The British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) awards were announced last weekend. Best YA novel went to The Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhou; Best novel, Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky, best shorter fiction Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard. Congratulations to all the winners.
File 770 has an article about Ukrainian art of resistance. (This column will have a couple of Ukrainian topics included.)
File 770 gave us a link to the most recent WisCon update.
April 20th, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak by Charlie Jane Anders
“Knowledge is ugly, and that’s why we wear cute dresses and eat cake.”
As with most second books in a trilogy, things are bad, teetering on the precipice, by the end of Charlie Jane Anders’s second YA SF book Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak (2022). Our stalwart band of earthlings are not giving up, however, even in the face of injury, doubt, and a devastating loss.
In Victories Greater Than Death,
April 15th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Charlie Jane Anders | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
I don’t think I posted the Hugo Award finalists for this year. Here they are. This list shows me how behind I got in my reading last year.
The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association announced the finalists for the Aurora Awards.
Spock’s first name has been revealed! Oh, wait, no it hasn’t. (Thanks to File 770.)
To no one’s surprise, there’s been a spike in book-banning. There’s been a spike in voter suppression laws and other laws designed to take away people’s rights,
April 13th, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong
I’ll start off with a list of things I liked from 2022’s The Circus Infinite, a science fiction novel by Khan Wong:
The Circus Infinite introduces us to Jes, who is on the lam from an evil Institute when the story opens.
April 12th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Khan Wong | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Silver Shamrock, an indie publisher specializing in “hard-hitting horror,” courted some controversy on the internet with its “edgy” marketing copy for an upcoming novel. When social media reacted predictably, Silver Shamrock shut down its website, released the rights to all upcoming works to its authors, and shuttered. And all that took three days. It’s item 4.
This 21-minute-long video post-mortem of Shamrock’s demise is entertaining.
Joe Abercrombie sold a new trilogy, THE DEVILS, to Tor. (Scroll down to find it.)
Syfy Wire has suggestions for Neil Gaiman books that haven’t been adapted yet.
April 6th, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
In honor of Women’s History Month, I’m sharing my interview with a writer, friend and mentor I’ve known and admired for years.
As a writer, editor, teacher and activist, Marta Randall has a long and influential career in the SFF world. A leading voice in the New Wave movement, Randall saw her 1976 novel Islands nominated for a Nebula. She went on to write several novels, including THE KENNERIN SAGA and, most recently, Mapping Winter and The River South.
March 30th, 2022. Marion Deeds | Marta Randall | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 8 comments |
Claudia Lee Black is an Australian actress who came to science fiction fame playing Aeryn Sun in the series Farscape. Black started her acting career in an Australian soap opera City Life, and was introduced to audiences in the USA with the role of Shazza in Pitch Black. After Farscape she worked in two Stargate series. Black has done voice work for animation and video games. Most recently she appeared as Stripe in the HBO series The Nevers.
Thanks to Paul Connelly for this update from last week!
March 23rd, 2022. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 6 comments |
Inheritors of Power by Juliette Wade
“…A single executive, when chosen by vote of the general population, is not at all the same as a king.”
Inheritors of Power (2022) is like a magic trick, exploding everything I thought I understood about the Varin society from the first two books in the BROKEN TRUST series. I had assumed that the political system in place in Varin’s underground cities had started off basically good and jiggled off-track over time. With Book Three, I have to re-examine that conclusion,
March 18th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Juliette Wade | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Giveaways: This is an announcement. The “Notify Me of Follow Up Comments” button began causing some problem on the site. At this time it is disabled. I generally announce Giveaway winners on Sundays, so please check back each Sunday to see if you’ve won.
Because I categorized this as a Giveaway, one commenter will get a hardcover Copy of Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist.
UPDATE: It seems the feature has been reactivated. If you use it, I recommend checking back on Sundays anyway, at least for a week or two.
March 16th, 2022. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 11 comments |
Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist
The cover of 2022’s Tripping Arcadia reads, “A Gothic Novel,” and the book certainly meets that definition. Lena, our brooding first-person narrator, warns us on the first few pages that she’s “confessing,” and her story drips with confusion, secrets, hidden pain, sexual longing, shadows, and death.
This book is filled with things I loved; plants, herbal poisons, interrupted conversations that seethe with secrets, an old, creepy mansion; secret passages, old books, a beautiful young man hellbent on self-destruction, dangerous parties, crushes that reveal themselves in yearning moments of physical descriptions of skin,
March 15th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Kit Mayquist | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Thanks for the kind words, Ira! Much appreciated!
Fine review
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!