Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go is about clones, but don’t get your hopes up. This is an unconventional clone story.
That’s right. There aren’t any mad scientists, nor are there any daring escapes.
March 14th, 2017. Ryan Skardal and Ray McKenzie´s rating: 2 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
When George Orr sleeps, he sometimes has “effective” dreams that alter reality. Believing that he has no right to effect such changes, George begins taking drugs to suppress the dreams. As the drugs lose their efficacy, George ups the dosage, exceeding legal limits. George is caught and ordered to choose between therapy and asylum. He chooses therapy and is sent to Dr. William Haber. When Haber realizes that George is not crazy and that these “effective” dreams indeed change reality, the psychiatrist decides to make the world a better place.
March 2nd, 2017. Ryan Skardal and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4, 5 | Ursula K. Le-Guin | Locus Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar (writer) & Steve McNiven (illustrator)
Logan, a grizzled west coast farmer whose only joy is his wife and two children, knows that the rent is due. He doesn’t have the dough, and when the cannibalistic Hulk Gang arrives, he will suffer a beating – if he’s lucky.
What if… all of the villains teamed up to defeat the heroes and then took over the country? Written in 2009, Mark Millar’s Old Man Logan was not released as a “What If…?” adventure,
February 24th, 2017. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3.5 | Mark Millar | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
At first glance, Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is about Toru Okada, a legal assistant who has given up his job in the hope of finding a more fulfilling purpose. Though happily married, his cat, Noboru Wataya, has gone missing. If a missing cat sounds too straightforward for a novel often described as the masterpiece of a man who is often mentioned as a dark horse to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, well, there’s a lot to unpack in this summary.
February 16th, 2017. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Haruki Murakami | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
Renly Baratheon explains, “I have it in me to be a great king, strong yet generous, clever, just, diligent, loyal to my friends and terrible to my enemies, yet capable of forgiveness, patient…” Renly’s only problem, besides arrogance, is that he has no legal claim to the Iron Throne of Westeros — excepting the strength of his army. Luckily for Renly, Westeros’ leaders no longer seem to require any legitimacy beyond the power of their armies and the ruthlessness of their bannermen. Perhaps the laws of the realm were always a whitewash,
January 30th, 2017. Ryan Skardal, Jason Golomb and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | George R.R. Martin | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Murakami
Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa (2016) is an edited transcript of several conversations between Haruki Murakami, the novelist, and Seiji Ozawa, the conductor.
I came to this book as a fan of Murakami’s writing, as many of this site’s readers would. SFF readers may be disappointed to read that these conversations rarely touch on writing, let alone the imagined mirror worlds that give a haunting quality to his novels.
January 10th, 2017. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Haruki Murakami | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan & Teresa Patterson
The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time is a companion for readers of Robert Jordan’s THE WHEEL OF TIME novels. Although I enjoyed the ~14 (15, if New Spring is included or fewer if the final three novels are counted as one, the way Jordan intended) WOT novels, I don’t recommend this companion. Here’s why.
The book is written from the point of view of fictional historians from within Randland,
January 3rd, 2017. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 2 | Robert Jordan | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-18 by Joseph Loconte
During a stressful stretch at work, and the persistently weighty negativity tied to the 2016 U.S. election campaign season, I found myself turning to ‘comfort reading.’ The negative vibes, for me, carried through Election Day and I looked toward J.R.R. Tolkien for relief. I knew I wouldn’t have time to return to the warm depths of THE LORD OF THE RINGS,
December 28th, 2016. Jason Golomb and Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3.5 | C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges’s The Book of Imaginary Beings (1969) introduces readers to the origins and characteristics of creatures like the Chimera, the Chinese Dragon, the Jinn, and the Western Dragon. Although I am hardly a scholar when it comes to monsters and imaginary beings, I was still impressed by how many of 155 creatures included here were entirely new to me.
This book might seem limited to some twenty-first century readers, so let’s acknowledge these concerns (if only to get them out of the way).
December 16th, 2016. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Jorge Luis Borges | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson
Jesse Cullum works security at the City of Futurity – in fact, he just saved President Ulysses S. Grant from an assassination attempt, though he lost his Oakleys in the process.
The science fiction premise of Robert Charles Wilson’s Last Year (2016), is outlined in its opening scene. Oakleys are sunglasses that come from our time, but Ulysses S. Grant was one of the most important generals in the American Civil War. How can both exist in the same place?
December 6th, 2016. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Robert Charles Wilson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.