Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: December 2024

Dorohedoro (Volume 1) by Q Hayashida (An Oxford College Student Review!)

In this column, I feature comic book reviews written by my students at Oxford College of Emory University. Oxford College is a small liberal arts school just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. I challenge students to read and interpret comics because I believe sequential art and visual literacy are essential parts of education at any level (see my Manifesto!). I post the best of my students’ reviews in this column. Today, I am proud to present a review by Mandy Sun:

Mandy Sun is a second-year student at Oxford College and is majoring in Computer Science.

December 28th, 2024. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

A Nest of Nightmares: A very fine collection of horrifying ambiguities

A Nest of Nightmares by Lisa Tuttle

And so, I have just come to the end of another lot of nine volumes from the remarkable publisher known as Valancourt Books. And what an ennead they were! In chronological order: Ernest G. Henham’s The Feast of Bacchus (1907), in which a pair of comedy and tragedy masks influences whoever comes into their orbit; L. P. Hartley’s Facial Justice (1960),

WWwednesday: December 25, 2024

Happy Christmas and Happy Hanukkah if you celebrate. Happy Wednesday if you do not.

The Prometheus Society narrowed the finalists for its 2024 award to four diverse works (and creators) who excellently modeled libertarianism. The short list includes Rudyard Kipling, Poul Anderson, Charles Stross and the musical group Rush.

The Christmas tree is an integral part of the Christmas season for many folks. It has its roots in the Yule celebration, from the Nordic lands.

This article in Reform Judaism discusses the origin of the holy day Hanukkah,

December 25th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

In a Lonely Place: Tennessee Dread

In a Lonely Place by Karl Edward Wagner

In any number of my book reviews here on FanLit, I have had cause to refer to editor Karl Edward Wagner’s famous Wagner 39 List. This three-part list, which originally appeared in the June and August 1983 issues of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, enumerated the editor’s choices for the 13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels of all time, the 13 Best Nonsupernatural Horror Novels of all time, and the 13 Best Sci-Fi Horror Novels of all time;

The Great White Space: Black mountain side

The Great White Space by Basil Copper

For those of you who have read everything written by the great H. P. Lovecraft but are still hankering for another solid dose of cosmic horror and tentacled monstrosities, hoo boy, have I got a doozy for you! Although written four decades after the so-called “Sage of Providence” dominated the field of weird fiction in the 1930s, this book – Basil Copper’s The Great White Space – is such a convincing pastiche that all fans of the genre should be left happily grinning nevertheless.

WWWednesday: December 18, 2024

The Horror Writers Association has announced its scholarship winners.

Bruce Sterling was, and still is, an influential writer in the field of SF, most notably in the days of futurism and cyberpunk. What’s he doing now? This interview with Worldbuilding Agency gives us an idea.

Gamergate lurches on, this time in a lawsuit reaching the Brooklyn, New York courts last week. A woman who was forced to resign from game-review site Kotaku is suing a self-styled “gamergate” gamer in California. She alleges he led a concerted hate campaign against her and made false statements.

December 18th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |

The Lost Bookshop: Magic moves into women’s fiction, with enjoyable results

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

In the aftermath of the pandemic, fantasy caught the midtown bus and moved into the suburbs of women’s fiction. There, it’s set up shop and seems to be doing quite well, if paperbacks like The Lost Bookshop, by Evie Woods, are any indication. This pleasant story, following three characters and an elusive, magical bookshop, is enjoyable even if it didn’t fully satisfy this fantasy reader.

Set in modern day Dublin, the story follows Martha, a woman fleeing an abusive relationship,

Tinker: Imaginative setting with some issues

Tinker by Wen Spencer

Wen Spencer’s Tinker (2003), the first book in her ELFHOME series, presents a unique mix of urban fantasy and science fiction. The premise, which is the series’ best feature, is imaginative — due to a glitch with an interdimensional gate, the city of Pittsburgh (but not the rest of the United States) exists in Elfhome, an alternate dimension inhabited by elves. Once a month the gate is powered down and Pittsburgh returns to Earth for one day to get resupplied. Pittsburgh is so weird that it doesn’t really interact with the rest of the U.S.

December 12th, 2024. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Wen Spencer | SFF Reviews | no comments |

WWWednesday: December 11, 2024

Ruthana Amrys and Anne M. Pillsworth review “The Only Writing Advice You’ll Ever Need to Survive Eldritch Horrors.” This article is funny!

These “22 Chilling Winter Reads” are literally chilly, it turns out—books set during winter.

According to File770, Montreal is now the only contender for WorldCon 2027. Tel Aviv withdrew its id due to the situation in Isreal.

Dorothy’s ruby slippers recently sold at auction for $28 million. After all, they are the first known portkey.

The Guardian UK lists its candidates for Best Graphic Novel of 2024.

December 11th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 4 comments |

Bury Him Darkly: Malice from the chalice

Bury Him Darkly by John Blackburn

Although it’s been almost 18 years since I last read English author John Blackburn’s first novel, A Scent of New-Mown Hay (1958), I still vividly recall several segments of the book, mainly due to the forcefulness of the writing therein. And really, with its plot conflating a female ex-Nazi scientist, deserted Russian villages, and a fungoid mutation that is slowly spreading across Europe, the book is inherently hard to forget.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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