Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
In Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood details an apocalyptic plague, introduces a new species of creatures that have been genetically designed to replace humanity, and the villain is a mad scientist in love. What could be more “SFF” than Oryx and Crake?
Quite a lot, according to Margaret Atwood, who prefers to describe her novel as “speculative fiction” rather than “science fiction.” In interviews promoting Oryx and Crake,
January 1st, 2016. Ryan Skardal, Ruth Arnell, Bill Capossere, Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Margaret Atwood | Edge | SFF Reviews | 11 comments |
Shatterday & Other Stories: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 5 by Harlan Ellison
Shatterday & Other Stories: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 5 is the final installment in Harlan Ellison’s 5-volume THE VOICE FROM THE EDGE series. It’s been quite a ride, and it’s hard to dispute that Ellison is a superb storyteller who can take an idea and run with it in the most original and twisted way, frequently delving into the dark and cruel side of human nature, but also celebrating moments of nobility and pathos along the way.
December 28th, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Harlan Ellison | Audio, Hugo Award, Locus Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Voice from the Edge Volume 4: The Deathbird & Other Stories by Harlan Ellison
The Deathbird & Other Stories: The Voice from the Edge Vol. 4 is the fourth installment in Harlan Ellison’s 5-volume THE VOICE FROM THE EDGE series. He’s a born storyteller, without question the most passionate, intense and brilliant audiobook narrator I’ve ever experienced. He captures the characters’ quirks and attitudes, and narrates with masterful pacing and tone. This is the ideal showcase for him to read his favorite stories from a career spanning over 60 years.
December 24th, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Harlan Ellison | Audio, Hugo Award, Locus Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Voice from the Edge Volume 3: Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes by Harlan Ellison & Robert Bloch
This is the third collection of Harlan Ellison’s short stories which he has narrated himself. Each of these Voice from the Edge audiobooks is quite excellent. I can’t say that I like every story — some of them are just too gross for me — but I can say that Ellison is a great storyteller and that there’s no better way to read his stories than to listen to him read them to you.
December 23rd, 2015. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta | Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel
“Quiet” and “lovely” are not usually words one reaches for when describing a post-apocalyptic novel. Not with the reverted-back-to-savagery cannibals; the road-raging-mohawk-sporting highway warriors; the gleeful told-you-so rat-a-tat of survivalist gunfire, or the annoying mumblespeak “braiiinnnnss” from the shambling zombies. But quiet and lovely are exactly the words I’d use to describe Station Eleven, the post-apocalyptic novel from Emily St. John Mandel that is happily missing all the above and shows the modern world ending with neither a bang nor a whimper,
December 22nd, 2015. Bill Capossere, Ryan Skardal, Ray McKenzie, Marion Deeds, Tadiana Jones and Stuart Starosta | Emily St. John Mandel | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
The Voice From the Edge, Vol 2: Midnight in the Sunken Cathedral by Harlan Ellison
As much as I dislike the man personally, I have to say that Harlan Ellison writes great stories. Even the stories that I don’t like — because they’re violent, gory, gross, or full of others varieties of ugliness — are good stories. And if there’s anything that Harlan Ellison does better than write great stories, it’s narrate them. He’s a superb story teller. That’s why I’ve picked up all of his Voice From The Edge recordings at Audible.com.
December 18th, 2015. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Harlan Ellison | Audio, Hugo Award, Locus Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Neal Stephenson doesn’t shy away from big concepts, long timelines, or larger than life events. His most recent novel, SevenEves, begins with the moon blowing up. Readers never find out what blew up the moon, because all too quickly humanity discovers that the Earth will soon be bombarded by a thousand-year rain of meteorites — the remnants of the moon as they collide with each other in space, becoming smaller and smaller — which will turn Earth into an uninhabitable wasteland. Humankind has a 2-year deadline to preserve its cultural legacy and a breeding population.
December 17th, 2015. Kate Lechler, Stuart Starosta, João Eira and Kat Hooper | Neal Stephenson | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 18 comments |
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
Whether unjustly or not, no other science fiction author has been as closely linked to the 1960s drug culture — at least in the public eye — as Philip K. Dick … and understandably so. From the San Francisco bar in The World Jones Made (1956) that dispensed pot and heroin, to the Bureau of Psychedelic Research in The Ganymede Takeover (1966); from the amphetamine and LSD use in Ubik (1969) to the afterlife description in A Maze of Death (1970) that Dick mentions was based on one of his own LSD trips;
December 15th, 2015. Sandy Ferber and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | Audio, BSFA Award, Film / TV, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1 by Harlan Ellison
Probably everyone who knows anything about Harlan Ellison knows he’s a jerk (please don’t sue me, Mr. Ellison). I had to consciously put aside my personal opinion of the man while listening to him narrate his audiobook I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream: The Voice From the Edge Vol. 1. I was disgusted by some of these stories, but I have to admit that even though I suspect Ellison delights in trying to shock the reader with his various forms of odiousness (mostly having to do with sex),
December 14th, 2015. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta | Harlan Ellison | Audio, Horror, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 13 comments |
Roadside Picnic by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky
Roadside Picnic (1972) is a Russian SF novel written by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. This was back when authors and publishers were subject to government review and censorship. Since it didn’t follow the Communist Party line, it didn’t get published in uncensored book form in Russia until the 1990s despite first appearing in a Russian literary magazine in 1972. So its first book publication was in the US in 1977.
Since then Roadside Picnic has been published in dozens of editions and languages over the years,
December 2nd, 2015. Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Boris and Arkady Strugatsky | Film / TV, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 10 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.