Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott
I loved GennaRose Nethercott’s novel Thistlefoot, one of the best books I’d read in a long time, so I followed it up with 2024’s story collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories. This collection displays the beautiful, the eerie, the surreal, and the terrible, written in Nethercott’s precise, poetic prose that reminds me of the writing of Kelly Link.
The books contains fourteen stories.
January 31st, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | GennaRose Nethercott | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Undersea Fleet by Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson
At the tail end of Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson’s Undersea Quest (1954), our narrator, 18-year-old Jim Eden, has been reinstated into the U.S.S.A. (U.S. Sub-Sea Academy), after having been forced to resign under mysteriously trumped-up charges. The authors’ fans would have to wait a few years to find out what, if anything, might happen next, but ultimately they were rewarded with a follow-up volume that was, if anything,
January 30th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Frederik Pohl, Jack Williamson | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
I will read two short fiction works on The Story Hour tonight, at 7 PM Pacific Time. The readings are store on the Facebook page, if you want to catch up later.
The Centers for Disease Control have downloadable data available to the public. Check their site here.
In Reactor’s List of Five column, James Driscoll shares five books about gods causing trouble for humans.
Award Season! Speculative fiction is well represented on the ALA’s Alex award list this year.
January 29th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |
2024’s Bringer of Dust, J.M. Miro’s second book in the trilogy of THE TALENTS, finds our survivors from Book One, Ordinary Monsters, scattered across Europe. Maybe “scattered” isn’t the right word, because their locations are purposeful, as they seek to find an orsine they can open, to return to the world of the dead and rescue Marlowe, the Shining Boy.
A quick review of the magic: Clanks can manipulate their own flesh,
January 28th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | J.M. Miro | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Tegan and Sara: Junior High by Tegan Quin and Sara Quin (writers) and Tillie Walden (artist)
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.
January 25th, 2025. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Elfhome (2012) is the third book in Wen Spencer’s ELFHOME series, and it’s definitely not where you want to start if you’re new to the series. You’ll need to have read Tinker and Wolf Who Rules first to fully grasp what’s going on and why the stakes are so high.
The story kicks off with Tinker recovering from a broken arm and being cornered by a persistent reporter who,
January 24th, 2025. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Wen Spencer | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Undersea Quest by Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson
In 1947, Robert A. Heinlein, after almost a decade of producing high-quality science fictional short stories and novellas for adults, came out with his first novel, Rocket Ship Galileo. The book was geared to younger readers, and would prove to be just the beginning of a landmark series of 12 “Heinlein juveniles,” all published by the U.S. firm Scribner’s. Heinlein – who, in 1974, would be proclaimed the first Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America – would come out with at least one such book for younger readers every year until 1958.
January 23rd, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Frederik Pohl, Jack Williamson | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Reactormag shares a couple of forthcoming 2025 releases, among them the latest by Charlie Jane Anders and a dragon book by Cherie Radke.
They also shared an excerpt from T.J Klune’s latest, The Bones Beneath my Skin.
Best Of Lists, Recommended Reading lists, nomination suggestions… it’s that time of year. Nerds of a Feather starts with their recommended list of fiction and visual work categories.
John Scalzi announced completion of The Shattering Peace,
January 22nd, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro
…And the way a child looked at him in the harbor at Alexandria as he climbed down the gangway and into the haze. All this, all this and more, would vanish from the world with his ceasing, all this ineradicable beauty that now lived only inside him would be lost, moments as fragile as coins of light on water, and this more than any other part of it made him feel alone and sorrowful and frail…
2022’s Ordinary Monsters, Book One of THE TALENTS,
January 21st, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | J.M. Miro | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Amongst the flood of Greek myth retellings over the past number few years, three authors have stood out to me. Two are Madeline Miller and Claire North, the first for her fantastic Circe (not to mention the brilliant The Song of Achilles from a decade earlier) and the second for her excellent and just-concluded SONGS OF PENELOPE trilogy. The third is Pat Barker and her WOMEN OF TROY series,
January 20th, 2025. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Pat Barker | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…
this sounds like a fun one
These weird westerns are always interesting and have been popping up more in recent times (it seemed like there was…
Looking forward to reading the review.
Always my pleasure, Marion! I'm almost finished with Book #3 now, and hope to be reporting on it very shortly....