Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Marion Deeds

Play of Shadows: In which the play’s the thing

Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell

Welcome to Play of Shadows, in which, in the fabled city of Jereste, our Hero, Damelas Chademantaigne, flees a duel and takes refuge with a Theater Troupe. Our young Hero faces many adversaries, among them a Duellist, (the Vixen); An Assassin, (the Black Amaranth), and a dreaded vigilante army (the Iron Orchids), while he Confronts Undesirable Truths from the Past, and is charged by a Duke to perform A Play that will Reveal the Truth and may destroy Jereste in the process.

August 27th, 2024. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Sebastien De-Castell | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |

Weyward: Three women, magic, and a tale elegantly told

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Weyward, by Emilia Hart, (2023), is women’s fiction with magic. The stories of three different women in three different eras wrestling not only with their connection to nature, but with the restrictions and exploitations of society, are captivating, and it’s all delivered with beautiful descriptions and flowing language.

I’m going to go down a rabbit hole here. I recently had to make a long drive (2 ½ hours each way) and used most of that time to chew over why I categorize this as “women’s fiction with magic” rather than “fantasy.” Here’s what I’ve decided;

A Sorceress Comes to Call: A charming love story interrupted with sorcery and murder

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

A Sorceress Comes to Call, T. Kingfisher’s most recent 2024 novel, is a magical regency-style romance, with lengthy interruptions by the machinations of a cruel, selfish sorceress, attacks by her demonic familiar, and the occasional murder.

I don’t think I’ve read anything by Kingfisher that I didn’t love, and this book is no different, although the questions I had with this one surfaced while I was reading and not afterward. To focus on what worked best,

WWWednesday: August 21, 2024

The Bulwer-Lytton Contest winners were announced—awarded for the best example of the intentionally worst prose. Enjoy!

Nerds of a Feather reviews T. Kingfisher’s latest, A Sorceress Comes to Call.

NPR reports that explorers found the wreck of the British warship Hawke, sunk during WWI by a German submarine.

Moving on to love, EW.com lists 21 famous long-awaited TV kisses (spoiler alert—they are one short!). Is your favorite on here?

The Mary Sue offers streaming information for Alien: Romulus,

August 21st, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Blade of Dream: Explores choices and consequences

Reposting to include Marion’s new review.

Blade of Dream by Daniel Abraham

Blade of Dream is Daniel Abraham’s second book in his KITHAMAR trilogy, though to call it a “sequel” is a bit of a misnomer as rather than directly following the events of Age of Ash, this new story parallels that first book’s events in time, actually intersecting with a few scenes here and there but mostly, or at least somewhat,

August 16th, 2024. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Daniel Abraham | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

WWWednesday: August 14, 2024

The 2024 Hugos were announced Saturday night. Best Novel: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh; Best Novella: Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher; Best Short Story: “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer.

The 2026 WorldCon will be held in LA.

Item 3 of File770’s pixel scroll relates an incident at Glasgow’s WorldCon, involving disgraced and banned former Hugo Award director Dave McCarty and a woman in a lovely hat who may or may not have been Ursula Vernon.

Nerds of a Feather reviews Road to Ruin by Hana Lee.

August 14th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

The Drowning House: Priest is the empress of the cursed house story

The Drowning House by Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest should be crowned the queen of cursed houses. First there was Maplecroft, her Lizzie Borden/Lovecraftian suspense novel with the atmospheric house there, then The Family Plot with the old house steeped in family evil. With 2024’s The Drowning House, Priest gives us not one but two cursed houses… and one makes an appearance in a way I’ve never seen before.

In the middle of a wild early-autumn storm,

Bury Your Gays: Delivers on Hollywood Horror

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

2024’s Bury Your Gays didn’t grab me the way Camp Damascus did, but it definitely pulled me in. It’s a different brand of horror that worked convincingly, and I did love Misha, the main character, a Hollywood writer who is the name in queer horror. Tingle creates a world where what happens in the boardroom is every bit as creepy and terrifying as what happens in a dark alley or deserted city park.

As the story opens,

WWWednesday: August 7, 2024

The Dragon Awards ballot is out.

Google lost an important antitrust lawsuit this week.

CBR takes a moment to explore the origins of some of Batman’s best-known foes.

Nerds of Feather review The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years.

As I was seeking out their book review, I rolled past Nerds’ video review of Pentiment, and paused because I was captivated by the art. Here’s the review.

“Hurricane Hunters” isn’t the name of an action movie (although it could be) but the high-altitude aircraft NOAA uses to study tropical storms and hurricanes.

August 7th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Horror Movie: A “cursed film” and a cursed narrator

Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

2024’s Horror Movie is the first Paul Tremblay book I’ve read. Having finished this disturbing, baffling and freaky tour de force, I will now seek out his other works.

Haunted films or cursed films are nothing new in the horror subgenre or even in pop-culture folklore. Tremblay takes this time-honored trope and runs with it. The book makes its way through three storylines; a present tense storyline narrated by our first-person narrator; his recollections on that time in 1993 when he was part of an independent film called Horror Movie (that was never completed);

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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