Tales from a Talking Board edited by Ross Lockhart
Tales From a Talking Board (2017) delivers fourteen shivery stories that involve spirit boards. In the US, we think of them as Ouija Boards, but that was actually a brand name; spirit boards, which involve a surface with the alphabet and an object that glides over it, stopping at letters, have been around quite a while.
This anthology has plenty to please people who like the creepy, and lends itself to a dark autumn night pretty well.
October 23rd, 2017. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | J.M. McDermott, Nadia Bulkin | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Suicide Club directed by Shion Sono
There are two types of film review that I find it particularly difficult to write. The first is for a movie that I have fallen head over heels in love with, with fear that my gushing words of praise will do little to do the picture justice. And then there is the review for a film that, despite repeated watches, I just cannot wrap my poor aching cerebrum around; in short, one that I just cannot fully understand. Shion Sono’s 2001 offering, Suicide Club, is,
October 23rd, 2017. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
With The Core (2017), Peter V. Brett brings his well-received DEMON CYCLE series to a climactic close, rounding up the slew of characters he’s introduced along the way and given most of them (at least of those who have survived to this point) at least some moments of stage time for a fond farewell. I’ve enjoyed the series ever since its opening with The Warded Man, and while I had some issues with this final book,
October 20th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Peter V. Brett | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The climactic conclusion to N.K. Jemisin’s THE BROKEN EARTH trilogy, The Stone Sky (2017), has expectations erupting into the stratosphere since both the previous books, The Fifth Season (2015) and The Obelisk Gate (2016), captured the Hugo Awards for Best SF Novels of 2015 and 2016, and these wins were well deserved. Having just finished it, I think THE BROKEN EARTH trilogy is one of the most intelligent,
October 20th, 2017. Stuart Starosta, Jana Nyman and Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | N.K. Jemisin | Audio, Locus Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Sinful Dwarf directed by Vidal Raski
Film buffs who are curious as to what the whole Eurosleaze genre is all about could not find a better exemplar than The Sinful Dwarf. A 1973 picture from Denmark, of all places, the film conflates soft-core porn elements, deformed characters, scenes of ultracamp, and considerable doses of drugs and depravity into one of the sleaziest confections any viewer could possibly hope for.
In this truly one-of-a-kind outing, the viewer meets Lila Lash, a drunken, scar-faced ex-entertainer (played by Clara Keller), who,
October 20th, 2017. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Transfigurations by Michael Bishop
Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris is one of science fiction’s landmark works. A philosophical and psychological study of a man confronting the inherently unknowable, the imagery, events, and overall experience of the novel lodge in the mind, begging questions for which one uncomfortably has no immediate answer. So strange and haunting, a person can only think of the main character’s experiences as the most figurative representation of ‘alien’ possible.
Bringing the idea closer to home corporeally but no less existentially is Michael Bishop’s “Death and Designation among the Asadi” (1973).
October 19th, 2017. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4 | Michael Bishop | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Rapture by Matt Kindt, Cafu, Roberto De la Torre
Rapture is a Valiant omnibus collection of issues 1-4 to collect the entire story arc written by Matt Kindt and drawn by Cafu. I loved the artwork for the most part, and the story began well enough, but events quickly began to feel too rushed and too slightly developed, making for an overall disappointing read, though it’s possible those more familiar with this world and these characters might have a more positive response.
The story opens with a young girl,
October 19th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The hype surrounding An Ember in the Ashes (2015) around its release was impressive, to say the least. Classed as Epic Fantasy, the book quickly became a bestseller on multiple lists and rights have been sold across thirty countries. Film rights were sold in a seven-figure deal (seven!) well before the book’s publication. A sequel was bought almost immediately thereafter. With these kinds of stats, is a book ever going to be able to live up to itself?
Laia is a slave under the Martial Empire.
October 19th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 2 | Sabaa Tahir | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
City Of The Living Dead directed by Lucio Fulci
The second installment of Lucio Fulci’s so-called Zombie Quartet — coming after 1979’s Zombie and preceding 1981’s The Beyond and The House By the Cemetery — City of the Living Dead (1980) finds the Italian director near the very top of his form, confounding his audience with borderline senseless plots and repulsing viewers with an array of awesome gross-out effects.
In this one, a priest named Father Thomas (Fabrizio Jovine) hangs himself, for reasons never explained,
October 19th, 2017. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
At seven minutes past midnight, Conor O’Malley is visited by a monster. But it’s not the monster he’s expecting. This monster is wild and ancient. This monster comes in the form of a yew tree that usually stands atop the hill Conor can see from his bedroom window, in the middle of the graveyard. Except that now it is here, outside his bedroom window, and it wants something from Conor.
Conor O’Malley started getting nightmares after his mother got sick. In them he has terrible visions,
October 18th, 2017. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 5 | Patrick Ness | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Yup, Marion, your memory serves you well! Oh...as regards these three recent Bond reviews of mine, as the old saying…
I remember this book for introducing me to poison gardens... and Kobe beef.
Ana and Din are such marvelous characters. Beyond all the other strengths of the novels, it is their relationship that…
Well, now I want to read The Stardust Thief and then this one! Two more on the TBR Tower---*thanks*, Bill!
I think it comes from reading a lot of mysteries and heist novels! It didn't detract from my reading pleasure…