Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Marion Deeds

WWWednesday: Cover Reveal, The Book of Atrix Wolfe

Tachyon Publications celebrates the 30-year anniversary of Patricia McKillip’s The Book of Atrix Wolfe with a beautiful new edition. McKillip, who passed away in May, 2022, wrote seductive fantasies, filled with engaging characters and prose that sang. Beginning in the 1970s, McKillip filled our lives with magic, mystery and beauty.

We’re happy to reveal the beautiful cover of the new book, and host a giveaway. One commenter will have a choice of a hardcopy ARC or an eARC of The Book of Atrix Wolfe.

“When the White Wolf descends upon the battlefield,

June 12th, 2024. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 10 comments |

WWWednesday: June 5, 2024

Babel by R.F. Huang won the 2024 Xingyun Award for best work in translation. You might remember this book. It was disqualified from the Hugo awards earlier this year for no known reason.

The Bram Stoker Awards were also announced.

Romance Writers of America filed for bankruptcy on May 29. Reasons included a dwindling membership—apparently down from 10,000 members in 2019 to about 2,000 members in 2023–and equally dwindling paid registrations at conventions. The organization itself, according to a Bloomberg headline, blames “DEI,” (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) for its problems.

June 5th, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 2 comments |

Translation State: Diplomacy is dangerous

Translation State by Ann Leckie

With Translation State, which was nominated for a Best Novel of 2023 Nebula Award, Ann Leckie brings us back to the universe adjacent to the Radchaai Empire, which is still embroiled in a civil war. This book directs its attention to the Presger Translators and their mysterious origin race, the Presger Themselves.

I liked Translation State, and about halfway through, one of the characters was suddenly in such jeopardy I could not put the book down.

June 3rd, 2024. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Ann Leckie | SFF Reviews | no comments |

WWWednesday: Lost Season Two, by the Book

In Season 2 of Lost, the showrunners hit both the zenith and nadir of characterization, with Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) and Ana Lucia Cortez (Michelle Rodriguez.) They succumbed to the Epic Fail technique of “fridging.” Pop-star character Charlie wrestled with addiction, as Locke did with faith. And as in Season One, lots of people run through the jungle. With Season 2, the show added the dramatic innovation, “running and falling down in the jungle.”

Starting in September, 2005, Season 2 led us through 24 episodes. Storylines include:

the Hatch

the Tail Section Survivors

Walt’s abduction

The Others

Courtesy of Lostpedia,

May 29th, 2024. Marion Deeds | Film / TV | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 8 comments |

Lone Women: The past is complicated

Lone Women by Victor LaValle

Victor LaValle’s Lone Women (2023) is brilliant. It’s about connections, family, secrets, guilt and love. Yes, there is a monster in it. Yes, it is suspenseful, and yes, it is gory, and those are both horror trademarks, but Lone Women is filled with hidden history and restored triumphs. Is it horror? That depends on your definition of “monster.”

In 1915, Adelaide Henry flees her family farm in Lucerne Valley, California. She leaves behind a burning farmhouse and her two dead parents;

Bird Box: Whatever you do, don’t look

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Bird Box, published in 2014, was Josh Malerman’s first novel. Malerman came out of the music scene, breaking into fiction with this moody story of psychological horror. A woman and two four-year-olds take a journey down river, blindfolded, in a world where what you see can literally kill you.

In the opening sentences, Malorie decides that today’s the day. The big house is dark, every window and door covered. Even a trip out to the well,

WWWednesday: May 22, 2024

If you’re a WorldCon member, you know the Hugo Voting Packets are available.

Fiction magazine Small Wonders has initiated a Kickstarter to fund its second year.

ReactorMag reports that Sandman has now cast the rest of the Endless (the siblings of Dream) including Destruction.

They also review the latest Doctor Who episode.

Here’s a fun article about Season 2 of House of the Dragon.

Atlas Obscura shares an interesting article about the Maya and their use of mirrors.

May 22nd, 2024. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

Wicked Problems: Save the world, or fix the world?

Reposting to include Bill’s new review.

Wicked Problems by Max Gladstone

Save the world, or fix the world? Can we do either? These questions underlie the second book in Max Gladstone’s CRAFT WARS series, Wicked Problems. Other things are happening in this 2024 installment, too, and the ending, while anticipated, is a gamechanger for everyone involved.

In Book One, Dead Country, Craftswoman Tara Abernathy took on a student, the orphaned and traumatized Dawn.

May 21st, 2024. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Max Gladstone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

WWWednesday: Lost, Season 1: By the Numbers

4,8,15,16,23,42

Lost opens in the immediate aftermath of an airliner crash on a deserted jungle island. The first character we see is a wounded Jack Shepherd, a spinal surgeon with a Messiah complex, but very soon the canvas of the Survivors of Oceanic flight 815 will be spread out before us, and what a broad canvas it is.

Filmed entirely, or nearly so, in the state of Hawaii, mostly on Oahu, Lost was beautiful, but it required some conscious suspension of disbelief to accept Honolulu as every other single city represented in the show.

May 15th, 2024. Marion Deeds | Film / TV | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 7 comments |

Ghost Station: A dead-planet creepfest

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

Ghost Station, by S.A. Barnes (2024), is a mix of haunted-house and The-killer-is-among- us horror, with a generous ladling of body horror to round it out. The standout of this space-horror novel is the setting, a deserted habitat on a dead and snowy planet, where psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray is supposed to be observing the Reclamation and Exploration Team who had a team member die mysteriously on an earlier assignment. Bray’s specialty is Eckhart-Reisner Syndrome (ERS),

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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