The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
I’ll start by saying that I’m not hugely familiar with Neil Gaiman’s work. I’ve read Stardust and watched his two Doctor Who episodes… and that’s it. At first I wasn’t sure whether or not to absorb more of his work before tackling The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but decided against it for the sake of a fresh perspective. So consider this a review from someone who has very few preconceptions about Gaiman’s style and themes.
August 31st, 2016. Rebecca Fisher, Marion Deeds, Kelly Lasiter, Tadiana Jones and Stuart Starosta | Neil Gaiman | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 13 comments |
“Amor Vincit Omnia” by K.J. Parker (2010, free at Subterranean Press, republished in Academic Exercises, a short fiction anthology by K.J. Parker)
In a world where magic is considered a branch of natural philosophy and is practiced only by a secretive group of scholars, the normal order of things is upset when a rogue magician appears and starts violently murdering innocent villagers,
August 29th, 2016. Tadiana Jones | K.J. Parker, Mike Resnick | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
“Mono No Aware” by Ken Liu (2012, originally published in The Future is Japanese anthology, reprinted 2013 and free online at Lightspeed, $3.99 Kindle magazine issue). 2013 Hugo award (short story)
Hiroto Shimizu is a twenty-five year old man living on a generation spaceship that left Earth when Hiroto was eight years old,
August 22nd, 2016. Tadiana Jones | Ken Liu, Mary Robinette Kowal, Terry Bisson | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Note: This review contains some minor spoilers for The Rook, the first book in THE CHECQUY FILES series.
The Checquy, a top secret British agency of people with supernatural powers, are contemplating a peace accord and merger with their hereditary enemies, the Belgian Wetenschappelijk Broederschap van Natuurkundigen (the “Scientific Brotherhood of Physicists”), whom the Checquy dismissively call the “Grafters.” While Checquy members are born with superpowers (some of them very odd, like the ability to implode another person until their whole body is about the size of a head,
August 18th, 2016. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Daniel O'Malley | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Burning Bright by Melissa McShane
Twenty-one year old Elinor Pembroke, dreaming of fire burning all around her, awakes to find her room actually ablaze with an intense fire ― a fire she caused in her sleep. Elinor is able to quench the fire with simply a thought. The ability to not only mentally generate but also to extinguish fire makes her an Extraordinary Scorcher, the first British person with this high level of power over fire in over a hundred years. In this alternative Regency world, a few people have magical talents ― telepathy,
August 16th, 2016. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Melissa McShane | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
“The Night Bazaar for Women Becoming Reptiles” by Rachael K. Jones (July 2016, free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 99c Kindle magazine issue)
About half of the stories I review, I have listened to while I’m at the gym,
August 15th, 2016. Kate Lechler and Tadiana Jones | Bruce Sterling, Mike Resnick | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Invaders: 22 Tales from the Outer Limits of Literature ed. by Jacob Weisman
As with most collections, whether they be of stories, poems, or essays, I found Invaders: 22 Tales from the Outer Limits of Literature, edited by Jacob Weisman, to be a mixed bag overall, with some weak stories, some solidly good ones, some very good ones, and several absolutely great ones, more in fact than I typically find in an anthology, making this an easy collection to recommend.
The authors collected here are non-genre writers known mostly for “literary fiction,” such as George Saunders,
August 12th, 2016. Bill Capossere, Jana Nyman and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Jonathan Lethem | 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.
Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu (2015, free at Uncanny Magazine, $3.99 Kindle magazine issue). Nominated for 2016 Hugo award (novelette).
Lao Dao, a humble man who works in a waste processing plant in “Third Space” Beijing, sorting recyclable trash,
August 8th, 2016. Tadiana Jones and Kat Hooper | Hao Jingfang, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ken Liu | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Note: Find “Warm Up,” a short-story introduction to Vicious, for free at Tor.com. You can also purchase it for 99c on Kindle.
Vicious, by V.E. Schwab, is another offering in the ever-more popular folks-with-powers genre, and fits as well in the equally popular sub-genre where those folks-with-powers don’t’ fall neatly into the quaint “superhero” mode but have a bit more edge, a bit more (OK, a lot more in this case) grey to them.
August 5th, 2016. Bill Capossere, Ray McKenzie and Tadiana Jones | Victoria (V.E.) Schwab | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews
Dina DeMille runs a bed-and-breakfast inn that secretly caters to visitors from other parts of the galaxy. The magical, semi-sentient inn can create opulent new rooms and redecorate them at Dina’s wish, with a blithe disregard for the normal laws of physics (what I wouldn’t give to have a house like that!). But Dina is short on both guests and cash, so she’s open to the idea when George, an arbitrator of disputes between different alien races, asks her to host an arbitration aimed at ending a bitter twenty-year-long war between three species,
August 4th, 2016. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Ilona Andrews | SFF Reviews | 5 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.