Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden
What is it that makes funfairs and carnivals so scary? Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari both take place in carnivals, as do a few significant chapters of Stephen King’s It and several third season episodes of Stranger Things. I even recall that the third book of L.J. Smith’s The Forbidden Game ended in an abandoned funfair.
April 11th, 2024. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Katherine Arden | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Oliver K. Langmead shares six books with Nerds of a Feather, including a collaboration between China Mieville and… Keanu Reeves, an adaptation of Reeves’s comic. Interesting.
Haruki Murakami has a new book coming out in November, The City and its Uncertain Walls.
Angry Robot has opened its submission window and is utilizing an AI sorting program. They have providing an FAQ page and are trying to get ahead of any concerns writers might have. (Thanks to File770.)
Reactor announced that Tor will be publishing a new “Gatsby” themed novella from Nghi Vo.
April 10th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
The Morningside by Téa Obreht is set in a post-climate change near-future in a partial drowned city called Island City (maybe Manhattan?) that is accepting refugees to repopulate the city with promises of newly constructed/renovated homes for those who come to work. The novel is a mostly successful mix of genres, a sort of magical realist/cli-fi Harriet the Spy if Harriet were also a refugee.
Our main character is eleven-year-old Sylvia, who has arrived with her mother in the titular rundown high-rise where Sylvia’s Aunt Ena works as the super (there is a frame and the tale is told as a flashback from adult Sylvia’s perspective,
April 9th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Téa Obreht | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Magic Order (Book 3) by Mark Millar (writer), Gigi Cavenago (artist), Valentina Napolitano (colorist), Clem Robins (letterer)
Book Three of The Magic Order by Mark Millar features wonderful art by Gigi Cavenago and takes us further along on the journey started in the first two books: The focus is still on the Moonstone family, particularly on Cordelia Moonstone, who is the leader of the Magic Order. This book ends on a cliffhanger, so Book Four will be important to read to get a full conclusion to the story.
April 6th, 2024. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Mark Millar | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
It’s the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!
What’s the best book you read in March 2024 and why did you love it?
It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. We just want to share some great reading material.
Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog, or just write a few sentences about why you thought it was awesome.
And don’t forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our 5-Star SFF page.
April 4th, 2024. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 15 comments |
The Hugo finalist list is out. Any surprises? I’m pleased to see that fans of Chinese SFF didn’t let last year’s mess discourage them.
Not too surprisingly, several people declined nominations and a few of them gave statements. Here’s Camestos Felapton’s. Natasha Bardon, nominated for Best Editor, Long Form, declined. Bardon edited Babel, an award-winning book that was deemed ineligible for the Hugos last year for no discernible reason. Martha Wells declined a nomination for Best Novella for System Collapse.
April 3rd, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
Neither Beg Nor Yield: Stories With S&S Attitude by Jason M. Waltz (editor) & M.D. Jackson (illustrator)
I don’t know how aware SFF fandom is, but sword & sorcery has had a resurgence of late. Jason M. Waltz and most of the authors featured in Neither Beg Nor Yield have been champions of this subgenre, some for the past quarter century. Mr. Waltz first published sword & sorcery and other great heroic and weird fiction with Flashing Swords Press and later under his own micro-press, Rogue Blades Entertainment.
April 2nd, 2024. Greg Hersom´s rating: 5 | Adrian Cole, C.L. Werner, Glen Cook, Howard Andrew Jones, John R. Fultz, Steven Erikson, William King | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 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!