And so, I have just come to the end of a lot of nine novels from the remarkable publisher known as Valancourt Books. And what an ennead they were! In chronological order: Ernest G. Henham’s Tenebrae (1898), a tale of fratricide, guilt, madness … and giant spiders; R.C. Ashby’s He Arrived at Dusk (1933), which tells of the ghost of a Roman centurion haunting modern-day Northumberland; G.S. Marlowe’s I Am Your Brother (1935),
December 29th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | John Symonds | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske
What struck me first about A Marvelous Light, (2022), Book One of Freya Marske’s THE LAST BINDING trilogy, was the style and narrative tone. Set in an alternate world in the last decade of the 19th century, A Marvelous Light could have featured Dorothy Sayers’s aristocratic detective Lord Peter Wimsey, if Wimsey were a magician and had sex with men. The descriptions and the dialogue sparkle, and the book seems inhabited with real (if, in many cases,
December 28th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Freya Marske | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Wishing you and yours a delightful week filled with joy, laughter, warmth and love. I’ll be back on January 3 with a regular roundup column.
Enjoy Voces 8 and “In Dulci Jubilo” in the meantime.
December 27th, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
The Master of the Macabre by Russell Thorndike
Ever since I was a wee lad, I’ve been a fan of the type of motion picture known as the “anthology-horror film.” It was 1965’s Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors that first pulled me in back then, a product of the British studio Amicus, which would go on to deliver six more similar films over the next nine years. Oh … for those of you wondering what I mean by an “anthology-horror film,” simply stated, it is a type of picture with one overarching story line and numerous stand-alone side stories included.
December 26th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Russell Thorndike | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
2023’s Memory Reborn is the third book in David Walton’s LIVING MEMORY series, which started with Living Memory and introduced us to individuals from an advanced society living during the Cretaceous Period, and who happened to be dinosaurs (maniraptors to be precise). Reading Memory Reborn, we were both eager to see how Walton resolved the many, increasingly complex problems the modern-day characters, both human and dinosaur, faced. Neither of us expected the love story to be the plot line that grabbed us the hardest.
December 22nd, 2023. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | David Walton | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Spark of Destiny by Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin
Steampunk as a fiction genre has nearly disappeared. It’s become much more of a fashion or costume statement; or subsumed completely into alternate history. I understand the reasons; and expect the various sub-genres to ebb and flow like everything else. It was still a nice treat to read 2023’s Spark of Destiny by Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin, a genuine steampunk adventure.
Here’s an incomplete list of what I expect in steampunk:
December 21st, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Gail Z. Martin | SFF Reviews | no comments |
File 770 reports that Galaxy Magazine will be relaunched by Starship Sloane Publishing.
The year has flown and we are already to the “Best of…” season. Here’s the Guardian’s take on the best fiction in the speculative genres for 2023. (Sorry about the pledge break in the middle—I don’t think it’s a paywall.)
Investing Magazine… (Yes, I do know how weird that is!)… has an article about famous, and expensive, movie cars. A couple of these go for under $100,000! A virtual steal!
December 20th, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
We Are the Crisis by Cadwell Turnbull
As I was thinking how to start this review of Cadwell Turnbull’s We Are the Crisis, planning on noting how it slots into the category of “one of those books I admired but didn’t fully fall into,” I thought I’d refresh my memory of my thoughts on its predecessor, No Gods, No Monsters. And darn if I didn’t open that review with “the book had me admiring it more than enjoying it.” So I guess we’re both pretty consistent,
December 19th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Cadwell Turnbull | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Where the Body Was by Ed Brubaker (writer), Sean Phillips (artist), and Jacob Phillips (colorist)
Ed Brubaker’s new graphic novel Where the Body Was with Sean Phillips is another excellent work of crime fiction. These two creators, with Jacob Phillips on colors, turn out the most amazing stories, and this one is no exception. Where the Body Was is a little different from some of the more noir books that they have put out over the years. This graphic novel is ostensibly about a body that is found by a young girl as she skates around the neighborhood.
December 16th, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Ed Brubaker | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
2023’s Bookshops & Bonedust, by Travis Baldree, is not a sequel to last year’s Legends & Lattes, but a prequel, introducing us to a much younger version of the orc mercenary Viv. Pursing the necromancer Varine the Pale with her band of hired soldiers, Viv is seriously wounded. The gang leaves her to recuperate in the tiny coastal town of Murk. They promise to pick her up on their return home, but Viv chafes at the thought of them fighting without her.
December 14th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Travis Baldree | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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!
Locus reports that John Marsden died early today. Marsden authored the 7 book series that started off with the novel…
Mmmmm!
I *do* have pear trees... hmmm.