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Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame: A luscious little book

Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame by Neon Yang

Neon Yang’s 2025 novella Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame, is a luscious little book, a tasty way to spend an hour or two. Yang’s words shimmer like a silk pennant rippling in the breeze. There is color, there is food, there are scents, and sensations. At the level of sentences and paragraphs, I enjoyed every moment of Yang’s fantasy. The characterizations and plot choices meant this wasn’t a story that stuck with me or made me think.

Thunder City: A new adventure in the world of THE HUNGER CITIES

Thunder City by Philip Reeve

A new MORTAL ENGINES story? What bliss!

The first book set in the dystopian world of Philip Reeve’s mighty Traction Cities since Scrivener’s Moon was published back in 2011, Thunder City (2024) ends up being something of an oddity within the overarching scope of the series. Unlike the three prequels, which delved into the genesis of the Traction Cities, or Night Flights,

WWWednesday: May 28, 2025

This article about the original Charlie’s Angels movie with Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, and the “wrong” bird used in a pivotal scene, is long, but it’s written in an engaging way and I learned more about birds that I ever planned to. I enjoyed it and I hope you do.

After three seasons, Amazon Prime has canceled Wheel of Time.

At least with Reactor, Murderbot continues to please. (Warning, spoilers.)

It’s almost summer, which everyone knows is cannibal novel season.

May 28th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

You Only Live Twice: Domo Origato!

You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming

Written during the winter of 1963, at Ian Fleming’s Goldeneye retreat in Oracabessa, on the north shore of Jamaica, You Only Live Twice was the author’s 12th James Bond novel, not counting the short story collection For Your Eyes Only (1960). Ultimately released in March ’64, just five months before the author’s untimely demise, it was the last Bond novel to be completed. (The posthumous 007 novel The Man With the Golden Gun,

May 27th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |

The Ashfire King: A flawed but worthwhile return to Abdullah’s magical world

The Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah

The Ashfire King is Chelsea Abdullah’s follow-up to the highly enjoyable The Stardust Thief, picking up pretty immediately after the events of that book, which ended on a pretty sizable cliffhanger. While the new novel doesn’t attain the heights of its predecessor, which I called “one of the most enjoyable and captivating books” I’d read that year, despite some issues it moves the story along, deepens several of the characters,

May 23rd, 2025. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Chelsea Abdullah | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

A Drop of Corruption: A glorious magic act

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

2025’s A Drop of Corruption is the second book in Robert Jackson Bennett‘s latest series, THE SHADOW OF THE LEVIATHAN (or, alternately, THE ANA AND DIN MYSTERIES). Set in the same world as the first book, The Tainted Cup, A Drop of Corruption is a glorious magic act, filled with misdirection, mirrors, impersonations, disguises, codes and clues. It also holds a contemplation of the nature of kingdoms and kings.

May 22nd, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Robert Jackson Bennett | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |

WWWednesday: May 21, 2025

Murderbot, the Show, premiered on Apple+ last week. Here is Reactor’s reaction to it.

Looking for a news editing job? Reactor is hiring.

Also from Reactor, five books with imposters or con artists.

The 2025 Eisner Award candidates are announced. (Thanks to File770.)

The Guardian has some thoughts on the candidates for the International Booker Prize.

Nerds of a Feather reviews an epic fantasy novel, Birth of a Dynasty,

May 21st, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |

Written on the Dark: Feels like Kay’s most elegiac work

Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay

In Written on the Dark (2025), Guy Gavriel Kay returns to his “quarter-turn from our own” world, here shifting time and place to a late-medieval “France” (Ferrieres in Kay’s universe) ruled by a “mad king.” When the king’s brother is killed by the powerful Duke of Barratin and left on the streets of Orane (think Paris), tavern poet Thierry Villar finds himself embroiled in the politics and intrigue of a world he’d never imagined himself part of, as Ferrieres tries to avoid civil war while also attempting to fend off an exterior invasion by the king of the island nation across the channel [some spoilers to follow in this review;

Talk To My Back by Muraski Yamada (An Oxford College Student Review!)

Talk To My Back by Muraski Yamada

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 Ritisha Lingampally:

Ritisha Lingampally is a first-year student at Oxford College and is considering majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology.

May 17th, 2025. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: Look, it’s Ursula!

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service by Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming‘s 11th James Bond book, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, was written, as was the author’s wont, while on vacation at his Goldeneye retreat on the north shore of Jamaica, at Oracabessa, in the winter of 1962 … coincidentally, not far from where filming for the original 007 movie, Dr. No, was taking place at that same time. OHMSS, which was initially released in April 1963,

May 15th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Edge, Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Crescent Moon Tearoom: After a slow start, this cozy fantasy soars

The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski

I finally found a cozy, small-stakes fantasy that simply and completely entertained me. 2024’s The Crescent Moon Tearoom, by Stacy Sivinski, resonates as much with Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women as it does with the CW’s seminal 1990s TV show Charmed (except no one wastes away from consumption). Three witchy sisters deal with a thriving business, the Witch Council and its demands, and their own growing powers.

To be fair, the cozy subgenre isn’t my cup of tea.

