2024’s Bringer of Dust, J.M. Miro’s second book in the trilogy of THE TALENTS, finds our survivors from Book One, Ordinary Monsters, scattered across Europe. Maybe “scattered” isn’t the right word, because their locations are purposeful, as they seek to find an orsine they can open, to return to the world of the dead and rescue Marlowe, the Shining Boy.
A quick review of the magic: Clanks can manipulate their own flesh,
January 28th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | J.M. Miro | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Reactormag shares a couple of forthcoming 2025 releases, among them the latest by Charlie Jane Anders and a dragon book by Cherie Radke.
They also shared an excerpt from T.J Klune’s latest, The Bones Beneath my Skin.
Best Of Lists, Recommended Reading lists, nomination suggestions… it’s that time of year. Nerds of a Feather starts with their recommended list of fiction and visual work categories.
John Scalzi announced completion of The Shattering Peace,
January 22nd, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |
Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro
…And the way a child looked at him in the harbor at Alexandria as he climbed down the gangway and into the haze. All this, all this and more, would vanish from the world with his ceasing, all this ineradicable beauty that now lived only inside him would be lost, moments as fragile as coins of light on water, and this more than any other part of it made him feel alone and sorrowful and frail…
2022’s Ordinary Monsters, Book One of THE TALENTS,
January 21st, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | J.M. Miro | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The New York Times profiles Nnedi Okorafor and her forthcoming autobiographical novel. (This article may be behind a paywall.)
Thanks, File770, for introducing me to yet another “—punk” category: Incensepunk. Also, you can click on their submission guidelines if this is a market where your short fiction would fit.
At Reactor, Molly Templeton takes a thoughtful look at the nature of “escapism” in fiction.
Speaking of thing I wish I could escape… because I do cover stories of genre interest, I’m including a link to this week’s Variety article about the allegations about Neil Gaiman.
January 15th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |
The Spite House by Johnny Compton
Spite houses are real and I went down a shallow rabbit hole preparing for this review. With his 2023 novel, The Spite House, Johnny Compton takes on the concept of a house built solely to irritate and harass nearby landowners, and morphs it into something original and scary.
Eric Ross and his two daughters, Dessa and Stacy, are making their way through Texas, trying to keep under the radar. They have the normal concerns a black family in Texas would have,
January 13th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Johnny Compton | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
John Scalzi announced some changes at Whatever, his venerable blog site.
Rosalind Franklin provided remarkable and invaluable data in the discovery of DNA, but Watson and Crick didn’t exactly steal her work—they were just clueless sexists. From 2015.
While reading The Spite House, I got interested and found a couple of interesting articles about the residences. Here’s one.
The BAFTA longlist for 2025 is out, with Emelia Perez and Conclave at the top. Wicked and Dune II also drew nods.
January 8th, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The Militia House by John Milas
2023’s The Militia House is the debut novel of John Milas. Set in Afghanistan in 2010, it follows a team assigned to a Landing Zone as they are drawn into an abandoned Russian-invasion-era “militia” house close to their base. The sense of dread grows as the story continues, veering into a surreal world, but as in real life, the greatest horror may simply be war.
Our first-person narrator is Corporal Loyette, and his team consists of Johnson, Blount and Vargas.
January 7th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | John Milas | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Unkillable Princess is the second book in a series, but it sounds fun and Nerds of a Feather’s review did it justice.
Ruthanna Emrys and Anne M. Pillsworth discuss E. Catherine Tobler’s moody story, “To Drive the Cold Winter Away,” over at Reactor.
File770 had this link to a Doc Savage; Man of Bronze action figure. A belated Christmas present for Sandy?
This is an idiosyncratic list but had some names that were new to me—and a preview of a new Heather Fawcett I didn’t know was coming!
January 1st, 2025. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |
Happy Christmas and Happy Hanukkah if you celebrate. Happy Wednesday if you do not.
The Prometheus Society narrowed the finalists for its 2024 award to four diverse works (and creators) who excellently modeled libertarianism. The short list includes Rudyard Kipling, Poul Anderson, Charles Stross and the musical group Rush.
The Christmas tree is an integral part of the Christmas season for many folks. It has its roots in the Yule celebration, from the Nordic lands.
This article in Reform Judaism discusses the origin of the holy day Hanukkah,
December 25th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |
The Horror Writers Association has announced its scholarship winners.
Bruce Sterling was, and still is, an influential writer in the field of SF, most notably in the days of futurism and cyberpunk. What’s he doing now? This interview with Worldbuilding Agency gives us an idea.
Gamergate lurches on, this time in a lawsuit reaching the Brooklyn, New York courts last week. A woman who was forced to resign from game-review site Kotaku is suing a self-styled “gamergate” gamer in California. She alleges he led a concerted hate campaign against her and made false statements.
December 18th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |
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…