In the 1980s, Terri Windling created the FAIRY TALE SERIES, a collection of stand-alone retellings for adults, featuring some of the best writers in the field. The series continued into the early 2000s and spans a wide variety of styles, tones, and interpretations of the tales. Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose (1992) was the sixth in the series and combines its fairy tale with an all-too-real historical horror. It won the Mythopoeic Award in 1992,
November 11th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Jane Yolen | Mythopoeic Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
It’s summer and Harvey Swick, a ten year old with an active imagination, is bored. That’s how he gets lured into Mr. Hood’s Holiday House. It’s a wonderful place that’s fun and exciting, where Harvey gets everything his heart desires, and where he and the other kids who live there can play all day every day and eat delicious food whenever they want. As the seasons fly by, Harvey is happy at Mr. Hood’s house until things start to get a little spooky and it starts to dawn on Harvey that the place seems unnatural.
August 11th, 2017. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Clive Barker | Audio, Children, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Greg Egan is an Australian writer of hard science fiction who specializes in mathematics, epistemology, quantum theory, posthumanism, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, etc. When you pick up one of his books, you know you will be getting a fairly dense crash course in some pretty outlandish scientific and mathematical ideas, with the plot and characters coming second.
The cover blurb advertises Quarantine as “A Novel of Quantum Catastrophe,” and the back describes “an impenetrable gray shield that slid into place around the solar system on the night of November 15,
May 10th, 2016. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 3.5 | Greg Egan | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Although it took a good two-thirds of the novel for me to decide, I’ve come to the conclusion that I really enjoyed this multiple award-winning book by Connie Willis. At its core, Doomsday Book is sci-fi time travel, but it’s got depth and intelligence, and leaves little wonder that it won both the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel (in 1992 and ’93, respectively), as well as the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1993,
November 4th, 2015. Jason Golomb´s rating: 4 | Connie Willis | Hugo Award, Locus Award, Mythopoeic Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Mist in the Mirror: A Ghost Story by Susan Hill
The beginning of The Mist in the Mirror is lovely, evocative of turn-of-the century London and the surrounding English countryside. I felt like Susan Hill had been there and merely transcribed her experiences:
It was early afternoon but already the light was fading and darkness drawing in. A chill wind sneaked down alleyways and passages off the river. The houses were grimy, shiny and black-roofed with rain, mean and poor and ugly, and regularly interspersed with more,
August 3rd, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 3.5 | Susan Hill | Horror | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
X by Clamp
X is an eighteen-volume manga by Clamp. It is also known as X/1999, but the more recent six-volume omnibus edition refers to the storyline as X. The series should not be confused with Clamp’s xxxHolic, my favorite series by Clamp (so far). X comes in a close second place for me in terms of plot while perhaps coming in first place on the level of art.
December 24th, 2014. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Gypsy by Steven Brust and Megan Lindholm
Experienced police man Mike Stepovich anf his green partner Durand apprehend a gypsy suspected of murdering a shopkeeper. Stepovich immediately notices something strange about the gypsy and does something he’s never done in his long career. He fails to turn in the knife the gypsy is carrying. Somehow he knows the gypsy is not the murderer and the knife is special. Later that night, the gypsy disappears without a trace from the police cell they are holding him in. Murder investigations are not the territory of an ordinary patrol cop but this case does not let him go,
August 28th, 2014. Rob Weber´s rating: 4 | Megan Lindholm, Steven Brust | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Broken Land by Ian McDonald
Ian McDonald’s The Broken Land (Hearts, Hands and Voices in the UK) is a book I admired more than I loved. It’s an allegorical look at the horrors of civil war caused by religious zeal and division. The story is set in a fictional country that feels like it could be in a future Africa where biotechnology has led to the development of mechanical infrastructure that is part organic and part artificial intelligence. The citizens are divided by their religious affiliation — some are Proclaimers and some are Confessors.
June 24th, 2014. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Ian McDonald | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Cosmic Odyssey by Jim Starlin (writer) and Mike Mignola (artist)
On the one hand, the story of Cosmic Odyssey is a simple one — a terrible and dangerous force known as the anti-life equation threatens our universe, and all the good characters must unite with the evil Darkseid to save the day. On the other hand, this story is rich with Jack Kirby’s wonderful cosmic characters that form the background for much of DC’s Cosmic Universe as it remains to this day.
To understand why you should read Cosmic Odyssey is to understand its background,
December 27th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
In Nicola Griffith’s Ammonite, we find a world without men. If you’re imagining a serene society ruled by wise matriarchs, or a planet of space-babes waiting for Kirk to rescue them, then perhaps this book is not for you. Because Griffith’s world is different. Her book is about reworking the familiar ploys of science-fictions past and making them wonderfully new. It’s classically science fiction, in that it pushes irreverently against the boundaries of classic science fiction.
The first few pages of the book are filled with enough airlocks,
October 30th, 2013. Alix E. Harrow´s rating: 4.5 | Nicola Griffith | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
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!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…