Mistress of Terror and Other Stories by Wyatt Blassingame
By the time a reader gets to the fourth and final volume in Ramble House’s series of books dedicated to Wyatt Blassingame, he/she will almost inevitably have come to the realization that the Alabama-born author surely was a master of that peculiar horror subgenre known as “weird-menace” fiction. And indeed, those first three volumes – The Tongueless Horror and Other Stories: The Weird Tales of Wyatt Blassingame, Volume One,
December 30th, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Wyatt Blassingame | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Network Effect by Martha Wells
Martha Wells’ Murderbot has been gathering enthusiastic fans (which would be certain to have Murderbot hiding behind its opaque armored faceplate), along with multiple Nebula, Hugo and other awards and nominations, as each of the first four novellas in the MURDERBOT DIARIES series has been published over the last three years. In Network Effect (2020), the first full-length novel in this series, Wells is able to explore a more complex plot and to more fully develop Murderbot’s character and its relationships with others.
December 29th, 2022. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Marion Deeds, Kat Hooper and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Martha Wells | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Have a safe and happy New Year’s, everyone.
I commented on the first three episodes of Amazon’s The Peripheral, their adaptation of Book One of the Jackpot Trilogy by William Gibson. While I liked many parts of it, I was ultimately disappointed. The show improved by prodigious leaps, however, once the character Ainsley Lowbeer appeared on the screen, and the last five episodes set up a decent storyline, ending on an acceptable cliffhanger. Acceptable, I should say, if Amazon gives us a second season.
Ainsley Lowbeer is a character of Future London, a member of the Metropolitan Police.
December 28th, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
Some Faraway Place by Lauren Shippen
Rose is a normal girl, and that’s a problem because everyone else in her family – her parents, her brother – are atypical.
I had some hope that returning to the approximate 2016 timeframe and another late-teen protagonist who isn’t an outright villain would be a boon for the BRIGHT SESSIONS series. Unfortunately, I had more issues with Some Faraway Place (2021) than either of its predecessors, The Infinite Noise and A Neon Darkness.
December 27th, 2022. Skye Walker´s rating: 0.5 | Lauren Shippen | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Tomie: No Use Escaping by Junji Ito
Tomie: No Use Escaping by Junji Ito is a delightful set of horror stories, and if you are a horror fan and have not read any Junji Ito, you are definitely missing out! In the United States, Ito is the best-known horror manga artist. So far, seventeen volumes of his work have been translated into English. The Tomie stories are important, because the first manga story Ito ever wrote in Japan was a Tomie story. Twenty stories about Tomie are included in this massive near-750 page volume.
December 24th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Unholy Goddess and Other Stories by Wyatt Blassingame
It would be hard to imagine anyone who experiences the first two Ramble House collections dedicated to the Alabama-born author Wyatt Blassingame – namely, The Tongueless Horror and Other Stories: The Weird Tales of Wyatt Blassingame, Volume One and Lady of the Yellow Death and Other Stories: The Weird Tales of Wyatt Blassingame, Volume Two – not being hugely impressed and wanting to read more.
December 22nd, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Wyatt Blassingame | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Scientists achieved a breakthrough with nuclear fusion.
Today is solstice. In the northern hemisphere, it’s winter solstice, the longest night of the year; in the southern hemisphere it’s midsummer. Whatever holidays you observe during this week, I hope you enjoy them with friends and loved ones, with joy, health and safety.
Hanukkah started this Sunday and runs through December 25. This festival symbolizes hope and resistance against tyranny. The miraculous bottle of oil that burned for eight nights was not part of the original story of Hanukkah, which depicted the Maccabees’ resistance to the Syrian occupier Antiochus and was added later.
December 21st, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
Let me start with what I loved about C.L. Polk’s 2022 novella, Even Though I Knew the End. I loved the premise of the magical system at play here, and the story delivered a 1940s Chicago, Illinois, that was both familiar and convincingly strange. The Wink, a lesbian bar that has rolled through several incarnations in its lifetime, is a sheer delight of evocative description.
I liked the fast-moving plot and Polk’s spin on the hard-boiled detective story.
December 19th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | C.L. Polk | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Marion: I’m trying to read Scotto Moore’s The Battle of the Linguist Mages, a fantasy book many people loved, and one I should be enjoying thoroughly based on the premise and the back cover blurb. Sadly, for me it’s heading for DNF territory. I’m having trouble figuring out why. Is it the narrative voice of the MC? This is a kind of voice many readers adore. Is it the certain knowledge that, since the shape of the plot is a video game, the book is going to take me through Every Single Level?
December 18th, 2022. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | no comments |
The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson
The Lost Metal brings to an end Brandon Sanderson’s MISTBORN ERA TWO series, and does so I’d say in semi-satisfying fashion, bringing some plots lines and character stories to a close and opening up the world of the Sanderson’s expanded universe (the Cosmere) more fully.
Waxillium returns here in his Senator role, along with his partner Wayne, Wayne’s new partner constable Marasi, and Wax’s wife Steris as they continue to battle against the secret society (The Set), which has amongst its high-ranking members Wax’s own sister,
December 15th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Brandon Sanderson | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Kind of you to say. I certainly like to think so!
BTW, Steve Sterner will be performing at seven films during this upcoming fest: https://filmforum.org/series/clara-bow
As far as I know, Bill, Steve Sterner is the only person who does the live accompaniment to silent movies…
And I'm positive that Kaidan will fondly remember watching these movies with his old man for the rest of his…
You bet, Marion!