The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus edited by Brian W. Aldiss
The Penguin Science Fiction Omnibus (1973) is a compilation of three short story anthologies: Penguin Science Fiction (1961), More Penguin Science Fiction (1963), and Yet More Penguin Science Fiction (1964), all edited by Brian Aldiss. Presenting an all-star lineup of established Silver Age and burgeoning New Age writers, most all are well known names in the field, including Isaac Asimov,
April 19th, 2017. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3.5 | A.E. Van_Vogt, Arthur C. Clarke, Brian W. Aldiss, Clifford D. Simak, Damon Knight, Eric Frank Russell, Frederik Pohl, Gordon R. Dickson, Harry Harrison, Isaac Asimov, J.G. Ballard, James Blish, James H. Schmitz, John Brunner, Robert Sheckley, Walter M. Miller, Ward Moore | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
Hard as it may be to fathom, once upon a time (the early 1900s), radium was thought of as a miracle substance, enhancing all it touched. And so companies flooded the market with products like radium makeup, radium water, radium butter, radium toothpaste, and radium paint. The last was used by the young women who painted luminescent numerals on watch dials (a tool that became all-important to the war effort), though they also snuck some paint now and then to paint their nails,
April 19th, 2017. Bill Capossere and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
This review contains spoilers for the first two books in the NEWSFLESH trilogy, Feed and Deadline.
Mira Grant’s Blackout (2012) ends almost exactly where Deadline (2011) ended. Georgia — George — Mason has awakened to find that she has made a miraculous recovery from being shot in the brainstem, and without retinal Kellis-Amberlee (the virus that causes people to become zombies, named for the discoverer of a cure for the common cold and the discoverer of a cure for cancer,
April 19th, 2017. Terry Weyna and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Mira Grant | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A Turn of Light by Julie E. Czerneda
Have you ever read a book that you fell head over heels in love with purely because the writing was so breathtakingly beautiful? For me, A Turn of Light (2013) by Julie E. Czerneda is one of those. It contains some of the most lyrical, breathtakingly beautiful writing I have run across in my many years writing reviews.
That being said, the lyrical writing might also be a downside for many readers. It takes quite a while for Czerneda to get to the point.
April 18th, 2017. Sarah Chorn´s rating: 4 | Julie E. Czerneda | SFF Reviews | no comments |
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
This is the first Alastair Reynolds’ book I’ve read not set in his REVELATION SPACE series, and many of his fans claim House of Suns (2008) is his best book. I’d have to say it is pretty impressive, dealing with deep time scales rarely seen for any but the most epic hard SF books. What’s unique about House of Suns is not simply that the story spans hundreds of thousands of years, but that the characters actually live through these massive cycles as they loop around the Milky Way galaxy,
April 18th, 2017. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Alastair Reynolds | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Independent, modern young woman narrates, in First Person Smartass, how she was just an ordinary person with an ordinary life who didn’t believe in the supernatural, but then it turned out that the supernatural believed in her, and around about the same time she met this guy…
There are hundreds of authors writing that exact book at the moment, many of them very badly; and when I see an instance of it, I usually move on, sometimes with an eye roll, to the next book in the hope of something I haven’t seen dozens of times before.
April 18th, 2017. Mike Reeves-McMillan | Tim (T.A.) Pratt | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Edge of Everything by Jeff Giles
It’s not been the best year for Zoe. What with her father’s death in a caving accident, her neighbour’s disappearance and then the fact that she is brutally attacked with her younger brother in a cabin in the woods, it’s fair to say things have been better. But with the arrival of the mysterious paranormal bounty hunter “X”, everything is about to change.
On the surface, The Edge of Everything might look like your average contemporary YA novel, but it is far darker than many readers will expect.
April 17th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Jeff Giles | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Weird Dinosaurs: The Strange New Fossils Challenging Everything We Thought We Knew by John Pickrell
I don’t know if I’d call the creatures detailed in John Pickrell’s Weird Dinosaurs all that “weird,” to be honest. One gets the sense that the main title is more marketing than description. But the subtitle — The Strange New Fossils Challenging Everything We Thought We Knew — is nearer to the mark with regard to the book’s contents, even allowing for perhaps a bit of hyperbole.
April 17th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Wonder Woman by Jill Thompson is the story of Diana’s life before she becomes the superhero we all know and love. Jill Thompson is the recipient of seven Eisner awards and is well-known for her work on Sandman with Neil Gaiman. Her artistic style can vary greatly, and in this comic she uses one that lends the tale the quality of a myth told many times, which suits this graphic novel perfectly since Thompson shows us Wonder Woman’s coming-of-age,
April 15th, 2017. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
I’ve long been a huge fan of George Saunders’ short stories, which I consider to be generally brilliant both individually and taken as a whole in terms of their commentary on this world and the strange creatures (us) who inhabit it. That commentary is often a blend of satirical fireworks and a warmer, more human exploration of the human condition, and it is the latter of those two that one recognizes most often in his first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo,
April 14th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | George Saunders | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
so you're saying I should read it? :)
As a native New Yorker, I love the idea of the city being filled with canals and no skyscrapers! And…
How did I miss this? Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
I guess that is true, Marion. And when it comes to "You Only Live Twice," I saw the movie TWICE…
You managed to work in your two loves; vintage fiction and films!