Recent Posts

Sunburn: Coming-of-age in Greece

Sunburn by Andi Watson (story) and Simon Gane (art)

Sunburn by Andi Watson and Simon Gane is a beautiful graphic novel that tells the coming-age-story of a girl named Rachel Collingwood, who is invited to Greece by acquaintances of the family. The story is unexpected, and the visuals are stunning.

The graphic novel starts off quietly in England as Rachel, complaining about her soggy toast, has breakfast with her family. Their meal is interrupted by a call from Dianne, wife of Peter Warner,

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

Pippin’s Journal: A real pip!

Pippin’s Journal by Rohan O’Grady

“A spellbinding Gothic page-tuner,” the folks at Valancourt Books tell us on the back cover of their new edition of Rohan O’Grady’s novel entitled Pippin’s Journal, and happily, this blurb tells it just the way it is. The book was one that I had never even heard of up until a few months ago, and yet it has suddenly and surprisingly become one of my favorite reads of this year. Simply stated, I just loved this one!

WWWednesday: December 4, 2024

Here’s a McSweeney’s column, mocking Amazon and our attempts to order goods that are made sustainably. Enjoy.

Rupert Grint owes over $2 million in back taxes.

Clarion’s 2025 faculty list is stellar. (Thanks to File 770.)

Nerds of a Feather reviews Lavanya Lakshiminarayan’s Interstellar Chef.

The Walt Disney Company announced that Moana 2 broke box office records last weekend.

Over at Reactor, Judith Tarr examines the origins of “Canada’s Nessie,” named Nhaatik by the First Nations,

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

Assassin’s Quest: Engrossing but too long

Reposting to include Marion’s new review.

Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb

FitzChivalry Farseer’s life keeps getting worse. He has once again barely — and I mean just barely — survived Uncle Regal’s machinations. As Assassin’s Quest, the third book in Robin Hobb’s FARSEER trilogy, opens, Fitz’s situation seems hopeless. Only a couple of people know he still lives and Molly is not one of them. She’s gone, and it seems safest for Fitz to let her live in ignorance.

The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture

The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture by Barret Klein

In The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture (2024), Barret Klein explores the impact of insects on human society, an impact both broad and deep. The text is almost always fascinating and offers up more than enough representative examples of his points, while the numerous included illustrations and photographs add a wonderful enhancement to the text.

After a preface which offers a personal touch, and an introduction that gives us some foundational sense of context and numbers (sixty percent of identified animal species are insects,

November 29th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Cahokia Jazz: Syncretism, symbolism and realpolitik

Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford

Cahokia Jazz is a detective novel, set in 1922 in the city and state of Cahokia, USA. Police detective Joe Barrow and his partner Phineas Drummond are called up onto the roof of the Cahokia Land Building in the middle of the night, where they find the mutilated corpse of a takata—a European-American–posed like an Aztec sacrifice, its heart removed. In most cities, this would simply be bizarre, but in Cahokia, this makes the murder a flashpoint for unrest in a city and state governed largely by the takouma,

Fourth Wing: Dragons, death, and damn those tight pants!

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Typically I write a summary in my own words about a book I’m reviewing, but I would like to start this review by sharing the publisher’s description because it plays an important role in how I initially perceived Fourth Wing (2023) by Rebecca Yarros:

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history.

Your Shadow Half Remains: To look is the one forbidden thing

Your Shadow Half Remains by Sunny Moraine

2024’s Your Shadow Half Remains provides a seductive and disturbing journey of psychological horror, as we visit the mind of an isolated young woman in a post-apocalyptic world, where one look into another human’s eyes can kill both of you.

Your Shadow Half Remains is plainly inspired by Josh Malerman’s Bird Box, only in Moriane’s work, the thing you must not look at is a human face.

The Scarlet Boy: Don’t spare me the details!

