1987 | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: On the Edge

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

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.

Haruki Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World begins in Murakami’s “hard-boiled wonderland.” This wonderland is postmodern territory: our disaffected hero is in an elevator that is moving so slowly that “all sense of direction simply vanished.” Murakami finds a nexus between the detective story,

Sphere: Crichton elevates his use of character

Sphere by Michael Crichton

[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.]

In Sphere, the follow up to Congo, Michael Crichton asks the question: how do you top a techno-thriller that pits a team of parachuting scientists against extremely intelligent apes that protect a remote area of jungle in Congo?

Soulstring: Resonates with mythic weight

Soulstring by Midori Snyder

In the first few pages of Soulstring, I was worried that I was reading another book about a spoiled princess who was going to do nothing but complain about how hard she suffered in her privileged life. But by page thirteen, I was deeply engrossed in the story of a young woman who is hated by her parents for the sin of being the firstborn and a girl. Soulstring is a high fantasy story about a young woman who has to discover a way to reclaim the magical power that has been taken from her by her father,

War for the Oaks: Rockin’ in the Sidhe World

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

Anyone who likes urban fantasy should go “back to basics” and pick up this defining classic of the subgenre. I’ve read several books that borrow zillions of plot elements from War for the Oaks, but never reach the same sort of exhilarating heights. Yeah, yeah, we all know the story: young woman wanders the city at night and meets a mysterious stranger, so on, so forth. Now sit back and see it done right!

Eddi McCandry has just quit her boyfriend’s abysmal band,

The Firebrand: Feminist agenda goes too far

The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley

I’m not a huge fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but the Trojan War is one of my favourite subjects, and I was curious to see how it could be told from a singular, feminine point of view — in this case, Princess Kassandra of Troy, tragically famous for her accurate predictions of doom that no one believed. The Firebrand is told with Bradley’s trademark style; a strong feminist streak (that can become a little too heavy-handed at times), and her fresh spin on an ancient legend,

Order [book in series=yearoffirstbook.book# (eg 2014.01), stand-alone or one-author collection=3333.pubyear, multi-author anthology=5555.pubyear, SFM/MM=5000, interview=1111]: 1987

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World: On the Edge

Sphere: Crichton elevates his use of character

Soulstring: Resonates with mythic weight

War for the Oaks: Rockin’ in the Sidhe World

The Firebrand: Feminist agenda goes too far

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