Saint Heron has opened a unique free library featuring material from Black and Brown writers and poets.
Public Service Announcement: Dune the movie does not cover the complete novel, a fact that will not shock many of you. It opened last week, and reviews are in. CNBC quotes a couple of early reviews here. Richard Brody of the New Yorker wants you to know that he really liked the David Lynch version. At Ars Technica, Sam Machkovech likes the new version and hates where it ends.
October 27th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |
The Outskirter’s Secret by Rosemary Kirstein
The Outskirter’s Secret, Book Two in the STEERSWOMAN series by Rosemary Kirstein, was originally published in 1992. It was reissued, along with the other two books in the series, in 2014. This review may contain spoilers for The Steerswoman.
At the end of The Steerswoman, Steerswoman Rowan had made an intuitive leap about the nature of the Guidestars, celestial objects that fill the night sky in her world and are a point of amazing stability.
October 26th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Rosemary Kirstein | SFF Reviews | no comments |
(Single issue column today.)
A Discovery of Witches, the TV show, is the product of a collaboration between AMC and BBC. It airs on AMC and is available to stream from AMC+. The series is based on the Deborah Harkness ALL SOULS trilogy and features witches, demons and vampires in the modern (and very upper-crust!) world. Here are our reviews of the first book.
Since this story travels globally and through time, the cast is large. I’ll give a truncated cast list at the end.
I haven’t read any of the books.
October 20th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein
Originally published in 1989, The Steerswoman, by Rosemary Kirstein, was reissued by the author in 2013, along with the rest of the four existing books in the STEERSWOMAN series. This first book introduces the world of steerswoman Rowan, and the order of steerswomen (and some men), who travel the world gathering and sharing information and knowledge. There is only one kind of knowledge steerswomen don’t have — magic.
When the book opens,
October 19th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Rosemary Kirstein | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
New York City’s Comic-Con resumed in-person events last weekend. The organizers followed through on their promise of reduced capacity, and required masking and other safety protocols, including proof of vaccination.
John Scalzi announced that the Tor Essentials edition of his comic novel Redshirts is available now.
Publishers Weekly also reported that book club favorites for this month include the gothic horror novel The Death of Sarah Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling.
Also from Publishers Weekly, the short list in YA for the National Book Award.
October 13th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed
Premee Mohamed’s novella And What Can We Offer You Tonight (2021) is set in a drowning city where human life is not cheap — it’s worthless. If starvation, violence or disease doesn’t kill you, probably one of the routine government “culls” will, unless you are one of the uber-wealthy, living elsewhere and treating the city like a personal playground/hunting-ground, or a person who services the very wealthy. This leads us to Jewel, our first-person narrator,
October 13th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Premee Mohamed | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Fire Opal Mechanism by Fran Wilde
Of course I’d be a sucker for any book with a brave librarian, and Fran Wilde’s 2019 novella, The Fire Opal Mechanism, has one such, along with a resourceful thief and a time travel device. This short book is an enjoyable read. I haven’t read The Jewel and Her Lapidary, a novella set in the same world. Probably some of the comments about the jewels will make more sense to people who have read that story,
October 8th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Fran Wilde | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
On Monday, Facebook and its associated applications went offline for six hours, leaving businesses cut off, people unable to easily contact family members, and some folks unable to control the thermostat or laundry settings in their homes. Mark Zuckerberg offered a terse apology on his platform. The Verge discusses the probable reason, a coding error released in an automatic upgrade.
The shortlist for the National Book Award is out now.
The Deep Cuts in a Lovecraft Vein blog takes a look at correspondence between C.L.
October 6th, 2021. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 11 comments |
And now… travelogue.
Mono Lake, Ca.
The calcium carbonate towers, with their knobs and twists, that decorate the water and the shores of Mono Lake in eastern California were (and are) formed by the interaction of freshwater springs below the lake’s surface and the highly mineralized lake water. They’re called tufa. Mono Lake’s salinity is much higher than any ocean; the only things that live in it are brine shrimp and alkaline fly larvae, both of which provide a banquet for many varieties of birds. The lake is currently 65 square miles in area,
September 29th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
It will be a very short column this week.
At Lit Hub, Joe R. Lansdale thinks back about the Hap and Leonard series and how Leonard came into being. He updates the column with memories of Michael K. Williams, who played Leonard in the series.
Maria Dahvana Headley’s translation of Beowulf took the Harold Morton Landon translation award.
FIYAHCon 2021 has made some of its panels available at no cost. (Thanks to File770.)
Logan, aka Wolverine, comes out of retirement yet again in a new series of stories.
September 22nd, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 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!