The Queen’s Advantage by Jessie Mihalik
The Queen’s Advantage (2019) is the second story in Jessie Mihalik’s ROGUE QUEEN series. These are short and entertaining science fiction novellas. I enjoyed the first one, The Queen’s Gambit, because it’s fast-paced, has a strong female protagonist, an appealing love interest, and a nice sense of humor. You’ll want to read it before picking up The Queen’s Advantage.
I listened to Tantor Audio’s edition which is narrated by Rachel Dulude.
October 22nd, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Jessie Mihalik | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Bloodsuckers directed by Robert Hartford-Davis
Perhaps I should state at the outset that my only reason for renting out the 1970 British film Bloodsuckers is that it stars two of my very favorite English actors, Peter Cushing and The Avengers‘s Patrick Macnee, appearing in a theatrical picture together for the first and only time. Well, I suppose that helps to explain my double disappointment with this film, a horror outing without a single shiver, and moreover, one in which Cushing and Macnee share not a single scene together.
October 22nd, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 1.5 | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay
A person — whose name and gender are never specified, because that person is “you” — wakes up, alone in a room. You’re blind and in intense pain, and at first you remember nothing at all of your past. You only hear one person, Dr. Anne Kuhn, who instructs you through a speaker: testing you mentally, badgering you to exercise, and, little by little, giving you bits of information about your past life and about why you are where you are now. Gradually it becomes clear that something disastrous has happened.
October 21st, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Paul Tremblay | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Lost Continent directed by Michael Carreras
There is a word, “serendipity,” that Webster’s defines as “an instance of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for,” and I suppose that this would be the precise word to describe my experience with the 1968 film The Lost Continent. I had set my DVR at home to record a film that I thought to be the old Cesar Romero film from 1951, Lost Continent, a childhood favorite, and wound up getting this one instead. I was very disappointed when I discovered my error,
October 21st, 2019. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Jana: This week I’m still reading (and enjoying) Philip Pullman’s The Secret Commonwealth, book two of THE BOOK OF DUST trilogy. I like what Pullman is doing here, with his “a precious resource the world is dependent upon is in dwindling supply” allegory, and I continue to be intrigued by the friction between Lyra and Pan. I also read Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Just War, written by G. Willow Wilson and illustrated by Cary Nord; the storyline revolves around Ares making an unexpected decision and the choices Diana must make in response,
October 20th, 2019. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 2 comments |
In my recent review of Frank Aubrey’s lost-race novel The King of the Dead (1903), which transpires in the jungle depths of Brazil, I mentioned that the author, in an attempt to add realism to his descriptions of the terrain, had quoted liberally from works by the famed Argentinian writer William Henry Hudson. And well he might! Hudson at that point was 62 years old, and well known for being both a naturalist and ornithologist,
October 18th, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | W.H. Hudson | Film / TV, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Disembodied directed by Walter Grauman
Sometimes, all it takes is one decent, interesting and/or sexy performance to salvage an otherwise lackluster film from complete uselessness. To demonstrate the veracity of this statement, I give you The Disembodied, a rather silly and borderline confusing voodoo film that is of interest today solely for the performance of its leading lady, Allison Hayes. When The Disembodied was first released in August 1957, it was part of a double bill, playing alongside the now legendary From Hell It Came,
October 18th, 2019. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Wand that Rocks the Cradle edited by Oren Litwin
The Wand that Rocks the Cradle: Magical Stories of Family (2019) is a new anthology, edited by Oren Litwin, that’s just what it says on the tin: a collection of short stories about magic and family. As our reviewer Marion Deeds is one of the featured authors, I’m going to follow Skye, Jana, and Bill’s lead by eschewing the star rating, as they did when reviewing Marion’s Aluminum Leaves.
October 18th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter and Bill Capossere | Marion Deeds | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Wayward (2013), the second book in Blake Crouch’s WAYWARD PINES trilogy, picks up right where book 1, Pines, left off. I’ll avoid THE major spoiler for Pines, but minor ones are inevitable, and if there was ever a series where you absolutely need to read the books in order, this one is it. Ethan Burke is the newly-minted sheriff of the small town of Wayward Pines,
October 17th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Blake Crouch | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Satan’s Blood directed by Carlos Puerto
The death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in November 1975 meant not only the end of a 39-year repressive regime for the people of Spain, and the ushering in of democracy, but the dawn of a new freedom in the cinematic arts, as well. With the effective ending, in 1977, of the strict censorship laws that had hamstrung filmmakers for decades, a new looseness was engendered. Films could now be released that contained nudity, sexual themes, and violent and horrific elements … provided, of course, that the film was tagged with the “Clasificada S”
October 17th, 2019. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…
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.