Here are some of the books we can’t wait for in 2021!
Hover over the covers to see what our reviewers said about each book.
Which books are you looking forward to this year? One commenter wins a book from our stacks OR we’ll send you the Kindle version of your choice of one of these:
If you’d like to get email notifications about our GIVEAWAYS,January 21st, 2021. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 81 comments |
The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold
The Physicians of Vilnoc (2020) is another installment in Lois McMaster Bujold’s PENRIC AND DESDEMONA series which is set in the same world as her award-winning FIVE GODS / CHALION trilogy. You don’t need to read the CHALION books first, but I highly recommend them. Most of the PENRIC AND DESDEMONA novellas can stand alone, but it’s best to read them in order if you can.
January 21st, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Lois McMaster Bujold | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
In the USA a new administration takes office today. Yesterday, President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris held a service for the more than 400,000 people in the USA who have died of Covid. The service included lighting the lights around the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial.
Writers, Writing, Reading, Books:
Locus published an obituary for Storm Constantine, who died last week. Constantine’s work embraced the weird. She was an expert in Tarot and the occult, and worked to amplify the voices of new writers.
January 20th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
In A Thousand Ships (2021), Natalie Haynes takes the events of the Trojan War — along with what led to it and what followed — and offers them up in familiar form but a form as viewed/experienced through different eyes: those of the women from both sides who experienced as much if not more of the war’s horrors even if (save for one point-of-view) they didn’t actually fight in it.
Haynes frames her story through the voice of Calliope,
January 20th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Natalie Haynes | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Orphans of Raspay by Lois McMaster Bujold
Those of us who are big fans of Lois McMaster Bujold, now age 71, are always thrilled to have a new story from her. These days she’s been writing novellas and most of them are PENRIC AND DESDEMONA stories, a spin-off from her award-winning FIVE GODS / CHALION trilogy.
The Orphans of Raspay (2019) is the seventh of these novellas, if we go by publication order,
January 19th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Lois McMaster Bujold | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand
Generation Loss (2007) is a Shirley Jackson Award winner and the first in Elizabeth Hand’s CASS NEARY thriller series. Cass is a washed-up, alcoholic photographer who was briefly famous in the 1970s for her images of the punk scene. Now middle-aged, she’s struggling, and a friend offers her a job interviewing another photographer, Aphrodite Kamestos, who had her own heyday in the 50s and 60s and now lives reclusively on a remote Maine island.
The job quickly proves to be harder than Cass expected.
January 19th, 2021. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Elizabeth Hand | Horror, Shirley Jackson Award | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Viewers who tuned in to ABC at 10 PM on Sept. 17, 1963, a Tuesday, to try out the brand-new show entitled The Fugitive could have no idea that the program they were about to watch would soon develop into one of the true glories of 1960s television. Today, of course, The Fugitive needs no introduction, and you hardly need me to tell you of what a quality and timeless entertainment it remains to this day. Its story line has since become something of a classic,
January 18th, 2021. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
1983-era London, with a half-twist toward the fantastic, mingles with ancient British mythology in Garth Nix’s new urban fantasy, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (2020). Art student Susan Arkshaw, a punkish eighteen-year-old from rural western England, takes leave of her loving, vague mother and heads to London to try to find the father she’s never met. She starts with an old family acquaintance, “Uncle” Frank Thringley, but Frank turn out to be, in rapid succession,
January 18th, 2021. Tadiana Jones and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Garth Nix | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Jana: This week I’m reading Nghi Vo’s When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, a stand-alone novella in her SINGING HILLS cycle (which begins with The Empress of Salt and Fortune). It’s delightful and intricate, and I love the ways Vo uses interwoven texts to examine the story-telling process itself. I’ve also been listening to Sheldon Allman’s 1960 album Folk Songs for the 21st Century, a strange and darkly humorous collection of songs about atomic bombs, robots in love,
January 17th, 2021. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 1 comment |
B.P.R.D. (Vol. 10): The Warning by Mike Mignola (writer), John Arcudi (writer), Guy Davis (art), Dave Stewart (colors), and Clem Robins (letters)
B.P.R.D. (Vol. 10): The Warning, along with B.P.R.D. (Vol. 11): The Black Goddess and B.P.R.D. (Vol. 14): King of Fear, make up the Scorched Earth Trilogy. In The Warning, Lobster Johnson becomes an important figure, so reading the Lobster Johnson series at this point might make sense for some readers,
January 16th, 2021. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Mike Mignola | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Kind of you to say. I certainly like to think so!
BTW, Steve Sterner will be performing at seven films during this upcoming fest: https://filmforum.org/series/clara-bow
As far as I know, Bill, Steve Sterner is the only person who does the live accompaniment to silent movies…
And I'm positive that Kaidan will fondly remember watching these movies with his old man for the rest of his…
You bet, Marion!