Neil Clarke, publisher and editor of Clarkesworld, is developing a Statement of Beliefs around the use of AI and LLMs in the world of writing. Here are his thoughts.
I’m sure it’s been at least a couple of weeks since I’ve published someone Best Of Something list, so here’s one; the 100 “best children’s books.”
Variety takes a moment to break down the costuming of Andor.
Karen Gillan “smuggled” her iPad into filming of GOTG3 and created an “unfiltered” behind-the-scenes video.
May 31st, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
The Way Home by Peter S. Beagle
This is a glorious month for Peter S. Beagle fans, with The Way Home (2023) offering up two novellas set in the same world as The Last Unicorn, and not one but two retrospective collections of stories: The Essential Peter S. Beagle: Volumes I and II. Even better, one of those two novellas is brand new and serves to show that Beagle remains one of our most elegant of fantasists.
May 31st, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Peter S. Beagle | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Whispering Gorilla by Don Wilcox & Return of the Whispering Gorilla by David V. Reed
By my rough count, the publisher known as Armchair Fiction currently has, in its constantly expanding catalog, something on the order of 317 “double-novel” volumes for sale, not to mention its “single-novel” and short-story volumes. But of all those many two-novel volumes, which usually incorporate an unrelated pair of shortish but full-length pieces under one cover, the potential buyer would have to look long and hard to find a wackier pairing than is to be found in the publisher’s D-119: The Whispering Gorilla and Return of the Whispering Gorilla.
May 30th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | David V. Reed, Don Wilcox | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Marion: I’m about one third of the way through Matthew Pearl’s 18-year-old novel The Bookaneer, which I’m liking more now that our narrator has arrived in Samoa and we’ve met Robert Louis Stevenson and his family.
Bill: Since our last update I read:
May 28th, 2023. Tim Scheidler | Status Update | 1 comment |
Revivial (Volume Two): Live Like You Mean It by Tim Seeley (writer), Mike Norton (artist), Mark Englert (colors), and Crank! (letters)
Wasau, a small town in Wisconsin, is our locale for strange happenings in Revival: The dead are coming back to life. And not in some zombie-like fashion, either. In fact, if you did not know they were dead to begin with, and they had died fairly recently, you would not even know that they were dead watching them move around. There are also ghost-like figures in the woods,
May 27th, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell
Sebastien de Castell’s 2023 antihero novel The Malevolent Seven has good magical action and lots of sarcastic banter. It has an emotionally tortured male main character in a world that is filled with suffering, death, betrayal and a sense of hopelessness that swamps every action. Generally, I enjoy de Castell’s work, but while this book had enough to keep me reading, ultimately, it doesn’t rank among my favorite works of his.
I say, “enough to keep me reading,” because I very nearly put this book down during the first 50 pages.
May 26th, 2023. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5, 3 | Sebastien De-Castell | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Cora Buhlert shares her thoughts on the Nebula winners. Like me, she hasn’t read many of them. Unlike me, she’s probably going to.
The universe might be bigger on the inside.
There is a Dyson Sphere science fiction writing contest, hosted by the SciFiIdea Writing Center of Singapore. The deadline for submissions is August 31. The word count is 30,000 to 100,000. Yes, that’s what it says. Read the part about publication rights carefully. (Thanks to File770.)
Writer Beware shares another scam,
May 24th, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
King Bullet by Richard Kadrey
With 2022’s King Bullet, Richard Kadrey brings the novel series about Hellion wizard James Stark, AKA Sandman Slim, to a conclusion. As Kadrey once said, Stark is a monster who wonders if he can become human. We readers figured out that answer a while ago, but in King Bullet, Stark faces the answer himself, along with an adversary who may defeat him once and for all.
L.A. (if not the USA and/or the world—we don’t know) is hunkering down in the throes of a devastating virus,
May 23rd, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Richard Kadrey | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Reposting to include Bill’s new review.
Deadly Memory by David Walton
In 2023’s Deadly Memory, by David Walton, the challenges humanity faces have never been higher. A virus so deadly it can kill nearly every species on the planet is loose, and a pheromone-based drug that allows the wearer to dominate everyone who smells it is in the hands of authoritarians from more than one global power. The source of the substance, and the possible antidote to it, is hidden away,
May 22nd, 2023. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | David Walton | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
All the Traps of Earth by Clifford D. Simak
Looking back, it strikes me with some surprise that, up until very recently, I had not read any of sci-fi Grand Master Clifford D. Simak’s shorter work in over 40 years. Oh, I had read any number of the author’s novels during those four decades, but since reading his 1968 collection So Bright the Vision back in 1981, none of his work of a shorter length. Coming to my rescue in this regard was the Wisconsin-born writer’s All the Traps of Earth,
May 18th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Clifford D. Simak | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The black, white and blue is VERY striking, and carries the sense of a night sky and mystery.
Thanks, Kat, great input!
Marion, thanks for the audiobook article! Interestingly, they list All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Here's part of my review…
And, oh...as to that 2.5-star rating: I think I gave Damon Knight's "Beyond the Barrier" a similar halfhearted rating earlier…
And speaking of mixed, that's how the book left me...mixed! As in MIXED UP!