Here are some of the stories we read this week that we wanted you to know about. For the next few weeks we’ll be focusing on 2015 Nebula-nominated short fiction.
Waters of Versailles by Kelly Robson (2015, free at Tor.com, $0.99 for Kindle). Nominated for the 2015 Nebula Award (Novella).
Waters of Versailles centres on an unorthodox protagonist in Sylvain de Guilherand. Sylvain is the mastermind behind the water system in Versailles. That is to say,
February 29th, 2016. Skye Walker, Tadiana Jones, Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper | David D. Levine, Jonathan Maberry, Kelly Robson, Naomi Kritzer | Hugo Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Walking Dead, Volume 1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman & Tony Moore
In his introduction to The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman explains that the best zombie stories feature waves of blood but also come with strong undercurrents of social commentary. If the back of this graphic novel is to be believed, Kirkman will explore how “in a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living.”
Kirkman mentions George Romero’s zombie movies in his introduction, but his take on the zombie is more than homage to Romero’s movies.
November 28th, 2015. Ryan Skardal and Skye Walker´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding
Confession: I love pirates. Stories with pirates in them have captivated me for as long as I can remember (and I’ll blame my family for sitting me in front of such movies as Muppets Treasure Island and The Princess Bride) and continue to bring me great joy. With this in mind, you can imagine how excited I was when I found a pirate story by one of my favourite authors, Chris Wooding. Retribution Falls is everything I could have asked for from a swashbuckling tale: there are old foes,
November 24th, 2015. Skye Walker´s rating: 4.5 | Chris Wooding | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
Ursula K LeGuin was born on this date in 1929. Her father was an anthropologist and her mother was a writer. LeGuin got her bachelor’s degree from Radcliffe and a Master’s from Columbia, and received a Fulbright grant to study in France. She began writing science fiction stories when she was nine, to keep up with her brothers, she has side. She sent her first story out when she was eleven years old, to Astounding Science Fiction, but it was rejected. After that, though, things turned around, and she has won four Nebulas, two Hugos,
October 21st, 2015. Marion Deeds and Skye Walker | World Wide Wednesday | 7 comments |
Hollow City picks up almost immediately after the events of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the first book in the MISS PEREGRINE’S PECULIAR CHILDREN series. From the very beginning Hollow City is an action-packed adventure in all the places that the first book was a thoughtful, eerie mystery. I enjoyed the change of pace Ransom Riggs set in this sequel, though this new territory brought with it its own problems.
March 4th, 2015. Skye Walker´s rating: 3 | Ransom Riggs | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a novel of the same name as a short story in Holly Black’s The Poison Eaters, and anthology of delightfully dark YA stories, all with particular flavours and drawing on different myths from around the world. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown finds the reader in a post-vampiricism-infected United States. The cities in which the largest outbreaks occurred were swiftly enclosed (earning the name ‘Coldtowns’), trapping vampires,
October 15th, 2014. Skye Walker´s rating: 2.5 | Holly Black | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Trained from childhood as a thief and con-artist par excellence, Locke Lamora employs a silver tongue and quicksilver mind to divest the rich of Camorr of their excessive wealth. No sooner do Locke and his associates initiate their latest scheme, however, than they find themselves at the mercy of the mysterious Gray King, who intends to use them as pawns in his bid to take over the city-state’s underworld. As the Gray King’s diabolical plan unfolds, Locke finds his skills tested as never before as he struggles not only for his own survival,
July 20th, 2013. Rob Rhodes, Greg Hersom, Kat Hooper, Marion Deeds, Terry Weyna, Tadiana Jones and Skye Walker´s rating: 4, 5 | Scott Lynch | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay
The new emperor in Sarantium has a lot to atone for, so he’s building a grand chapel to his god and calling the most famous artisans in the surrounding regions to come work for him. Crispin, a mosaicist from a neighboring country, is one of these. Unhappy since his wife and children died, Crispin doesn’t think he has much to live for anymore, and he doesn’t want to go to Sarantium. But when his young queen, who sits her throne precariously, asks Crispin to carry a secret proposal to the already-married emperor of Sarantium,
October 1st, 2012. Kat Hooper and Skye Walker´s rating: 3, 4 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop
The Castle in the Attic is a warm story about a boy, an old toy castle, and a much-loved housekeeper. William does not want his babysitter, Mrs. Phillips, to leave him and return to England. William swears he will do anything to keep her with him (absolutely anything). But when she gives him her old miniature stone castle and its lone knight, William fears there will be no way to keep her around. Until the knight comes to life.
The story of William and the Silver Knight is nothing if not heartwarming.
January 15th, 2012. Skye Walker´s rating: 5 | Elizabeth Winthrop | Children | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
OK, HUNGER GAMES fans, you’ve been waiting a year for this book, and the last thing you want is some @#$% reviewer spoiling the plot. So, I will do my best to give my impressions of Mockingjay with as few spoilers as possible.
When a series becomes this popular and sparks this much speculation among readers, the author’s task is extremely difficult. How to surprise a fanbase, when that fanbase has spent many months trying to guess what will happen in the final installment (and almost certainly guessed right on a few counts)?
August 29th, 2010. Kelly Lasiter, Bill Capossere, Jason Golomb, Terry Weyna and Skye Walker´s rating: 4 | Suzanne Collins | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
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…