The New Gothic edited by Beth K. Lewis
The New Gothic, an anthology of twelve stories, is edited by Beth K. Lewis and published by Stone Skin Press. It’s a good collection, worth reading.
Gothic horror usually counts on a mounting sense of dread and/or disgust to carry the reader, rather than shock or terror. The fear comes on more slowly, with that faint tickle at the back of your neck, and at its best, a gothic tale creates a sense of otherworldliness,
September 29th, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Jesse Bullington | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
South African writer Lauren Beukes had a hit with last year’s The Shining Girls, the story of a serial killer who could travel through time. Readers of both time travel novels and serial killer thrillers loved the way Beukes melded the two genres. Beukes has again given us a genre-bender with Broken Monsters. Both a horror novel and a police procedural, Broken Monsters is even better than The Shining Girls.
Broken Monsters is set in Detroit — today’s Detroit,
September 22nd, 2014. Terry Weyna and Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Lauren Beukes | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
“You like Christopher Moore,” the bookstore clerk said, pushing a book into my hand. “You’ll like this.” I do like Christopher Moore, and I think S.G. Browne does too, but Fated fell short of the wry Moore-like comedies it tries to emulate.
Fate, who uses the name Fabio, is a world-weary immortal Personification. When the book opens, he is bored with his work and disdainful of the human race. Fabio is only one of many — dozens,
September 18th, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | S.G. Browne | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Jeff VanderMeer’s first two books in his SOUTHERN REACH series, Annihilation and Authority, end up on my top ten list for the year, so it was with great excitement and high expectations that I opened up Acceptance, the third and final book of the trilogy. Having finished, I can’t honestly say those expectations were wholly met, though my lack of satisfaction has less to do with any real complaints about the novel itself and more about the question I had at the end,
September 9th, 2014. Bill Capossere, Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Jeff VanderMeer | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
There is a special joy when a dedicated reader finds a book, written by a gifted writer at the peak of her powers, who journeys into slightly different territory and completely masters it. That joy is what I felt as I finished Maplecroft by Cherie Priest.
Priest has written a lot and she has never tied herself to a single sub-genre. She’s crafted dark fantasy, steampunk, steampunk zombie books and vampire fiction. Now she has essayed Lovecraftian Gothic with Maplecroft,
September 8th, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Cherie Priest | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
In Lock In, Haden’s syndrome has created millions of people who are conscious and alert, but have no voluntary control of their bodies; they are, effectively, “locked in” to themselves. Government funded technology has developed ways to assist these, who are called “Hadens,” to function; both in a non-physical information-world called the Agora, and by using sophisticated Personal Transports or android bodies called “threeps.” (You might be able to figure out where that name comes from if you remember a certain gold-colored android from a popular trilogy of movies a few decades ago.) Chris Shane is a Haden,
September 8th, 2014. Marion Deeds, Terry Weyna, Kat Hooper and Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | John Scalzi | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill (author) & Gabriel Rodriguez (artist)
Psst. Hey, you. Yeah, you. You wanna see something really scary? Here. It’s the first volume of Joe Hill’s horror comic Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft, the trade collection of the first six chapters in this story. The art is done by Gabriel Rodriguez. The volume is beautifully drawn, emotionally authentic and downright scary.
In the opening pages, a deranged student, Sam Lesser, savagely murders high school guidance counselor Rendell Locke.
September 5th, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Joe Hill | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
My favorite part of Blood and Iron is when Mulcibar tells shipwreck-survivor-turned-slave-turned-super-wizard-turned-Queen’s-Protector Horace, in all sincerity, that Queen Byleth is a strict mistress, but not cruel. Sorry, dude, you’re just wrong. Turning the brother who betrayed you over to your crazy mad scientist to be tortured as part of his experiment might qualify as “strict.” Sashaying down to the torture chamber/secret lab in your tissue-thin designer gown and gloating over said brother during torture is cruel. That’s okay, though, because tall,
September 2nd, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Jon Sprunk | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
World of Trouble by Ben H. Winters
We all have that friend, family member or co-worker who thinks speculative fiction is stupid. To be fair, they have a lot of ammunition for this short-sighted view; the Star Wars prequels, vampire-boyfriend sagas and numerous homogenized series with trashy covers. Ben H. Winters, however, is the secret defensive weapon in our arsenal, and the LAST POLICEMAN series is the smart, thinking-person’s SF you can offer as a rebuttal.
World of Trouble (2014) is the final book in the trilogy.
September 1st, 2014. Marion Deeds, Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 5 | Ben H. Winters | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Fables (Vol. 2): Animal Farm by Bill Willingham (author) and Mark Buckingham (artist)
Willingham further develops his world.
Animal Farm is the second volume in Fables, a comic book series that presents characters from various “make-believe” lands living the immigrant life in the USA. In Volume One, we met Snow White, the capable vice-mayor of Fabletown, and her rebellious sister Rose Red. In Animal Farm, Willingham pulls back the curtain to show us a few of the problems lurking just out of sight.
August 22nd, 2014. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Bill Willingham | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
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…