Recent Posts

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.

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 |

WWWednesday: April 23, 2025

Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. The ABA has provided a map and a guide to bookstores with events, by state. A bookstore crawl might be fun to organize.

From 2023, Bookbub provides a list of books with magic houses. A few recent releases aren’t included, and at least one of these, The Little Stranger, is not a magic house but a haunted one. (I won’t die on that hill, but I’m at least willing to take some damage on it.) The list is still worth checking out.

April 23rd, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

The Book That Held Her Heart: Concludes a trilogy that’s easy to recommend

The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence

Mark Lawrence’s first title in his LIBRARY TRILOGY, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, made my Top Ten Books list the year it came out (2023), and while its sequel, The Book That Broke the World, wasn’t as strong, I still quite enjoyed it. Now Lawrence is out with The Book That Held Her Heart,

April 22nd, 2025. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Mark Lawrence | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Savage Epics: The Seminal Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs

Savage Epics: The Seminal Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I haven’t had this much pure fun reading a book since I was thirteen, which was the same age that I started reading Edgar Rice Burroughs’ TARZAN series.

Those TARZAN books that were a turning point for me. I collected, read, and still have the Ballantine series with the Neal Adams and Boris covers. TARZAN led me to the Ace CONAN series that was edited by DeCamp and Carter.

April 16th, 2025. Greg Hersom´s rating: 5 | Edgar Rice Burroughs | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Vazkor, Son of Vazkor: What’s become of the baby?

Vazkor, Son of Vazkor (aka Shadowfire) by Tanith Lee

In Tanith Lee’s first novel written for adults, The Birthgrave (1975), Book #1 in her BIRTHGRAVE TRILOGY, the reader had been introduced to a very unusual young woman. Petite, albino, in command of a range of superhuman abilities, and with no memory of her past or even her own name, she had awoken in the heart of a dormant volcano and ventured forth on an epic journey of self-discovery.

April 14th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Tanith Lee | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

WWWednesday: April 9, 2025

The National Space Society is awarding its inaugural Arthur C. Clarke Memorial Award to Joe Haldeman.

The link takes you to the list of books pulled by the Nimitz Library at the U.S. Naval Academy in response to the administration’s policies. Titles include: What Are We Fighting For? By Joanna Russ(nonfiction); Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki (fiction); A Psalm for the Wild-Built, by Becky Chambers (fiction); The Last White Man, Mohsin Hamid (fiction); Sorrowland, by Rivers Solomona (fiction),

April 9th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Spirit’s End: A satisfying end to Eli’s tale

Spirit’s End by Rachel Aaron

Spirit’s End (2012) is the final book in Rachel Aaron‘s THE LEGEND OF ELI MONPRESS. You’ll want to read the first three books, The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, The Spirit Eater, and The Spirit War before picking up this one. This review will have some spoilers for the previous installments.

The Birthgrave: Tanith Lee’s first novel

Reposting to include Sandy’s new review.

The Birthgrave by Tanith Lee

Let me be clear: The Birthgrave has kind of a dumb plot. It’s repetitive, it’s all predicated on a prosaic twist that’s kept overly mysterious, and when the big reveal finally does come, it’s via one of the most blatant examples of deus ex machina I’ve ever seen. All the same, I’d still call this a good book. Maybe even a great one. That’s the magic of Tanith Lee: even her first novel,

April 4th, 2025. Tim Scheidler and Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4, 5 | Tanith Lee | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |

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Recent Discussion:

Marion Deeds on Written on the Dark: Feels like Kay’s most elegiac workMay 20, 2025
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess both you guys like Kay.
Sandy Ferber on Written on the Dark: Feels like Kay’s most elegiac workMay 20, 2025
Geez, guys, a brace of remarkably well-written reviews here. Hat's off!
Marion Deeds on Talk To My Back by Muraski Yamada (An Oxford College Student Review!)May 19, 2025
What a perceptive and beautiful review. You make it clear that Yamada not only knows the story she wants to…
Kevin Keller on The Infinity Concerto: Fails to deliverMay 19, 2025
Read together with The Serpent Mage, the series is one of the best works of art out there. The main…
William Capossere on Talk To My Back by Muraski Yamada (An Oxford College Student Review!)May 18, 2025
thanks for this really well-written review. You've definitely piqued my interest in this, particularly in how you highlight the still…