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The Ghost Sequences: Moody, thoughtful and disturbing

The Ghost Sequences by A.C. Wise

A.C. Wise’s 2021 story collection The Ghost Sequences delivers a sampler of her short fiction. As the name implies, nearly all are ghostly or eerie. Wise pays homage to North American (Lovecraftian) Gothic with two stories in particular, and examines the serial-killer/slasher genre in others. Despite the disturbing subject matter, Wise’s prose glimmers like a piece of abalone shell. The stories are disturbing and moody in the best way.

The book has sixteen stories; one, “Exhalation #10,” is novelette-length.

Sunday Status Update: January 30, 2021

Peter Pan: I like having mothers, but they’re always trying to make me grow up. Well, almost always. Sophie’s my mother now. She’s Wendy’s daughter, or daughter’s daughter, or daughter’s daughter’s niece. Or something. Anyway, mothers keep trying to make you grow up and be a man, so I expected Sophie would too, and I told her I wasn’t about to grow up and get a beard and work in a bank. But then she kept agreeing with me. “No,” she said, “it’s actually a really bad time to be a grown-up. The houses are really expensive and the wages are really low and my mom says the American dream is dead.”

January 30th, 2022. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |

You Sexy Thing: A sure-fire recipe for entertainment

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo

You Sexy Thing (2021) is space opera, with no FTL chase scenes or space battles. Check the list of ingredients: a sentient bioship, space pirates, old feuds, at least one interstellar-conquest scheme, interesting non-human characters, a newcomer with secrets, and lots of cooking. It’s a foolproof recipe for entertainment.

All Niko needs is a Nikkelin Orb award from the food critic coming to the Last Chance, the restaurant she runs with the rest of her ex-military crew. Niko was a captain,

January 28th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Cat Rambo | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Thoughtful Thursday: Identify last month’s covers

Today’s covers all come from books, comics, or films we reviewed in December 2021. Once you identify a cover, in the comment section list:

1. The number of the cover (1-16)
2. The author/director
3. The book/film title

Please identify just one cover that has not yet been identified correctly so that others will have a chance to play. If they’re not all identified by next Thursday at noon EST, you can come back and identify more.

Each of your correct entries enters you into a drawing to win a book of your choice from our stacks (if you’re in the U.S.A.) or a $5 Amazon gift certificate (outside the U.S.A.).

January 27th, 2022. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 17 comments |

Invaders From the Dark: Wolf’s Bane

Invaders From the Dark by Greye La Spina

In my review of the splendid collection entitled The Women of Weird Tales, which was released by Valancourt Books in 2020, I mentioned that I’d been very impressed with the five stories by Greye La Spina to be found therein, and was now interested in checking out the author’s classic novel of modern-day lycanthropy, Invaders From the Dark. Well, it took a little searching until I found a copy of said book for what I considered a decent price,

WWWednesday: January 26, 2022

I asked on Twitter if The King’s Daughter was based on The Moon and the Sun by Vonda McIntyre, but no one answered. Reason.com came to my rescue, via File 770. Yes, it is. The film was made eight years ago, this article says, and the review is… not kind. Maybe I’ll just reread the Nebula-winning book.

I’d hate to think I didn’t fill you guys in the “squeecore” thing! Is it a controversy? A dust-up? A revelation of a movement? A kerfuffle, a tempest in a teapot?

January 26th, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |

Sunday Status Update: January 23, 2022

This week, Drizzt Do’Urden of Dungeons and Dragons fame.

Drizzt: I learned some deeply troubling news this week. While attending the annual Brooding Drow with Swords Meeting (can’t think why people keep snickering when I use the acronym), I found myself unexpectedly one of the very few dark elf warriors remaining. Why, for many years one could scarcely swing a +2 defending scimitar without hitting at least three somber but noble members of my race. I have often reflected that my own modest example must have inspired others, and it has been a source of no small pride to me.

January 23rd, 2022. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |

Resident Alien (Vol. 2): The Suicide Blonde: Another murder mystery for an alien detective

Resident Alien (Vol. 2): The Suicide Blonde By Peter Hogan (writer) and Steve Parkhouse (artist)

In Resident Alien: The Suicide Blonde, the story opens with Asta (the nurse) and her father spirit walking in a dream-state, looking in on our resident alien, Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle. Asta’s father warns her not to let Harry know that she knows he is an alien. They do not want to alarm Harry and cause him to run. Asta’s father says that there are people looking for him, and that if he runs,

January 22nd, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation: You won’t get lost

Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation by Christopher Kemp

Once, driving with a friend from Rochester to New Orleans, I woke for my turn at the wheel to have my friend excitedly tell me we’d been making great time, as we were “less than an hour from Philadelphia.” Considering when we had left home, it was indeed “great time,” I told him. Unfortunately, I also had to tell him that Philadelphia was not even close to on the way to New Orleans, and that he’d been speeding in the wrong direction for the last few hours.

January 21st, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

The Human Chord: “What’s in a name?”

The Human Chord by Algernon Blackwood

In his masterful collection of 1912 entitled Pan’s Garden, British author Algernon Blackwood clearly displayed his belief in the sentience and awareness of such facets of Nature as trees, snow, gardens, the wind, subterranean fires, the seas and the deserts, and of their transformative powers for those with the ability to discern them. One facet of Nature not dealt with in Pan’s Garden, however, was sound itself, and now that I have finally experienced Blackwood’s novel of two years earlier,

Month: January 2022

The Ghost Sequences: Moody, thoughtful and disturbing

Sunday Status Update: January 30, 2021

You Sexy Thing: A sure-fire recipe for entertainment

Thoughtful Thursday: Identify last month’s covers

Invaders From the Dark: Wolf’s Bane

WWWednesday: January 26, 2022

Sunday Status Update: January 23, 2022

Resident Alien (Vol. 2): The Suicide Blonde: Another murder mystery for an alien detective

Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation: You won’t get lost

The Human Chord: “What’s in a name?”

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