Not genre at all, but interesting: The Washington Post explores the need for, and implications of, the “momcation.”
Awards:
File 770 is gathering information to help people vote on the Hugos. This column discusses those eligible for Best Editor, Long Form.
World:
The Centers for Disease Control have issued guidelines for prevention of contracting the novel coronavirus COVID-19. These guidelines are similar to many if not most viruses, but it’s reassuring to have it all in one place.
March 4th, 2020. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 1 comment |
Here are some of the books we can’t wait for in 2020!
Hover over the covers to see what our reviewers said about each book.
Which books are you looking forward to this year? One commenter wins a book from our stacks.
January 30th, 2020. FanLit | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 25 comments |
Time for our sixth annual SPECULATIVE FICTION HAIKU CONTEST! Anyone can do this!
As a reminder, here are the rules:
For haiku, the typical subject matter is nature, but if you decide to be traditional, you must give it a fantasy, science fiction, or horror twist. We expect to be told that the peaceful wind you describe is blowing across a landscape of an unfamiliar, distant planet. And if your poem is about a flower, we hope that elegant little touch of beauty is about to be trampled by an Orc. We welcome the sublime as well as the humorous,
November 14th, 2019. Brad Hawley | Giveaway!, Thoughtful Thursday | 13 comments |
A Boy and His Dog at the end of the World by C.A. Fletcher
A Boy and His Dog at the end of the World (2019), by C.A. Fletcher (aka Charlie Fletcher) bears no small resemblance to Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars, which, it turns out, is not a bad thing. Both are quiet, elegiac stories set in a post-apocalyptic world and focused on a main character who sets out with his faithful dog on a journey that becomes less about finding what is sought and more about learning about oneself.
April 16th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Charlie (C.A.) Fletcher | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Lily Brooks-Dalton’s general fiction novel, Good Morning, Midnight (2017), is literary in nature but uses speculative elements to contemplate isolation, hope, despair and human connection. The book has beautiful prose, especially in some of the descriptions of the arctic, and interesting insights into human nature, but it was not a completely satisfying book for me. In a few places, the hand of the author can be seen forcing events in order to make the story work, and some of these tropes,
April 23rd, 2018. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Lily Brooks-Dalton | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In Bannerless (2017), Carrie Vaughn ― perhaps best known for her KITTY NORVILLE urban fantasy series inhabited by werewolves and vampires ― has created a reflective, deliberately paced post-apocalyptic tale with some detective fiction mixed in. It’s about a hundred years in our world’s future and after an event simply called the Fall, when civilization collapsed worldwide. The cities are now ruins, abandoned by all but the most desperate people. Climate change has resulted in, among other things,
July 28th, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Jana Nyman´s rating: 3.5 | Carrie Vaughn | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
First of all, Joe Hill‘s The Fireman is no horror story. It’s apocalypse-lit through and through but without the hackneyed zombies and vampires. Second of all, The Fireman is thoroughly infected with the ‘King’ family genetics. If there were any doubt about a connection between Joe and his old man, Stephen King, put those doubts aside. Actually, put them in the way-back storage room in the furthest, darkest corner of your basement.
May 10th, 2016. Jason Golomb´s rating: 4 | Joe Hill | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
In Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood details an apocalyptic plague, introduces a new species of creatures that have been genetically designed to replace humanity, and the villain is a mad scientist in love. What could be more “SFF” than Oryx and Crake?
Quite a lot, according to Margaret Atwood, who prefers to describe her novel as “speculative fiction” rather than “science fiction.” In interviews promoting Oryx and Crake,
January 1st, 2016. Ryan Skardal, Ruth Arnell, Bill Capossere, Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Margaret Atwood | Edge | SFF Reviews | 11 comments |
The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan
In Kirsty Logan’s watery debut, the world as we know it still exists, only it is entirely underwater. Eerie and poetic, The Gracekeepers has been dubbed a dystopia, but it actually reads much more like a regular fantasy. Small scraps of land are all that remain of earth’s continents after rising water levels, leaving humanity in two groups: “clams,” the lucky few who cling to the land and “damplings,” those that must live out on the sea. The two groups have an uneasy relationship: half-mistrustful,
December 23rd, 2015. Ray McKenzie and Jana Nyman´s rating: 3 | Kirsty Logan | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
A Lovely Way to Burn by Louise Welsh
Post-apocalyptic literature is having a bit of a moment. This is probably because you can’t call anything dystopia anymore without someone rolling their eyes, but still. Louise Welsh’s contribution to the genre is A Lovely Way to Burn, in which a flu pandemic (kind of grossly nicknamed “the sweats”) is wreaking havoc on the human race. Welsh’s tale is set in contemporary London and it’s all her heroine, Stevie Flint, can do to try and survive the descent into chaos.
December 2nd, 2015. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 3 | Louise Welsh | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi A brilliant and varied collection of mostly-SF stories, many of which focus on the interactions…
Childhood's End- Arthur C. Clarke
The only genre book I read last month was The Ghost Book, a 1926 anthology compiled by Lady Cynthia Asquith,…
Best fiction I read in April was Ian C. Esslemont's new Malazan book, Forge of the High Mage. Best non-fiction…
I read the first four books in the "Children Of the Lamp" series by P.B. Kerr. The name of the…