Tea starts her story by accidentally raising her brother from the dead. This is surely a traumatic enough experience for a young girl, but it marks her with the dark magic of the bone witch, unlike her sisters who possess ‘normal’ magic. So on top of having to deal with her corpse brother, Tea is now spurned by the village she’s grown up in. The Bone Witch (2017) explores Tea’s journey of coming to terms with the darkness within her and finding her place in a world that fears her.
March 6th, 2017. Ray McKenzie and Skye Walker´s rating: 4.5 | Rin Chupeco | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Dreams of Distant Shores by Patricia McKillip
Dreams of Distant Shores is a collection of seven shorter fantasy works ― five short stories and two novellas ― and a non-fictional essay by one of my favorite fantasy authors, Patricia McKillip. Several of these works are reprints of stories originally published elsewhere; “Mer,” “Edith and Henry Go Motoring” and “Alien” are the only ones original to this collection, but since I had never seen any of these stories elsewhere, they were all doorways to new and enchanting worlds for me.
February 1st, 2017. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Skye Walker and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Patricia McKillip | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Our weekly sampling of free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are some great stories that caught our eyes this week:
“A Kiss With Teeth” by Max Gladstone (2014, free at Tor.com, 99c Kindle Version)
Within the first two paragraphs “A Kiss With Teeth” has outlined an unusual premise: a vampire masquerades as human in order to be an ordinary husband and father. He isn’t blending in to feast on blood or evade capture, but simply to give his wife and especially his son a fighting chance at normalcy.
January 23rd, 2017. Skye Walker and Tadiana Jones | Carrie Vaughn, E.K. Johnston, Max Gladstone, Michael Swanwick, Ted Chiang | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
“The Stolen Church” by Jonathan Carroll (2009, free at Conjunctions, also in The Woman Who Married a Cloud: The Collected Short Stories)
Tina and Stanley, married for five years, are in the lobby of a nondescript apartment building, waiting for an elevator to take them up to visit his parents. The only problem is, Stanley’s parents are dead. Tina can’t understand what Stanley is thinking,
January 17th, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Skye Walker | Jonathan Carroll, Kat Howard, Philip K. Dick, S.B. Divya, Veronica Schanoes | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. Here are a few stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about.
“Das Steingeschöpf” by G.V. Anderson (Dec. 2016, free at Strange Horizons)
“Das Steingeschöpf,” or the “Stone Creation (or Creature),” is set in Europe in 1928, where the aftermath of WWI mingles with foreshadowings of the Holocaust. A young German, Herr Hertzel, tells of his trip from Berlin to Bavaria, on his first assignment as a journeyman to repair a living,
January 2nd, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Skye Walker | Alix E. Harrow, Peter S. Beagle | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Nations divided by vast lakes, destinations defined by stalagmites and minerals, a world without a sun: The Fade (2007) takes place in an unfathomable network of caves beneath the surface of an unknown planet. Here the reader finds a cavernous underground in the midst of jealous war. Two distinct races of beings fighting over their shared bubbles of space. It is on the battlefield that we meet the protagonist and learn that she is a highly skilled and thoroughly trained one-woman war machine. Soon, we also learn that she has a loving family and a complicated set of allegiances.
November 4th, 2016. Skye Walker´s rating: 4 | Chris Wooding | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
There’s a murderer loose in the city. Catchman (1998) centers on a group of homeless teenagers and the news circling around a serial killer nearby, who has been dubbed the ‘Catchman’. As victims surface one by one, the tension grows and with it, tempers run high among the teens.
One of the greater strengths of Catchman was the intriguing set-up. I actively wanted to know what was going to happen from the beginning of the story and throughout the narrative.
November 1st, 2016. Skye Walker´s rating: 3 | Chris Wooding | Horror, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Modern Ladies’ Letter-Writer by Sandra McDonald (March 2016, free at Nightmare, Kindle magazine issue)
There are customary ways to begin a letter and end it, to address the envelope and set it to post. We have delivered to you (while you slept so prettily, your pale face a serene oval in the moonlight) this polite and improving manual of letters for the Fair Sex.
October 31st, 2016. Katie Burton, Tadiana Jones, Kat Hooper and Skye Walker | Amanda Downum, Charlie Jane Anders, Maria Dahvana Headley, Seanan McGuire | Audio, Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
There is so much free or inexpensive short fiction available on the internet these days. Here are a few stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about.
“Everything that Isn’t Winter” by Margaret Killjoy (Oct. 2016, free at Tor.com, 99c Kindle version)
This piece includes a great range of storytelling in few words. “Everything that Isn’t Winter” is set post-apocalypse in a small community that has carved out a comfortable place in the new world. The setting may sound run-of-the-mill, but what Killjoy does with it makes it come to life.
October 24th, 2016. Skye Walker, Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones | Neil Gaiman, Terry Bisson | Audio, Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
“A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers” by Alyssa Wong (March 2016, free at Tor.com, 99c Kindle version)
Two sisters with incredible powers are separated by more than miles. In “A Fist of Permutations in Lightning and Wildflowers,” one tries desperately to stop the world from ending,
October 10th, 2016. Skye Walker and Tadiana Jones | Kim Harrison, N.K. Jemisin | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
I had it on my list to reread (which means I looked over at the bookcase one night, saw it…
Marion, I'm saving James (and Orbital) for after my semester ends so I can devote my undivided attention to them.…
Susan, glad you enjoyed. Samuel Jackson should absolutely play him in the movie!
Troy, 100% agreed. Sadly the BBC adaptation is also confused about this. They seem to think Orciny is some kind…
Hey Marion! The weather is the *same* in Ul Qoma and Beszel in the novel. They even have a recurring…