Razzmatazz by Christopher Moore
Razzmatazz, Christopher Moore’s fantasy/action/comedy follow-up to Noir, came out in 2022. While I recommend Noir, you don’t need to read it first to enjoy this outing.
It’s 1947, in San Francisco, and Sammy “Two-Toes” Tiffin, bartender and sometime detective, and his group of regulars are still just trying to get by, when Sammy’s friend Eddie “Moo Shoes” Shu brings Sammy to a meeting with Eddie’s Uncle Ho.
June 6th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Christopher Moore | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
Kingfisher’s Nettle and Bone (2022) was exactly the book I needed to read when I read it, so I am grateful to it and the writer for that. Kingfisher’s original fairy tale is a satisfying read at any time, with characters who engaged my imagination and find original ways to solve their problems.
Marra is a princess, the third daughter of a small kingdom with a deep-water harbor, nestled between two powerful warlike nations,
June 2nd, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | T. Kingfisher | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo
2022’s Siren Queen by Nghi Vo is another 5-star read. Set in the same world as The Chosen and the Beautiful, Siren Queen looks at the magic of movies, and the exploitative studio system of the medium’s early days. In Vo’s world, the magic of movies is real magic, and that magic is often hungry.
Our main character is a Chinese American girl in Los Angeles who becomes enthralled with the magic of moving pictures.
May 13th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Nghi Vo | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong
I’ll start off with a list of things I liked from 2022’s The Circus Infinite, a science fiction novel by Khan Wong:
The Circus Infinite introduces us to Jes, who is on the lam from an evil Institute when the story opens.
April 12th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Khan Wong | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist
The cover of 2022’s Tripping Arcadia reads, “A Gothic Novel,” and the book certainly meets that definition. Lena, our brooding first-person narrator, warns us on the first few pages that she’s “confessing,” and her story drips with confusion, secrets, hidden pain, sexual longing, shadows, and death.
This book is filled with things I loved; plants, herbal poisons, interrupted conversations that seethe with secrets, an old, creepy mansion; secret passages, old books, a beautiful young man hellbent on self-destruction, dangerous parties, crushes that reveal themselves in yearning moments of physical descriptions of skin,
March 15th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Kit Mayquist | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
In his Afterword, John Scalzi explains that his newest book, The Kaiju Preservation Society (2022), took the place of another he struggled to finish during these awful times we’ve lived through these past few years. This one, he says, is not “with absolutely no slight intended, a brooding symphony … [but] a pop song … light and catchy … for you to sing along with, and then you’re done, and you go on with your day.” And he’s mostly not wrong,
March 4th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | John Scalzi | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds by Thomas Halliday
I’m going to say something I don’t think I’ve ever said in my reviews of non-fiction works. One of the best things about Thomas Halliday’s science book Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds (2022) is the lack of science in Thomas Halliday’s science book Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds. Let me ‘splain.
What I mean by “lack of science” is a near-absence of the oft-used popular science go-tos,
February 21st, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Mestiza Blood by V. Castro
2022’s Mestiza Blood is a horror story collection by V. Castro. As the title tells us, all of the protagonists of these dreamlike, horrifying tales are Latina women, grappling with horrors that are futuristic, mythic or just plain everyday.
A disclaimer: This book is filled with body horror, splatter horror, graphic violence and graphic sex. The women in these stories are filled with rage and fear as they battle appalling horrors with nothing but their strength,
February 18th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | V. Castro | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist’s Journey Into Reality by Michael Dine
This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist’s Journey Into Reality (2022) is Michael Dine’s worthy contribution to the popular physics/cosmology bookshelf, though readers may have to work a little harder at this one than similar books. That extra work is worth it, though, for this up-to-date and engaging exploration of modern science.
Dine moves between the very large and very small, covering particle theory, quantum theory, the Standard Model,
February 4th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“I have a screw loose. Somewhere.”
S.A. Barnes’s Dead Silence (2022) is a creepy, atmospheric, compelling “haunted house in space” story, told by a character whose self-concept is deeply fractured by PTSD and survivor guilt. Barnes glides through various types of horror, driving up the fear and suspense with every new discovery a salvage team makes on the derelict luxury space liner they find.
Claire Kovalik is the Team Leader of a small crew of in-solar-system communication-web maintenance workers.
February 2nd, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | S.A. Barnes | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
"Nor Iron Bars a Cage by Kage Harper" Freudian slip there. ;)
[…] (Fantasy Literature): In 1957, Hammer Studios in England came out with the first of their full-color horror creations, […]
I'm going to have to find these and read them.
R ,if you live in the USA, you win a Fan Lit T-shirt (please specify 1st and 2nd preferred sizes)…
Great review. Thanks!