Subterranean Press is reissuing Connie Willis’s moody and bleak novella Jack (1991), which was a finalist for the Nebula and Hugo awards and has appeared in several anthologies over the years. It’s set during the London Blitz in WWII, one of Willis’ favorite settings for her works, including the time-travel novels Blackout and All Clear and the Nebula and Hugo award-winning novelette Fire Watch.
May 22nd, 2020. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Connie Willis | Horror, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Ends of the Earth by Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard had already created one of the best short story collections in the genre, The Jaguar Hunter, which won the 1988 World Fantasy Award and Locus Award for Best Collection, with “Salvador” winning the Locus Award in 1985 and “R&R” winning the Nebula Award in 1987. His work is steeped in magical realism, supernatural horror, Central America and other exotic locales, and hallucinatory depictions of futuristic warfare. In my opinion, Shepard is one of the best stylists to ever work in the genre.
November 24th, 2017. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Lucius Shepard | Short Fiction, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A Bridge of Years by Robert Charles Wilson
Tom Winter tried to find solace in a bottle when his wife left him. He lost his job and concluded that 1989 was a pretty tough year. Now, Tom is trying to make a go of it in Belltower in the Pacific Northwest. His brother has set him up with a job as a car salesman, and he has bought a house. Life seems pretty mundane, until Tom realizes that the house is a time machine that leads to New York in 1962.
Published in 1991,
June 19th, 2017. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3 | Robert Charles Wilson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
What if we exponentially reduced the scale of the galaxy so that the sun was only 50 yards across, extinguished its raging burn so that only a solid metal lump remained, and set a chain of a few hundred dwellings to orbit around the cold sphere that remained? Imagining as such, you would have the opening of Stephen Baxter’s 1991 Raft. By its conclusion, however, Raft reveals itself as a highly original mix of science and fantasy that continues playing with the scale of the universe while telling an uplifting yet sobering tale of personal and societal evolution.
April 12th, 2017. Jesse Hudson | Stephen Baxter | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Secret of the Earth Star by Henry Kuttner
Starmont House had a wonderful thing going for itself in the early 1990s. The Seattle-based publisher, with its line of Facsimile Fiction, was taking the old pulp magazines of the ’30s and ’40s, making photocopies of selected stories, and packaging them in a line of reasonably priced paperback and hardcover editions; a genuine blessing for all fans of these old, rapidly moldering monthlies. Secret of the Earth Star, number 6 in the Facsimile Fiction line, in a series that stretched to at least 14,
June 10th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Needful Things by Stephen King
For the most part, being sheriff of Castle Rock, Maine is a peaceful job — that’s what Sheriff Alan Pangborn tells himself on difficult days. And for the most part, Alan’s right. Castle Rock is indeed a peaceful little town. Sure, there are frictions. The Catholics are planning to have a Casino Nite, which angers the Baptists. Wilma Jerzyck thinks she knows best, and she isn’t afraid to bully anyone in the town until they accept her way. And everyone knows that Buster Keeton abuses his authority as the town’s selectman.
February 23rd, 2015. Ryan Skardal and Jason Golomb´s rating: 3 | Stephen King | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks
The State of the Art is a collection of short fiction written by Iain Banks between 1984 and 1987. Surprisingly, it is the only such collection the author has published. Given Banks’ fifteen mainstream novels and twelve science fiction novels, one would expect a much larger output of short stories and novellas. The following is a brief summary of the eight stories (most of which are science fiction stories, three which are CULTURE related).
“Road of Skulls” — Not a story in any conventional sense,
October 7th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 2 | Iain M. Banks | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
He, She and It by Marge Piercy
He, She and It by Marge Piercy is my all-time favorite science fiction novel. Though Marge Piercy is not considered a science fiction author, this work is clearly one of science fiction, particularly in the sub-genre of cyberpunk as it was shaped by William Gibson and other writers classified as “cyberpunk.” Piercy, after writing Woman On the Edge of Time, was told that parts of that novel anticipated cyberpunk; when Piercy asked what cyberpunk was,
May 27th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Marge Piercy | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
Griffin’s Egg by Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick’s Griffin’s Egg tries as much to be retro sci-fi as it does to push the limits of the genre — or at least the limits when the novella was published in 1991. The story of a industrial worker on the moon who must deal with the spillover of violence from Earth to the point of post-humanism, Swanwick’s effort succeeds as much as it could be improved, making Griffin’s Egg at least marginally effective.
Gunther Weil is an employee of G5,
February 25th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3 | Michael Swanwick | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick
It’s the Jubilee Year on the planet Miranda. Every 200 years the planet floods and humans must leave until Miranda’s continents are reborn. Miranda used to be the home of an indigenous species of shapeshifters who, during Jubilee, would return to their aquatic forms until the waters receded, but it seems that humans have killed them off.
Gregorian, who lives on Miranda but was educated off-planet by a rich and distant father, now styles himself a magician and is telling the citizens of Miranda that he can transform them into sea creatures so they can stay on the planet.
March 28th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Michael Swanwick | Audio, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
COMMENT Book #3 of this trilogy is very much a heist story, and I quite enjoyed it!
Pirate stories and heist stories... Do we ever get enough of them?
Very interesting, Ulrich! Thanks for clueing me in!
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