The Scarlet Boy by Arthur Calder-Marshall

In the mood for an offbeat haunted-house novel to keep you company during this fall season … or during any season; a beautifully written tale of supernatural horror that you have most likely never heard of before? Well, then, I have a doozy of a suggestion for you … namely The Scarlet Boy, by the British author Arthur Calder-Marshall! The book has been unfortunately neglected for over six decades now, and a quick look at its sporadic publishing history will help explain why it might be an unknown quantity for you and the general reading public today,

WWWednesday: November 20, 2024

Do we Do we need a remake of Forbidden Planet?? Doesn’t matter—we’re getting one.

BBC released a trailer of the Doctor Who Christmas special. Reactor doesn’t have it, but they saw it.

This is a plug for a local southeastern anthology. The proceeds go to families in Appalachia who lost businesses and homes during the recent hurricanes. I may or may not have a story in it. I’m not being coy; I sent in a story but I haven’t seen the complete TOC yet.

In the weeks following the election,

November 20th, 2024. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 4 comments |

Absolution: Still feels freshly fascinating

Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer

These f—-ing people complaining about this f—-ing book. What the f—-ing f? Sure it’s f—ing weird, sure you don’t get any f—-ing answers, but if you f—-ing read the first three f—-ing books, what the f—- did you expect? Goodnight f—-ing Moon? The Very F—-ing Hungry Caterpillar? If you’re gonna f—-ing buy a Jeff Vanderf—-ingMeer book, then you better expect a f—-ing Vanderf—ker.

Sorry, sorry. Got a little too immersed in the final section of Absolution, and I’ve seemingly picked up the voice of that section’s narrator,

November 19th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Jeff VanderMeer | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |

The Navigator’s Children: If this is the end, it’s a fully satisfactory one

The Navigator’s Children by Tad Williams

A long, long time ago in a world far, far away (otherwise known as 1988), a younger me picked a heavy (like really heavy) book titled The Dragonbone Chair off the shelf in the bookstore. If you had told that younger, thinner, more-haired me that I’d still be reading about those characters almost 40 years later in 2024, I would have laughed at the absurdity. But here I am, just putting down The Navigator’s Children (2024),

November 15th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Tad Williams | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Doctors Wear Scarlet: Hated the movie, loved the book

Doctors Wear Scarlet by Simon Raven

The British film Bloodsuckers, from 1970, was easily one of the worst cinematic experiences I’ve sat through in recent memory; a confused and confusing mess of a movie, made even more disappointing for me by dint of the fact that the two lead actors whose participation induced me to watch the film in the first place – namely, Peter Cushing and Patrick Macnee – don’t even appear on screen together once! And yet, I thought, the central premise of the film,

Poison Ivy: Thorns: A mature YA graphic novel

Poison Ivy: Thorns by Kody Keplinger (writer), Sara Kipin (artist), Jeremy Lawson (colorist), and Steve Wands (letterer)

Keplinger’s Poison Ivy: Thorns is a wonderful young adult graphic novel from DC illustrated in a unique style by Sara Kipin. The graphic novel is divided into four sections: Toxic, Roots, Bloom, and Ivy. It takes a look at Poison Ivy when she was Pamela Isley, a struggling high school student, and it gives her a different origin story than some of the usual ones that are presented in other DC storylines,

November 9th, 2024. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Clock in the Sun: How We Came to Understand Our Nearest Star

The Clock in the Sun: How We Came to Understand Our Nearest Star by Pierre Sokolsky

In The Clock in the Sun: How We Came to Understand Our Nearest Star, Pierre Sokolsky does a nice job in covering the history of solar mechanics and exploration, concisely and clearly explaining things in his own language but also, in one of my favorite aspects of the book, offering up a number of lengthy passages from his source material, letting us hear those early thinkers in their own words.

The early sections on pre-Scientific Revolution observations are detailed and often fascinating,

November 8th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Two Twisted Crowns: A satisfying ending

Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig

2023’s Two Twisted Crowns completes Rachel Gillig’s romantasy duology, THE SHEPHERD KING. Along the way, lovers are parted, bonds are broken, justice is meted out and centuries-old secrets are revealed.

