Half-Resurrection Blues by Daniel José Older
I love the world Daniel José Older creates in his urban fantasy Half-Resurrection Blues. I love the feel of Brooklyn; the sounds, the sights, the sensibilities; the descriptions of the smell of cigar smoke, booze, and food from the bodegas, sushi bars and food carts. This Brooklyn is full of life — and full of ghosts, which is where our protagonist, Carlos Delacruz, comes in.
Carlos is a half-alive; a person who has died but not completely.
January 7th, 2016. Marion Deeds, Jana Nyman and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Daniel José Older | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Midnight Taxi Tango by Daniel José Older
Midnight Taxi Tango, which was published today, is the second book in Daniel José Older’s BONE STREET RUMBA series. Things have changed dramatically for Carlos Delacruz, the half-alive agent of the Council of the Dead, who monitors badly-behaving ghosts and spirits in Brooklyn. Carlos has learned a bit more about his pre-death existence, and the love of his life has left him.
Carlos and his senior partner the ghost Riley are charged with investigating several strange “random” accidents at a local park,
January 5th, 2016. Marion Deeds, Jana Nyman and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Daniel José Older | SFF Reviews | no comments |
There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. Here are a few stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about.
“Lois Lane: A Real Work of Art” by Gwenda Bond (2015, free at Amazon)
The first of two prequel stories for Gwenda Bond’s Lois Lane: Fallout, “A Real Work of Art,” is a quick story in which pre-Metropolis Lois Lane puts her investigatory skills to use at a new school.
January 4th, 2016. Jana Nyman, Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones | Gwenda Bond, Kij Johnson, Neil Gaiman | Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
Sit down, kiddies. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, humans were killing each other so fast that total extinction was looking possible, and it was my job to stop them.
Well, I say “my job.” I sort of took it upon myself. Expanded my portfolio a bit. I guess that surprised people. I don’t know how it surprised people — I mean, if they’d been paying the slightest bit of attention they’d have known that AIs have this built-in tendency to take over the world.
December 30th, 2015. Tadiana Jones and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Erin Bow | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
DC Super Heroes Origami: 46 Folding Projects for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and More! by John Montroll
John Montroll has spent decades creating original origami patterns and publishing books so that others can learn from his experiments. I actually own a few of them, and have used them to practice my skills at paper-folding. When I found out that he’d partnered with DC Comics to produce DC Super Heroes Origami, I knew I just had to try my hand at the contents.
There are a total of 46 projects in DC Super Heroes Origami: 6 easy,
December 29th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan
In Kirsty Logan’s watery debut, the world as we know it still exists, only it is entirely underwater. Eerie and poetic, The Gracekeepers has been dubbed a dystopia, but it actually reads much more like a regular fantasy. Small scraps of land are all that remain of earth’s continents after rising water levels, leaving humanity in two groups: “clams,” the lucky few who cling to the land and “damplings,” those that must live out on the sea. The two groups have an uneasy relationship: half-mistrustful,
December 23rd, 2015. Ray McKenzie and Jana Nyman´s rating: 3 | Kirsty Logan | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Diary of a Haunting by M. Verano
The conceit behind Diary of a Haunting is that M. Verano is an associate professor at a university in Idaho who has devoted his life to “editing a series of first-person narratives” which demonstrate instances of occult or paranormal incidents. “Montague Verano” is a pseudonym used to lend authenticity to the framing device for this narrative, which purports to be a collection of journal entries from a turbulent six-month period in the life of a teenaged girl. Naturally, the reader is assured that pertinent details like names have been changed to protect affected individuals.
December 15th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 2 | M. Verano | Horror, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. Here are a few stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about.
“Tea Time” by Rachel Swirsky (2015, free at Lightspeed Magazine)
A wonderfully impressionistic examination of one small cranny of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland. In this case, the focus is on the eternal tea party held by the two lovers—the March Hare and the Mad Hatter, who speak to each other only in quotations,
December 14th, 2015. Bill Capossere, Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman and Marion Deeds | Ilona Andrews, Rachel Swirsky | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Imagine a world in which the Library of Alexandria still existed, a world in which all of that accumulated knowledge and human history was still accessible to any literate person. That sounds pretty amazing, right? What most people might not take into account, however, is how drastically different that world would be from our own with the benefit of said knowledge and the attendant power given to its keepers. Ink and Bone, the first volume of a planned YA series by Rachel Caine,
December 10th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Rachel Caine | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. Here are a few stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about.
The Case of the Little Bloody Slipper by Carlie St. George (2015, free at The Book Smugglers)
Jimmy Prince is a private investigator in Spindle City, a rough town with a thin veneer of civility and populated by spins on familiar fairy-tale tropes. If you’re looking for a fancy dress or some rented companionship,
November 30th, 2015. Jana Nyman, Bill Capossere, Tadiana Jones and Kat Hooper | H.P. Lovecraft, Vivian Vande-Velde | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
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…