Charlotte Perkins Gilman is well-known in literary feminist circles for her novel The Yellow Wallpaper, and for her periodical, which she published in the early decades of the 20th century. I didn’t know about Herland, a feminist utopian novel, until a few years ago. She wrote two sequels; With her in Ourland and Moving the Mountain. Herland is worth reading for historical context, and also for a lot of laughs—because in addition to being a genuine feminist utopian,
June 14th, 2023. Marion Deeds | Charlotte Perkins Gilman | Stand-Alone | Giveaway!, SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
Joe Golem: Occult Detective (volume 1) by Mike Mignola (writer), Christopher Golden (writer), Patric Reynolds (artist), Clem Robins (letterer), and Dave Stewart (colorist)
In the first volume of Joe Golem: Occult Detective, we get two stories: a three-part tale called “The Rat Catcher” and a two-part one called “The Sunken Dead.” Taking place in an alternative 1965, these comics are situated in the “Drowned City,” a post-flood New York city, in which canals and make-shift bridges out of boards crisscross the city’s landscape.
November 19th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Mike Mignola | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The October Faction (Volume one) by by Steve Niles (writer) and Damien Worm (art)
The October Faction is a family affair. Meet the Allans: goth girl and daughter Vivian who has just graduated from high school; Geoff, the son who is college-age but not in college; Frederick, the professor-husband and father and former monster hunter; and Deloris, the absentee and seemingly unfaithful wife and mother who used to assist her husband. Frederick ends his lecture on monsters and meets with an old friend, Lucas, with whom he used to fight monsters,
October 15th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Because I got an ARC of Hearts of Tabat, the second book in Cat Rambo’s TABAT QUARTET, in 2018, I read it before the first book. I thought that would have a negative impact on my reaction to Book One, Beasts of Tabat, but as I was reading, my brain reset itself, and when I got to the end I was almost as shocked as if I hadn’t had some inkling what was coming.
February 15th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Cat Rambo | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Head Lopper (Vol. 1): The Island or a Plague of Beasts by Andrew MacLean
Head Lopper (2016) by Andrew MacLean is about a master swordsman and his journeys. By his side is his trusty sword and his less trusty head in a sack. The head belongs to Agatha, the Blue Witch, and though we know the Head Lopper, Norgal, is the one responsible for cutting off her head, we do not know for what purpose he carries her head with him wherever he goes.
January 30th, 2021. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Leigh Bardugo, best known for her GRISHA young adult magical fantasy trilogy, explores a different corner of the Grisha world in her new young adult novel, Six of Crows. In the city of Ketterdam, an analog for Amsterdam, criminal gangs control the waterfront, and the surrounding area is a den of iniquity where everything can be bought and sold, including people. One of the gangs, appropriately called the Dregs, is led by 17 year old Kaz Brekker,
September 23rd, 2020. Tadiana Jones, Rebecca Fisher and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Leigh Bardugo | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Darth Vader: Vader by Kieron Gillen (writer) and Salvador Larroca (artist)
Darth Vader (Volume One): Vader by Kieron Gillen is just as good, if not better than, Star Wars (Volume One): Skywalker Strikes by Jason Aaron, both of which came out recently from Marvel. Marvel now has the rights to the Star Wars comic books, and so they are reissuing quickly all the Star Wars comics that were put out over the years by Dark Horse. In addition to these reissues,
May 19th, 2020. Brad Hawley and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Children of Time (2015), the first book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s CHILDREN OF TIME series, is an expansive and visionary epic that speculates about the future of humanity.
In the first chapter, we meet a scientist who has managed to extend her life so that she can create her own world. Her plan is to drop monkeys on a terraformed planet, let loose a virus that will uplift them, wait until they evolve, and then introduce herself as their god.
March 17th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Star Wars: Kanan Vol. 1: The Last Padawan by Greg Weisman
The secret backstory of Kanan Jarrus, one of the main characters in the animated television show Star Wars Rebels, was ripe for comic book expansion. As a former Jedi Padawan who was only a teenager when the rest of the Jedi Order was wiped out, his past provides plenty of scope for exciting and bittersweet stories. After all, as a survivor of the purge, he was one of the lucky ones.
During an otherwise straightforward supply-run to Lothal,
September 28th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Comics, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Court of Fives by Kate Elliott
Kate Elliott has a well-deserved reputation for writing excellent science-fiction and fantasy for adults. Her characters, world-building, and societies are not only entertaining but well-crafted. It seems only natural that, at some point in her career, she would try her hand at Young Adult fiction. The result is Court of Fives, the first in a planned fantasy trilogy which is sure to appeal to younger readers as well as Elliott’s established fan base. While I’ve seen the novel described as “YA meets Game of Thrones,” Elliott herself has said,
September 4th, 2019. Jana Nyman, Tadiana Jones and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Kate Elliott | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
There were two interesting articles about publishing that I ran across, the first via a link in the second: No…
My pleasure, Robin! And yes, it surely is some kind of an experience, to be sure....
Thanks for the solution to a mystery many decades old. One of my favourite novels, this. Hilariously funny, completely unpredictable,…
Thank you. I’m all caught up. Back to reading Crimson Embers.
Enjoyed your review. I’m reading A War in Crimson Embers and am having the hardest time reminding myself where everybody…