Remarkable Life of the Skin: An Intimate Journey Across Our Largest Organ by Monty Lyman
The brain and the heart tend to get all the good press as far as bodily organs go, each with a slew of books focused only on them. The other organs either don’t get mentioned at all or get thrown in with a bunch of others as part of the discussion of a particular system or the body entire, as in Mary Roach’s Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal or Bill Bryson’s The Body: A Guide for Occupants.
June 30th, 2020. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water (2020) is a surprisingly warmhearted fantasy novella set in a war-torn Asian country. It’s a queer take on wuxia, a time-honored genre of Chinese fiction based on heroes skilled in the martial arts, frequently in superhuman, fantastical ways (think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or even Kung Fu Panda).
One day,
June 24th, 2020. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3.5 | Zen Cho | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Just before her twelfth birthday, Zoe finds an impossibly small, breathtakingly cute kitten hiding behind her parents’ garage. Having been forbidden from bringing home any more animal rescues — and there have been many — the obvious course of action is for Zoe to sneak the kitten into her bedroom, text photos to her best friend Harrison, and go eat cake. The next day, she tells her family about the new arrival (christened Pipsqueak) and, to her great joy, she’s finally allowed to keep this one. After all,
June 5th, 2020. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Sarah Beth Durst | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Solstice (2020), by Lorence Alison, is subtitled “A Tropical Horror Comedy” and is a thinly fictionalized take on the disastrous Fyre Festival, with the addition of an eldritch sea monster lurking beneath the waves. I wasn’t expecting high literature from it, just the proverbial “beach read” to distract myself from the fact that there is no beach anywhere near me (and if there were, it would probably be closed anyway). But the more I think about it, the more it just doesn’t work for me.
June 4th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Lorence Alison | Horror, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Grand Tour by E. Catherine Tobler
E. Catherine Tobler created Jackson’s Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade, a carnival/circus where things are not necessarily what they seem… or in some cases, exactly what they seem, no matter how strange that might be. The stories appeared in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and now, in The Grand Tour: A Jackson’s Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade Collection (2020), Apex has gathered up nine of the tales, which traverse earth and time, as we meet Jackson and the people who find their way to the circus,
May 28th, 2020. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | E. Catherine Tobler | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
Tavia is a siren. This fact is enough trouble to her that she’s trying to contact the spirit of her grandmother (who was also a siren) to learn whether there’s any way to rid herself of the power.
Her best friend/adopted sister Effie isn’t really a mermaid; she just plays one at the Renaissance Faire. She’s a totally normal human — or so she thinks.
A Song Below Water (2020), by Bethany C. Morrow,
May 27th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Bethany C. Morrow | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Nevertell (2020), by Katharine Orton, is an engaging if somewhat limited Middle Grade book set in the wild north of Stalinist Russia and focused on a young girl trying to escape a brutal work camp and make her way south to Moscow and the grandmother she’s been told would be able to take her in.
Twelve-year-old Lina was born in the camp (her father is rumored to be the cruel commandant Zima) that her grandfather, mother, and uncle had been brought to years earlier.
May 11th, 2020. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Katharine Orton | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Seven years ago, previously unknown aliens attacked and destroyed the crew of a human spaceship. The brutal event was recorded, so all of humanity has seen it. Ever since, Earth has been at war with these “Salamanders.”
The latest war ship to be developed and deployed against the salamanders is the Providence. It’s equipped with artificial intelligence that takes care of most of the shipboard tasks but is crewed by four humans who’ve been appointed after an arduous selection process. To keep the public support,
May 8th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Max Barry | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s almost soul-crushing. I adored the first 25% of Zack Jordan’s The Last Human. It was on its way to being my favorite book so far this year. It was imaginative, clever, exciting, funny, and warm. I loved it. Then, it took a turn, and I struggled to finish it.
The Last Human (2020) is about a girl named Sarya who is being raised by a huge sentient black widow spider.
May 6th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Zack Jordan | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back (2020) is a historical fantasy based on the lives of Wolfgang Mozart and his beloved sister Marie Anna whose pet name was Nannerl. Nannerl was four years older than Wolfgang and a musical prodigy when she was a child. Tutored by her father, Leopold, she was much admired and praised as “the rare woman with a good ear” according to one of the characters in Lu’s novel.
As a child,
May 5th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Marie Lu | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no 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…