Rogue Star by Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson
Have you ever read a science-fiction book that was so bizarre, so way-out, that you said to yourself “How did the author ever think of this? What was he smoking? Did she possibly eat a Fluffernutter and headcheese sandwich, go to bed, and dream the whole thing up?” It’s happened to me any number of times, with such novels as Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore’s The Well of the Worlds (1952),
February 28th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Frederik Pohl, Jack Williamson | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Days of Shattered Faith by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Days of Shattered Faith is the third book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS series, continuing that series’ strong run of quality. While each book is meant to stand alone, and this one certainly can, reading the others will allow for a richer experience given the reappearance of multiple characters.
As with the other two books, Tchaikovsky shifts to a new setting in this universe and introduces a new group of characters (with some old ones as noted),
February 27th, 2025. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Uncanny Magazine launches issue 63 on March 4, 2025.
The Bram Stoker final ballot has been released. I thought I’d been reading a lot of horror lately but I recognize almost none of these.
The NAACP Image awards were announced last weekend, with several of genre interest, including Wicked.
File 770 shared a New York Times link on faux books. Neat photos! (The link bypasses the paywall.)
“You already have three strikes against you,” Raye Montague’s mother told her.
February 26th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance by Riley Black
Riley Black’s The Last Days of the Dinosaurs made my top ten books of the years when it came out (if you haven’t read it, you absolutely should), so I was excited to read her follow-up When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance. I’m happy to report that like its predecessor, it’s an impressive work of popular science marked by wonderful prose and an engaging voice.
February 25th, 2025. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Conventional Boy by Charles Stross
I haven’t read a LAUNDRY FILES story in at least a couple of years. Charles Stross’s latest, 2025’s A Conventional Boy, is a fun novella and a nice welcome back to the series. The book is filled out by two short stories, “Overtime” and “Down on the Farm,” featuring Bob Howard. It was great to spend time with Bob again, but Derek Reilly, the protagonist of A Conventional Boy, was the real star.
The charge of Britain’s “Laundry,” a part of their intelligence and security services,
February 24th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Charles Stross | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Wood Sprites (2014) is the fourth installment in Wen Spencer’s ELFHOME series. You’ll want to read the previous books (Tinker, Wolf Who Rules, and Elfhome) first.
Wood Sprites takes a surprising turn—one that, frankly, the series needed. Instead of following Tinker’s storyline, we return to Earth and meet two precocious nine-year-old twins,
February 21st, 2025. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Wen Spencer | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Starchild by Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson
By the end of Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson’s 1963 novel The Reefs of Space, all of the reader’s many questions had been answered, and all of the loose ends tied up in a neat bow … at least, so we would have thought. The book could very easily have stood on its own, so perhaps it came as something of a surprise when the authors came out with a sequel two years later.
February 20th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Frederik Pohl, Jack Williamson | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Nationally, scientists are gathering to determine how to publish the comprehensive Nature Assessment report, which was ready for publication earlier this month before the current administration stalled it.
The U.K. Guardian reports that Julianne Moore’s kids’ book Freckleface Strawberry, has been included in a wave of books censored due to an executive order signed by the president. The order bans certain books banned during a “compliance review” in schools that serve children of military families. The book is about a little girl who hates her freckles,
February 19th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
When the third book in Heather Fawcett’s EMILY WILDE series opens, the irascible scholar Emily and her lover, the faerie prince and erstwhile scholar Wendell Bambleby have entered his realm and intend to reclaim the throne, after Emily deposed his usurper stepmother in the second book. Emily is far from optimistic about this plan, since the court is filled with traitors and those still loyal to the usurper queen. When Wendell bests his uncle Taran in a contest,
February 18th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Heather Fawcett | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Gorge directed by Scott Derrickson
The good news about Apple’s new movie The Gorge is that it’s a perfectly serviceable streaming movie, the actors do an excellent job, the visuals are fantastic, and you also are basically getting two movies for the price of one. The bad news is one of those movies is vastly more original and engaging than the other, the plot of that second film is overly familiar and predictable, and while the visuals are stunning, they’re also something we’ve seen before.
The premise of the film is that post-WWII,
February 17th, 2025. Bill Capossere | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
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.