A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Warning: This review will contain a spoiler for the previous novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It’s really impossible to talk about A Closed and Common Orbit without this spoiler. However, you don’t need to read The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet before reading A Closed and Common Orbit since this sequel focuses on two minor characters from the first book.
June 21st, 2017. Kat Hooper´s rating: 1.5 | Becky Chambers | Audio | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
As I have mentioned elsewhere, sci-fi pulpmaster Edmond Hamilton, during the early decades of his career, destroyed so many planets in his stories that he managed to acquire for himself the nickname “World Wrecker.” But in his final novel, Doomstar, the destruction of a mere planet seemed to be small potatoes for the Ohio-born author, and nothing less than the death — or, in this case, the poisoning — of a solar body would suffice! Doomstar was initially released as a 50-cent Belmont paperback in January 1966,
June 21st, 2017. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Edmond Hamilton | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Witches of Echo Park by Amber Benson
The Witches of Echo Park (2015) is a book that kind of has me stumped. The publisher sent me this first book in the series along with the second book. I read this one, and I’ve just kind of sat on it, wondering what to say about it. On the one hand, I loved it. It’s a unique, well written spin on what could easily have been a completely typical urban fantasy. On the other hand, I spent a good chunk of the book waiting for something to happen.
June 19th, 2017. Sarah Chorn´s rating: 3 | Amber Benson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Our weekly exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we wanted you to know about.
“A Rose for Ecclesiastes” by Roger Zelazny (1963, text and audio free on EscapePod, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction). 1964 Hugo nominee (short fiction)
In this classic and much-anthologized tale of life on Mars, Gallinger, a brilliant linguist and poet with an antagonistic personality, is part of an Earth mission to study the humanoid Martian natives.
June 19th, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Kat Hooper | Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny | Audio, Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
A Bridge of Years by Robert Charles Wilson
Tom Winter tried to find solace in a bottle when his wife left him. He lost his job and concluded that 1989 was a pretty tough year. Now, Tom is trying to make a go of it in Belltower in the Pacific Northwest. His brother has set him up with a job as a car salesman, and he has bought a house. Life seems pretty mundane, until Tom realizes that the house is a time machine that leads to New York in 1962.
Published in 1991,
June 19th, 2017. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3 | Robert Charles Wilson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Barsk: The Elephant’s Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen
When I put in my ARC request for Lawrence M. Schoen’s new novel Barsk, all I knew about it was that the setting involved a group of worlds inhabited by a variety of anthropomorphic space-faring animal species, with the main focus on elephants (thus its subtitle: The Elephant’s Graveyard). C’mon. El-e-phants in Spaaaaaccce! How could I resist? But Barsk is much more than a funny-but-cool premise;
June 19th, 2017. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Lawrence M. Schoen | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Wytches by Scott Snyder (writer) and Jock (artist)
Wytches by Scott Snyder is the horror book I never thought I would enjoy. I just do not like being frightened by the literature I read, and yet, I enjoyed every page of this tense story. In Wytches, a single-volume put out by Image, Snyder creates his own unusual tradition of Witches in a small town in New Hampshire. I read the entire volume cover to cover without any awareness of time passing.
June 17th, 2017. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Today Bradley W. Schenck stops by Fantasy Literature to discuss his writing process for Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom, an illustrated retro-futuristic novel that pays homage to the Golden Age of science fiction while embracing twenty-first century sensibilities. We’re giving away a hardcover copy of the book as well as a Retropolis-themed coffee mug to one lucky commenter! (Oh, and please read my review of Slaves of the Switchboard of Doom.)
When I look back to 2012 I don’t know when,
June 16th, 2017. Jana Nyman | Bradley W. Schenck | Expanded Universe, Giveaway! | 11 comments |
The Space Between the Stars by Anne Corlett
The Space Between the Stars, by Anne Corlett, started out promisingly enough. The story is set in a universe where humanity has colonized the stars, which sounds great, but unfortunately a devastating plague has rampaged through the planets, wiping out over 99% of our species. We learn this via our main character, Jamie, who is one of the very few to survive the virus, a literal handful on the planet Soltaire where she has been working on as a veterinarian.
June 16th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Anne Corlett | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Becky Chambers self-published her debut novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in 2014 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. It was picked up and published by Harper Voyager the next year and since then has been included in all sorts of “best of” lists and nominated for major awards. People I trust love this book and I can see why. I don’t love it, and I’ll explain why here, but I encourage you to try it out for yourself (if you haven’t already) and let me know what you think.
June 16th, 2017. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Becky Chambers | Audio | SFF Reviews | 9 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.