Recent Posts

The Wind That Sweeps the Stars: Often utterly fascinating

The Wind That Sweeps the Stars by Greg Keyes

Greg Keyes’ The Wind That Sweeps the Stars (2024) is a book that while it has its issues I’d say with pace and structure, is often utterly fascinating thanks to the underlying mythos that serves as the sub-structure of the story. That mythos, combined with several action-packed fight scenes and several engaging and likable characters makes it an easy recommendation despite my few quibbles.

The story itself is relatively simple. We open in a tall tower in the center of an Empire’s fortress capital,

September 17th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Greg Keyes | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

The Naming Song: I absolutely loved this premise

The Naming Song by Jedediah Berry

The Naming Song (2024), by Jedediah Berry, is an ambitious work with a thoughtful and thought-provoking premise, and if (for me at least), it didn’t fully carry through on that ambition or premise, I’ve got to give credit to Berry for the reach. Certainly, given both that ambition and the level of writing here, I’ll look forward to what comes next from them (and also check out some prior work).

The story is set in world that developed after a great cataclysm that seemingly erased all language (amongst more tangible losses;

September 16th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Jedediah Berry | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Thistlefoot: I can’t wait to read it again

Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

2023’s Thistlefoot, by GennaRose Nethercott, is one of my favorite reads of 2024. This literary fantasy draws from Jewish and Eastern European folktales, with a concretely modern setting, a gloss of mythic American West (hobos and tumbleweeds), and sentences that sing with poetry.

Isaac Yaga is a street performer and a con artist. He can impersonate almost anyone, and he is always on the run, either from the people whose pockets he’s picked, or from his own guilty memories, accompanied only by a small black cat named Hubcap.

No Night Without Stars: Likeable heroes, poor pacing

No Night Without Stars by Andre Norton

No Night Without Stars (1975), by Andre Norton, is a post-apocalyptic adventure set in a world where civilization has collapsed, and all that’s left are scavengers and warring factions.

The hero of the story is an ambitious and curious young man named Sander who has left his tribe, where he feels disrespected, to search for lost knowledge from the past. Sander hopes to discover the secrets of creating a particular alloy that smiths used to use.

WWWednesday: September 11, 2024

Reactor reviews Suzan Palumbo’s newest, a space-opera retelling of The County of Monte Cristo. Sign me up.

And enjoy their review of an upcoming Netflix “Sci-fi movie with jokes,” It’s What’s Inside.

In honor of the anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Show (in Canada, where it aired first) Chris Barkley shares his 15 favorite episodes. How do they match up with yours?

Next year’s WorldCon, in Seattle, Washington, USA, will feature a film festival. Thanks to File 770 for this item.

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

Fledgling: Enjoyable but forgettable

Fledgling by Molly Harper

Fledgling (2019), the second book in Molly Harper‘s SORCERY AND SOCIETY series, picks up where Changeling left off, following Sarah Smith (posing as Cassandra Reed) as she endeavors to learn magic and navigate elite society at Miss Castwell’s Institute for the Magical Instruction of Young Ladies while keeping her identify as a former housemaid secret. If you haven’t read Changeling yet, you’ll want to do that first.

Sarah is feeling more comfortable with her magical abilities and her social situation.

Impossible Creatures: Perfectly serviceable

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell

I really wish I hadn’t seen all the hype around Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures — the Waterstones Prize, the comparisons to C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, Rowling, and Tolkien, the sales numbers off the charts. That way I could have come to the book clean of expectations, even though I (as one should) took all such comparisons with heaping bucketfuls of salt, if not entire mines’ worth. Unfortunately, I did see all those comparisons, and so despite all that salt, I couldn’t help but be disappointed by what in the end turned out to be a perfectly serviceable MG fantasy,

Fullmetal Alchemist (volume one) by Hiromu Arakawa (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 Stephanie Kola-Ogunbule.

Stephanie Kola-Ogunbule is a first-year student at Oxford College and is considering majoring in Business Analytics or International Business Her home is Atlanta,

September 7th, 2024. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

The Glorious Pool: Bottoms up!

The Glorious Pool by Thorne Smith

In Ron Howard’s 1985 film Cocoon, a group of seniors becomes rejuvenated as a result of taking a dip in a swimming pool whose waters had been infused with “life force” by some extraterrestrial visitors. But as it turns out, this was not the first time that some aged adults had discovered a Fountain of Youth of sorts in such a place. Thus, over half a century earlier, we find a similar setup – although with a completely different explanation – in Thorne Smith’s remarkably madcap fantasy The Glorious Pool.

GIVEAWAY! What’s the best book you read last month?

It’s the first Thursday of the month. Time to report!

What’s the best book you read in August 2024 and why did you love it?

It doesn’t have to be a newly published book, or even SFF, or even fiction. We just want to share some great reading material.

Feel free to post a full review of the book here, or a link to the review on your blog, or just write a few sentences about why you thought it was awesome.

And don’t forget that we always have plenty more reading recommendations on our 5-Star SFF page.

September 5th, 2024. FanLit | Giveaway! | 8 comments |

WWWednesday: September 4, 2024

File 770 shares the latest AI kerfuffle, as NaNoWriMo’s steering organization made an unpopular statement about use of AI in its Annual November write-a-thon. Their awkwardly worded statement implies seems to imply that disabled people couldn’t complete a book without AI help. You can imagine how well this went over. It’s Item 1.

SFWA had a series of resignations and vacancies that came to a head last month. Jason Sanford covered it here on his Patreon. File 770 provides some updates. It looks like the organization is fundamentally sound and taking the right steps to correct the problems.

