiles, humans and other assorted nasties: King Dinosaur (’55); Beginning of the End, The Cyclops and The Amazing Colossal Man (’57); Attack of the Puppet People (in which Mr. Big reversed directions and went small), War of the Colossal Beast and Earth vs.
October 18th, 2016. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Bohemian Astrobleme by Kage Baker (2010, free at Subterranean Press, also included in Nell Gwynne’s Scarlet Spy)
The Bohemian Astrobleme is an entertaining Victorian steampunk novella about an adventure in the history of a rather underhanded and coldblooded group called the Gentleman’s Speculative Society.
October 17th, 2016. Tadiana Jones | Kage Baker, Sarah Pinsker | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The once-trusted adults of Creek’s Cause have turned into zombies. Asteroid 9918 Darwinia has hit the small town, and in one terrifying night, no one under eighteen is safe any more. Chance Rain and his brother Patrick find themselves pitted against a town full of zombies after their aunt and uncle turn. And what’s more, it’s looking like the infection will spread further than Creek’s Cause if they don’t do something to warn the rest of the world.
Zombie novels are by no means a new concept,
October 17th, 2016. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3.5 | Gregg Hurwitz | Horror, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Secret Horses of Briar Hill by Megan Shepherd
Emmaline knows a secret: Briar Hill, a Shropshire mansion which has been turned into a children’s hospital during World War II, has beautiful winged horses that live in the mirrors of its elegant rooms. They move in and out of the mirror-rooms, walking through doorways, nosing half-finished cups of tea. But only Emmaline can see them, and she keeps the secret to herself. She knows the boys like Benny and Jack will tease her mercilessly if they knew. She doesn’t even tell her best friend Anna,
October 17th, 2016. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Megan Shepherd | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
What Lies Beneath directed by Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis, by dint of such phenomenally popular films as Romancing the Stone, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the Back to the Future trilogy, Death Becomes Her, Forrest Gump and Contact, was already a highly successful Hollywood director when, along with producers Steve Starkey and Jack Rapke, he formed the ImageMovers production company in 1998. As the company’s first project, Zemeckis chose screenwriter Clark Gregg’s What Lies Beneath,
October 17th, 2016. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The House of Secrets written by Steven T. Seagle and illustrated by Teddy Kristiansen
The House of Secrets is a twenty-five issue series that started in 1996 and is written by Steven T. Seagle and illustrated by Teddy Kristiansen. It features a lying, unreliable runaway named Rain Harper; a young girl she takes under her wing named Traci; and a group of musicians, one of whom, Ben Volk, becomes the third central character in the series. Right after Rain and Traci meet, Traci tells Rain a valuable secret: She knows a place to squat where they will be safe.
October 15th, 2016. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley’s first novel was written in 1818 when Shelley (then Mary Godwin) was only 20. She was staying with her husband-to-be, the married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, on Lake Geneva. As a kind of game, Lord Byron, their friend and companion, proposed that each person in the party write a ghost story. Byron wrote the third canto of Childe Harold; another friend, Polidori, was inspired to write the first vampire novel, “The Vampyre.” But Mary Shelley’s response to the prompt would ultimately become the most famous: Frankenstein,
October 14th, 2016. Kate Lechler and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Mary Shelley | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Prelude to Space by Arthur C. Clarke
Prelude to Space is the first novel Arthur C. Clarke wrote and is generally not considered as good as Childhood’s End (1953), probably the most famous of Clarke’s early novels. The publication history of this story is not unusual for the period. Clarke wrote the novel in the space of a month in 1947 but it wasn’t until 1951 that the whole novel was published in magazine format by Galaxy Science Fiction.
October 14th, 2016. Rob Weber | Arthur C. Clarke | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Machine Girl directed by Noboru Iguchi
I am very pleased to report that Japanese special FX master (and occasional director) Yoshihiro Nishimura is now a very solid 3 for 3 with me. In 2001’s Suicide Club, Nishimura’s splattering gore FX gave this ultimately bewildering story just the visceral shocks needed to put it over. In 2008’s Tokyo Gore Police, which saw Nishimura also taking the reins of director, his gore FX entered the realm of high art, with many characters transformed into gushing, human blood geysers and sanguinary fountains.
October 14th, 2016. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | no 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…