Cold Welcome by Elizabeth Moon
I was surprised and pleased to see that Elizabeth Moon has continued her VATTA’S WAR quintet with a sequel series called VATTA’S PEACE. I read all of VATTA’S WAR (Trading in Danger, Marque and Reprisal, Engaging the Enemy, Command Decision, Victory Conditions) and even though I rated each book with only 3 or 3.5 stars,
June 7th, 2017. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Elizabeth Moon | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey
M.R. Carey’s 2014 novel, The Girl with All the Gifts, was lauded by both Terry and Ray for bringing new life to tired zombie-fiction tropes. The Boy on the Bridge (2017) occupies a prequel/companion/sequel position, in that most of this novel takes place before Melanie’s story, but a twenty-years-later epilogue swoops around and seems to pick up after The Girl with All the Gifts ended.
June 7th, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 3.5 | Mike (M.R.) Carey | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
While I didn’t fall in in love with V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, I quite enjoyed it, giving it four stars in my review. Schwab is back in this universe now with a sequel, A Gathering of Shadows (2016), which carries forward the strengths of the first book, making for yet another strong story.
Set four months after the events of book one (and yes,
June 7th, 2017. Bill Capossere, Kevin Wei and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Beren and Lúthien ed. by Christopher Tolkien
In the very early pages of Christopher Tolkien’s Beren and Lúthien, his exploration of how his father’s grand love story of the two star-crossed lovers developed, he notes that, “This book does not offer a single page of original and unpublished work. What then is the need, now, for such a book?”
It’s a fair question, and one that I’m not sure all readers will find a ready answer for. The last half-dozen or so posthumous Tolkien books (from now on I will refer to J.R.R.
June 6th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | J.R.R. Tolkien | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Return of the Fly directed by Edward Bernds
Sometimes, it’s just NOT a good idea to continue on with your father’s business. Take Philippe Delambre, for instance, in the 1959 sequel to the previous year’s The Fly, the perhaps inevitably titled Return of the Fly. When we last saw Delambre, he was a little boy living near Montreal, aggrieved over his scientist father’s death, a man who had been turned into a humanoid with the head of a giant fly, AND a little insect with the head of a man!
June 6th, 2017. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Abaddon’s Gate by James S.A. Corey
After reading the first two books in James S. A. Corey’s EXPANSE series, Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War, I came to book three, Abaddon’s Gate, with some pretty solid expectations. How did Corey (really Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) do, based on strengths I highlighted in reviews of the first two books?
June 6th, 2017. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | James S.A. Corey | SFF Reviews | 3 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.
The Waiting Stars by Aliette de Bodard (2013, free to read online or download on author’s website). 2013 Nebula award winner and 2014 Hugo award nominee (novelette)
In this 2013 Nebula award-winning story, set in the 22nd century, Aliette de Bodard weaves together two narratives that at first seem unconnected but in the end, of course, are. The first concerns a woman’s exploration of a derelict spaceship in a graveyard of spaceships in an isolated corner of space controlled by the Outsiders.
June 5th, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Kat Hooper | Aliette De_Bodard, Allen Steele, Barbara Barnett, Sarah Pinsker, Tobias Buckell | Audio, Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Thick as Thieves by Megan Whalen Turner
Note: This review contains some spoilers for the second book in the QUEEN’S THIEF series, The Queen of Attolia.
In Thick as Thieves (2017), the long-awaited fifth book in Megan Whalen Turner’s QUEEN’S THIEF series, the setting shifts away from the peninsula where Eddis, Attolia and Sounis are, to another country in this world, the Mede Empire, which has long been nursing not-so-secret plans to conquer and annex the peninsula.
June 5th, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Megan Whalen Turner | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
(Foreword: actual rating: 5.5/5 stars. Do not read Dickinson’s short story of the same title; it’s a spoiler for the novel’s ending. Consider yourself forewarned. Also, please see my interview with Seth Dickinson.)
Breathtakingly original and carefully crafted, The Traitor Baru Cormorant by debut novelist Seth Dickinson is one of those very few works that straddle the line between “genre” and “literary” fiction. It’s the story of a girl: a lover, a traitor,
June 5th, 2017. Kevin Wei and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Seth Dickinson | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
In this column, I feature comic book reviews written by my students at Oxford College of Emory University. Oxford College is a small liberal arts school just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. I challenge students to read and interpret comics because I believe sequential art and visual literacy are essential parts of education at any level (see my Manifesto!). I post the best of my students’ reviews in this column. Today, I am proud to present a review by Caroline Knox.
Caroline Knox is a freshman at Oxford College of Emory University and is pursuing a degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Politics.
June 3rd, 2017. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
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.