Usually we do this on the first Thursday of the month (that would be next week) but we’ll be on Fall Break next week, so we’re doing it on the last day of the month this time.
What is the best book you read in September 2021 and why did you love it? It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. We just want to share some great reading material.
Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog,
September 30th, 2021. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 18 comments |
The Original by Brandon Sanderson & Mary Robinette Kowal
Holly wakes up in the hospital. Her last memory is being at a party with Jonathan, her husband. The party was for a potter and she remembers being thrilled to actually be able to touch the clay – something real to feel and even deconstruct. She has no idea how she ended up in the hospital, and it takes a while to get some answers, but finally she learns that she has been cloned as a Provisional Replica because her real self (her Original) murdered her husband.
September 30th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal | Audio, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
And now… travelogue.
Mono Lake, Ca.
The calcium carbonate towers, with their knobs and twists, that decorate the water and the shores of Mono Lake in eastern California were (and are) formed by the interaction of freshwater springs below the lake’s surface and the highly mineralized lake water. They’re called tufa. Mono Lake’s salinity is much higher than any ocean; the only things that live in it are brine shrimp and alkaline fly larvae, both of which provide a banquet for many varieties of birds. The lake is currently 65 square miles in area,
September 29th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik
The Last Graduate (2021) completely sucked me in from start to finish! Galadriel has managed to survive three years at her deadly magical school, the Scholomance, with her junior year capped by an epic battle against a fearsome assembly of maleficaria (magical creatures that feast on wizards, especially youthful ones), as related in the first book in this fantasy series, A Deadly Education. Now El is in her last year at the Scholomance and has achieved her goal of becoming part of an alliance of fellow students (albeit a very small,
September 29th, 2021. Tadiana Jones and Jana Nyman´s rating: 5 | Naomi Novik | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars by Simon Morden
Simon Morden’s The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars (2021) is a detailed look at the history of Mars’ geology, and there lies both its appeal and, for some, perhaps, its lack of appeal. As fascinating as much of the book is, I confess it sometimes got a little too deep into the weeds (or the rock formations) for my own preferences, though having “too much information” is hardly a major indictment for a non-fiction work.
September 28th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Simon Morden | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Beast Under the Wizard’s Bridge by John Bellairs & Brad Strickland
The Beast Under the Wizard’s Bridge (2000) is the eighth novel in the LEWIS BARNAVELT series for middle graders which was started by John Bellairs in 1973 and finished up by Brad Strickland after Bellairs’ death in 1991. I’m listening, with my daughter, to the excellent audio editions by Recorded Books which are narrated by George Guidall.
Remember that scary car chase scene, I think it was in the first book The House with a Clock in its Walls,
September 27th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Brad Strickland, John Bellairs | Audio, Children, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Kat: Since you heard from me last, two weeks ago, I’ve managed to consume Dread Companion and Night of Masks by Andre Norton (still listening to the audiobooks released this year by Tantor Audio), A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine, and three of R.L. Stine’s GOOSEBUMPS stories: Stay Out of the Basement, Monster Blood, and Night of the Living Dummy.
September 26th, 2021. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |
The Escapement by Lavie Tidhar
Lavie Tidhar’s The Escapement (2021)is a fantastic and fantastical fever dream of a novel, a Weird Western via Lewis Carroll, Gilgamesh if had been translated and illustrated by Norton Juster and scored by Ennio Morricone, The Searchers if it had starred Buster Keaton, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had it been directed by David Lynch from a screenplay co-written by Steven King, Raymond Carver, and Italo Calvino and storyboarded by Salvador Dali.
September 24th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Lavie Tidhar | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Specter from the Magician’s Museum by John Bellairs & Brad Strickland
The Specter from the Magician’s Museum (1998) is the seventh novel in the LEWIS BARNAVELT horror series for middle graders. The first novel, The House with a Clock in its Walls, was written by John Bellairs and published in 1973. There was a 17-year hiatus after the third book, The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring, was published in 1976 while Bellairs was focused on his JOHNNY DIXON series.
September 24th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Brad Strickland, John Bellairs | Audio, Children, Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
As Supreme Court Justice Potter1 Stewart famously said when asked to explain “magic” in fantasy novels:
“I shall not today attempt to further define the kinds of actions/abilities I understand to be embraced within that description, and perhaps I never could succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it.”2
Ok, he didn’t really say that about magic in fantasy novels. He was talking about pornography.3
But let’s pretend.
Now, some novelists don’t bother themselves to “further define” how magic works in their fantasy universe.
September 23rd, 2021. Bill Capossere | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 13 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.