This review may contain spoilers for One Dark Window, the first book of the series.

At the end of the first book, Elspeth revealed that Nightmare, the magical entity she hosts, knew the location of the final Providence card,

November 7th, 2024. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Rachel Gillig | SFF Reviews | no comments |

WWWednesday: November 6, 2024

Reactor has an interview with Anna de Marcken, who won the Ursula K. LeGuin award with her novella It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over, described as “not your usual zombie story.” She states she’s uncomfortable with metaphors.

Judith Tarr sometimes reviews older movies, especially ones with a speculative story element. Here she reviews 1996’s Loch Ness.

Readers won a victory against book-banning in Alaska.

In her newsletter, Charlie Jane Anders talks about first-draft revisions and making words count.

Films that flopped and then became classics: the Guardian has a list.

November 6th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Ghost Drum: A dark and haunting Slavic fairy tale

Ghost Drum by Susan Price

Susan Price is a gifted author, though like Anne Pilling, I suspect her work is just a tad too dark and uncanny to draw in a devoted child fanbase. Truly, she pulls no punches with what she writes for her young audience – here for example, the protagonist is killed when she’s deliberately impaled with a large stake. Though she finds a way to reanimate her body, it’s not before hungry wolves chew off one of her arms. You know,

Abeni’s Song: A beguiling middle grade adventure

Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí Clark

P. Djèlí Clark’s 2023 middle-grade adventure novel, Abeni’s Song, kicks off a new series with an engaging heroine, wonderful magic and thrilling adventures. Set in an African forest during the 18th or 19th century, Abeni’s Song follows Abeni as she tries to recover her friends and family from an enemy who calls himself the Witch Priest. The Witch Priest has given the adults of Abeni’s village to the “ghost ships.” It is up to her,

Horror Double Feature: PROM NIGHT & FRIDAY THE 13th

In today’s 23rd and final Shocktober Double Feature, we will deal with an ax-wielding nutjob, Leslie Nielsen, horny camp counselors, and a relentless series of homicides! It’s Prom Night and Friday the 13th!

PROM NIGHT (1980)

Take a dash of Brian de Palma’s Carrie, blend in a hint of John Carpenter’s Halloween, sprinkle in a healthy pinch of Saturday Night Fever and you may end up with a concoction very much like 1980’s Prom Night,

October 31st, 2024. Sandy Ferber | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

We have reviewed 8399 fantasy, science fiction, and horror books, audiobooks, magazines, comics, and films.

Subscribe to all posts:

Get notified about Giveaways:

Support FanLit

Want to help us defray the cost of domains, hosting, software, and postage for giveaways? Donate here:

You can support FanLit (for free) by using these links when you shop at Amazon:

US UK CANADA

Or, in the US, simply click the book covers we show. We receive referral fees for all purchases (not just books). This has no impact on the price and we can't see what you buy. This is how we pay for hosting and postage for our GIVEAWAYS. Thank you for your support!

SFF Deals

Recent Discussion:

Kevin S. on The Witchwood Crown: A much-anticipated return to a classic worldDecember 9, 2024
Thank you for waiting over 7 years for my answer, Kat :) Now that the series is finished, I went…
DJ on Sunburn: Coming-of-age in GreeceDecember 7, 2024
Thanks for sharing!
Sandy Ferber on Pan’s Garden: A stunning collection from “The Ghost Man”December 5, 2024
Thanks for the kind words, Steve! And I am very envious of that first edition!
Noneofyourbusiness on WWWednesday: November 20, 2024December 5, 2024
Dang it, I missed out because the giveaway notification subscription *still* isn't working, and you stopped posting Thoughtful Thursday giveaways…
Steve Corbett on Pan’s Garden: A stunning collection from “The Ghost Man”December 4, 2024
A very informed review. I am pleasantly in possession (right word?) of a Macmillan 1912 1st edition and just read…