Anyone who knows me well could tell you that I don’t see a lot of new films. As a matter of fact, of the 116 films that I saw in 2017, only 7 were new, and 109 were old. Thus, my annual Top 10 Best and Worst lists are necessarily different than most. With me, any film that I saw for the first time in 2017 was eligible for either list. If the film made me laugh, or think, or tear up, or sit suspensefully on the edge of my seat, or amazed me with something that I had not seen before,
January 4th, 2018. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey
They say there are two sides to every story. In Banewreaker, the first book in Jacqueline Carey’s THE SUNDERING duology, we hear the story of the sundering of the world from the perspective of the dark side.
Satoris is one of the shapers of the world, seven sibling gods who crafted the creatures of the world and gave them their various gifts. When Satoris was too generous with the gifts he bestowed upon humans,
January 4th, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Jacqueline Carey | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Awards:
The Parsec Awards for excellence in speculative fiction podcasts have been announced.
Conventions:
NewCon, a convention held in Portland, Oregon, has been cancelled.
Books and Writing:
I don’t know if these articles always comfort new writers, or if it’s schadenfreude, but these articles always make me feel better. Lit Hub reviews the most rejected famous books of all time.
It’s a new year, time to start planning all those fantasy trips I want to take.
January 3rd, 2018. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 6 comments |
The Year of the Geek by James Clarke
The Year of the Geek is a fact-a-day (sometimes more) calendar book filled with all types of sci-fi related information, frequently enhanced by or presented via a host of illustrations, charts, pictograms, and other sorts of infographics. What sort of facts? Birthdays (authors, directors, actors, fictional characters), death dates, release dates (films, books, TV shows), landmark moments, such as when The Doctor first met himself, and more. Many of the facts lead off into brief moments of exploration, either textually or graphically: which Spider-Man characters are heroes,
January 3rd, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
One thing’s for sure, The Power (2016 in the UK, Oct 2017 in the US) demands attention. Margaret Atwood has given it her blessing and I’ll eat my hat if The Power doesn’t have its own Netflix series sometime soon. Naomi Alderman could well be the next big name in subversive, feminist fiction.
The Power asks — what would happen if all women could physically dominate men? Over five years,
January 3rd, 2018. Katie Burton and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Naomi Alderman | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Doctor Who: The Book of Whoniversal Records: Official Timey-Wimey Edition by Simon Guerrier
It’s impossible to deny the appeal of acquiring trivia relevant to one’s interests or chosen fandom; whether slinging obscure Star Wars minutiae across a family dining table or competing against teams at a local bar’s Harry Potter-themed trivia contest, it’s always fun to discover what fan is truly the most committed. To that end, I present Simon Guerrier’s Doctor Who: The Book of Whoniversal Records: Official Timey-Wimey Edition (2018).
If you’ve ever wondered what the “greatest potential threat to Gallifrey” was,
January 2nd, 2018. Jana Nyman´s rating: 3.5 | Non-fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
Central Station is a thoughtful, poignant, human take on a possible future. For the most part Central Station occurs at the titular port on planet earth. This space resides in what we know today as Tel Aviv, but in the distant future it has gone through many names and many people. Everything seems to begin in earnest when Boris Chong arrives in Central Station after spending a great deal of time away — some of which on Mars. Central Station,
January 2nd, 2018. Skye Walker, Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 5 | Lavie Tidhar | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Best of For our New Year’s Day SHORTS column, we’re listing (in alphabetical order) our favorite short fiction works, both old and new, that we reviewed in our 2017 SHORTS columns and rated 4.5 or 5 stars. The title links are to the original, full SHORTS review.
“Alexandria” by Monica Byrne (2017, Fantasy & Science Fiction Jan/Feb 2017 issue): Byrne’s details paint a full, three-dimensional picture of a marriage; a husband who is not physically demonstrative in public, in-laws who never set aside their suspicions of him, and the love Keiji and Beth feel for each other.
January 1st, 2018. Tadiana Jones | Audio, Horror, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction, Theodore Sturgeon Award, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Destiny’s Conflict by Janny Wurts
The wait for each installment in Janny Wurts’ THE WARS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW series can be pretty long and grueling. Wurts is a Mastercraftsman and the amount of labor she puts into telling her story is evident in the finished product. She never fails to find the perfect (and often uncommon) adjective to paint a vivid and precise picture of what is happening in her story. Each of Wurts’ meticulously-crafted novels is absolutely worth the wait!
Please note that Destiny’s Conflict is the tenth book in the WARS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW series (the second book of Arc IV: SWORD OF THE CANON).
January 1st, 2018. John Hulet´s rating: 5 | Janny Wurts | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
The Girl in the Tower (2017), a medieval Russian fantasy, continues the story of Vasilisa (Vasya), a young woman whose story began in Katherine Arden’s debut novel The Bear and the Nightingale, one of my favorite fantasies from early 2017. That makes it a hard act to follow, but there’s no sophomore slump here. The Girl in the Tower is an even stronger novel,
January 1st, 2018. Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Katherine Arden | SFF Reviews | 5 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.