The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
“sentence (n)1. A grammatical unit comprising a word or a group of words that is separate from any other grammatical construction, and usually consists of at least one subject with its predicate and contains a finite verb or verb phrase; for example, ‘The door is open’ and ‘Go!’ are sentences.”
I didn’t know what to expect from Louise Erdrich’s metafictional ghost story The Sentence (2021) and she still managed to surprise me. Starting with the title,
January 11th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Louise Erdrich | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Foundation: Season One on Apple TV+
In my first review of Apple TV’s Foundation series, written after the first two shows, I said it wasn’t “great” TV (at least not yet) but ranged consistently between good and very good. Having just finished all ten episodes of season one, I’d broaden that range from “occasionally annoying to occasionally great.” In other words, it’s a mixed bag, which I suppose shouldn’t be much of a surprise for a series that mostly follows three plot strands, has multi-decade time jumps, and is itself based on a series of loosely connected short stories that were later retconned into a larger universal narrative.
December 23rd, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Isaac Asimov | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Absynthe by Brendan P. Bellecourt
Absynthe (2021) is the new novel by Brendan P. Bellecourt, the pen name of Bradley Beaulieu, author of the excellent SONG OF THE SHATTERED SANDS series. Talk about a change. Beaulieu leaves the desert far behind to head for the big noisy city in a complex Jazz Age/Psi-powers tale set in an alt-history US.
A decade ago America fought the Great War with the St. Lawrence Pact made up of Great Britain, Canada,
December 20th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Brendan P. Bellecourt | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamad
Whether it’s writing weird horror, fantasy, science fiction or science horror fiction — a subgenre I think I just made up — Premee Mohamad is one of the best around right now, and she does great work in the novella length. Her latest example is 2021’s The Annual Migration of Clouds, a short, harrowing work set in a tight-knit community surviving after catastrophic climate change and a loss of arable topsoil.
Reid is a teenaged girl in a small,
December 7th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Premee Mohamed | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters (2021), by Henry Gee is a, stay with me here, concisely told history of life on Earth. Really, it’s all in the title there. So you pretty much know upfront what you’re going to get. A broad, but not deep, fast-paced glide through the major elements of how life evolved from its earliest bacteria days to the more complex (if not “better”) days of,
December 6th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime
Let’s face it, this is a Big One for sci-fi/fantasy fans. The first three episodes of The Wheel of Time dropped on Amazon Prime, and I promptly watched all three. In the spirit of full transparency, let me say that while I quite enjoyed Robert Jordan’s first three books, I felt the series started to decline at that point and kept going south, such that my final word on the series (which I did finish in masochistic fashion) was that I wouldn’t recommend the time investment to anyone thinking about starting it.
December 2nd, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
Sophia’s life is perfect. She adores her husband, her company is much sought-after in the luxurious gated community she and her various neighbors share, she has endless tasks and joys to fill the long days while she waits for her husband to return from his various freelancing jobs. So why does everyone keep asking if she’s happy? Why has her husband forbidden her from breaching their home’s basement? Everything is perfect … right?
It would be easy to call Comfort Me With Apples (2021) a retelling of the “Bluebeard” folktale,
November 19th, 2021. Jana Nyman, Terry Weyna and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Catherynne M. Valente | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson
In 12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next (2021), Jeanette Winterson offers up a dozen essays on Artificial Intelligence divided into four sections: “How we got here” (a dip into the history of computing), “What’s Your Superpower” (a philosophical/religious change in vision of matter), “Sex and Other Stories” (AI’s potential impact on love and sex), and “The Future” (what will change and what might not with the advent of AI).
November 12th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Jeanette Winterson | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Foundation created by David S. Goyer & Josh Friedman
What you need to know first about Apple TV’s Foundation is that it is stunningly gorgeous to look at. Seriously. Gorgeous. Do not watch it on your phone. Do not, if you can avoid it, watch it on your laptop. This deserves, no, it cries out for, as large a TV with as good a screen as you can see it on. Honestly, if Apple released it to a theater I’d happily watch it there.
November 10th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Isaac Asimov | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis
The Lights of Prague (2021) is Nicole Jarvis’s first novel. It’s set in 1868 Prague, filled with pijavica* — vampires — and other magical creatures. Fighting the pijavica are the lamplighters, whose cover job is to go around lighting the new gas streetlamps in the city. Domek Myska is a lamplighter, apprenticed to an irascible alchemist. Lady Ora Fischerova is a widowed noblewoman with a secret, who has started up a flirtation with Domek. A bold and terrible plan hatched by an upstart nest of vampires threatens them and the entire city.
November 8th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Nicole Jarvis | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Please contact me Scott I know who got us away and contacted social services.
Thanks for the kind words, George! And no, I have only read the nine Taine books that I have reviewed…
Great review! I agree this book had some entertaining parts, and the final section with the invading crystals was very…
This book made no sense to me at all. I was hoping for some explanations at the end but it…
Oh, Marion, you say "but dark" as if it were a bad thing! 😂