Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman‘s place on my personal “favorite authors list” is cemented firmly by Smoke and Mirrors, a versatile collection of his short stories and narrative poems. There is a wide variety of “types” of story here, from fantasy to horror to mystery to wildly hilarious comedy. I liked almost all of them.
Neil Gaiman‘s two finest gifts are (1) humor, and (2) truly scary horror that gets under your skin rather than just grossing you out with gore.
January 25th, 2008. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Neil Gaiman | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Go, And Catch a Falling Star…
If you like fantasy stories filled with magic, adventure and romance, but are getting sick and tired of boring, long-winded fantasy epics, then look no further than Stardust. There are no long histories, family trees or endless descriptions of culture, landscapes and back-story. This is just a sweet, simple fairytale told by a great storyteller. Though be warned — the original fairytales were not written for children, and Stardust follows in their literary footsteps,
September 25th, 2007. Rebecca Fisher, Rob Rhodes, Ray McKenzie, Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Neil Gaiman | Audio, Film / TV, Mythopoeic Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Fall, or Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson
Richard (“Dodge”) Forthrast, the famous and popular billionaire who created a much-loved video gaming company, unexpectedly dies during a routine medical procedure. Many years previously he had been duped into signing a contract that specified that his brain should be preserved until technology was developed that could scan and upload it to a virtual environment. He never changed his will. Unable to get out of this legal predicament, his family is forced to adhere to his youthful whims.
Dodge’s niece Zula, and her daughter Sophia,
August 19th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Neal Stephenson | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Wow, that month went by fast.
Awards:
Gabriela Damian Miravete has won the James Tiptree award for 2018 with They Will Dream in the Garden.
The Horror Writers Association awarded their Specialty Press award to Raw Dog Screaming Press. There’s an evocative name.
Conventions:
(Re)Generation Who 5, a Doctor Who convention scheduled for this upcoming weekend, has cancelled abruptly. (Thanks to File 770 for this item.)
Giveaway:
This column’s pictures are from an author event I attended.
March 27th, 2019. Marion Deeds | Giveaway!, World Wide Wednesday | 9 comments |
Awards:
The Arthur C. Clarke Awards, Campbell Awards and the Theodore Sturgeon Awards were announced at WorldCon in Kansas City, Mo.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky won the Arthur C Clarke Award for best novel. Find the complete list here.
Radiomen by Eleanor Lerman took with John W Campbell award for best science fiction novel published in 2015, While Kelly Link’s short story “A Game of Smash and Recovery” won the Theodore Sturgeon Award for best short fiction.
August 31st, 2016. Marion Deeds | World Wide Wednesday | 3 comments |
The Everything Box by Richard Kadrey
With The Everything Box, Richard Kadrey has made himself at home in the territory occupied by Christopher Moore. And by “made himself at home” I mean he’s kicked in Moore’s door, settled down on the couch, drunk all the booze, eaten all the chips and reprogrammed Moore’s DVR. Now Kadrey is looking across the hall where the Pratchett and Gaiman novel Good Omens lives, and saying,
April 25th, 2016. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Richard Kadrey | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Welcome to another Expanded Universe column where I feature essays from authors and editors of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, as well as from established readers and reviewers. My guest today is Maya Sapiurka. Sapiurka is a graduate student in neuroscience whose main hobby is yelling excitedly about fandom on the Internet. She’s pretty sure her dissertation work isn’t going to start the zombie apocalypse, but no guarantees. You can read her science writing here and here, explore Harry Potter headcanons on her Tumblr, or follow her Twitter for the full science-fandom mash up experience.
March 25th, 2016. Kate Lechler | Expanded Universe, Giveaway! | 6 comments |
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke actually collaborated with Stanley Kubrick to produce the novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in order to provide the basis for brilliant Stanley Kubrick film of the same name. So although the book can be considered the original work, the filmmaker also had a role in its creation, and Clarke also rewrote parts of the book to fit the screenplay as that took shape.
Readers and viewers will forever enjoy debating whether a film or novel version is better,
September 15th, 2015. Stuart Starosta, Kat Hooper and Jason Golomb´s rating: 5 | Arthur C. Clarke | Audio, Film / TV | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
On this day in 1903, Ruth Graves Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn, created the chocolate chip cookie. Thank you, Ruth!
Writing, Editing, and Publishing
The finalists for the Chesley Awards, given by the Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists (ASFA), have been announced. I’m excited to see Todd Lockwood on the list, whose work we have featured before in WWW. Click through to check out the rest of the nominees.
The winners for the Campbell and the Sturgeon Awards have been chosen: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August,
June 17th, 2015. Kate Lechler | World Wide Wednesday | 6 comments |
An award for every man, woman, and child! First up, the British Science Fiction Association has announced their shortlist, which includes such near-to-my-heart things as Vandermeer’s Wonderbook, Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, and Sofia Samatar’s “Selkie Stories are for Losers.” Then there’s the Quantum Shorts flash fiction competition, which has released their shortlisted stories. Locus Magazine also has their reader’s survey and poll open for voting. And Strange Horizons has the results of their poll of reader’s favorites up on their site.
February 5th, 2014. Alix E. Harrow | World Wide Wednesday | 5 comments |
I had it on my list to reread (which means I looked over at the bookcase one night, saw it…
Marion, I'm saving James (and Orbital) for after my semester ends so I can devote my undivided attention to them.…
Susan, glad you enjoyed. Samuel Jackson should absolutely play him in the movie!
Troy, 100% agreed. Sadly the BBC adaptation is also confused about this. They seem to think Orciny is some kind…
Hey Marion! The weather is the *same* in Ul Qoma and Beszel in the novel. They even have a recurring…