Stan Lee: A Life (Centennial Edition) by Bob Batchelor
Bob Batchelor’s biography of Stan Lee, titled unsurprisingly Stan Lee, is a solid if somewhat stylistically flat look at the life of a man who has had a huge cultural impact. People who pay attention to this sort of thing won’t find a lot new here, and may even find the book’s gloss over things a bit frustrating, but for casual fans of Marvel movies who have a first-time interest in where this behemoth began, the book suffices.
September 29th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
File770 discusses how the Chicago Worldcon Community Fund extended memberships and increased inclusion for people who would otherwise have been unable to participate.
Teen writers in the Los Angeles area can submit their short fiction to the Tomorrow Prize science fiction contest. Details are in File 770’s article.
Charles Payseur takes up the debate of “Who Should Really Win a Fan Hugo?”
David Levithan wrote an eloquent and scary column for the Washington Post about the new heart of book censorship and what these censors’ true goals are.
September 28th, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The Yellow Mistletoe by Walter S. Masterman
A wholly intriguing blend of murder mystery, detective thriller, lost world/lost race adventure, and horror novel, The Yellow Mistletoe, by British author Walter S. Masterman, impressively manages to triumph in all four of those literary departments. Like another book that I recently experienced, H.B. Gregory’s Dark Sanctuary (1940, and only available today via Ramble House), The Yellow Mistletoe was also tapped by editor/author Karl Edward Wagner for inclusion in his widely-referred-to list of The 13 Best Supernatural Horror Books.
September 27th, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Walter S. Masterman | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Marion: I finished Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. It’s an optimistic delight of a book with a great octopus character. Currently, I’m reading a debut mystery novel by Tracee de Hahn called The Swiss Vendetta. The interiors and descriptions are gorgeous.
Bill: Since my last update, I’ve read:
September 25th, 2022. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 1 comment |
The Spear Cuts through Water by Simon Jimenez
Simon Jiminez’s The Spear Cuts through Water (2022) is one of the most vibrantly original novels I’ve read in some time, an enthralling work of creativity that even as it makes use of some familiar tropes arrives absolutely as its own unique self: richly mythic and startlingly inventive. It will absolutely land on my Best of 2022 list, even it may not be for everyone (though everyone should attempt it).
At its core, The Spear Cuts through Water is a simple quest story told unsimply.
September 23rd, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Simon Jiminez | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Fiyah’s Ignyte awards were announced on Saturday. P.Djeli Clark took home Best Adult Novel for A Master of Djinn; Best Young Adult Novel went to Darcie Littlebadger for A Snake Falls to Earth; Best Novella was awarded to Shingai Ngeri Kagunda for This is How to Stay Alive. View all the award winners here.
(You can hear Shingai Ngeri Kagunda read another story here.)
Charlie Jane Anders is now reviewing for the Washington Post and here is her inaugural column.
September 21st, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
The Shadow on the House by Mark Hansom
For the past 35 years or so, I have been so busy trying to experience all the 200 books described in Stephen Jones’ and Kim Newman’s two excellent overview volumes – Horror: 100 Best Books and Horror: Another 100 Best Books – that I was completely unaware, until recently, that there is yet another trusted resource that horror buffs in the know have been using for recommended reading; namely, the Wagner 39 List. It seems that back in 1983,
September 19th, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Mark Hansom | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Fantastic Four: Full Circle by Alex Ross (writing, art, and coloring), Josh Johnson (coloring), and Ariana Maher (lettering)
I just finished reading the recently released Fantastic Four: Full Circle, and though the story itself is not riveting, it is a perfect vehicle for the true point of the graphic novel — the art. And the story is an interesting sequel to the previous Stan Lee-Jack Kirby production, “This Man . . . This Monster,” Issue #51 of the original run on the Fantastic Four (which is available via Amazon’s Comixology services).
September 17th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
“Solid” is the best description I can give for The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore, a debut novel that shows flashes of hitting its potential, particularly in its folkloric elements, but overall feels a bit flat and overlong.
A retelling of the Baba Yaga mythos, the story mostly takes place during the reign of Ivan the Terrible (1500s), though there are flashbacks to earlier times, thanks to the fact that the main character (who prefers Yaga to Baba Yaga) is immortal,
September 16th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Olesya Salnikova Gilmore | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Dark Sanctuary by H.B. Gregory
A very happy day it was for me – but a very unfortunate day for my bank account – when I first discovered the website for Ramble House books. Specializing in impossibly obscure sci-fi, horror, mystery and “weird menace” titles from the first half of the 20th century, the publisher has an overwhelming catalog of reasonably priced volumes that will surely make any fan of those genres salivate; books, for the most part, that are available nowhere else. I have already written here of Greye La Spina’s wonderful horror novel Invaders From the Dark (1925),
September 15th, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | H.B. Gregory | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
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.
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