You just know there are lots of reasons people might give a pass to China Miéville’s newest novel, Railsea. Some will see the YA or sci-fi/fantasy labels hanging on it and dismiss it out of hand. Others will hear it features a captain obsessed with hunting a giant white moldywarpe that cost her an arm and think “I hate parody/allusion” or “I really hated Moby Dick” or “Boy, I hate books with words like ‘moldywarpe” (or all three).
May 21st, 2012. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | China Mieville | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Hide Me Among the Graves by Tim Powers
Tim Powers’s The Stress of Her Regard was one of my favorite random used-bookstore discoveries. After reading it ten years ago, I talked it up to all my friends. It was out of print at the time, so I constantly lent out my own copy until the time I didn’t get it back. When I got wind of Hide Me Among the Graves, a sequel of sorts, I was thrilled and hoped it would be one of my favorite books of the year.
May 19th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3, 3.5 | Tim Powers | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Indignities of the Flesh by Bentley Little
Until I read Indignities of the Flesh I hadn’t heard of Bentley Little, although he’s been published in magazines like Cemetery Dance, which I used to read. Indignities of the Flesh is an anthology containing ten of Little’s surrealistic horror tales. One, “Valet Parking,” is original to this collection.
Bentley Little provides a paragraph before each story, talking about the inspiration. Not surprisingly, many of his inspirations for horror stories are things that frighten him or creep him out;
May 14th, 2012. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Bentley Little | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
So it’s April 1912, and here I am aboard R.M.S. Titanic, on her maiden voyage. By heaven, she’s a lovely ship! Big, too. But I’m a little worried we’re getting rather close to that iceberg. Oh I say, we’ve struck it! Not to worry, old man, everyone knows this ship is unsinkable. What’s that? We’re sinking anyway? Dash the luck! Off to the lifeboats then. What do you mean, there’s no more room? Blimey. Rest assured I’ll write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about this!
May 7th, 2012. Thomas M. Wagner (guest)´s rating: 2.5 | Matt Forbeck | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Best of Kage Baker by Kage Baker
The more I read Kage Baker, the more I love Kage Baker. Of the hundreds of speculative fiction authors I’ve read, I rank Kage Baker in the top ten. Maybe top five. She’s that amazing. I love her clever imagination and her style which is unembellished, straightforward, and full of wit and charm. Which is why I was jumping up and down when the nearly 500-page story collection called The Best of Kage Baker showed up on my doorstep.
April 30th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Kage Baker | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
The Thorn and The Blossom by Theodora Goss
In our Edge of the Universe column, we review books that may not be classified SFF but that incorporate elements of speculative fiction. However you want to label them, we hope you’ll enjoy discussing these books with us.
Evelyn and Brendan are both students at Oxford when they meet in the tiny Cornish town of Clews, where Evelyn is taking a much-needed break and Brendan is working in his father’s bookstore.
April 13th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Theodora Goss | Edge | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain by A. Lee Martinez
Everyone knows that that the invertebrates of Neptune are the most intelligent minds in the galaxy. That’s how, years ago, a bored mollusk from Neptune was able to conquer the Earth and set himself up as Warlord. To subdue the planet he had to use a few nasty tricks such as doping the water supply with anti-aggression drugs, but now that he has all of humanity under his tentacle, Emperor Mollusk is actually a pretty swell guy and he has even developed a soft spot (or should I say “softer spot”) for planet Earth,
April 9th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | A. Lee Martinez | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
I’ve been trying to read Chrysanthe for two weeks now, and still haven’t hit the halfway point. It’s that experience where the bookmark never seems to move; whenever I sit down to read, I can’t get far before my mind starts to wander. With roughly three hundred pages left to go, I’ve decided to cut my losses.
It starts promisingly enough. Yves Meynard introduces us to a little girl, Christine, who lives with her unpleasant uncle in a world similar to our own present day,
March 26th, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 0.1 | Yves Meynard | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
[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.]
The Snow Child (2012) had me from the first page, specifically these two sentences:
She had imagined that in the Alaska wilderness silence would be peaceful, like snow falling at night, air filled with promise but no sound,
March 2nd, 2012. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Eowyn Ivey | Edge | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Dream Castles: The Early Jack Vance Volume Two by Jack Vance
Jack Vance is my favorite author, so another collection of Vance’s works by Subterranean Press is a welcome treat! Dream Castles: The Early Jack Vance Volume Two, edited and lovingly introduced by Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan, collects ten of Vance’s works:
February 27th, 2012. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Jack Vance | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 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…