The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands edited by Hue Lewis-Jones
Before I get into the review proper of Hue Lewis-Jones’ The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands, I have to note up front that my digital copies of the book had major formatting issues so that passages were jumbled up such that one paragraph would end and a wholly unrelated paragraph (one from either earlier or later in the book) would follow. Or the book would just stop, with pages from, say 25 onward,
October 22nd, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Putting the Science in Fiction: Expert Advice for Writing with Authenticity in Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Other Genres edited by Dan Koboldt
Putting the Science in Fiction: Expert Advice for Writing with Authenticity in Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Other Genres is a collection of brief essays from experts in various fields that originally appeared as part of editor Dan Koboldt’s blog, which he describes in this way:
“Each week, we discuss elements of sci-fi or fantasy with an expert in a relevant topic area.
October 19th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Phoenix Empress by K. Arsenault Rivera
I’ll confess at the start that I was not a fan of K. Arsenault Rivera’s first novel in the THEIR BRIGHT ASCENDANCY series, The Tiger’s Daughter, and came about as close as I can to just stopping at several points along the way. So it was with some trepidation that I began The Phoenix Empress (2018), book two of this Asian-influenced series. The good news is that the sequel improves on its predecessor in many ways.
October 12th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | K. Arsenault Rivera | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera
When I picked up The Tiger’s Daughter (2017), I didn’t know what I was getting into. Written as a long, dramatic letter between two old friends, it is an epic tale of loss, faith, political intrigue, and forbidden love. The Tiger’s Daughter is the debut novel from K. Arsenault Rivera, and set to be the first book in the series titled THEIR BRIGHT ASCENDENCY. The Tiger’s Daughter wends its way from the first time our heroes meet,
October 12th, 2018. Skye Walker and Bill Capossere´s rating: 1.5, 5 | K. Arsenault Rivera | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Our weekly exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we wanted you to know about.
“Waves of Influence” by D.A. Xiaolin Spires (2018, free at Clarkesworld magazine, $2.99 Kindle magazine issue)
Chenghui, a clever young Chinese woman, has committed fraud to win a contest to be trained by Meixiu, an internet sensation and social influencer. Chenghui’s sister, Yixuan, is a devoted fan of Meixiu, and is also slowly dying of a heart ailment.
October 1st, 2018. Marion Deeds, Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere | Kevin J. Anderson | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Thieves. They steal our reading hearts. Admit it — somewhere in your fantasy/sci-fi library is some charming rogue who won you over even as he/she lifted your purse. It’s what they do, damn them. With their clever tongue and even more clever hands. Their shifty eyes and even more shifty ethics. They play us poor readers like the marks we are. And despite that, we keep coming back for more.
We all have our favorites. Around here one such a one is Locke Lamora, along with his band of fellow con artists collectively known as The Gentlemen Bastards (also the title of the series,
September 27th, 2018. Bill Capossere | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 39 comments |
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
Toward the end of Pat Barker’s newest novel, her main character Briseis thinks to herself:
“Yes, the death of young men in battle is a tragedy … worthy of any number of laments — but theirs is not the worst fate. I looked at Andromache, who’d have to live the rest of her amputated life as a slave, and I thought: We need a new song.”
The eloquently powerful The Silence of the Girls (2018) is Barker’s attempt to create just that,
September 25th, 2018. Bill Capossere and Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4.5 | Pat Barker | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Our feature exploring free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we want to share with readers.
“Field Biology of the Wee Fairies” by Naomi Kritzer (2018, free at Apex Magazine, $2.99 Kindle magazine issue)When Amelia turns fourteen, everyone assures her that she’ll catch her fairy soon. Almost every girl catches a fairy, and the fairy will give you a gift if you promise to let her go. The gift is always something like “beauty or charm or perfect hair or something else that made boys notice you.” What no one around Amelia realizes is that she doesn’t want to catch a fairy.
September 24th, 2018. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Kat Hooper and Bill Capossere | Brian McClellan, Genevieve Valentine, Kelly Robson, Naomi Kritzer | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Barren (2018) is a novella-length (just over 130 pages in my ARC version) story that answers some questions left after the conclusion of Peter V. Brett’s DEMON CYCLE series. Specifically, what happened back at Tibbet’s Brook, the small village that was home to Arlen Bales and Renna Tanner, two of the protagonists of the Cycle.
The first point I want to make has more to do with marketing and target audience than the book itself.
September 24th, 2018. Bill Capossere, Jana Nyman and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Peter V. Brett | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
I had mostly the same reactions to V.E. Schwab’s Vengeful (2018) as I did to its predecessor Vicious: the various elements are all a bit too familiar and the two main adversaries are a little flat, but Schwab does a mostly good job of overcoming those issues thanks to a stimulatingly non-linear structure and some marvelous side-characters. Warning: there’ll be some unavoidable spoilers for book one ahead.
As with Vicious,
September 19th, 2018. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
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