Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett
Depression-era America in the Dust Bowl must have seemed like living through the apocalypse. The very earth was drying up and blowing away. Nothing would grow and the rain never came. There was no food, families were disintegrating, and death stalked the land. This is the setting for Mr. Shivers, a first novel by Robert Jackson Bennett.
Upon reading the first several chapters of Mr. Shivers, one forms a mental image of the author: old and craggy,
March 4th, 2011. Terry Weyna and Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Robert Jackson Bennett | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Crossed Genres, a magazine published online, digitally and in print, has a unique approach to genre fiction: every month it chooses a genre and requires that the stories it publishes that month combine the chosen genre with some aspect of science fiction or fantasy. Issue 27 offers a mash-up of science fiction and fantasy with tragedy. Surprisingly, none of the five short stories uses the traditional tragic element of a hero with a fatal flaw, which would seem tailor-made for SF and fantasy. Instead, the writers simply write stories that end in sadness.
February 28th, 2011. Terry Weyna | David Tallerman, Erin Hoffman, James Maxey, Lou Anders, Nick Mamatas | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
American Morons by Glen Hirshberg
[In our Edge of the Universe column, we review mainstream authors that incorporate elements of speculative fiction into their “literary” work. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.]
Glen Hirshberg is one of our modern short story masters. His first collection, The Two Sams, won the International Horror Guild Award for best collection, and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award as well. American Morons was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for best collection in 2007.
February 25th, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Glen Hirshberg | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Late Eclipses by Seanan McGuire
Before I start my review, an aside about the cover art. Chris McGrath has really outdone himself on the cover for Late Eclipses. Wow, that’s gorgeous. It’s also an actual scene from the book, and every element in the scene is important to the story, from her ball gown to her leather jacket to the items she holds.
Moving along to the book, Late Eclipses features a mystery that hits close to home for Toby Daye.
February 23rd, 2011. Kelly Lasiter and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Grass-Cutting Sword by Catherynne M. Valente
The Grass-Cutting Sword is a metaphor, comprised almost entirely of exquisite imagery, and every single word has obviously been chosen with a poet’s eye for sound and sight. It is a creation myth and a Grendel for the nuclear age, a story of beginnings and endings, of beauty and hideousness. The images Catherynne M. Valente chooses in The Grass-Cutting Sword will haunt your nightmares and inform your dreams. Close your eyes, for instance, and envision the monster of the tale from this excerpt of its self-description:
I am Eight.
February 22nd, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | Catherynne M. Valente | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Living Dead edited by John Joseph Adams
I never knew there were so many ways to tell a zombie story. I pretty much thought that the George Romero version was it — dead people wandering around holding their arms out in front of them and calling out “braaaaaaains,” looking to munch on the living. I never did know why they had to hold their arms that way, but they all did — I thought.
John Joseph Adams has chosen his material wisely in The Living Dead,
February 21st, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Clive Barker, George R.R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Ford, Joe Hill, Joe R. Lansdale, Kelly Link, Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, Robert Silverberg, Stephen King | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
End of the Century by Chris Roberson
In End of the Century, Chris Roberson takes us on an Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail. While that would be plenty for most writers, Roberson isn’t content to stop with only one story; he also tells the story of a search for a serial killer in London around the time of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, and of Alice Fell, a sixteen-year-old following a vision that may simply be a symptom of epilepsy in 2000. The three stories have a number of factors that seem to be similar,
February 15th, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 3.5 | Chris Roberson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Electric Velocipede has intrigued me ever since I heard its name. I had to look up velocipede – it means any human-powered vehicle with one or more wheels, so usually it’s a bicycle. But an electric human-powered vehicle? How do those go together? Does that mean it’s a bicycle ridden by a robot? At any rate, what “Electric Velocipede” means for our purposes is “a quirky print magazine publishing science fiction and fantasy stories and poetry that won the 2009 Hugo for Best Fanzine.” It will go to an entirely electronic format in 2012.
February 14th, 2011. Terry Weyna | Laura Anne Gilman, Paolo Bacigalupi | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Kaye is not your typical 16-year-old. For one thing, she’s spent the last few years of her life acting as mother to her mother: holding Mom’s head as she vomits, following Mom around to her various unsuccessful singing gigs, working in a Chinese restaurant to make enough money so that she and Mom can eat from time to time. She doesn’t attend school and she isn’t happy in the least.
For another thing, as a child she used to have a few fairies as dear friends.
February 13th, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Holly Black | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Kids nowadays have it easy. If you’re into fantasy, there’s a good chance that the books you like have a devoted following and a few dedicated web sites. There may be movie franchises and/or an HBO series about them. You can buy Team Jacob/Team Edward shirts, Harry Potter glasses and A Game of Thrones calendars. There may be book release parties, even people sleeping in front of the bookstore when the next book is due out. There’s GoodReads,
February 10th, 2011. Stefan Raets and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Jo Walton | Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Thanks for the kind words, Ira! Much appreciated!
Fine review
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!