Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Author: Terry Weyna

The Blue Heron: A puzzling Stoker win

The Blue Heron by Gene O’Neill

This year’s Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in long fiction went to Gene O’Neill for The Blue Heron. Dark Regions Press originally printed a mere 13 signed copies of the novella-length work, but plans to issue a trade paperback edition this year. A bit of research on the internet also suggests that it was briefly available as an e-book on the author’s own website or Facebook page, but that no longer appears to be the case. (update: Find it here.)

I’m frankly puzzled by the Stoker win.

Shades of Milk and Honey: A Regency romp with magic

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Jane Ellsworth is resigned to spinsterhood. At twenty-eight, her chances of finding a husband are dwindling. Her long nose and sharp chin make her less than a beauty, and she can’t help but compare herself to her younger sister Melody who is a beauty. Jane’s proficiency in the art of glamour, manipulating etheric energies to enhance art, music or decoration, is above average, but in Jane’s mind, this is nothing special, because glamour is “no more a necessary than playing the piano.”

With Shades of Milk and Honey,

June 29th, 2013. Marion Deeds and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Mary Robinette Kowal | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Magazine Monday: Nightmare, June 2013

Issue 9 of Nightmare opens with “The House on Cobb Street” by Lynda E. Rucker. There is a long italicized quotation from a purported learned treatise about the house at the top of the story, reciting the history of so-called Cobb Street Horror, but noting that the witnesses have refused to speak to the author. Another italicized segment comes from the blog of Perry “Pear Tree” Parry, referring to a video of Felicia Barrow, speaking of Vivian Crane, who has disappeared. The entire story has the aura of a scholarly piece,

Thoughtful Thursday: Fantasy by a whisker

Today we welcome Kit Berry, author of the STONEWYLDE series for young adults. I’m currently enjoying the first of the five STONEWYLDE books, Magus of Stonewylde. Kit didn’t originally think of her series as a fantasy until it was picked up by Gollancz. She’s here to talk about that and to find out what you think about books that barely fit into the fantasy genre. One commenter from the USA will win a copy of Magus of Stonewylde.

Stonewylde, as far as I was concerned, did not fall into the Fantasy genre.

June 20th, 2013. Terry Weyna | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 8 comments |

Magazine Monday: Black Treacle Magazine, Issue 3

Black Treacle Magazine is a free bimonthly Canadian horror journal edited by A.P. Matlock, dedicated to horror, dark fantasy and speculative fiction. It gives preference to Canadian writers, but accepts fiction from elsewhere as well. It publishes nonfiction criticism in addition to fiction, which gives it a nice variety for a short publication.

Issue 3 has three pieces. The first, “Getting Shot in the Face Still Stings” by Michelle Ann King, is a short story about Marc, a gangster who is plenty dangerous when he loses his temper,

June 17th, 2013. Terry Weyna | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Who’s your favorite Golden Age writer?

Robert Silverberg was the Master of Ceremonies at the Nebula awards, which Marion and I attended a few weeks ago.

Silverberg told stories about the writers of the Golden Age, like Clifford Simak, Damon Knight, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and even lesser known writers like Silverberg’s own mentor Randall Garrett.

There were clearly three “eras” in the room; the Golden Age (1938-1946 if you trust Wikipedia); the New Wave (1960s-1970s, again, Wikipedia) and the current era which I want to call The New Golden Age,

June 13th, 2013. Terry Weyna | Robert Silverberg | Thoughtful Thursday | 8 comments |

Magazine Monday: Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2013

Editor’s note: We now know that K.J. Parker is author Tom Holt.

The Summer 2013 issue of Subterranean Magazine has a special K.J. Parker section, which is a treat for anyone who has read any of Parker’s work. This author (gender unknown) writes from the perspective of a military historian, and appears to have a special interest in ancient Greek and Roman warfare. All of his/her stories have the flavor of ancient days.

“The Sun and I” is the first of two Parker stories in this issue.

Strange Magic: Decent story poorly written

Strange Magic by Gord Rollo

Reading Strange Magic made me think deeply about a number of issues I doubt Gord Rollo intended me to be thinking about. I wasn’t pondering whether good and evil are entirely human or whether there is a supernatural agency at work in some forms of evil (and good); I wasn’t thinking about addiction, its causes and cures; I wasn’t thinking about the redemptive power of love. Instead, I was thinking about whether a book can be considered good when it has a decent story but is poorly written,

Magazine Monday: Clarkesworld, Issue 80

“Soulcatcher,” the opening story in the May 2013 issue of Clarkesworld, is one of James Patrick Kelly’s best stories. His protagonist, Klary, is the owner of an art gallery who has lured xeni-Harvel Asher, the ambassador from the Four Worlds, into her establishment. The xeni is “embodied” as a human male, but he retains the charisma that causes some to liken his species to the human legend of faeries; he is nearly irresistible. But Klary has been on a regimen of emotion, and besides, this xeni ruined her life,

I’m Not Sam: A Bram Stoker nominated novella

I’m Not Sam by Jack Ketchum & Lucky McKee

Patrick is passionately in love with his wife, Sam, and she with him. Their life together sounds as close to ideal as it’s possible to get. He’s a cartoonist who works from their home, while she works as forensic pathologist. He cooks. She’s gorgeous. It’s a match made in heaven. On a typical evening, Sam returns from work a bit too fragrant from working on the corpse of a turkey farmer who had a heart attack just before spreading turkey droppings in his field.

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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