The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
The Grief of Stones (2022) is Katherine Addison’s newest work focusing on Thara Celehar, a Prelate of Ulis and, more importantly, a Witness for the Dead — someone who can communicate (albeit it in very limited fashion) with the recently deceased. In the prior novel, titled aptly enough The Witness for the Dead, Celehar uses that gift to help solve several murders.
They also,
June 17th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Katherine Addison | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Reposting to include Marion’s new review.
Last Exit by Max Gladstone
Here is Max Gladstone’s recipe for a Last Exit (2022) cocktail:
Gladstone’s newest is a darkly compelling and intense work,
June 16th, 2022. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Max Gladstone | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
A Google engineer in an AI project states that they have created a sentient AI. The engineer is currently on administrative leave from Google. The article uses the word sentient, which basically means having emotions, or consciousness, but the text from the article makes it sounds like we’re discussing sapience, which is self-awareness.
Charlie Jane Anders writes about the balance to grimdark, which she has dubbed sweetweird.
Sugar the Horse has become more than an internet celebrity; she is an icon of those who spent the pandemic evaluating their lives and deciding working most of your waking life was not what they wanted to do.
June 15th, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |
Scary Stories for Young Foxes: The City by Christian McKay Heidicker
Three young fox kits, romping through their first heavy snow, come upon a gravely injured older fox in the woods. The wounded fox asks for their help, and the kits are understandably reluctant. Then the stranger fox says that he needs to tell them a story first. A scary story, but not of predators and dangers of the forest. The City and a nearby farm have equally horrifying dangers for foxes.
The Stranger’s story begins at a fox farm,
June 15th, 2022. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Christian McKay Heidicker | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Out of Time’s Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs
In Out of Time’s Abyss, the last volume of Edgar Rice Burrough’s CASPAK trilogy, we learn what happened to Bradley, one of the adventurers we met in the first novel, The Land that Time Forgot. As we expected, Bradley has frightening adventures on Caspak, is nearly killed by lions, bears, tigers, dinosaurs, etc, and he saves and falls in love with a beautiful young damsel in distress.
In this installment,
June 14th, 2022. Kat Hooper and Sandy Ferber´s rating: 2.5 | Edgar Rice Burroughs | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Kat: You haven’t heard from me in over a month — I’ve been so busy. But I did manage to get these novels read: The End of Eternity, The Stars, Like Dust, The Currents of Space, and Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov, Ben H. Winter’s THE LAST POLICEMAN series (The Last Policeman,
June 12th, 2022. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |
Shelterbelts by Jonathan Dyck
With Shelterbelts, Jonathan Dyck joins the ranks of other great Canadian comic book creators such as Seth and Jeff Lemire, who both write and draw their own works. Shelterbelts is a sensitive book about a Mennonite town undergoing changes. We get glimpses of different parts of the community through a series of interrelated stories in which the same people show up in different contexts. For example, we meet the queer daughter of a Mennonite preacher in several stories, and we get to know the father who is wrestling with his church members over being more inclusive.
June 11th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Origin of Storms by Elizabeth Bear
The Origin of Storms (2022) is Elizabeth Bear’s mostly satisfying conclusion to her generally excellent LOTUS KINGDOM’s trilogy, continuing the prior books’ strengths of strong characterization and sharp social commentary. Spoilers to follow for books one (The Stone in the Skull) and two (The Red-Stained Wings).
After the events of the first two books, Rajni Mrithuri is now the Dowager Empress,
June 9th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Elizabeth Bear | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Samit Basu discusses the journey he took to imagine his newest book, The City Inside.
Tor.com spotlights new June releases.
Mary Robinette Kowal highlights the upcoming anthology The Reinvented Heart.
A Witcher school in Poland—yes, that’s what I said, a Witcher school—had to close its doors due to politics.
Publishers Weekly profiles Words Without Borders.
Early reactions to Jurassic World: Dominion are mixed.
June 8th, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
As a rule, I don’t like grimdark, and I don’t read grimdark. R.F. Kuang’s debut novel The Poppy War was an exception. It impressed me, mostly for the way she wove the historical wars between China and Japan into her fully fleshed-out fantasy world. Based on my liking of the first book, I read 2019’s The Dragon Republic, Book Two in THE POPPY WAR series. Sadly, with the second book I was reminded of why I don’t like grimdark.
June 8th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | R.F. Kuang | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
No, I've never heard of him. Thanks for the hedzup, K.!
De Mille sounds fun. Have you tried Arthur Friel? It was a long time ago, but as I recall he…
COMMENT "Weird good fun"... that's my favorite kind! 😁
Sounds like weird good fun, Sandy.
[…] it gave me three squares on my BOTNS Bingo card so I at least feel like I made an…