Time for another “Rename This Horrible Cover” contest!
This book by Phyllis Eisenstein is not as bad as its cover. And really, the cover’s not that bad. It just wants a new title.
The creator of the title we like best wins a book from our stacks.
Got a suggestion for a horrible cover that needs renaming? Please send it to Kat.
We love this game!
November 30th, 2017. FanLit | Phyllis Eisenstein | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 14 comments |
This is the third book in Isobelle Carmody‘s THE OBERNEWTYN CHRONICLES, marking the point where the series takes on a truly epic quality. Seriously, this instalment is twice the size of the first volume, and the next one is even larger!
Elspeth Gordie is one of many so-called Misfits that dwell in the safe haven of Obernewtyn, a place where those with psychic abilities (whether they’re telepaths, coercers, beast-speakers or far-seekers) can live in peace and secrecy.
November 30th, 2017. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Isobelle Carmody | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Night of the Long Knives by Fritz Leiber
Murder, as you must know by now, I can understand and sympathize with deeply. But war? No.
After a nuclear holocaust, America is unrecognizable. There are a few cities left on the coasts, but most of America is now the Deathlands, where radioactive dust hazes the skies and radiation-scarred survivors try to stay alive another day. Besides devastating the land, the catastrophe has somehow warped the minds of the few remaining citizens of the Deathlands;
November 30th, 2017. Kat Hooper and Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Fritz Leiber | Audio, Horror, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood was once, via a review of her work, once taken a bit publicly to task by Ursula K. LeGuin for not wanting her books (specifically The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood) to be labeled “science fiction,” because, LeGuin speculated, Atwood did not want to be relegated to the genre ghetto. Atwood, however, responded that it was merely a definitional issue.
November 29th, 2017. Bill Capossere, Stuart Starosta, Rebecca Fisher and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Margaret Atwood | Audio, Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Black Tides of Heaven & The Red Threads of Fortune by J.Y. Yang
J.Y. Yang’s short works of fiction have been published online and anthologized, and one particular element has always stood out to me: their ability to convincingly craft fictional circumstances and characters within a graceful economy of prose. Within the TENSORATE series of novellas, beginning with The Black Tides of Heaven (2017) and its twin The Red Threads of Fortune (2017),
November 28th, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 5 | JY Yang | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Life in Artemis, the only human city on the moon, is rough for Jasmine Bashara, a 26 year old delivery person, smuggler, and would-be tourist guide. She fails her EVA (extravehicular activity) Guild exam in, literally, breathtaking fashion; she’s somewhat estranged from her welder father, to whom she owes a huge personal debt; she’s living alone in a tiny, claustrophobia-inducing capsule room; she barely gets by on her payments as a porter (supplemented by some judicious smuggling activity). But Jazz wouldn’t want to live any other place ― certainly not on Earth ― and she’s determined to make a success of her life,
November 28th, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Andy Weir | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 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 Mouth of the Oyster” by Adam-Troy Castro & Alvaro Zinos-Amaro (Nov. 2017, free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 99c Kindle magazine issue)
In the aftermath of a deadly plague that struck their area in ancient China, the narrator and his wife, Li-Fan, are among the survivors. But the plague has left its mark on them: the narrator has lost his sight but is otherwise still a healthy man;
November 27th, 2017. Tadiana Jones, Bill Capossere and Skye Walker | Ashok K. Banker, Kelly Robson, Marie Brennan | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Telescope in the Ice: Inventing a New Astronomy at the South Pole by Mark Bowen
The Telescope in the Ice (2017) by Mark Bowen doesn’t quite delve as much into the science as I was hoping, but it is still a solidly informative and highly engaging work that tells the story of how the Icecube Neutrino Observatory (set at the South Pole) was conceived and built and how it was immediately successful. The strong personalities (often outlandish ones) make for interesting reading, but it’s the incredibly difficult conditions and engineering problems that create a compelling story.
November 27th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
In World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks provides an oral history of the global conflict against the undead. In the introduction, the narrator explains how this account focuses on the human element rather than just the statistical details of World War Z. The text shifts from the experiences of one survivor to the next.
The history begins in China. Dr. Kwang Jing-shu recalls when he encountered the “Patient Zero,” a child,
November 27th, 2017. Ryan Skardal and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Max Brooks | Horror, Stand-Alone | 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 Ed Lin:
Ed Lin is a junior at Emory University and is currently pursuing a degree in finance.
November 25th, 2017. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…
this sounds like a fun one
These weird westerns are always interesting and have been popping up more in recent times (it seemed like there was…
Looking forward to reading the review.