Haunted (2003) is the fifth novel in Meg Cabot’s MEDIATOR series. You’ll want to read the previous books first: Shadowland, Ninth Key, Reunion, and Darkest Hour.
In my review of Darkest Hour I said that the series was getting more complex after we meet a guy named Paul (super rich and super hot,
September 26th, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Meg Cabot | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Necroscope (1986) is the first in a series of 18 novels and novellas that Brian Lumley has written about Harry Keogh, a man who has the power to speak to the dead. I have previously read one of these novellas (The Mobius Murders) and wanted to read more stories about Harry. I purchased the audiobook of this first one at Audible a few years ago and have been waiting for the rest to be put on audio before starting.
September 25th, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Brian Lumley | Audio, Horror | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Toward the end of Pat Barker’s newest novel, her main character Briseis thinks to herself:
“Yes, the death of young men in battle is a tragedy … worthy of any number of laments — but theirs is not the worst fate. I looked at Andromache, who’d have to live the rest of her amputated life as a slave, and I thought: We need a new song.”
The eloquently powerful The Silence of the Girls (2018) is Barker’s attempt to create just that,
September 25th, 2018. Bill Capossere and Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4.5 | Pat Barker | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Our feature exploring free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we want to share with readers.
“Field Biology of the Wee Fairies” by Naomi Kritzer (2018, free at Apex Magazine, $2.99 Kindle magazine issue)When Amelia turns fourteen, everyone assures her that she’ll catch her fairy soon. Almost every girl catches a fairy, and the fairy will give you a gift if you promise to let her go. The gift is always something like “beauty or charm or perfect hair or something else that made boys notice you.” What no one around Amelia realizes is that she doesn’t want to catch a fairy.
September 24th, 2018. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Kat Hooper and Bill Capossere | Brian McClellan, Genevieve Valentine, Kelly Robson, Naomi Kritzer | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Barren (2018) is a novella-length (just over 130 pages in my ARC version) story that answers some questions left after the conclusion of Peter V. Brett’s DEMON CYCLE series. Specifically, what happened back at Tibbet’s Brook, the small village that was home to Arlen Bales and Renna Tanner, two of the protagonists of the Cycle.
The first point I want to make has more to do with marketing and target audience than the book itself.
September 24th, 2018. Bill Capossere, Jana Nyman and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Peter V. Brett | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Foundation, a secretive government agency, collects people who have magical powers and puts them to work for minimum wage. They are tasked with keeping evil magic users under control while ensuring that normal people don’t find out that magic exists.
In Good Guys (2018) we follow three of these folks: Donovan, Susan “Hippie Chick,” and Marci. At the Foundation’s direction, they are working together to investigate a string of magical murders which are getting progressively more gruesome and seem to have a particular end-game in mind.
September 24th, 2018. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Steven Brust | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Here we are at the beginning of Autumn, with plenty of new books to read.
Bill: First essays came in so not as much reading this week. I did complete V.E. Schwab’s Vengeance and finished listening to Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Media-wise, my son and I both enjoyed the film The Endless, even if it overplays its metaphors a bit toward the end. And we’ve really been enjoying The Travelers,
September 23rd, 2018. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 3 comments |
The Thief Inoue Akikazu and Other Stories by Osamu Tezuka
The Thief Inoue Akikazu and Other Stories by Osamu Tezuka is one of the best collections of his short stories and shows off his mature work. Chloe Metcalf has done an excellent job in the translations, and we have Digital Manga, Inc. to thank for this volume’s availability in the United States. The stories were written from 1972 to 1979, and the collection was released in Japan in 1979. Digital Manga, Inc. released this translation in 2017.
September 22nd, 2018. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In Dust 8 by Osamu Tezuka, a plane wrecks on a strange island inhabited by peculiar beings. As the plane wrecks, it runs into part of a magical mountain, and bits of rock, or “dust,” land on ten people, bringing them back to life. Eight of these ten people leave the island and are rescued when they are found at sea. The other two stay on the island, and like the other eight, are alive only because they each have one piece of rock on them,
September 22nd, 2018. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Melody of Iron and Other Short Stories by Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka’s Melody of Iron and Other Short Stories is a wonderful work by the “God of Manga.” It is has been translated beautifully by Adam Seacord and is published by Digital Manga, Inc., a publisher that is doing an excellent job of putting out in translation many of Tezuka’s works that are completely unknown in the United States. This work is one of Tezuka’s mature collections from late in his career. The original collection is from 1974 (Tezuka died in 1989),
September 22nd, 2018. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Gentlemen, I concur! (Forgive me for jumping into your convo)
The cover is amazing. I love how the graphic novel (and the review!) hewed close to the theme of "good…
I've thought about picking that one up. The artwork looks perfect.
I like the way you think, Bill. I found the second one particularly objectionable; the one with Khan. It was…
I find if I take every Trek reference out of them (the title, the character names, the ship names, etc.),…