The Land Across by Gene Wolfe
Kat and I both read Gene Wolfe’s The Land Across last week. I read the print version produced by Tor and Kat read the audio version produced by Audible and narrated by Jeff Woodman. I wrote most of the following review, but Kat insisted on sticking in her comments so she didn’t have to write her own review. That’s how this review became a conversation.
Bill: Let’s be honest. In an ideal world,
December 16th, 2013. Bill Capossere, Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 11 comments |
She Walks in Darkness by Evangeline Walton
Many of us who have read Evangeline Walton have her, mentally, on our epic fantasy bookshelf with people like J.R.R. Tolkien and Mervyn Peake, for her retellings of the Welsh mythic cycle The Mabinogion. For us, She Walks in Darkness is a surprise. This previously unpublished novel, brought out by Tachyon Press, is not epic fantasy at all but a gothic thriller.
Written in the early 1960s, She Walks in Darkness was a casualty of Walton’s dispute with a publisher.
December 2nd, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Evangeline Walton | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]
Jeanette Winterson is the author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Sexing the Cherry and Passion. She writes beautiful prose about fascinating characters, some of whom really existed,
November 29th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Jeanette Winterson | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Copperhead is the second in Tina Connolly’s Bronte-themed fantasy novels. In the first, Ironskin, Jane Eliot, badly scarred during England’s war with the Fey, worked as a governess for the artist Mr. Rochart. Jane uncovered the Fey Queen’s plot to possess the wives of the richest and most powerful men in London — wives who had all had their faces re-made to match ethereal Fey beauty. Jane’s own sister Helen Huntingdon was one of the women who had a magical face-lift.
November 22nd, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Tina Connolly | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dream London by Tony Ballantyne
Antihero (n): Protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, such as nobility of mind or spirit.
Tony Ballantyne’s Dream London opens with a stunner of a first chapter. Captain Jim Wedderburn awakens in his room to find two fiery salamanders munching on a green beetle the size of a dinner plate. It only gets stranger from there, as he confronts a business rival (Wedderburn is a pimp); bumps into his old girlfriend who hands him a scroll with his fortune on it;
November 20th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Tony Ballantyne | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Marvel 1602: 10th Anniversary Edition by Neil Gaiman (story), Andy Kubert (illustrations), Richard Isanove (color)
In 2001, Marvel gave Neil Gaiman the chance to write in the Marvel universe. Being Gaiman, he didn’t come up with a traditional superhero story at all. There are no tall buildings to be leaped at a single bound, no airplanes or guns, no fancy particle beam weapons. Instead, Gaiman went sideways, developing a story with Marvel characters — many Marvel characters — in Europe and the New World just at the transition from Queen Elizabeth I’s reign to that of James I of England.
November 8th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Neil Gaiman | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The God Tattoo: Untold Tales from the Twilight Reign by Tom Lloyd
Tom Lloyd shares stories from before his TWILIGHT REIGN series in this collection, The God Tattoo: Untold Tales from the Twilight Reign. I read it because I thought you didn’t have to have read any of the TWILIGHT REIGN books in order to understand what was going on. I would say that’s not strictly true. My ignorance of the series definitely hampered my enjoyment of these pieces.
These eleven stories follow various characters in the city and nation of Narkang in a land called The Land.
November 5th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Tom Lloyd | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Mallet of Loving Correction by John Scalzi
The Mallet of Loving Correction is a second collection of blog postings from John Scalzi’s well-known blog, the Whatever. Scalzi’s previous collection, Your Hate Mail will be Graded, won a Hugo.
Before I comment on the content of the “Mallet”, I just want to say that in addition to his Hugos and his Nebulas and countless other awards, Scalzi should win some kind of prize just for his industriousness. He publishes several works of prose,
October 16th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | John Scalzi | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Osiris Curse by Paul Crilley
The Osiris Curse is the second book in Paul Crilley’s YA steampunk series TWEED AND NIGHTINGALE. While much of this fast-paced adventure seemed obviously borrowed from works like the Librarian movies, Doctor Who and even China Mieville’s book The Scar, the two protagonists are charming and the story moves along at a good clip. Crilley raises some moral questions that should make early-high-school aged readers think.
Sebastian Tweed and Octavia Nightingale are two young people who have been taken under the wing of Queen Victoria’s mysterious Ministry.
October 14th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Paul Crilley | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sworn Sword by James Aitcheson
[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]
Sworn Sword is an historical novel set in the 1060s in England. James Aitcheson is a scholar, and the story of Tancred a Dinant, a knight in the service of William the Conqueror, is painstakingly researched, opening a window into a distant period of British history.
October 11th, 2013. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | James Aitcheson | Edge | SFF Reviews | no 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…