The Glass Bead Game (or Das Glasperlenspiel or Magister Ludi) by Hermann Hesse
The Glass Bead Game (1943), written by Hermann Hesse, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, is a finalist for a Retro Hugo Award this year. I picked up the audio edition produced by Blackstone Audio and pleasantly read by David Colacci. It’s more than 21 hours long.
The first section of the novel, which lasts 1.25 hours in the audiobook version,
August 6th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Hermann Hesse | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
Sunny Nwazue, an albino who needs to stay out of the sun, has always been different from the other kids in her school. When her family returned to Nigeria after living in the United States for most of Sunny’s childhood, she never quite found her place. Her strangeness becomes even more obvious when she sees a vision showing what appears to be scenes from the end of the world.
When Sunny finally makes a few friends, she begins to realize there’s a reason for her strangeness,
August 2nd, 2019. Kat Hooper and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Nnedi Okorafor | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
I hate giving up on books I plan to review but, unfortunately, this is the second one in a month that I’ve had to abandon.
Steel Beach (1992) is the second in John Varley’s stand-alone novels set in his EIGHT WORLDS universe in which vastly superior aliens have kicked humans off of planet Earth so they can commune with the dolphins and whales (who are more intelligent, in their eyes, than humans). I liked the first EIGHT WORLDS book,
July 29th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 1 | John Varley | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft
Randolph Carter keeps dreaming of a beautiful unknown city which he is aching to visit. After begging the gods to show him the way and receiving no answer, he sets out on a dream-quest to find it. The priests tell him that nobody knows where the city is and that the journey will kill him, but Randolph Carter is not deterred. His quest takes him through fantastic and mostly dangerous places where he meets strange friends and enemies. All the while he can tell that the gods who don’t belong to Earth are trying to stop him from discovering Unknown Kadath.
July 26th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | H.P. Lovecraft | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Invasion by Peadar O’Guilin
The Invasion (2018), a finalist for the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Young Adult Novel, is the sequel to Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call, which you’ll need to read first. (This review will spoil some of the plot of that first novel.) Once again I listened to the audiobook version (Scholastic Audio) which was nicely performed by Irish actor Amy Shiels.
At the end of The Call,
July 25th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Peadar O'Guilin | Audio, Horror, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Labyrinth Index by Charles Stross
The Labyrinth Index (2018) is the ninth novel in Charles’ Stross’ LAUNDRY FILES epic. This installment features Mhari, Bob Howard’s psycho ex-girlfriend who we met back in The Rhesus Chart when she and her colleagues at a bank accidentally developed some software that turned them all into vampires.
Now she’s Dame Mhari Murphy – she’s been elevated to Baroness and she works for the new government in England.
July 23rd, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Charles Stross | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
I picked up Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call (2016) because its sequel, The Invasion, is a finalist for a Hugo Award this year (Best YA Fantasy Novel). Though I often enjoy Young Adult fiction, this book is probably not something I would have noticed had it not been for the Hugo nomination.
The Sidhe are finally taking revenge on the Irish for banishing them to The Grey Lands centuries ago. Ireland has been cut off from the rest of the world and every Irish teenager will,
July 22nd, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Peadar O'Guilin | Audio, Horror, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley
Dr. Lilo Alexandr-Calypso, a brilliant geneticist who lives on the moon, has broken the law by fiddling with the human genome. Just as she’s about to be executed, she is saved by a group of vigilantes who want to use her skills to help them free the Earth from the alien invaders who’ve taken over and kicked the humans off.
Lilo doesn’t want to serve anyone, but their leader, a former president of Earth, has captured a clone of her and says that either she or the clone will be executed for Lilo’s crime.
July 18th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | John Varley | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Dragon Token by Melanie Rawn
I tried and failed to finish The Dragon Token, the second book in Melanie Rawn’s DRAGON PRINCE trilogy (really the fifth book in her DRAGON STAR trilogy). These novels are currently being released in very nice audio formats by Tantor Audio who has generously sent them to me for reviews. I feel bad for quitting, because these are such excellent audio productions narrated by Christa Lewis, but I am just so bored with them and each book is quite long.
July 15th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 1 | Melanie Rawn | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant
Zoinks, Scoob. Like, this is one crazy mixed-up book.
In the Shadow of Spindrift House (2019) is a lot like if Mystery, Inc. — you know, those four meddling kids, their talking dog, and that giant green van — stumbled into investigating a Lovecraftian tale. The difference being, of course, that Mira Grant’s novella is deadly, deadly serious, with little chance that any shambling or creeping horrors will be unmasked to reveal an old amusement-park owner who would have gotten away with his nefarious plan if not for said meddlers.
July 11th, 2019. Jana Nyman and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Mira Grant | Audio, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.