September 4th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Darkwater Hall: A compelling and thought-provoking story

Darkwater Hall by Catherine Fisher

I must have read this book for the first time over twenty years ago, and though I had forgotten the title, author and much of the story, a few little details stuck with me: the evocative atmosphere it conjured, the central premise that concerned a young girl striking a deal with the devil, and something about a stairwell that ran up and down time.

Then, one day while perusing the library catalogue in search of another book entirely, the cover art for Darkwater Hall (2011) stirred something in my memory.

The Complete John Silence Stories: The doctor is in

The Complete John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood

For English author Algernon Blackwood, success as a writer came fairly late in life. Although today deemed one of the 20th century’s greatest purveyors of supernatural and “weird” fiction, Blackwood evinced little interest in the field until he was in his mid-30s. Up till that time, he had tried his hand in numerous professions – from a dairy farmer in Canada to a NYC journalist, from hotel operator to model, from personal secretary to bartender. It wasn’t until Blackwood turned 37 that his first short-story collection,

WWWednesday: Lost, Season 3: Smoke and Mirrors

Some fans of Lost consider Season Three its best season. It is a pivotal season, with the growing hints about Jacob and the smoke monster/Man in Black. Two things make the season a fan favorite; the introduction of a character many people loved, Dr. Juliet Burke, and the plotline involving Charlie, which, unlike most plotlines in the show, actually resolves, and with meaning.

Season Three aired from October, 2006 through May, 2007. As always I’m indebted to Lostpedia for the facts and details. This column will include spoilers for this and future seasons.

In this season we see our first true “death as sacrifice.” We meet a super-powered Other,

August 28th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Play of Shadows: In which the play’s the thing

Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell

Welcome to Play of Shadows, in which, in the fabled city of Jereste, our Hero, Damelas Chademantaigne, flees a duel and takes refuge with a Theater Troupe. Our young Hero faces many adversaries, among them a Duellist, (the Vixen); An Assassin, (the Black Amaranth), and a dreaded vigilante army (the Iron Orchids), while he Confronts Undesirable Truths from the Past, and is charged by a Duke to perform A Play that will Reveal the Truth and may destroy Jereste in the process.

August 27th, 2024. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Sebastien De-Castell | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

Weyward: Three women, magic, and a tale elegantly told

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Weyward, by Emilia Hart, (2023), is women’s fiction with magic. The stories of three different women in three different eras wrestling not only with their connection to nature, but with the restrictions and exploitations of society, are captivating, and it’s all delivered with beautiful descriptions and flowing language.

I’m going to go down a rabbit hole here. I recently had to make a long drive (2 ½ hours each way) and used most of that time to chew over why I categorize this as “women’s fiction with magic” rather than “fantasy.” Here’s what I’ve decided;

The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin (An Oxford College Student Review!)

The Private Eye by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Marcos Martin (artist), and Muntsa Vincente (colors)

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: Engaging and entertaining

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party by Edward Dolnick

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party (2024), by Edward Dolnick, is an engaging and entertaining look at how the discovery of dinosaur bones in the 1800s and the subsequent explanations of their origins overturned the Victorian view of the world in a host of ways, leading to our more modern conceptions of things such as evolution, time, and our place in the universe.

Dolnick begins in 1802 with a young boy in Massachusetts discovering a set of footprints that would late turn out to be a dinosaur trackway and ends with the famous 1853 New Year’s Eve party held inside a reconstructed dinosaur skeleton.

August 23rd, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

A Sorceress Comes to Call: A charming love story interrupted with sorcery and murder

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher’s most recent 2024 novel, is a magical regency-style romance, with lengthy interruptions by the machinations of a cruel, selfish sorceress, attacks by her demonic familiar, and the occasional murder.

I don’t think I’ve read anything by Kingfisher that I didn’t love, and this book is no different, although the questions I had with this one surfaced while I was reading and not afterward. To focus on what worked best,

WWWednesday: August 21, 2024

The Bulwer-Lytton Contest winners were announced—awarded for the best example of the intentionally worst prose. Enjoy!

Nerds of a Feather reviews T. Kingfisher’s latest, A Sorceress Comes to Call.

NPR reports that explorers found the wreck of the British warship Hawke, sunk during WWI by a German submarine.

Moving on to love, EW.com lists 21 famous long-awaited TV kisses (spoiler alert—they are one short!). Is your favorite on here?

The Mary Sue offers streaming information for Alien: Romulus,

August 21st, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

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Recent Discussion:

Paul Connelly on The Wind That Sweeps the Stars: Often utterly fascinatingSeptember 18, 2024
Good. The Basilisk Throne definitely left several characters in medias res at the end. I haven't seen any word about…
Bill Capossere on The Wind That Sweeps the Stars: Often utterly fascinatingSeptember 18, 2024
It wholly works as a self-contained work with a very brief bit at the end that allows for the possibility…
Ty on The Saliva Tree: A tribute to H.G. WellsSeptember 18, 2024
I just read The Saliva Tree yesterday and loved it. A couple notes: In my copy (I read it in…
Paul Connelly on The Wind That Sweeps the Stars: Often utterly fascinatingSeptember 17, 2024
I have a hold request for this at the library, so I'm glad to hear you liked it. Does this…
Marion Deeds on The Naming Song: I absolutely loved this premiseSeptember 16, 2024
It reminded me immediately of LeGuin and also Isabel Allende's "universal matter" (I think) in Eva Luna. It's a concept…