By Force Alone by Lavie Tidhar
Lavie Tidhar has been on quite the roll, earning rave 5 out of 5 reviews from me his last three books. Unfortunately, his newest, By Force Alone (2020), didn’t rise to the same level. No, I’m sorry to say I could only see my way to giving it 4.5 stars thanks to being merely “excellent” as opposed to “great.” Slacker.
By Force Alone is an Arthurian tale, though that is a bit deceptive.
August 31st, 2020. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Lavie Tidhar | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Jana: This week I’m still reading Jonathan Strathan’s upcoming The Year’s Best Science Fiction Vol. 1: The Saga Anthology of Science Fiction 2020. My speed is one story per day, so that they stay distinct in my memory. I’m also reading Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country and really enjoying it; Ruff has a deft hand with the blend of meta-fiction, horror, humor, and social commentary at play.
Kat: You haven’t heard from me in a month because I’ve been so busy working on my remote classes and trying to get research going again.
August 30th, 2020. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |
The Hereafter Bytes by Vincent Scott
I believe that humorous science fiction is hard to write. I’m not talking about humorous banter or moments within a book — many writers excel at that — but books that are conceived as comical stories from the start. Humor requires the balance of many elements and crucial timing. Even if those things are present, a sense of humor is hard to quantify, and a technically funny book may fail to entertain for some ephemeral reason.
Vincent Scott, however, is unafraid,
August 28th, 2020. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Vincent Scott | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Classic fairy-tale retellings had a moment just a few years ago.
That moment left us with a bounty of books and stories that start with the elements of those tales and spin them off into strange and wonderful directions.
Naomi Novik, Catherynne M. Valente, and Seanan McGuire all dived headfirst into that rich pool of story, but there were many others as well.
Most of us can probably think of a fantasy book or story we’ve read in recent years that is a fairy-tale retold.
August 27th, 2020. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 35 comments |
In the 1956 sci-fi “B movie” Indestructible Man, hardened criminal Butcher Benton, played by the always wonderful Lon Chaney, Jr., is put to death by the state, but is later revivified by a mad scientist using 300,000 volts of electricity. Benton becomes not only possessed of superhuman strength but is also, as events show, impervious to bullets. But if a certain novel of 25 years earlier can be believed, this was not the first time that a human being was subjected to a massive dose of juice,
August 27th, 2020. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | John Taine | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Books and Writing:
Lots of celebrations of Ray Bradbury’s birthday—he would have been 100 years August 22 of this year. File770 had several articles, including one about various events. (Note, the readathon continues through Labor Day.) The American Writers Museum in Chicago celebrated by displaying his typewriter and inaugurating a series of podcasts.
Nina Allan discusses “the canon” through the perspective of a British reader. It’s a dense, thoughtful article.
Over at Tor.com, James Nicholls recommends five Sf books that would make great musicals,
August 26th, 2020. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
Fans of Jim Butcher’s DRESDEN FILES have been waiting for the sixteenth novel, Peace Talks (2020), for six years. It’s been so long that I actually had to go back and re-read the last few novels to get back up to speed on Harry’s life.
Was Peace Talks worth the wait? The short answer is “No.” Though it’s entertaining and shows us what Harry’s life has been like since the previous novel,
August 26th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Jim Butcher | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
On the same day a riot destroys the market in Ngwa, Nigeria, the body of Vivek Oji is left on his parents’ doorstep, naked except for a length of cloth. Gradually, through a variety of points of view, Akwaeke Emezi unfolds the story of Vivek’s life and death, and how that death affects Vivek’s loved ones — drawing some people closer together, driving faultlines between others.
Readers who’ve read Emezi’s earlier work might expect more supernatural elements than The Death of Vivek Oji (2020) actually contains.
August 25th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Akwaeke Emezi | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Multiple worlds and parallel universes are a staple in science fiction, and Micaiah Johnson does a nice job bringing some freshness to a well-worn concept in The Space Between Worlds (2020), mostly thanks to some sharp characterization, intricate plotting, and stylish prose.
Cara is a “Traverser,” one who travels from her Earth (Earth Zero) to parallel Earths collecting data for the Eldridge Corporation whose leader, Adam Bosch, invented the technology. In the rules of the narrative, one can only travel to a parallel Earth if their double there has died: “It took a lot of smart people’s corpses before they learned that If you’re alive in the world you’re trying to enter,
August 24th, 2020. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Micaiah Johnson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Jana: This week I’m reading Kate Elliott’s latest novel, Unconquerable Sun, the first book in THE SUN CHRONICLES, a trilogy most frequently described as “gender-flipped Alexander the Great in space.” I’m also reading Jonathan Strathan’s upcoming The Year’s Best Science Fiction Vol. 1: The Saga Anthology of Science Fiction 2020; since most of the stories in this collection are new to me, I’m discovering some interesting gems.
Kelly: I read The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi this week.
August 23rd, 2020. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 4 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.