Shadows in the Sun by Chad Oliver
Although it’s been almost seven years since I read Chad Oliver’s masterful fourth novel, Unearthly Neighbors (1960), such are the evocative atmosphere and compelling alien depictions in that book that I still manage to remember it quite well. And indeed, Unearthly Neighbors just might be the most convincingly realistic description of “first contact” on another world that a reader could ever hope to encounter.
March 31st, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Chad Oliver | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Nancy Jane Moore doesn’t want to sign up for your newsletter because she’s tired of setting up a million accounts. Read her blog post here.
A bomb threat disrupted a Detroit furry convention.
Genre books took prizes in the Waterstone’s Children’s Book contest.
This was over my head, I’ll tell you right now, but it still looked fascinating. A 13-side tile can cover a plane without ever repeating. I’m just repeating there, but still.
On Tor.dom,
March 29th, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
The vast majority of story collections by their nature vary in relative strength from piece to piece. I’m always happy when I fully enjoy more than half of the stories and thrilled if that hits three-quarters. Well, there are seven stories total in White Cat, Black Dog (2023), Kelly Link’s newest collection in which she brings her trademark style to a series of retold fairy tales, and of the seven I only disliked one, while the others ranged from really good to great.
March 28th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Kelly Link | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Marion: I read Crownbreaker, the final book in Sebastien de Castell’s SPELLSLINGER series. I’ve skipped one book in Kellen’s adventures, and it’s the one before this one, but I think I kept up well enough. Kellen is sent off to kill a god in this one, but as always, his real problem is his relationship with his powerful, loving, manipulative, lying father. Now I’m reading Elsa Sjunneson’s Sword of the White Horse, a second world fantasy based on the Ubisoft game Assassin’s Creed,
March 26th, 2023. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 4 comments |
Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse
The setting in Rebecca Roanhorse’s 2022 novella Tread of Angels is eerie and vivid, like a strange dream, both ethereal and concretely described. The conceit of this world is wonderful and I would like to read more stories set here. This particular one was disappointing, with fairly flat characters acting out a familiar plot.
Long ago, the battle of the rebel angels against heaven actually took place. In the setting of the story, Lucifer’s great general Abaddon was vanquished and fell to earth.
March 24th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Rebecca Roanhorse | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
One commenter selected at random will win a copy of Veronica Roth’s Arch-Conspirator.
Alexi Vandenberg appears to be the latest competitor in the George Santos Sweepstakes. Known at conventions for his large bookselling booth, often under the name of Bard’s Tower, Vandenberg presented himself as a publisher and as someone who once worked with President George W. Bush. It appears that, in the tradition of con artists everywhere, Vandenberg has, among other things, sold companies that didn’t exist. He also is alleged to have violated contracts and sexually harassed people.
March 22nd, 2023. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 9 comments |
The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi
The Lies of the Ajungo (2023), by Moses Ose Utomi, is as close to perfect a modern parable as I’ve read in some time, with prose as sparse as its desert setting and lessons just as unforgiving. I loved pretty much everything about it from its opening line — “There is no water in the City of Lies” — onward.
The novella opens with a brief bit of worldbuilding history: Long ago when the City of Lies suffered greatly from its lack of water,
March 17th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Moses Ose Utomi | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Tenacious Beasts by Christopher J. Preston
Tenacious Beasts (2023) by Christopher J. Preston, is a rarity among environmental/ecological books nowadays — an uplifting work that highlights positivity, resilience, and hope for the future. As such, it’s a highly rewarding book and a breath of fresh air amongst all the depressing numbers out there having to do with our world and the creatures we share it with.
That isn’t to say Preston turns a blind eye to those depressing numbers. Far from it. In fact, he begins by listing some of those very numbers:
Wildlife populations have declined 20 percent over the last century.
March 16th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Nerds of a Feather reports on the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) bookfair in Seattle last weekend.
A speculative fiction feature, Everything Everywhere All At Once, swept the Oscars on Sunday.
In Argentina, an immersive drama introduces participants to an eerie underground labyrinth and the woman architect who designed it.
Leigh Bardugo has signed a new contract with MacMillan that will see her producing works across the company’s imprints for many years, for many millions. (Is it appropriate to say she “pulled a Scalzi?”)
Derivative!
March 15th, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The Super Barbarians by John Brunner
Ever since the mid-15th century, and continuing on for some 600 years now and counting, coffee has been one of planet Earth’s favorite beverages. Today, I believe, it holds the No. 3 spot, with only water itself and tea being consumed more frequently. But whether taken black or light, as an espresso or cappuccino, with sugar or not, the fact remains that the men and women of our 21st century drink something on the order of 2.25 billion cups a day, or over 800 billion cups a year.
March 14th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | John Brunner | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!
Sorry if I mislead you in this detail, Paul...the voyage by ship was only the first leg of the quintet's…
The geography is confusing me--how does one get to a village in Tibet by ship? And even the northernmost part…
Oh, this sounds interesting!