The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe
For those of you enjoy audiobooks, this is the perfect time to finally read (or to re-read) Gene Wolfe’s The Shadow of the Torturer. Audible Frontiers recently put it on audio and the excellent Jonathan Davis is the reader.
The Shadow of the Torturer introduces Severian, an orphan who grew up in the torturer’s guild. Severian is now sitting on a throne, but in this first installment of The Book of the New Sun,
January 16th, 2017. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio, BSFA Award, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Batman: The Man Who Laughs (2005) #1 by Ed Brubaker
Ed Brubaker is one of the best writers in comics overall, and he is unquestionably the best writer of noir comics. Batman: The Man Who Laughs is a re-imagining of what Batman’s first encounter with the Joker might have been like. In the story, the Joker makes his presence known and tells Gotham that he will kill one-by-one prominent Gothamites. He even names the specific day and time of each death. After the first wealthy target — surrounded by police and watched covertly by Batman — dies precisely on time,
January 14th, 2017. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Ed Brubaker | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Tempest: All-New Tales of Valdemar edited by Mercedes Lackey
Tempest (2016) is the most recent in a lengthy series of light fantasy anthologies set in and around Mercedes Lackey’s well-known Valdemar, is a land where people called Heralds are “Chosen” (read: magically bonded for life) with telepathic white horse-like creatures known as Companions. Once bonded, the pair joins others in traveling and policing their kingdom against wrongdoing, threats and evils of all kinds. While I’m a relative newcomer to the world of Valdemar, I’ve read several other works by Lackey and was impressed by a couple of her short stories of the Companions.
January 13th, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 2.5 | Mercedes Lackey, Phaedra Weldon | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
It’s official. I hereby dub Paolo Bacigalupi, Captain Grimdark of science fiction. Uncontent to swerve in and out of dystopia when telling his near-future stories of the Earth gone to hell, he rubs the reader’s face in the grime every step. Scenes of violence and human misery, both manipulative and informative, string along stories of good people stuck in bad times. Formula? Set in the near-future, mix in some stereotypical characters, use a few simple environmental destruction plot devices to build sympathy, make cutting,
January 13th, 2017. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3 | Paolo Bacigalupi | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Humankind has a weird fascination with its own demise. It’s the reason apocalyptic fiction has been a staple for decades. You’ve read zombie apocalypse, imminent meteor, killer virus stories a million times, so the real challenge now is finding an interesting way to explore said demise. Gary Gibson‘s take on the genre is surprisingly refreshing in the second instalment of his APOCALYPSE DUOLOGY series, The Survival Game.
We first meet Katya Orlova as she is jumping off a train.
January 13th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3.5 | Gary Gibson | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
From pulp-minded cynics there is the impression that the literati like nothing more than a book which presents fractals of reality impressed upon social and cultural situations — the more politically and historically significant, the better. If you can somehow throw in the values of literature (meta or otherwise), well, that’s just ink for the Nobel. Post-modern the name of the game, numerous are the works of serious literature (no quotes needed) attempting to portray existence as ever deconstructing relativity for critical acclaim. Speculative fiction is not well known for its forays into this realm of literature,
January 13th, 2017. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4.5 | Lavie Tidhar | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
It’s time for another Collaborative Cliché! We all have subgenres we love, and they all have certain elements that endear them to us. And, sometimes, they use those elements just a liiittle too much.
We are going to start you off with anonymous villains, hidden asteroids, mysterious energy beams and gruff star ship captains. Yes, it’s our homage to Space Opera. Please bring out your most tired, over-used, predictable tropes, and use the Comments section to add to our interplanetary story. One random commenter with a USA address will win a book from our Stacks.
January 12th, 2017. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 15 comments |
Jennifer Murdley’s Toad by Bruce Coville
This may well be my favourite of the MAGIC SHOP books, a series of standalone stories that feature a young boy or girl entering Mr Elives’ Magic Shop and leaving with a strange artefact of some kind — one which will have taught them an important life-lesson by the end of the book (though not before causing them a heap of trouble in the interim).
Perhaps the best thing about the series is that each book is surprisingly different in tone. For instance,
January 12th, 2017. Rebecca Fisher | Bruce Coville | Children | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
The Dispossessed is a perfectly achieved thought experiment, perhaps Ursula K. Le Guin’s greatest achievement, but there is little I can say that hasn’t been said more eloquently, forcefully, thoroughly, or knowledgeably by other reviewers. It transcends genre as a Novel of Ideas. It explores with great intelligence anarchism-socialism vs capitalism; freedom/slavery in terms of politics, economics, society, intellectual endeavor, and personal relationships; the struggle to perfect a scientific theory that unifies time and space; whether human nature inevitably corrupts all political ideals;
January 12th, 2017. Stuart Starosta and Jesse Hudson´s rating: 5 | Ursula K. Le-Guin | Hugo Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Today’s word for Wednesday is pamperdom, a noun, (rare, archaic) for a state of luxury or a state of being pampered. Kind of obvious, I know, but kind of cute. In modern times, the use of this word is probably most frequently applied to cats.
Contests and Awards:
The Baen Fantasy Adventure contest opens on January 15, 2017, and will remain open until April 1, 2017. The limit for original fantasy adventure is 8,000 words. The winner gets their work published on the Baen website and a Baen shopping spree;
January 11th, 2017. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 5 comments |
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!
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Gentlemen, I concur! (Forgive me for jumping into your convo)
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