Previous SFF Author: Blake Crouch
(1942- )
John Crowley was born in the appropriately liminal town of Presque Isle, Maine, in 1942, his father then an officer in the US Army Air Corps. He grew up in Vermont, northeastern Kentucky and (for the longest stretch) Indiana, where he went to high school and college. He moved to New York City after college to make movies, and did find work in documentary films, an occupation he still pursues. He published his first novel (The Deep) in 1975. Since 1993 he has taught creative writing at Yale University. In 1992 he received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Learn more at John Crowley’s blog.
In a world very different from ours, two powerful factions fight for the throne. Alliances are made and shattered. Vows are sworn and broken. Brothers betray brothers; fathers betray sons; kings are imprisoned and queens make war. No, it’s not A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE. It’s The Deep, by John Crowley, published in 1975.
The Deep is Crowley’s first novel. It is unlike his other works,
Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | John Crowley | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Fey, muted, beautiful. The story of Rush-that-speaks is a bildungsroman that will haunt you long after you have read the last page. Engine Summer follows the charming and inquisitive Rush as he grows up in his enclave of ‘True Speakers,’ one of the few groups of humanity left after an apocalypse has destroyed most of civilization. It then follows him as he ventures out into the world to see what strangeness it may offer, and in the hopes of finding his lost love.
Terry Lago´s rating: 5 | John Crowley | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Little, Big: or, The Fairies’ Parliament by John Crowley
“All Part of the Tale. Don’t Ask Me How…”
This review is going to be well-nigh impossible to write, as the subject matter is so impossible to describe. Well, John Crowley’s Little, Big is definitely a book. That’s a good start. But the second I try to narrow down rudimentary elements like plot and character, my brain gets a bit fuzzy. It’s about a family. And a house. And how this family lives in the house which is situated on the borders of another world which sometimes intrudes upon their own,
Rebecca Fisher and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4, 4.5 | John Crowley | Audio, Mythopoeic Award, Stand-Alone, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Great Work of Time by John Crowley
In 1990, Great Work of Time won the World Fantasy Award for best novella. I’m surprised someone hasn’t snapped up John Crowley’s short book, given it a glossy steampunk cover, and re-released it. Of course it isn’t steampunk. John Crowley’s work doesn’t fit easily into any sub-genre except Things John Crowley Has Written. Still, Great Work of Time has enough of the British Empire, airships, alternate histories, train terminals, misty London cityscapes, and men with bowler hats and tightly furled umbrellas to justify a steampunk cover,
Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | John Crowley | Stand-Alone, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr by John Crowley
Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr (2017) is a brilliant novel. It is lovely, eerie, and heartachingly elegiac. It is also deeply weird.
I want the reader to understand me perfectly here. When I say “weird,” I do not mean it’s experimental, or iconoclastic, or that you’ll feel awkward explaining to your friends why you wanted to read a book about a magic bird. All of those things might be true (to greater or lesser degrees),
Tim Scheidler´s rating: 5 | John Crowley | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
And Go Like This by John Crowley
I don’t usually pay attention to the media blurbs on the covers of books, but the Newsday quote on the cover of John Crowley’s And Go Like This (2019) so perfectly describes this story collection that I must share it:
“Transforms the lead of daily life into seriously dazzling artistic gold.”
“The lead of daily life” in these stories comes from mostly average people going about their mostly average lives.
Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | John Crowley | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Previous SFF Author: Blake Crouch
Thank you for this review, Stephanie! It's thorough, informative, and fun to read!
Will, if you live in the USA, you win a Fan Lit T-shirt (please specify 1st and 2nd preferred sizes),…
...as well as the 1932 sequel, "Topper Takes a Trip"!
It's such a rich and ancient ambience - in many ways the plot itself doesn't matter, I just like strolling…
I didn't know he wrote Topper!