Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: July 2017

The Suffering Tree: Witchcraft in the United States

The Suffering Tree by Elle Cosimano

When Tori Burns’ family is contacted shortly after her father’s death about a house and some land that was left to them in Chaptico, Maryland, they are suddenly moving into a century home. So begins the uncovering of the mysterious circumstances that lead to Tori’s family owning a small parcel of land on the historic Slaughter farm. The move kicks off many unexplainable happenings that seem to all come back to a witch’s curse from 300 years ago. Elle Cosimano strives to connect the present of the Slaughter land with a darker past,

A Meeting with Medusa: A vivid Silver Age imagining of Jupiter

A Meeting with Medusa by Arthur C. Clarke

If speculative fiction has any stranglehold on literature, it’s the lack of limitations to the question: what if? Fantasy is a complete expression of this facet, while science fiction tugs lightly on the reins lest the imagination escape reality entirely. In Arthur C. Clarke’s 1971 novella A Meeting with Medusa, Jupiter is that reality. Clarke penned the novella for anyone who ever wondered what being in the gas giant’s atmosphere might be like.

Owl and the Japanese Circus: A homage to Indiana Jones

Owl and the Japanese Circus by Kristi Charish

Owl and the Japanese Circus (2015), by Kristi Charish, is an urban fantasy that exceeded my expectations. “Owl” is a nickname given to our protagonist, who is delightfully different from most protagonists in this subgenre. She’s got a real Indiana Jones vibe, and her history with archeology and her obvious knowledge regarding ancient artifacts backs it up. She can hold her own, and has an obsession with online RPGs that plenty of people will relate to. Furthermore,

July 31st, 2017. Sarah Chorn´s rating: 4 | Kristi Charish | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Asylum of Dr. Caligari: A somehow funny melding of German Expressionism, WWI, and art therapy

The Asylum of Dr. Caligari by James Morrow

Using a cult-class silent horror film (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) as the template for a speculative fiction anti-war novel might be a weird idea, but James Morrow has made a career out of weird ideas (including several books on killing God) and that experience mostly pays off in The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, though I would have preferred a shorter version of the tale.

On the eve of WWI,

Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes by Matt Kindt

Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes by Matt Kindt

Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes by Matt Kindt is a fantastic, but demanding book to read. It is about police detective Gould who, like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, seems capable of solving all cases. However, unlike Holmes, who never seems to be personally impacted by the cases he solves, Gould changes as a character. Gould not only changes his job from police detective to private detective by the end of the novel;

July 29th, 2017. Brad Hawley | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Bannerless: A thoughtful detective story in a post-apocalyptic world

Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn

In Bannerless (2017), Carrie Vaughn ― perhaps best known for her KITTY NORVILLE urban fantasy series inhabited by werewolves and vampires ― has created a reflective, deliberately paced post-apocalyptic tale with some detective fiction mixed in. It’s about a hundred years in our world’s future and after an event simply called the Fall, when civilization collapsed worldwide. The cities are now ruins, abandoned by all but the most desperate people. Climate change has resulted in, among other things,

Thoughtful Thursday: The 2017 Hugos, Who Will Win? Who Ought To Win?

The WorldCon75 Committee announced that, when the Hugo voting closed, they had received 3319 ballots, the third highest turnout in the history of the award.

This year, in addition to the familiar categories, the Hugos added a Best Series category. I’m interested to see who wins, and what people even think of the category as a concept.

Best Novel finalists are: (click the links for our reviews)

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (winner of the Nebula for Best Novel and the Locus award for Best Fantasy Novel)
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Death’s End by Cixin Liu,

July 27th, 2017. Marion Deeds | Hugo Award | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 20 comments |

The Currents of Space: “It’s a rather complicated story”

The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov

The Currents of Space, the third entry in Isaac Asimov’s loosely linked GALACTIC EMPIRE trilogy, is a prequel of sorts to book 1, 1950’s Pebble in the Sky, and a sequel of sorts to book 2, 1951’s The Stars, Like Dust, and if you by any chance find that statement a tad confusing, trust me, that is the very least of the complexities that this book dishes out!

Amatka: Defies conventions, with mixed results

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck

Karin Tidbeck’s Amatka (2017) almost reads as a callback to the experimental and dystopian science fiction of the 1970s: a slim novel, packed with examination of the self as an individual unit within a larger social machine and the cost-benefit analysis thereof, with strange imagery and twisting narrative threads, and no easy answers to be found.

Once, generations back, a group of people mysteriously found themselves in a new place, and were unable to make their way back home.

WWWednesday: July 26, 2017

From Haggard Hawks, “to meet the Skerrymen” is to keep as a secret the identity of someone with whom you had a meeting.

Conventions:

San Diego Comic-Con kicked off last Thursday. Syfy Wire has some nice cosplay stills here.

You know who didn’t like Comic-Con? United Airlines, that’s who. They restricted the packing of comic books in checked luggage. United assured passengers, via Twitter, that this was a TSA requirement. TSA did not agree with this statement.

WorldCon 75 has posted the draft schedule for WorldCon,

July 26th, 2017. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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