I’m of two minds on Drew Magary’s The Hike (2016). On the one hand, it’s a fast, energetic, often funny and sometimes moving work. On the other hand, its plotting feels wholly capricious and arbitrary and some of the territory it wanders is well-worn or less profound than it seems like it wants to be taken. I mostly like my books with a bit more structured depth, and if you do as well, then I think you’ll zip through and enjoy The Hike while also being a bit annoyed.
August 22nd, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Drew Magary | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Shattered Warrior written by Sharon Shinn & illustrated by Molly Knox Ostertag
Shattered Warrior (2017) is a new graphic novel written by Sharon Shinn and illustrated by Molly Knox Ostertag. The artwork is excellent, but as far as plot, it’s an overly familiar one and, as usual for me with graphic novels (fair warning), neither story nor characters are rich enough for my deep engagement.
The story is set on a human world conquered years ago by an alien race (the Derichet) and mostly wholly subjugated,
August 14th, 2017. Bill Capossere and Jana Nyman´s rating: 3.5 | Sharon Shinn | Comics, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“Biting Tongues” by Amal El-Mohtar (2011, free at Uncanny, $3.99 Kindle magazine issue. First printed in The WisCon Chronicles (Vol 5): Writing and Racial Identity)
“Biting Tongues” is a speculative poem which slowly reveals the tenaciousness of the character or characters involved, through a progression from social expectations of their voice and bodies to their true form.
August 7th, 2017. Skye Walker, Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere | Amal El-Mohtar, Jennifer Fallon, T. Kingfisher | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher
R.S. Belcher’s first two Weird West books set in Golgotha, Nevada (The Six-Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana) were hot mess cacophonies of fantasy tropes, characters, source elements, and the like — huge Sunday brunch all-you-can-eat buffets where lifting a lid off of one of those big metal serving bins might reveal zombies, bat-people, cannibals, a primal evil, primal evil’s minions, Mormon artifacts, mythos from just about anywhere or anywhen,
August 7th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | R.S. (Rod) Belcher | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Physics of Everyday Things: The Extraordinary Science Behind an Ordinary Day by James Kakalios
James Kakalios structures his popular science book, The Physics of Everyday Things: The Extraordinary Science Behind an Ordinary Day (2017), around following a person through a typical day and stopping periodically to explain the science (particularly obviously, the physics) behind the technology the person uses and/or engages with, such as a hotel keycard, a toaster, an LED TV, a copier machine and so forth. Both the explanations and the structure succeed to a mixed degree,
August 4th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Dinosaur Empire: Earth Before Us Volume 1 by Abby Howard
Dinosaur Empire is a dense, fact-filled graphic exploration of the rise and fall of dinosaurs that conveys a lot of information for readers in the MG and YA range, though it could use a bit more spark in its storytelling.
Ronnie has just failed her test on dinosaurs horribly, though she has a chance to retake it the next day. Resigned to failing it yet again, and wondering “Who needs to learn about dinosaurs anyway,” she tosses her test into a nearby recycling bin.
August 1st, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
It seems like there are many tales around today that strive to explain the ‘after’ in ‘happily ever after’, with varied results. Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway is one such story that had me riveted from the first. This novella appears to be the first in a plan for more stories in this world, and as an introduction it does an excellent job.
Every Heart a Doorway concerns the lives of those girls and boys (but mostly girls,
August 1st, 2017. Skye Walker, Bill Capossere, Tadiana Jones and Tim Scheidler | Seanan McGuire | Nebula Award, Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 11 comments |
The Asylum of Dr. Caligari by James Morrow
Using a cult-class silent horror film (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) as the template for a speculative fiction anti-war novel might be a weird idea, but James Morrow has made a career out of weird ideas (including several books on killing God) and that experience mostly pays off in The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, though I would have preferred a shorter version of the tale.
On the eve of WWI,
July 31st, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | James Morrow | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Karin Tidbeck’s Amatka (2017) almost reads as a callback to the experimental and dystopian science fiction of the 1970s: a slim novel, packed with examination of the self as an individual unit within a larger social machine and the cost-benefit analysis thereof, with strange imagery and twisting narrative threads, and no easy answers to be found.
Once, generations back, a group of people mysteriously found themselves in a new place, and were unable to make their way back home.
July 27th, 2017. Jana Nyman and Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Karin Tidbeck | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
If the idea of a heist aboard a sentient train traveling at faster-than-light speeds appeals to you; if said heist involves assumed identities, the theft of a very old and valuable artifact, and a criminal thumbing his nose at a family-run corporation/empire; if you like believable romance and honest-to-goodness fun, then Philip Reeve’s latest YA novel, Railhead, is for you. (If none of that appeals to you, read on anyway: I may be able to change your mind.)
In a galaxy filled with novelties like sentient trains who travel at faster-than-light speeds on specially crafted rails through K-gates stationed on nearly a thousand worlds and moons,
July 26th, 2017. Jana Nyman, Rebecca Fisher and Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Philip Reeve | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 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