Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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]: 2013

Five Ghosts: The Haunting of Fabian Gray by Frank Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham

Five Ghosts: The Haunting of Fabian Gray by Frank Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham

Imagine your favorite pulp art from the covers and illustrations of adventure and fantasy stories. Now imagine this same style updated so that the artwork is consistent with a hint of contemporary polish plus wonderful, eye-grabbing color. Finally, imagine a comic book that tells an entire story with this artwork so that instead of the illustrations accompanying the text, the text accompanies the art. At that point, you will have imagined the first volume of Frank Barbiere’s Five Ghosts: The Haunting of Fabian Gray,

October 3rd, 2015. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Cute Girl Network by Greg Means and MK Read

The Cute Girl Network by Greg Means and MK Read

The Cute Girl Network by Greg Means and MK Read is a text-book example of the old don’t-judge-a-book-by-its-cover warning. And in this case, I’d say it also serves as an additional warning not to judge a book by its title. I’m not sure how well this book sold in 2013, but however it did, I’m sure it missed its target audience because of the title and cover.

September 5th, 2015. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Fortunately, the Milk: A wacky children’s story read by Neil Gaiman

Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman

I never pass up a children’s story written and read by Neil Gaiman. The stories he writes for kids are among his best work and they’re even better when he reads them himself. The audiobook version of Fortunately, the Milk (HarperAudio) would make a great gift for parents who travel with children. Fortunately, the Milk will keep the entire family happily entertained for 1 hour.

In this very amusing story, a boy and his little sister are stuck at home with Dad while Mum is out of town at a conference.

Marble Season by Gilbert Hernandez

Marble Season by Gilbert Hernandez

Gilbert Hernandez is one of my favorite writers and artists, and I particularly like the way he depicts children in his comics. So I was eager to read Marble Season, a semi-autobiographical work about a boy named Huey growing up in California in the 1960s. Throughout the book, Huey simply acts like a kid, hanging out with his brothers and the other boys and girls in the neighborhood (the kids talk about the parents but they are always off-panel). That’s as much of a plot as there is,

Endless Sky: The Story of a Swiss in America by David Boller

Endless Sky: The Story of a Swiss in America by David Boller

In the past few years, I’ve gained an appreciation for comic book memoirs, and Endless Sky by David Boller is another enjoyable work in this category. It doesn’t have the brilliant poetry of Fun Home or the powerful genius of Brooklyn Dreams, but it’s still worth seeking out, particularly if you are interested either in the story of a comic book writer trying to make it in the industry or in the culture-shock a man from Switzerland goes through upon moving to the United States.

August 1st, 2015. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Hollow World: Exploring humanity with an Everyman

Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan

As soon as I heard about Hollow World I jumped on the bandwagon. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love it when authors take a left turn and tries something absolutely new and different. Michael J. Sullivan is known for his epic fantasy, so a time travel/futuristic sci-fi is absolutely different than his usual work. He had my attention.

The thing is, despite the fact that this is an absolutely different genre than Sullivan fans will expect,

The Best of Connie Willis: Everyone must read Connie Willis

The Best of Connie Willis by Connie Willis

Connie Willis has received a staggering eleven Hugo and seven Nebula awards in her career, an achievement nobody has equaled. Her induction in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009 and receiving the SFWA Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in 2011 can hardly be called surprising. Of her novels, three or four, depending on whether or not you count the two volumes Blackout and All Clear as a single work, have won awards, the rest Willis received for her short fiction.

Zed: A Cosmic Tale by Michel Gagné

Zed: A Cosmic Tale by Michel Gagné

Michael Gagné’s Zed: A Cosmic Tale is an artistic wonder that was over a decade in the making. It’s a fast read, but it’s one you’ll want to look through multiple times because the art is unique and stunning: It doesn’t look anything like what you think of when you hear the words “comic book.” Gagné’s art is extremely stylized with a large number of full-page panels or pages with only a few large panels. Though it’s in black-and-white,

February 14th, 2015. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |

Lexicon: You’ll never look at words the same way again

Lexicon by Max Barry

Compare two commonly-used adages: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” versus “The pen is mightier than the sword.” In your own life, which saying have you found to be truer? It’s all well and good to claim that an intangible thought, either spoken or written, is less powerful than a physical object, but one can easily come up with several examples to the contrary: Discarded treaties between the United States government and various Native American tribal peoples; Chairman Mao’s infamous little red book;

The Lost Boy: Beautiful artwork makes up for a derivative story

The Lost Boy by Greg Ruth

Beautiful artwork makes up for a derivative story, but some “homage” should be acknowledged

Middle grade readers who like The Amulet will probably enjoy Greg Ruth’s graphic novel adventure, The Lost Boy, published by Scholastic. This is a conventional tale, enlivened with beautiful black and white artwork that looks like it’s done in pencil. I have to admit that the cover immediately sucked me in.

Nate Castle has just moved to a new house in a new town,

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

We have reviewed 8404 fantasy, science fiction, and horror books, audiobooks, magazines, comics, and films.

Subscribe to all posts:

Get notified about Giveaways:

Support FanLit

Want to help us defray the cost of domains, hosting, software, and postage for giveaways? Donate here:

You can support FanLit (for free) by using these links when you shop at Amazon:

US UK CANADA

Or, in the US, simply click the book covers we show. We receive referral fees for all purchases (not just books). This has no impact on the price and we can't see what you buy. This is how we pay for hosting and postage for our GIVEAWAYS. Thank you for your support!

SFF Deals

Recent Discussion:

Kevin S. on The Anubis Gates: A very generous bookDecember 25, 2024
This book made no sense to me at all. I was hoping for some explanations at the end but it…
San on In a Lonely Place: Tennessee DreadDecember 23, 2024
Oh, Marion, you say "but dark" as if it were a bad thing! 😂
Marion Deeds on In a Lonely Place: Tennessee DreadDecember 23, 2024
Hammer Studios is... reborn? I only ever read the "Kane" stories, which I found good but dark. It's a little…
Sandy Ferber on The Great White Space: Black mountain sideDecember 21, 2024
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Sandy Ferber on The Great White Space: Black mountain sideDecember 21, 2024
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!