A Dragon of a Different Color by Rachel Aaron
Rachel Aaron’s HEARTSTRIKERS series continues with the fourth novel, A Dragon of a Different Color (2017). It’s really no use to start this story here – you should first read Nice Dragons Finish Last, One Good Dragon Deserves Another, and No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished. At this point in the story, it’s hard to avoid a few spoilers for the previous books,
December 31st, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Rachel Aaron | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Here are our favorite books published in 2021. Hover over the cover to see who recommends each book. Click on the cover to read our review.
Please keep in mind that we did not read every SFF book published this year, so we know we’ve missed some good ones!
Please add your comments — we’d love to hear your opinions about our list and to know which were YOUR favorite books of 2021. What did we miss?
One commenter chooses a Kindle version of one of our 2021 faves or a book from our stacks.
December 30th, 2021. FanLit | Best of the Year | 22 comments |
In 2012’s The Avengers, Agent Phil Coulson was murdered by Loki. This didn’t stop him from coming back and having a seven-season run on his own TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, even if he did die at least one more time during that show’s run.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. aired on ABC from 2013 to 2020. I recently started rewatching it. It brought back memories, good and bad, of my original watch of the series. I’m going to discuss my thoughts and reactions to the first three seasons which cover generally (these are my names),
December 29th, 2021. Marion Deeds | Film / TV | Giveaway!, SFF Reviews | 17 comments |
The British publishing firm Sphere Books had a really wonderful thing going for itself back in the 1970s: a series of 45 books, both fiction and nonfiction, curated by the hugely popular English supernatural novelist Dennis Wheatley, and titled Dennis Wheatley’s Library of the Occult. This reader had already experienced seven of these novels in the natural order of things, in other editions – titles such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897),
December 29th, 2021. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Marjorie Bowen | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
We are on Christmas break with limited reviews/columns for the next several days.
Next week (on Thursday) we’ll announce our favorite books of 2021 and we’ll ask you about yours.
We wish you a Merry Christmas!
(And for those who don’t celebrate Christmas, we wish you a lovely holiday season!)
We hope you’ll have time to spend with some wonderful books.
Stay safe and healthy!
December 23rd, 2021. FanLit | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Foundation: Season One on Apple TV+
In my first review of Apple TV’s Foundation series, written after the first two shows, I said it wasn’t “great” TV (at least not yet) but ranged consistently between good and very good. Having just finished all ten episodes of season one, I’d broaden that range from “occasionally annoying to occasionally great.” In other words, it’s a mixed bag, which I suppose shouldn’t be much of a surprise for a series that mostly follows three plot strands, has multi-decade time jumps, and is itself based on a series of loosely connected short stories that were later retconned into a larger universal narrative.
December 23rd, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Isaac Asimov | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I said this week’s column would be a single-issue one, and it is, but that issue is the Hugo winners. WorldCon 79 was held last weekend in Washington D.C. and the winners were announced on December 18.
This will be short. Find all the winning works here.
Best Novel:
Network Effect by Martha Wells
Best Novella:
The Empress of Salt And Fortune by Nghi Vo
Best Novelette:
Two Truths and Lie by Sarah Pinsker
Best Short Story:
Metal like Blood in the Dark by T.
December 22nd, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
Abbott by Saladin Ahmed & Sami Kivela
BOOM! Studios has released the trade edition of the first series of the period dark fantasy Abbott (2018), words by Saladin Ahmed and art by Sami Kivela. Set in 1972, the story follows Elena Abbott, a reporter for the Detroit Daily. Abbott may not be the paper’s only woman reporter, but she is probably its only Black reporter and definitely the only Black woman reporter. Currently, she is in trouble with the paper’s owners for her accurate expose of the police murder of a Black teenager.
December 22nd, 2021. Marion Deeds and Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Saladin Ahmed | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Beth Cato concludes her BLOOD OF EARTH trilogy with Roar of Sky (2018), bringing the story of clandestine geomancer Ingrid Carmichael, which began in Breath of Earth and continued in Call of Fire, to an action-packed close. This review will contain some spoilers for events in previous books, so proceed with caution.
Badly wounded and permanently debilitated after her desperate fight in Seattle against Ambassador Blum,
December 21st, 2021. Jana Nyman and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Beth Cato | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Absynthe by Brendan P. Bellecourt
Absynthe (2021) is the new novel by Brendan P. Bellecourt, the pen name of Bradley Beaulieu, author of the excellent SONG OF THE SHATTERED SANDS series. Talk about a change. Beaulieu leaves the desert far behind to head for the big noisy city in a complex Jazz Age/Psi-powers tale set in an alt-history US.
A decade ago America fought the Great War with the St. Lawrence Pact made up of Great Britain, Canada,
December 20th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Brendan P. Bellecourt | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
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.