May 12th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Stacy Sivinski | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Thunderball: Book vs. film

Thunderball by Ian Fleming

I know what you’re thinking: a review of a James Bond book for a website that supposedly only deals with sci-fi, fantasy and horror? How did THIS thing get in here? Well, the fact of the matter is, several of the 007 novels written by Ian Fleming do indeed contain elements that border on the science fictional, and surely on the borderland of the fantastic. And those elements were never more pronounced than in the books featuring Bond’s archnemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld; a series of books today known as THE BLOFELD TRILOGY.

May 9th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Edge, Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |

WWWednesday: May 7, 2025

Marvel unveils their Pride Variant covers.

This is a well-written article, as the UK Guardian questions Marvel’s logic in adding a mentally unstable god to the Thunderbolts* Team.

Reactor shares an excerpt of Tochi Onyebuchi’s new hard-boiled detective novel, Harmattan Season.

Molly Templeton contemplates SF books that play with narrative form.

“Magicians guard an empty safe:” A delightful interview with a stage magician.

Looking for the box office for Sinners, I found this article about Thunderbolts*,

May 7th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Aunt Tigress: A rich blending of traditions enlivens a Tam Lin Tale

Aunt Tigress by Emily Yu-Xuan Qin

2025’s Aunt Tigress brings the reader a rich mix of cultures and folkloric traditions in a story rooted in the Scottish fairy tale of Tam Lin and Janet. Don’t expect a traditional telling of the story here. Emily Yu-Xuan Qin’s story takes place in modern-day Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Tam is Canadian-Chinese, struggling to put some shameful acts behind her and finish college, but her new girlfriend, Janet, and Tam’s powerful, disturbing Aunt Tigress have other plans—especially once Tam is told that her aunt has been murdered,

Quest for the White Witch: The exciting conclusion to an epic trilogy

Quest for the White Witch (aka Hunting the White Witch) by Tanith Lee

It would be hard to imagine any reader experiencing the first two novels in Tanith Lee’s BIRTHGRAVE TRILOGY – namely The Birthgrave and Vazkor, Son of Vazkor – who didn’t feel the overmastering desire to press on to Book #3 immediately after. In that first volume, which was initially released in June 1975, the reader had been introduced to a petite,

May 5th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Tanith Lee | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Rose of Jericho: Eerie, beguiling fantastical Americana

Rose of Jericho by Alex Grecian

Rose of Jericho (2025) is a sequel to Alex Grecian’s wild and vivid Americana fantasy Red Rabbit. Several characters from that book appear here, as the action shifts from the 1880s Midwest to Ascension, Massachusetts, where people who die aren’t staying dead.

This review contains spoilers for Red Rabbit.

In the village of Ascension, Clarissa Sinclair is dying of cancer. Her self-centered, uncaring husband sent her to their summer home,

May 2nd, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Alex Grecian | SFF Reviews | no comments |

WWWednesday: April 30, 2025

Sir Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, the first “Watch” book in his DISCWORLD series, is now being published as a Penguin Modern Classic.

Roseanna shares her struggles with the critical work Colourfields; Writing About Writing About Science Fiction, over at Nerds of a Feather.

Conquest of Space was meant to be the most realistic “outer space” film ever made. Did the 70+ year old classic fall short? (Thanks to File770.)

From last month,

April 30th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

One Message Remains: Four innovative, deeply psychological stories

One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed

Yes, we are cruel. Yes, the world does not use that word as a compliment as we do.

Premee Mohamed is one of my favorite writers in the field. With 2025’s themed story collection One Message Remains she reminds me once again of why I like her work so much.

These four stories all take place either within the decadent, aggressive nation of Treotan, or in one of the nations it has invaded. Treotan, dying from within, still relies on its military and continues its invasions.

The Antidote: Sometimes great, sometimes befuddling

The Antidote by Karen Russell

Karen Russell’s newest, The Antidote (2025), is at times a great book, is at times a befuddling book, and is, in a few instances, a flawed book. The strengths of the book are many: wonderful character creation; the exploration of gravely important themes such as historical erasure, the treatment of Indigenous people, the shaming of women; a healthy dose of magical realism via a magical camera, a sentient scarecrow, and memory-vault “witches”; and wonderfully rich, vivid description. The issues crop up with regard to character presentation,

Red Rabbit: Perfect blend of western adventure and wild magic

Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian

2023’s Red Rabbit, by Alex Grecian, is a solid entry in a category of speculative fiction I call fantastical Americana. Set in the American Midwest a few years after the Civil War, the book starts when some men in a town in Burden County, Kansas, put a bounty on the head of the local witch. This brings all kinds of killers into the county. Meanwhile, farther south, two former union soldiers partner up with Old Tom, self-proclaimed witch-master, and the mute child,

April 24th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Alex Grecian | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

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Recent Discussion:

Bill Capossere on Thunder City: A new adventure in the world of THE HUNGER CITIESMay 30, 2025
How did I miss this? Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Sandy Ferber on You Only Live Twice: Domo Origato!May 28, 2025
I guess that is true, Marion. And when it comes to "You Only Live Twice," I saw the movie TWICE…
Bounty Game on The Giallo Films of Edwige FenechMay 28, 2025
I absolutely loved this deep dive into Edwige Fenech's giallo films! Her unique blend of allure and mystery truly captivates.…
Marion Deeds on You Only Live Twice: Domo Origato!May 28, 2025
You managed to work in your two loves; vintage fiction and films!
Sandy Ferber on You Only Live Twice: Domo Origato!May 27, 2025
Yup, Marion, your memory serves you well! Oh...as regards these three recent Bond reviews of mine, as the old saying…