Red Moon by Kim Stanley Robinson
I’m a big fan of most of Kim Stanley Robinson’s output, especially his MARS trilogy, and so when I saw that he was out with a book entitled Red Moon (2018), with its echoes of said trilogy (Red, Green, and Blue Mars), that it had an AI character like Aurora,
May 16th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Oracle Year by Charles Soule
OCTOBER 8: FOURTEEN BABIES WILL BE BORN AT NORTHSIDE GENERAL HOSPITAL IN HOUSTON. SIX MALE, EIGHT FEMALE.
One morning at about 5:00 am, Will Dando, a struggling young New York musician, abruptly awakes from a vivid dream. In his dream, a voice told Will 108 oddly specific and rather random predictions about the future, which he remembers verbatim when he wakes up. Some are potentially life-changing: warnings of the collapse of a major bridge and other disasters. Others may have a huge financial effect: a football game that will be won by the Jets by four points;
May 13th, 2019. Tadiana Jones and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Charles Soule | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
In an alternative history, magical steampunk version of New Orleans, in 1884 the city is still influenced by the aftermath of the Civil War, which ended in a division of the Union and Confederate states. New Orleans is a pocket of neutrality, one of the few territories not aligned with either the North or South. The city is run by a council made up of ex-slaves, mulattoes and white businesspeople; British, French and Haitian airships patrol the skies to keep the peace.
Thirteen-year old-Jacqueline is a bright,
April 5th, 2019. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | P. Djèlí Clark | Audio, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Queen of No Tomorrows by Matt Maxwell
Matt Maxwell’s 109-page novel (I’d call it a novella), Queen of No Tomorrows (2018), mixes American tentacular-weird with LA Noir, flavoring the story with bits of pot-smoke-fueled punk imagery of the 1980s. It is a story that thrives on shadows.
Cait MacReady works as a book restorer for the Los Angeles Public Library. On the side, she locates rare, exotic occult volumes for discerning customers… or, when the books are unavailable, creates them herself. She is an expert forger,
March 28th, 2019. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Matt Maxwell | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
I absolutely loved Lavie Tidhar’s Central Station (and was not alone in that), and while his newest, Unholy Land (2018), didn’t blow me away quite to the same extent, it kept me on the couch in “don’t talk to me I’m reading” and “uh-huh, uh-huh, ya don’t say, uh-huh” mode all afternoon while my family just rolled their eyes and gave up, as they know to do when all the signs of being engrossed in a great book are manifest (luckily,
March 8th, 2019. Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Lavie Tidhar | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2018), by Robert M. Sapolsky, is, simply put, one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in years and, had I finished it last year, would absolutely have gone onto my Best of the Year list. Sadly, because I listened to it on audio over several months of commuting, this review will not do it justice in terms of specific references and examples.
February 22nd, 2019. Bill Capossere | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
A Voice in the Night by Jack McDevitt
Jack McDevitt is one of the numerous authors whose work I know because my dad said, “Hey, read this!” In McDevitt’s case, the “this” was The Engines of God. Having thus been introduced to recurring protagonist Priscilla Hutchins, I read several others of McDevitt’s novels and I’ve always enjoyed them. So I was interested to pick up this book of short stories to see how McDevitt does them.
Overall, I think I prefer McDevitt’s work at novel length;
February 20th, 2019. Nathan Okerlund´s rating: 3.5 | Jack McDevitt | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
Damsel (2018) has an absolutely gorgeous cover, one of the loveliest I’ve seen, with a glowing title wound about with vines, bleeding hearts and other flowers. But on closer examination there’s something just a little bit off about the cover image. An anatomically correct heart. A golden spur with a myriad of sharp points. A dragon’s pointed tail. It’s a bit disturbing. And it’s an apt metaphor for the contents of Elana K. Arnold’s book, where the fairy-tale details initially mask an allegorical story that is far,
February 13th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 2.5 | Elana K. Arnold | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
Diane Setterfield offers up a great premise and a heaping sense of atmosphere in her newest novel, Once Upon a River (2018), but while the book offers up plenty of satisfying moments, I felt it fell short of its potential and was also somewhat marred by Setterfield’s lack of trust in her readers, though both of those complaints are admittedly more subjective than my typical criticism, so more than usual, one’s mileage may vary here.
As for that wholly engrossing premise,
February 4th, 2019. Bill Capossere and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Diane Setterfield | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Turned On: Science, Sex, and Robots by Kate Devlin
I confess that when I opened up Turned On: Science, Sex, and Robots (2018) by Kate Devlin, I wasn’t expecting a tour of classical literature: stories about Laodamia, who had “commissioned a bronze likeness of her [dead] husband — an artificial lover that she took to her bed.” Or the Spartan king Nabis, who had a “lifelike robot designed and dressed up to look like his dead wife, Apega.” But as Devlin cautions us, “This is not a book that’s just about sex.
January 31st, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 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…