I See By My Outfit by Peter S. Beagle
Published in 1965, Peter S. Beagle’s I See By My Outfit is an American motorscooter travelogue. Beagle and his friend, Phil, ride from New York to St. Louis and then head west to San Francisco.
I was often struck by how different the world was in the 1960s. In many ways, the absence of mass media and the Internet makes America seem smaller, like you truly could find people who would wonder about the mysteries of New York City.
March 14th, 2018. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3.5 | Peter S. Beagle | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi & Tobias S. Buckell
The Tangled Lands is a shared-world collection of four novellas, two each written by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell. The setting is the faded remains of the once-great Jhandpara Empire, whose glory had relied on wondrously powerful magic. The dying remnants of once-glorious empires litter the fantasy canon (think the faded glory of Gondor —or Numenor before Gondor — or the seedy world of Lankhmar), but in The Tangled Lands,
March 13th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Paolo Bacigalupi, Tobias Buckell | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Our weekly exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. This week we begin focusing on the 2017 Nebula award nominees in the short fiction categories.
Wind Will Rove by Sarah Pinsker (2017, originally published in Asimov’s, Sept-Oct 2017 issue; free PDF available at the author’s website). 2017 Nebula nominee (novelette)
Rosie, the 55 year old narrator, is a history teacher on board a generation ship that has been voyaging through space for the better part of a hundred years,
March 12th, 2018. Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere | Sarah Pinsker | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
All the Light We Cannot See (2014) opens in the basement of a hotel in the port city of Saint-Malo in occupied France, 1944. The city is being bombed. Eighteen-year-old Nazi soldier Werner Pfennig is trapped below tonnes of rubble, his chances of survival increasingly slim, whilst across town, a blind French girl Marie-Laure is hiding in her attic. The pair is bound by a curiosity in natural science, years of surreptitious radio broadcasts, and a diamond that may bestow immortality upon its holder.
March 12th, 2018. Ray McKenzie and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 5 | Anthony Doerr | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Paper Girls (Vol. 2) by Brian K Vaughan (writer) and Cliff Chiang (artist)
This is the second volume of Brian K. Vaughan’s Paper Girls, and takes up the story right where it left off in volume one. The four paper girls from 1988 have found themselves in 2016, but still in the sleepy suburb of Stony Stream. And they are about encounter more weirdness and sinister characters that the first volume…
Paper Girls has been likened to a female version of Stranger Things,
March 10th, 2018. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Brian K. Vaughan | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Will to Battle by Ada Palmer
Unlike winter in George R.R. Martin’s SONG OF ICE AND FIRE series, the long-dreaded war in Ada Palmer’s TERRA IGNOTA finally does show up, or appears to, at the end of Book Three, 2017’s The Will to Battle. The war starts in the final six or seven pages of the book.
This doesn’t mean nothing happens in the 344 pages leading up to the war. In The Will to Battle,
March 9th, 2018. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Ada Palmer | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold
Cetaganda (1996) is the ninth novel that Lois McMaster Bujold published in her popular VORKOSIGAN SAGA but, chronologically, the story takes place earlier in the sequence, between The Vor Game and Ethan of Athos. If you’re new to this series, I (and the author) recommend reading these novels in order of internal chronology which is how we have them listed here at Fantasy Literature. I read some of them out of order because of how they were presented in the Baen Omnibus editions and I regret that.
March 9th, 2018. Kat Hooper, Marion Deeds and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 3.5 | Lois McMaster Bujold | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
I’m a sucker for social science fiction. I love the stuff. I really think it is interesting to see how authors visualize technology and society progressing, the relationship between the two, and how they will influence each other. Our world is such a dynamic place, and the future is full of possibilities. I love authors who aren’t afraid to toy with what is over the horizon.
The Boost (2014) takes place in a fairly near future where everyone has computers (known as “Boosts”) in their heads.
March 8th, 2018. Sarah Chorn´s rating: 3 | Stephen Baker | SFF Reviews | no comments |
It seems like we’re always making fun of horrible book covers, so now let’s take some time to praise some great cover art. We’ll make this a regular feature.
To narrow down the results, for this contest, let’s choose covers that have been published within the last five years. Here are a couple of my favorites:
Full Fathom Five artist: Chris McGrath
The Lady of the Lake artists: Bartlomiej Gawel & Pawel Brudniak (design by Lauren Panepinto)
What are some of your recent favorites?
March 8th, 2018. Kat Hooper | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 19 comments |
The Grip of It by Jac Jemc
Terry: Jac Jemc’s The Grip of It (2017) made the long list for the Bram Stoker Award for 2017, and for good reason: it’s delightfully frightening, and refuses to be set down before the reader has finished it. We both loved it.
Here’s the premise: James and Julie have decided to leave the city for a small town a good distance away, looking for a clean break from financial problems (though Julie has determined she is not going to harp on how James gambled all of his nest egg away;
March 8th, 2018. Marion Deeds and Terry Weyna´s rating: 5 | Jac Jemc | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
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.