The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
If Natasha Pulley’s latest novel, The Kingdoms (2021), were a movie script, the elevator pitch might have been “Master and Commander meets The Final Countdown” (look it up, kids). Part time-travel story, part love story (several actually), part Patrick O’Brian story, it curves and recurves through beauty and brutality (more of the latter than the former), time and space, trauma, and rescue (more of the former than the latter), as it delights,
August 11th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Natasha Pulley | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Even and Odd by Sarah Beth Durst
Even and Odd are pre-teen sisters living in Stony Haven, Connecticut, where their parents operate a border shop carrying “supplies for the mundane world, as well as imports from the magic world — anything a magical customer might need for their visit here.” Those imports and magically-inclined customers come from the land of Firoth, where Even and Odd were born, and which is accessible via magic portals. The sisters trade off magical abilities on alternating days, leading to their nicknames, though each girl has different opinions on their access to magic: Even,
August 9th, 2021. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Sarah Beth Durst | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Asteroids: How Love, Fear, And Greed Will Determine Our Future in Space by Martin Elvis
Asteroids: How Love, Fear, And Greed Will Determine Our Future in Space (2021), by Martin Elvis, is a thorough and wonderfully detailed exploration not of asteroids as objects (which he does do to some extent), but of the possibility of our interacting with them in order to a) prevent them from killing us off as one did (maybe) to the dinosaurs, b) exploit them for resources, and c) use them as a stepping stone for further exploitation of space.
August 6th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dreaming in Quantum and Other Stories by Lynda Clark
It seems that putting The Rock Eaters by Brenda Peynado on my best of 2021 list and noting how it’s redeemed my faith in short story collections was a bad idea, as I’ve apparently jinxed myself with regard to said collections, being that I’m now 0 for 3 on them since then. The third “0-fer” is Dreaming in Quantum and Other Stories (2021) by Lynda Clark, which has its moments but left me disappointed overall.
August 5th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 2.5 | Lynda Clark | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Liu
I’m a big fan of Marjorie Liu’s MONSTRESS series, so I was eager to pick up her collection of short stories, entitled The Tangleroot Palace (2021). Unfortunately, while there was a lot to admire in terms of the prose itself, the stories didn’t do much for me, though they were solid enough. I’ll note, however, as I always do when reviewing a collection, that I’m a tough audience when it comes to short stories, generally preferring longer,
August 2nd, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Marjorie M. Liu | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Rock Eaters by Brenda Peynado
It has been quite a while since I’ve read a collection of short stories that so completely and consistently won me over. I’m typically satisfied if roughly half the stories in a collection work for me and thrilled if three-quarters do. But Brenda Peynado hit it out of the ballpark with The Rock Eaters, with stories that range almost entirely from good (a few) to excellent (most) to wonderfully, lingeringly strange and powerful (many). It’s easily the best story collection I’ve read in years,
July 6th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Brenda Peynado | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker
Often in magical realism, a writer takes one little bit of magic and plunks it into an otherwise entirely realistic story, like adding a single drop of blue food dye into a glass of water that remains water, but water newly, wholly colored by that one tiny drop. In Sarah Pinsker’s novel, We Are Satellites (2021), we have what one might class science-fictional realism; she eschews building the usual futuristic world full of advances and instead offers up a single drop in the form of the Pilot,
June 29th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Sarah Pinsker | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
It’s alarming to wake up from a coma in completely unfamiliar surroundings, tethered to a bed by tubes and electrodes, with a computer voice quizzing you and robotic arms controlling your movements. It’s even more disturbing when you realize that you have no recollection of your name or your past life, and that there are two long-dead bodies in the room with you.
But gradually, through a series of flashback memories, Ryland Grace remembers that Earth is facing an extinction event: a Russian scientist discovered that a strange line has developed between the sun and Venus,
June 22nd, 2021. Tadiana Jones, Bill Capossere and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Andy Weir | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 16 comments |
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
What if Jay Gatsby literally sold his soul to a demon, in order to woo and win the love of Daisy Buchanan? With that one question, Nghi Vo ushers us into a strange, familiar, wonderful and terrifying world with her first full-length novel, The Chosen and the Beautiful (2021).
In a 1920s USA where magic is common and ghosts walk side by side with people, Vo introduces us to Jordan Baker, bosom friend of Daisy Fay Buchanan.
June 3rd, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Nghi Vo | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory
It’s 2001, and Luce Delgado, homicide detective for the Las Vegas PD, has come to a casino on the strip to deal with a celebrity murder. Dead, “Dr. M,” manager of the hottest boy-band act on the planet, the WyldBoyZ. Suspects? There are plenty, but her top five are the brilliantly harmonizing human/other-mammalian hybrid band members, the Boyz themselves. The challenge? A locked room on the fifty-sixth floor of the casino hotel.
Almost equally important to Luce is her attempt to keep from breaking the heart of the WyldBoyZ’s number one fan — Luce’s nine-year-old daughter Melanie.
May 25th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Daryl Gregory | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
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.