Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Let the Right One In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist, is a bleak and chilly horror novel that evokes classic Stephen King works like Salem’s Lot. Lindqvist is a Swedish writer and the book is set in a planned community in northern Sweden, called Blackeberg, in 1981. The novel follows several different point of view characters as the events that will change the community forever begin to unfold.
From the beginning,
January 9th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | John Ajvide Lindqvist | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Reading The Glister by John Burnside was like opening a perfectly crafted wooden box and finding inside a set of components, nested into cognac-colored velvet. Some components were made of finely worked gold and brass; some were polished wood; some were ethereal blown glass; some were made of jewels and bone. Usually, components like these fit together to form a whole: a telescope, a kaleidoscope or a theodolite. Try as I would, though, I could not get the components of The Glister to merge into one coherent whole.
January 6th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | John Burnside | Edge, Horror | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In Tokyo, in 1984, a young woman in a taxi on her way to an important appointment is stuck in gridlock on an elevated highway. After getting some cryptic advice from her cab driver, she walks across several lanes of stopped traffic and makes a perilous climb down a safety access stairway to the surface streets, where she can catch a train to her destination. When she reaches those streets, she is in a different world.
Or is she?
Haruki Murakami’s 900-page IQ84 is the story of a woman,
December 30th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Haruki Murakami | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Telling by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guinis an iconic voice whose books, like Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World is Forest, made people rethink their assumptions of the society they lived in. She is intimidatingly intellectual but writes characters who are real and full of heart. She is a personal role model of mine, so it’s difficult to write a less-than-glowing review about The Telling, a late entry into Le Guin’s HAINISH CYCLE stories.
December 19th, 2011. Marion Deeds and Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Ursula K. Le-Guin | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin
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.
I think I can safely say that I have never read a book quite like The Sacred Book of the Werewolf before. I found the book in the fantasy section, but it had literary novel packaging with a slightly risqué cover (the back and buttocks of a naked woman sporting a plumy fox’s tail).
December 16th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Victor Pelevin | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I’m a pretty big fan of Ian McDonald, so when I learned that a brand new novel by the author was on the way, I got suitably excited. Then, when I found out that the new novel would be the start of a series, and that this series would deal with alternate dimensions and multiverse-type ideas (very different from his last few books), I got really excited. And then, when I discovered that the series would be a young adult series — well, it took me a while to come down from that one.
December 14th, 2011. Stefan Raets and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Ian McDonald | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
I’m giving Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare three stars, because it ably fulfills its function as the second book in the INFERNAL DEVICES series, but I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I did Clockwork Angel. The writing is fine and the story moves well, but somehow our heroic characters just aren’t shown at their best in this volume.
After the debacle at the end of Clockwork Angel,
December 14th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Cassandra Clare | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The first Robert McCammon book I ever read was Swan Song, a post-apocalyptic horror story about the choices people make when there are no rules. Baal, published in 1978 and reissued by Subterranean Press, explores many of the same themes. I expected this book would have some historical interest for me, as a look back at how a mature writer got his start. To my surprise I found compelling writing and a character I cared about.
November 30th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Robert McCammon | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch is justly famous for writing the scariest shower scene in history, even if it was Alfred Hitchcock’s movie that introduced it to a broader audience. Bloch is the author of Psycho, which introduced us to the cross-dressing, multiple personality-mass murder Norman Bates.
Over several decades Bloch wrote crime fiction, thrillers and horror. One recurring theme was that of the unsolved murders in Whitechapel, London in 1888, and the unknown killer with the nickname “Jack the Ripper.”
Subterranean Press has gathered together a collection of Bloch’s Ripper-themed work called Yours Truly,
November 28th, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Robert Bloch | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Folded World by Catherynne M. Valente
Prester John has been king in Pentexore for many years now, aided by his wife Hagia the blemmye. He loves the creatures he rules and has spent his time teaching them about Jesus Christ and trying to reconcile the creation story in Genesis with his new knowledge of the world. When one of John’s daughters brings a letter from Constantinople, asking John to bring his army of monsters to fight the Muslims in Jerusalem, he decides that they’ll go. Although he is happy with his new life in Pentexore,
November 28th, 2011. Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Catherynne M. Valente | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
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…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…