The Good, the Bad, and the Smug by Tom Holt
The Good, the Bad, and the Smug is the fourth novel in Tom Holt’s YOUSPACE series, following in the footsteps of Doughnut, When It’s a Jar, and The Outsourcerer’s Apprentice. Like those previous books, this one can be read as a stand-alone; there were recurring characters and running jokes which were enjoyable to this first-time reader,
July 27th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Tom Holt | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Starlight: The Return of Duke McQueen by Mark Millar and Goran Parlov
Without a doubt, Starlight: The Return of Duke McQueen is my favorite comic book by Mark Millar. Any fan of pulp science fiction will want to read this book. It is told well, is full of wonder, and is simply delightful. Starlight both invokes and honors older science fiction stories that have as their primary aim the hope of instilling astonishment in readers as they flip quickly through the pages to find out about the hero’s adventures in space.
July 25th, 2015. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Mark Millar | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
MPH by Mark Millar and Duncan Fegredo
Mark Millar knows how to tell a story, how to hook us with a plot, how to pace the events so that we feel as if we are in that perfect summer blockbuster we yearn for every year. He’s done it again in MPH, which he wrote with his co-creator and artist Duncan Fegredo and letterer and colorist Peter Doherty. I made the mistake of starting this story at midnight, and I could not put it down until I was done.
July 25th, 2015. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4 | Mark Millar | Comics | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Armada is the sophomore effort from Ernest Cline, who burst onto the SF scene with the wildly-popular Ready Player One, a fun-filled romp through 80s pop culture via a virtual reality game that managed to skillfully depict a dystopian future and also be a rollicking adventure and coming-of-age tale. The secret to Ready Player One’s success was that you could still enjoy it without catching every obscure geek reference, but many readers who grew up in the 80s absolutely loved it.
July 21st, 2015. Stuart Starosta and Ray McKenzie | Ernest Cline | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 13 comments |
Citizen of the Galaxy by Eric Gignac and Robert Lazaro
Citizen of the Galaxy is one of the classic Robert Heinlein juveniles, and would seem a perfect choice for a graphic adaptation — a relatively simple, straightforward plot, a wholly linear structure, a coming-of-age story with space slavers, all told in a relatively few number of pages. Unfortunately, IDW’s graphic version by Eric Gignac and Robert Lazaro is not close to a perfect adaptation.
The story is, as mentioned, relatively simple.
July 18th, 2015. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Robert A. Heinlein | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Hannu Rajaniemi: Collected Fiction by Hannu Rajaniemi
In his Collected Fiction of nearly twenty stories ranging from the micro style of Twitter fiction to a more traditional length, Hannu Rajaniemi displays a generally hopeful, but cautionary, view of humanity’s future and the rapid onslaught of technology. Of primary importance is the need to recognize the value of others amid the increasing electronic noise in which we all seem to live. Rajaniemi is a physicist with the heart of a poet (and vice-versa) who takes data packets,
July 16th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Hannu Rajaniemi | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Divine by Boaz Lavie, Asaf Hanuka, and Tomer Hanuka
I have been eagerly anticipating The Divine, written by Boaz Lavie, primarily because of the art I’d glimpsed. Artists Asaf Hanuka and Tomer Hanuka have a unique style that made me want to read the book even though I had no idea what it was about. This new book put out by First Second, probably the best publisher of standalone graphic novels, takes a standard plot and makes it unique,
July 11th, 2015. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds
Slow Bullets is the latest addition to Alastair Reynolds’ impressive body of work, a slim novella which he manages to fill with plausible far-future technology, interstellar war, and questions of identity and legacy.
Scurelya “Scur” Timsuk Shunde is a soldier for the Peripheral Systems, which are at war with the Central Worlds. One of the central points of conflict are the Books which each side holds sacred; while never explicitly named, the Books share several common tenets, and are clearly religious in nature.
July 6th, 2015. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Alastair Reynolds | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Shadow Show: Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury by various authors and artists
Shadow Show is a graphic adaptation of a previously released anthology of the same name. That collection rounded up a host of well-known authors and asked them to write original stories inspired by and/or as a tribute to Ray Bradbury. The graphic version, which uses just a few of the stories from the original anthology, includes:
July 4th, 2015. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Ray Bradbury | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand
Elizabeth Hand is one of my favorite writers, prose-wise, and I just love languidly relaxing into her style. I feel like I’m always looking for the same kind of writing in other authors — and having been remiss in reading Hand for the last few years, it was nice to finally enjoy the real thing again with the short novel Wylding Hall. Her prose is actually more spare than usual; it has to be, as the entire story is told in dialogue.
June 23rd, 2015. Kelly Lasiter and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Elizabeth Hand | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!