The City & The City (TV Adaptation)
The City & The City is one of my favorite China Miéville books. I love the conceit of the nested cities, Beszel and Ul Qoma, and I love the voice of our narrator, the smart, world-weary and not-always-so-honest Tyador Borlu.
Amazon Prime offers a four-part adaptation of the book. All four episodes are directed by Tom Shankland, with Tony Grisoni, who was also credited as a writer, as one of the producers.
April 23rd, 2020. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | China Mieville | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
A political marriage has been arranged between 16-year-old Princess Taoshira (Tashi) of the Blue Crescent Islands and 18-year-old Prince Ramil (Ram) of the country of Gerfal. They’re separated by a few hundred miles, a couple of other countries in between theirs, and a world of cultural differences. Both Tashi and Ram are completely appalled by the idea of the match, and it doesn’t get any better when they meet up, as Tashi’s government sends her to Gerfal to meet and wed Ram. But their countries need an alliance to fight against an aggressive and brutal warlord,
December 30th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Julia Golding | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Surgeon of Souls and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Leslie Bellem
In my last two book reviews, I discussed a pair of characters who were amongst the most popular during the era of the pulp magazine: The Spider, who was featured in 118 novels that appeared in The Spider magazine from 1933 – ’43, and Doc Savage, who appeared in no fewer than 181 novels in the pages of Doc Savage Magazine from 1933 – ’49. Today, however, I am here to discuss still another pulp character,
July 16th, 2018. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Robert Leslie Bellem | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino
Along with his brilliant Invisible Cities (1972 in Italian, 1974 in English), one of Italo Calvino’s most enduring creations was his series of whimsical and erudite stories inspired by the origins of the universe and scientific principles, labeled Cosmicomics (1965 in Italian, 1968 in English). They are narrated by a mysterious being called Qfwfq, who tells of the Big Bang and the time before that when the universe was a single point without space or dimensions.
March 8th, 2017. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Italo Calvino | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar (writer) & Steve McNiven (illustrator)
Logan, a grizzled west coast farmer whose only joy is his wife and two children, knows that the rent is due. He doesn’t have the dough, and when the cannibalistic Hulk Gang arrives, he will suffer a beating – if he’s lucky.
What if… all of the villains teamed up to defeat the heroes and then took over the country? Written in 2009, Mark Millar’s Old Man Logan was not released as a “What If…?” adventure,
February 24th, 2017. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3.5 | Mark Millar | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Two sets of twins, a disillusioned husband, a grieving boyfriend, one ghost. The lives of Her Fearful Symmetry’s characters are as tangled as they sound, in a drama that will play out amongst the tombstones of Highgate Cemetery. A sticker on the front reminds potential readers that Niffenegger is the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Yet let that be the first and last time Niffenegger’s debut novel is mentioned. Her Fearful Symmetry is described as a ‘delicious and deadly ghost story,’ and should be judged in and of itself.
January 17th, 2017. Ray McKenzie and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 2.5 | Audrey Niffenegger | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Editor’s note: Stuart originally posted a review of this book in December 2015. This is a new version of the review.
The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Retrospective of His Finest Fiction by Gene Wolfe
I decided to tackle this collection for a third time, this time armed with Marc Aramini’s Between Light and Shadow: An Exploration of the Fiction of Gene Wolfe, 1951 to 1986, an 826-page analysis covering Wolfe’s output through 1986, including most of his short stories (no matter how obscure) along with The Fifth Head of Cerberus,
September 19th, 2016. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 3.5 | Gene Wolfe | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 27 comments |
The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough
A novella that packs the emotional punch of a full-length novel, Sarah Pinborough’s The Language of Dying (2009) stealthily moves from an innocuous beginning to a stunning conclusion in the spare space of less than 150 pages. This work was nominated for a 2009 Shirley Jackson award and won a British Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 2010, and it’s obvious why: Pinborough writes beautifully and honestly about the complicated process of saying good-bye to a loved one,
August 2nd, 2016. Jana Nyman´s rating: 5 | Sarah Pinborough | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Lucky Strike collects a short story and an essay about alternate history by Kim Stanley Robinson. At the end, readers are treated to an interview with the author. It is part of a larger series of publications that highlight “outspoken authors.”
“The Lucky Strike,” the short story, is an alternate history about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this world, however, Frank January chooses to drop the bomb early so as to minimize human casualties.
March 28th, 2016. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
My Body is Not My Own…
Having just finished Paolo Bacigalupi’s Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel, I’m left rather bereft at how to describe, let alone review, The Windup Girl. I am not a big reader of science-fiction or dystopian thrillers, which means that no obvious comparisons come to mind, and the setting and tone of the novel are so unique (to me at least) that they almost defy description.
Set in a future Thailand where genetically engineered “megodonts” (elephants) provide manual labor and “cheshires” (cats) prowl the streets,
February 11th, 2016. Rebecca Fisher, Marion Deeds, Stefan Raets, Justin Blazier, Ruth Arnell and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Paolo Bacigalupi | Audio, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
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…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…