Magpie’s Song (2017) is the beginning of a new series by Allison Pang, and it’s an interesting blend of genres. There’s a dash of steampunk, a dollop of dystopia, and even a pinch of faerie lore. When I started reading, I was skeptical that all of this would work well together, but Pang pulls it off, and creates an interesting world that I want to know more about.
BrightStone is a steampunky, gritty city whose inhabitants are ruled from above — literally — by the Meridians,
November 22nd, 2017. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Allison Pang | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire
I have enjoyed Seanan McGuire’s OCTOBER DAYE urban fantasies, but a few of her more recent novels in the series seemed to introduce too many characters and bring too many different magic systems into play. However, the latest two novels, Chimes at Midnight and The Winter Long (which I’ll review soon), have knocked my socks off with tight plotting and memorable characters. Now I once again find myself impatient for the next one to arrive,
November 10th, 2017. Terry Weyna and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
During the entire month of October, in the late 1800s, in a year when the full moon falls on Halloween, strange forces gather in a village outside of London. Various iconic characters ― who will be familiar to fans of Victorian literature and classic horror movies ― create shifting alliances, gather herbs, instruments of power and the odd eyeball and femur, and prepare for a mystery-shrouded event that will take place on Halloween night.
A Night in the Lonesome October (1993) is narrated by the aptly-named Snuff,
October 31st, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Roger Zelazny | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
The Crowfield Demon by Pat Walsh
In The Crowfield Curse (2012), young William and his friends and allies righted a long-ago wrong at Crowfield Abbey and faced down the terrifying Unseelie King. But now another evil is rising at the abbey — one that has even the Unseelie King running scared.
The Crowfield Demon is even better and spookier than The Crowfield Curse. I didn’t realize how familiar the abbey had begun to feel after one relatively short book;
August 29th, 2017. Kelly Lasiter and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Pat Walsh | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Gabriel is about to become Archangel. He is required to lead the annual singing of the Gloria on the Plains of Sharon in just a few months with his wife, the angelica, at his side. There is just one problem: Gabriel isn’t married. Faced with this dilemma, he goes to the oracle to find out who he is supposed to marry, and is given the name of a woman, Rachel, but he has no idea where to find her. With the months slipping away before his voice raised in song is the only thing that can turn away the wrath of the god Jovah,
June 16th, 2017. Ruth Arnell and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Sharon Shinn | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
“Do you think, if something starts wrong, it can come right in the end?” Late in Sealskin, the protagonist Donald asks this question, and each reader’s answer to it will likely shape how they feel about the novel as a whole.
So, selkie legends (and similar animal-bride myths; sometimes it’s a swan or a fox instead) are kind of My Thing, and as soon as I heard of Su Bristow’s new release, I wanted to read it. I found it well-written and atmospheric,
May 11th, 2017. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Su Bristow | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
Hard as it may be to fathom, once upon a time (the early 1900s), radium was thought of as a miracle substance, enhancing all it touched. And so companies flooded the market with products like radium makeup, radium water, radium butter, radium toothpaste, and radium paint. The last was used by the young women who painted luminescent numerals on watch dials (a tool that became all-important to the war effort), though they also snuck some paint now and then to paint their nails,
April 19th, 2017. Bill Capossere and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Lost Souls by Kelley Armstrong
Kelley Armstrong’s Lost Souls is that quintessential three-star book. There’s nothing wrong with it, but at the same time, it didn’t blow me away.
It’s a CAINSVILLE novella that falls between book three, Deceptions, and book four, Betrayals. If you haven’t gotten that far, you’re in for a slew of spoilers, so I would recommend waiting and reading it in sequence. At the end of Deceptions,
February 21st, 2017. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3 | Kelley Armstrong | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
Louise is an insecure single mom who, one night, meets and kisses a dashing stranger. She’s mortified the next morning to find that the stranger, David, is now her boss. Her married boss. Then she (literally) bumps into David’s wife, Adele, and the two of them hit it off.
Despite her best friend’s warnings that all of this is a bad idea, Louise falls in deeper: into a full-blown affair with David, and into a close friendship with Adele. In particular, Louise and Adele bond over their shared experience with night terrors.
February 15th, 2017. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Sarah Pinborough | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey
Miranda and Caliban is a twist on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, ringing one major change on the play: what if Miranda and Caliban were in love?
Our tale begins years before the events of the play; we first meet Miranda as a child, assisting her father Prospero in the ceremonial magic that will bind the “wild boy,” Caliban, and the spirit Ariel to his will. From there, Jacqueline Carey alternates between Miranda’s point of view and Caliban’s,
February 14th, 2017. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Jacqueline Carey | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
I would love to completely leave the psychopathic edgelord's hellsite, but bsky appears to exist only as an app, and…
I had it on my list to reread (which means I looked over at the bookcase one night, saw it…
Marion, I'm saving James (and Orbital) for after my semester ends so I can devote my undivided attention to them.…
Susan, glad you enjoyed. Samuel Jackson should absolutely play him in the movie!
Troy, 100% agreed. Sadly the BBC adaptation is also confused about this. They seem to think Orciny is some kind…