Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: January 2017

New Amsterdam: Forensic sorcery

New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear

New Amsterdam is billed as “the hardcover debut” from Elizabeth Bear, who had been winning awards for her short stories and novels before this work was published in 2007. Though not exactly described as such, New Amsterdam is a compilation of six short stories, each connected to and increasingly dependent upon the others as the overarching plot progresses. While each story is ostensibly a mystery which requires investigation and the use of forensic sorcery in order to arrive at each solution,

January 20th, 2017. Jana Nyman and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Elizabeth Bear | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

2017 Books We Can’t Wait For!

Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year?

If you’re anything like me your new year resolutions may have already fallen by the wayside. In fact, is it just me, or is there an end of January slump in the air?

But chin up! All the signs suggests they’ll be plenty of excellent fantasy literature in the year ahead. Here are the books we can’t wait for in 2017.

Hover over the covers to see what our reviewers said about each book.

No cover yet: Saladin Ahmed‘s The Thousand And One.

January 19th, 2017. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 45 comments |

Citadel: A satisfying novel for those familiar with Mosse’s style

Citadel by Kate Mosse

I have a strange relationship with books by Kate Mosse. On the one hand, I love the atmosphere and descriptive qualities of her work — it transports you to the south of France in vivid prose; filled with the sights, sounds and smells of another time and place. She clearly loves the history and ambience of the Languedoc, and every page is filled with sensory detail.

On the other hand, Mosse’s plots are slow and rambling, packed full of extraneous details and unnecessary subplots.

This Year’s Class Picture: A scene from a zombie apocalypse

This Year’s Class Picture by Dan Simmons

Sci-fi and horror master Dan Simmons has only one real character in this short story: Ms. Geiss, dedicated fourth-grade teacher extraordinaire. She seems to be one of the very few remaining humans following the frequently mentioned, but never-explained, “Tribulations” that had some role in creating an environment where zombies roam the planet.

This Year’s Class Picture opens rather bluntly:

Ms. Geiss watched her new student coming across the first-graders’ playground from her vantage point on the balcony of the school’s belfry.

WWWednesday: January 18, 2017

I don’t read Wil Wheaton’s blog very often, but the other day I did, and I found this. Philomena Cunk is too wonderful not to share.

Awards:

Yikes! Only two days left on this one; the James White Award is still open for entries, and winner are published in Interzone. The award is open to not-yet-professional writers and the word length is 6,000 words.

The winners of the Stabby Awards for 2017 were announced, and Pierce Brown won for best novel with Morningstar.

January 18th, 2017. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 5 comments |

Eye in the Sky: Very early PKD

Eye in the Sky by Philip K. Dick

Jack Hamilton has just lost his job as an engineer for a government defense contractor because his wife Marsha is a suspected communist sympathizer. Having nothing better to do for the afternoon, he accompanies Marsha to the viewing of a new linear accelerator. An accident at the accelerator beams the Hamiltons and six other unsuspecting citizens into a parallel universe that at first appears to be their world but soon starts to evince subtle differences that become more and more obvious as time goes on.

SHORTS: Carroll, Dick, Howard, Schanoes, Divya

This week’s roundup of free short SFF on the internet contains some great old and new stories.

“The Stolen Church” by Jonathan Carroll (2009, free at Conjunctions, also in The Woman Who Married a Cloud: The Collected Short Stories)

Tina and Stanley, married for five years, are in the lobby of a nondescript apartment building, waiting for an elevator to take them up to visit his parents. The only problem is, Stanley’s parents are dead. Tina can’t understand what Stanley is thinking,

Ender’s Shadow: Ender’s Game from Bean’s perspective

Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Ender’s Game was a SF book so successful and critically acclaimed that it launched Orson Scott Card’s career for decades to come. In fact, it’s fair to say that the story of Ender Wiggins is one of the most popular SF novels the genre has ever produced, to the point of getting the full-budget Hollywood treatment in 2013 (grossing $125 million on a budget of around $110-115 million) with A-listers such as Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley,

Her Fearful Symmetry: Needed more substance than the ghosts

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Two sets of twins, a disillusioned husband, a grieving boyfriend, one ghost. The lives of Her Fearful Symmetry’s characters are as tangled as they sound, in a drama that will play out amongst the tombstones of Highgate Cemetery. A sticker on the front reminds potential readers that Niffenegger is the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Yet let that be the first and last time Niffenegger’s debut novel is mentioned. Her Fearful Symmetry is described as a ‘delicious and deadly ghost story,’ and should be judged in and of itself.

Mixed Magics: A short story anthology for Chrestomanci fans

Mixed Magics by Diana Wynne Jones

Mixed Magics (2000) is comprised of four short stories set in the fantasy worlds of Diana Wynne Jones‘s CHRESTOMANCI; an enchanter responsible for the proper use of magic wielded by the various witches, warlocks, sorcerers and enchanters prevalent throughout his world (and several others). Although the stories are readable enough by themselves, filled with Wynne Jones’s trademark humour and originality, it’s best if you’re already familiar with her previous work in the series, these tales being filled with plenty of in-jokes and cameo appearances.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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