Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Marion Deeds

Mammoths at the Gates: A tender fable of grief, forgiveness and transformation

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo

Mammoths at the Gates (2023) is the fourth of Nghi Vo’s novellas set in the world of the Singing Hills Abbey. Chih, a cleric tasked with gathering oral histories of the world, has returned home after three years, to find old friends, great sorrow, and disruption. The source of the disruption is a pair of war mammoths and their warrior handlers, two sisters, who wait outside the abbey’s gates.

Once inside, Chih learns that most of the clerics have been sent to a distant project.

November 7th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Nghi Vo | SFF Reviews | no comments |

WWWednesday: November 1, 2023

The World Fantasy Award were announced Sunday, October 29. Best Novel went to Saint Death’s Daughter, by C.S.E. Cooney. Priya Sharma took the Best Novella Award for Pomegranates, and Tananarive Due took Best Short Fiction for “Incident at Bear Creek Lodge.”

File770 provided a link to a report on WorldCon, written by someone who was a coordinator for a Chinese fan group as well as a vendor. It sounds like China’s first WorldCon was rocky, which isn’t surprising. The volunteer group who put it on had never done it before,

November 1st, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Starling House: A dark fantasy set in a vividly depicted realist world

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

Starling House is the central mystery of Eden, Kentucky. Eden is a company town, and that company is Gravely Power, who provides energy to a wide swathe of the southeast. They also poison the air, soil and water of Eden. Periodically the government imposes fines, and the Gravelys pay them and move on. Starling House is an isolated mansion in the woods, close to an abandoned mine shaft that goes deep into the earth. There is less “history” about Starling House than there are rumors, and Opal,

No One Will Come Back For Us: A sampling of one of the best writers around

No One Will Come Back For Us by Premee Mohamed

Premee Mohamed is one of the best writers around, and her first short story collection, 2023’s No One Will Come Back For Us is a great way to get to know her work. Seventeen stories give a good overview of her style—I should say styles, because she’s versatile—and her themes. If you like Lovecraftian elder gods, alternate history, dark science fiction or gothic tales set in elegant, decadent worlds of decay and corruption, check this one out.

Here’s the Table of Contents:

“Below the Kirk,

Our favorite spooky houses (GIVEAWAY!)

Houses are a staple of the spooky season. Whether the house is infested with ghosts and no more to blame than one with a termite problem, acting with intent (evil or otherwise), or not actually a house at all but a maze, portal, or mouth, they loom large in the landscape of spooky prose and spooky films.

Bill, Sandy, and I decided to take a look at a few of our favorites. Today’s spotlight—or at least our high-tech ghost-hunting apparatus—is trained on houses, in books and movies. They are listed in (roughly) alphabetical order.

One commenter will get a hardback edition of Alix E.

October 26th, 2023. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 17 comments |

WWWednesday: October 25, 2023

This week’s column will be very short!

The Hugo winners were announced Saturday, October 21, at the Chengdu WorldCon. Ursula Vernon, writing as T. Kingfisher, was awarded Best Novel for Nettle and Bone. Seanan McGuire’s Where the Drowned Girls Go took the award for best novella. Best novelette was awarded to “The Space-Time Painter” by Hai Ya, and Samantha Mills’s “Rabbit Test” won for best short story.

The Ignyte Awards were also announced.

October 25th, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |

WWWednesday: October 18, 2023

I re-watched Guillermo del Toro’s gothic ghost story Crimson Peak, and was smitten by the amazing wardrobe, just as I was the first time. I found a nice and spoilery discussion of the costumes of the two female leads, Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain. Kate Hawley is the costumer. (She has since done the costumes for Rings of Power.) In 2015 when Crimson Peak came out, Variety did a profile of her.

Atlas Obscura offers another photography contest.

October 18th, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |

A Haunting on the Hill: Do not read it after dark!

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand

First, a warning: If you are alone while you are reading this book, do not read it after it gets dark. I don’t care how good your motion-sensor lights, your security system and your Ring doorbell are; just don’t do it to yourself. Trust me.

2023’s A Haunting on the Hill, by master writer Elizabeth Hand, is an indirect sequel to another master writer’s classic work, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House.

WWWednesday: October 11, 2023

File 770 regularly prints a column by Melanie Stormm, about a writer who is the victim of misdirected email by a wannabe writer. I haven’t been following these, but this week’s installment had me at the patent-pending “Conflict Drops,” guaranteed to add conflict to any work you’re writing.

Also from File 770, an update on Wanda Maximoff, also called the Scarlet Witch.

Over at Nerds of a Feather, the gloves are off! Joe and Adri are reading the Hugo Best Novel candidates,

October 11th, 2023. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |

Holly: King’s scariest villains

Holly by Stephen King

If you participate in Bluesky or X (formerly Twitter), you may follow the account called The Midnight Society. If you’ve run across their delightful posts, which imagine conversations among various horror writers throughout history, you might have seen a recent one which featured imaginary J.K. Rowling and Stephen King trading barbs over relative book-length. It had resonance for me because I’d just finished 2023’s Holly, and I have to admit, I was relieved when I bought it and found out it was less than 500 pages in length.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

We have reviewed 8405 fantasy, science fiction, and horror books, audiobooks, magazines, comics, and films.

Subscribe to all posts:

Get notified about Giveaways:

Support FanLit

Want to help us defray the cost of domains, hosting, software, and postage for giveaways? Donate here:

You can support FanLit (for free) by using these links when you shop at Amazon:

US UK CANADA

Or, in the US, simply click the book covers we show. We receive referral fees for all purchases (not just books). This has no impact on the price and we can't see what you buy. This is how we pay for hosting and postage for our GIVEAWAYS. Thank you for your support!

SFF Deals

Recent Discussion:

Kevin S. on The Anubis Gates: A very generous bookDecember 25, 2024
This book made no sense to me at all. I was hoping for some explanations at the end but it…
San on In a Lonely Place: Tennessee DreadDecember 23, 2024
Oh, Marion, you say "but dark" as if it were a bad thing! 😂
Marion Deeds on In a Lonely Place: Tennessee DreadDecember 23, 2024
Hammer Studios is... reborn? I only ever read the "Kane" stories, which I found good but dark. It's a little…
Sandy Ferber on The Great White Space: Black mountain sideDecember 21, 2024
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Sandy Ferber on The Great White Space: Black mountain sideDecember 21, 2024
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!