Jade War (2019) is the second book in Fonda Lee’s GREEN BONE SAGA series and a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. It follows Jade City, which won the World Fantasy Award, and which you’ll need to read first (this review will contain some mild spoilers for that novel).
Jade War picks up a year after the dramatic events of Jade City.
June 19th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Fonda Lee | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
On June 27, Connie Willis will host the Virtual 2020 Locus Awards Ceremony. The Locus Award finalists, listed below, are chosen by a poll of readers.
Click the title links below to read our reviews and on the author links to visit our page for the author. We’ve included the cover art for our favorites. The Locus Award list is always fascinating, almost always very different from the Nebula and Hugo lists.
Which, if any, of these finalists have you read? Who do you think will win the Locus Award in these categories?
June 18th, 2020. FanLit | Locus Award | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 17 comments |
SHORTS: Our column exploring free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. This week’s post reviews two more Locus Award nominees, along with other recent short fiction works that we’ve enjoyed.
Late Returns by Joe Hill (2019, included in the Full Throttle collection). Locus award finalist (novelette)
Joe Hill, who like his famous father typically writes in the horror genre, switches it up in Late Returns, a novelette that was originally published in his Full Throttle (2019) collection of short fiction.
June 18th, 2020. Tadiana Jones, Skye Walker and Kat Hooper | Joe Hill, Suzanne Palmer, Tobias Buckell | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Fleet of Knives by Gareth L. Powell
Fleet of Knives (2019) is the second book in Gareth L. Powell’s EMBERS OF WAR series and a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Its predecessor, Embers of War, was also a Locus finalist and won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel of 2018. When I reviewed it last year, I reported that Embers of War was “pleasant but forgettable” and,
June 18th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Gareth L. Powell | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds’ Permafrost (2019), a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Novella, is billed as “a time-traveling climate fiction adventure.” It takes place in two timelines.
In 2080, humanity seems to be coming to an end, mostly due to a lack of food. Valentina Lidova, an elderly Russian math teacher, attempts to continue teaching her malnourished students, knowing all the while that it’s futile.
Then she’s visited by someone from an institution called Permafrost who offers a crazy-sounding solution.
June 18th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Alastair Reynolds | Audio, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Giveaway:
One commenter chosen at random will get a copy of Brian Fies’s graphic novel A Fire Story.
Awards:
Finalists for the Shirley Jackson Awards have been announced. Pleased to see Elizabeth Hand’s Curious Toys on the list.
Books and Writing:
The troubles at literary agency Red Sofa began when the owner tweeted that, during the protests against police brutality and violence in New York City, she had called the police about some people she saw down the street at a gas station.
June 17th, 2020. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 10 comments |
The Iron Dragon’s Mother by Michael Swanwick
It’s been eleven years since I read Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, a novel that, while recognizing Swanwick’s brilliance, I did not enjoy. Some phrases from my review include “random, chaotic, and senseless,” “weird, disjointed, obtuse, inaccessibly bizarre,” and “chaotic nihilism.” But mostly I despised the protagonist, Jane, who was “a remorseless foul-mouthed thief, drug-user, slut, and murderer.”
So, at first I expected not to enjoy The Iron Dragon’s Mother (2019),
June 17th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Michael Swanwick | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Shadow Captain by Alastair Reynolds
Shadow Captain (2019) is the second novel in Alastair Reynolds’ REVENGER series for young adults. You’ll need to read Revenger first, and this review will have some spoilers for that first book.
It’s been three months since Revenger ended, and Adrana and Fura Ness are back together after Adrana was kidnapped by the evil pirate Bosa Sennen and rescued by Fura. Now the Ness sisters have Bosa’s infamous ship and Fura,
June 17th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Alastair Reynolds | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Ascent to Godhood by JY Yang
The Ascent to Godhood (2019) is the fourth and final novella in JY Yang’s TENSORATE series. It’s a finalist for the Locus Award in the Novella category — something that doesn’t surprise me at all. This series is a rollercoaster of deeply emotional stories with a rich and varied setting.
As the final installment, The Ascent to Godhood had to somehow tie together the threads of the other stories.
June 16th, 2020. Skye Walker and Jana Nyman´s rating: 5 | JY Yang | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan
“It’s time for a reboot…. see you on the other side.”
Inspired by whistleblowers, leakers, hacktivists, computer viruses, Big Data, fake news, and civil movements such as Black Lives Matter, journalist Tim Maughan paints a frightening vision of the future in his first novel, Infinite Detail.
The plot is set in two timelines labelled simply “Before” and “After.” In “Before” we meet Rushdi (“Rush”) Mannan, a software engineer who lives in the Croft, a two-mile section of Bristol,
June 16th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Tim Maughan | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.