Awards
Is there some award or other every single week of the year? It sure seems like it. Here are some results from the Goodreads Best Of 2015. Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman is Goodreads Best Fantasy of 2015. Golden Son by Pierce Brown is the best science fiction read, and Brian K. Vaughan’s SAGA won for best graphic novel.
Books and Writing
Kat mentioned that the audio-version of Lightspeed’s Women Destroy Science Fiction did not contain Kameron Hurley’s essay,
December 9th, 2015. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 6 comments |
This week’s word for Wednesday is Splendiferous, an adjective meaning wonderful, splendid or magnificent. It comes from the Old English word splendorifer, which means “bright-bearing.”
Awards
Orycon, held in Portland Oregon on November 20, 2015, gave the Endeavor Award to Jay Lake, who passed away in June, 2014. The endeavor Award is given to Pacific Northwest writers for a collection of work; Lake’s Last Plane to Heaven was honored with the award.
Books and Writing
Rarer than a unicorn is the fantasy standalone;
December 2nd, 2015. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 7 comments |
The Chaplain’s War by Brad R. Torgersen
Harrison Barlow was a chaplain’s assistant in the first of humanity’s wars against a technologically advanced conqueror race. Harrison and thousands of other soldiers were rounded up by the insect-like enemy, who humans call the mantis race (mantes is the plural) and held in a prison camp on a planet called Purgatory. Harrison, carrying out a promise to the chaplain who died, built a chapel that was open to everyone. That action intrigued the scholar class of the mantes and led to a cease-fire. As The Chaplain’s War,
December 2nd, 2015. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Brad R. Torgersen | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Greg Van Eekhout has written middle grade novels like Kid vs Squid, adult SF (The Norse Code) and his well-known OSTEOMANCY trilogy, set in a magical California, where sorcerers absorb the magic of mythical creatures by eating their bones. Against this backdrop, Daniel Blackland struggles to survive, and maintain his created family. The final book in the trilogy, Dragon Coast, is out now. Greg chatted with me about magic, families, tacos and the awesome power of the avocado. One commenter with a USA or Canadian address will win a copy of Dragon Coast.
December 1st, 2015. Marion Deeds | Greg Van_Eekhout | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 11 comments |
I may have to give up my long-held identity as someone who doesn’t enjoy reading horror, because I have really enjoyed some horror novels lately. David Mitchell’s latest, Slade House, is a sort of haunted house-slash-mystery story told over several decades, in several different voices, and it was delightful.
The book begins with a young boy, Nathan, who visits a house down narrow, twisting Slade Alley with his mother. The gate is set in the wall of the alley,
November 30th, 2015. Kate Lechler, Bill Capossere, Tadiana Jones and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4, 4.5 | David Mitchell | Horror | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
On this date in 1915, Albert Einstein presented the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. On this date in 1952, Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap opened at the Ambassadors Theater in London, beginning what would be the longest continuous run of a play in history.
Awards
The Kunkel Awards are new! The inaugural award will be given next year, recognizing excellence in video game journalism. Nominations must have been published in 2015, and they can be from any source, even a personal blog,
November 25th, 2015. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Babel-17 won the 1966 Nebula award for best novel, tying with Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon. Samuel Delany’s space opera novel is dated in many ways, but still holds up.
In the future, humans have colonized many star systems. Currently, the Alliance is engaged in a war with the Invaders, who, despite the name, are also human. The Alliance has intercepted many dispatches in a code they can’t break. They’ve labeled it Babel-17. Desperate, they turn to the inter-galactically renowned poet Rydra Wong to help them decipher it.
November 21st, 2015. Marion Deeds, Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3, 4 | Samuel R. Delany | Audio, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
I only posted one photo today and that’s of a candle. It’s for all the people lost in the terror attacks last week, their families, and their loved ones.
Words
This week’s word for Wednesday is humdudgeon, a noun, meaning an imaginary or made-up illness (in Scotland, it means a loud complaint). The origin is believed to come from an old meaning of hum as “hoax” and dudgeon, meaning “ill humor.”
About Us
You’ve probably noticed that the site looks a bit different these days.
November 18th, 2015. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 10 comments |
The Best of Nancy Kress by Nancy Kress
Reading Nancy Kress’s work is a disconcerting experience for me. I love her ideas; there is no one quite like her when it comes to integrating a Big Idea into a believable world. On the other hand, I often don’t understand her characters’ motivations and frequently find them unengaging. Subterranean Press’s new story collection, The Best of Nancy Kress — edited by Kress herself — provides some insight into her ideas and her storytelling, and is an educational,
November 17th, 2015. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Nancy Kress | Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction, Theodore Sturgeon Award | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Dragon Coast by Greg Van Eekhout
Daniel Blackland, the most powerful osteomancer in the Southern Kingdom, will go to any length to rescue his adopted son, Sam. Sam’s essence is inhabiting a huge dragon, a Pacific firedrake that is wreaking fiery devastation on huge swathes of Los Angeles. To extract Sam’s essence, Daniel needs an artifact, and he and his friend Moth will attempt a high-risk impersonation in the warlike Northern Kingdom next door.
Gabriel Argent is the Water Mage of the Southern Kingdom. He, along with his human “hound” Max,
November 12th, 2015. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Greg Van_Eekhout | SFF Reviews | 4 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.