The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
What if Jay Gatsby literally sold his soul to a demon, in order to woo and win the love of Daisy Buchanan? With that one question, Nghi Vo ushers us into a strange, familiar, wonderful and terrifying world with her first full-length novel, The Chosen and the Beautiful (2021).
In a 1920s USA where magic is common and ghosts walk side by side with people, Vo introduces us to Jordan Baker, bosom friend of Daisy Fay Buchanan.
June 3rd, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Nghi Vo | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ta-Nehisi Coates says farewell to Black Panther.
Another trove of previously-undiscovered writings of the Bronte siblings will go to auction in July. Now’s your chance.
LitHub has book recommendations based on your Zodiac sun sign.
Writers Digest University announces an online SFF conference.
Thanks to Zina for this link to a comprehensive look at SFF awards.
Thanks to File 770 for this link! The UK Guardian posted a compilation of images of the Milky Way.
June 2nd, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
Sunday May 23 is National Turtle Day every year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) has put together a round-up of facts about this aquatic reptiles.
Oh, yes, the deep hole of research. For LitHub, Rafe Posey writes about the things we look up and where they lead us.
John Steinbeck was not above using the “the dog ate my homework” excuse.
Speaking of Steinbeck, he wrote a werewolf novel! Frankly, I don’t know about this.
May 26th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory
It’s 2001, and Luce Delgado, homicide detective for the Las Vegas PD, has come to a casino on the strip to deal with a celebrity murder. Dead, “Dr. M,” manager of the hottest boy-band act on the planet, the WyldBoyZ. Suspects? There are plenty, but her top five are the brilliantly harmonizing human/other-mammalian hybrid band members, the Boyz themselves. The challenge? A locked room on the fifty-sixth floor of the casino hotel.
Almost equally important to Luce is her attempt to keep from breaking the heart of the WyldBoyZ’s number one fan — Luce’s nine-year-old daughter Melanie.
May 25th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Daryl Gregory | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Speculative Literature Foundation is launching a Convention Support Grant, to help conventions get back on their feet as pandemic measures ease. (Thanks to File 770.)
Hugh Howey is initiating a self-publishing contest similar in structure to Mark Lawrence’s Self-Publishing Blog-Off. Ten book bloggers will review up to 300 self-published SF novels. At the end of a year, a winner will be chosen from among the finalists.
Alexandra Petri knocks it out of the park for her Washington Post column, a post pandemic horror-satire (or is it?).
May 19th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
Nerds of a Feather gives us a review of Water Horse by Melissa Scott.
From last month, here is Tordotcom’s 2021 publishing sampler.
Also from last month, Orbit provides a cover reveal of the latest by Tade Thompson.
Baen’s home page shows some new releases too.
From The Little Book of Feminist Saints, LitHub chose five who should be feminist writer saints.
According to Publishers Weekly,
May 12th, 2021. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 10 comments |
Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders
2021’s Victories Greater That Death is the first book in Charlie Jane Anders’s new Young Adult space opera series, UNSTOPPABLE. The book is filled with smart, heroic young people, extraterrestrials, space adventures, horrifying villains, bad food and plenty of relationships, as six Terran humans get pulled up onto The Royal Fleet warship Indomitable. The Royal Fleet is smack-dab in the middle of a war with a faction that calls itself Compassion.
May 12th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Charlie Jane Anders | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
2021’s Oddity is a wonderful middle-grade adventure, with a valiant and compassionate young heroine, a beguiling take on alternate early-USA history, and a plethora of action and magic. Adults who read it with younger readers might discover it sparks a serious conversation about loyalty, values, and how we decide what’s right and what’s not.
Karin Rytter’s illustrations, which look like woodcuts, enhance the reading experience. So does the tone Brown employs, which reminded me a little of some of Philip Pullman’s middle-grade books,
May 7th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Eli Brown | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Books and Writing:
The European Institute of Astrobiology is launching a Kickstarter to fund an anthology. Some good authors attached to this one.
Publishers Weekly is inaugurating a virtual book conference, the US Book Show, May 25-27. There is a cost to register. This is broad based and not genre specific. (H/T to File 770.)
Clarion West is taking a deep look at the Clarion model of workshopping, with an eye to change. The workshop model had its foundation in academia,
May 5th, 2021. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
Everything that made the Winter Gladiator Bella Kanto who she was has been stripped from her. She’s exiled from Tabat, the city she represented and loved, sent off to a distant outpost, guarded by a woman who hates her. Her only trustworthy companion is the dog who ran away from Duke Alberic at the quay and leaped aboard her ship at the last second. Bella doesn’t know who the dog is, but we do.
Bella not only faces the loss of all the trappings of her former exalted position.
May 4th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Cat Rambo | 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…