Huck is the feel-good action movie you’ve been waiting for, except it is a comic. Of course, as with many Millar comics, there are already rumors that Huck is heading for Hollywood, so you could wait to see it in the theaters. But, why wait?
Huck is an endearing character who is based on the Clark Kent model of the good-hearted, simple-minded, small town farm boy with superpowers. However, unlike Clark, Huck isn’t putting on a simple man act.
December 31st, 2016. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Mark Millar | Comics | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Here are our favorite books published in 2016. Hover over the cover to see who recommends each book. Click on the cover to read our review.
Please keep in mind that we did not read every SFF book published this year, so we know we’ve missed some good ones! Please add your comments — we’d love to hear your opinions about our list and to know which were YOUR favorite books of 2016. What did we miss? One commenter chooses a book from our stacks.
ADULT SFF
MIDDLE GRADE / YOUNG ADULT SFF
ANTHOLOGIES / COLLECTIONS
NON-FICTION
AUDIO
December 29th, 2016. FanLit | Best of the Year, Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 25 comments |
When Arden Arrowood was a little girl, her younger twin sisters vanished without a trace. The last Arden saw of them was a flash of blonde hair, speeding away in the back of a gold car. A local man with a car fitting the description was questioned; nothing could ever be pinned on him, but the whole town thought he was guilty anyway.
The girls were never found, and their loss became a wound that destroyed the Arrowood family and continues to haunt Arden, now in her twenties.
December 29th, 2016. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Laura McHugh | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
This is not the usual column. After the loss of Carrie Fisher yesterday at the age of 60, I thought we needed something uplifting that gives us comfort and hope. I am providing a link to the Vanity Fair obituary for our princess, because it contains Carrie Fisher’s signature humor.
I know for many younger readers Princess Leia was prologue. For me (I’m the same age she was) she was a role model. And as Carrie Fisher courageously shared parts of her life, even the not-so-good parts, with the world, Fisher herself became a role model for me,
December 28th, 2016. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 by Joseph Loconte
During a stressful stretch at work, and the persistently weighty negativity tied to the 2016 U.S. election campaign season, I found myself turning to ‘comfort reading.’ The negative vibes, for me, carried through Election Day and I looked toward J.R.R. Tolkien for relief. I knew I wouldn’t have time to return to the warm depths of THE LORD OF THE RINGS,
December 28th, 2016. Jason Golomb and Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3.5 | C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In the latter half of the twentieth century, most of the world (a few areas like Saudi Arabia excepted) has moved to a form of government called micro-democracy. The world is divided into “centenals” of about 100,000 people each, and each centenal votes for its own separate government. The political party that wins control of the most centenals wins the Supermajority, which gives that party additional political clout and power, although the specific details of that Supermajority power aren’t entirely clear. There are dozens, if not more, political parties,
December 27th, 2016. Tadiana Jones and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4, 5 | Malka Older | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Heu-Heu, or The Monster by H. Rider Haggard
Heu-Heu, or The Monster is one of the 14 novels that the great H. Rider Haggard wrote that deals with the life of Allan Quatermain, an English hunter in South Africa. This is a stand-alone novel. Unlike the first two novels in the series, King Solomon’s Mines and its sequel, Allan Quatermain; the so-called Zulu trilogy (Marie,
December 26th, 2016. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | H. Rider Haggard | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt by George O’Connor
Artemis is another in the ongoing series of graphic stories about the Greek gods written and illustrated by George O’Connor. The short version of this review is pretty simple: these works are individually nearly all excellent, and the series as a whole, while absolutely great for young readers (and for teachers of young students), is just as fantastic a read/resource for anyone interested in Greek mythology, regardless of age. One reason is that O’Connor doesn’t simply retell the well-known stories,
December 24th, 2016. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Children, Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
“The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke (1954, free online or purchase at Audible)
In this Hugo-awarded Christmas-themed story, an astrophysicist who is also a Jesuit priest struggles with his faith as he returns from a scientific voyage to investigate a white dwarf, the remains of a star that went supernova thousands of years ago. What they discover shakes the priest’s faith as he tries to incorporate his new knowledge with some of the more innocent-seeming ideals of his order’s teachings.
December 23rd, 2016. Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones | Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Correia, Michael Swanwick | Audio, Hugo Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Eternal Frankenstein edited by Ross Lockhart
Eternal Frankenstein (2016) asks horror writers to imagine, or reimagine, the life of Mary Shelley’s infamous doctor and his “creature.” The book includes 16 stories, all of them original to this anthology, with one that appeared in a different form in the publication Perihelion.
Make no mistake, these are horror stories. Some may glance at science fiction, and some flirt with fantasy, but their primary purpose is to scare us, or make us uncomfortable as we read,
December 23rd, 2016. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
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…
I've thought about picking that one up. The artwork looks perfect.