Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: December 2019

WWWednesday: December 18, 2019

There is a word for the thing in fiction that I always called “The Twist.” It’s Peripeteia (Peri- peh-TAY-uh,) and it means a sudden change or also, a sudden fall.

Housekeeping:

There will be a brief column next week, December 25, and no column on January 1. The column will return on January 8, 2020.

Books and Writing:

Here is a quiz; match the lesser-known sequel to the famous book. I’m not going to tell you how very badly I did on this. (Spoiler alert: abysmally.)

Like many other small press endeavors,

December 18th, 2019. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

The Uninvited: Book vs. film

The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle

Although 1944’s The Uninvited has long been one of this viewer’s favorite spooky movies of that great filmmaking decade, it wasn’t until fairly recently that I learned of the special place it holds in cinema history. The film, apparently, was the very first Hollywood product to treat ghosts seriously. Here, at last, the specters on display were not hoaxes, not fakes, and not played for laughs. Rather, they were completely legit; supernatural survivors with unfinished business here on the material plane. Featuring first-rate acting by a cast of pros,

Angel Mage: Four Musketeers vs. a power-hungry mage

Angel Mage by Garth Nix

Chaos, death by the magical Ash Blood plague and by monstrous beasts have consumed the country of Ystara, killing all who remain within its borders. The last survivors, holed up in a cathedral, speculate that this disaster must have been caused by a “ferociously single-minded” young mage, Liliath, whose unprecedented power to call on angels, particularly the archangel Palleniel, has somehow led to things going catastrophically awry.

One hundred thirty-seven years later, Liliath awakes from her magical sleep in the temple of Saint Marguerite, in the neighboring country of Sarance.

Sunday Status Update: December 15, 2019

Jana: This week I’ve been trying to catch up on a few books in my meagre free time — Charles Soule’s Anyone, Keith Ammann’s The Monsters Know What They’re Doing, and Seanan McGuire’s Laughter at the Academy. I’ve made good progress in all of them, but just haven’t had the time/energy to finish them up. Next week: hopefully more time to read!

Bill: This week was mostly grading final papers.

December 15th, 2019. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It

iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It by Steve Wozniak & Gina Smith

What I knew about Steve Wozniak prior to reading iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It (2007) could be summed up like so: he invented the Apple II, and he guest-starred on a video-game-themed cartoon called Code Monkeys, which was a program on the television channel G4 back in 2007.

December 13th, 2019. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Gates of Never: Solid if a bit underwhelming collection of speculative poetry

The Gates of Never by Deborah L. Davitt

The first thing I (unfortunately) have to note is that the formatting was off in the version of The Gates of Never I read, which clearly detracts from reading, let along critiquing, poetry. Issues of line breaks and spacing popped up, and if I looked at versions in Kindle or in Bluefire or in PDF the line breaks were different in all three, making it impossible to tell which is the author’s intended.

Setting that aside, as is often the case for me and poetry collections (or any anthology to be honest),

December 13th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | SFF Reviews | no comments |

WWWednesday: December 11, 2019

For the holidays:

This 3 ½ minute video showcases the a capella group Straight No Chaser singing “The 12 Days of Christmas” and several other favorites.

Books and Writing:

Vonda McIntyre, who died earlier this year, has left her literary assets and a sizeable bequest to Clarion West.

SFWA named Lois McMaster Bujold as the latest Grandmaster.

Barnes and Noble went scything through their blogosphere, ending contracts with all of their freelance Fantasy and SF blog writers and Teen blog writers (and by “freelance” they mean “all of them.”) The move is purportedly to put the content of the B&N site “back” into the hands of booksellers.

December 11th, 2019. Marion Deeds | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

MONSTRESS 3: Haven: Increasingly complex

MONSTRESS 3: Haven by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda

It’s always an event when the next collection of Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s MONSTRESS is released — I take a copy home, make sure I won’t get interrupted, and just sink down into the complex storytelling and truly gorgeous illustrations. Every year this ongoing graphic novel cleans up at the Eisner and Hugo Awards, and for good reason.

Maika Halfwolf is a young woman with a terrible secret: an ancient monster resides within her body,

Jinx High: Like a cheesy horror movie

Jinx High by Mercedes Lackey

Jinx High (1991) is the third novel in Mercedes Lackey’s DIANA TREGARDE trilogy, following Burning Water and Children of the Night. This series stars Diana Tregarde, a romance novelist and witch who protects humans from supernatural harm. The novels and short stories in this series can be read in any order.

In Burning Water we watched Diana catch a serial killer inspired by an ancient Aztec god and in Children of the Night she confronted vampires that were sucking the life out of people in her city.

Uncanny Stories: Not withholding affection

Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair

This is not the first time that I am going to say some nice things about London-based publisher Wordsworth Editions, and, more particularly, its Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural division, which, over the years, has brought forth dozens of reasonably priced books by many well-known writers, as well as many lesser-knowns. Previously, I have written here of two Wordsworth volumes by some (to me) known authors, Ambrose Bierce (Terror By Night – Classic Ghost & Horror Stories) and Robert E.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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