1.5 | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

Rating: 1.5

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Fandom, The Next Generation

Fandom, The Next Generation edited by Bridget Kies & Megan Connor

Fandom, The Next Generation, edited by Bridget Kies and Megan Connor is a collection of essays exploring, unsurprisingly, fandom, but with a particular focus on transgenerational sources and fan communities. I.e., those fandoms centered around “rebooted or perpetually rebroadcast media texts” whose long-lived and/or resurrected nature maintains and creates several generations of fans — those who came to the text in its original form, those who discovered the text in later years, and those who came to the text as an adaptation or reboot.

September 2nd, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 1.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

The Voyages of Star Trek: Nothing new or surprising

The Voyages of Star Trek by K.M. Heath & A.S. Carlisle

The Voyages of Star Trek: A Mirror on American Society through Time (2020), by K.M. Heath and A.S. Carlisle, explores how the various Trek incarnations — TV shows, movies, comics — mirrored (or not) the culture of the time, beginning with the original series (TOS) and ending with Discovery (Picard was released too late and is only mentioned as existing). The book grew out of an undergraduate anthropology course,

October 23rd, 2020. Bill Capossere´s rating: 1.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Harrow the Ninth: The haunted palace is Harrow’s mind

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Last year’s Gideon the Ninth was a delightfully over-the-top space fantasy that ended with a gut punch that had readers shouting “Damn you, Tamsyn Muir!” and clamoring for the sequel. The sequel, Harrow the Ninth (2020) is here, and I enjoyed it a lot, though there are a few things you’ll want to know going in.

One is that there is a lot going on, much of it cryptic,

August 18th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter, Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Bill Capossere and Marion Deeds´s rating: 1.5, 3.5, 4.5 | Tamsyn Muir | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |

Bone Silence: An unsatisfying ending

Bone Silence by Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds’ REVENGER series started off well enough with Revenger, which was entertaining, though, in my opinion, not deserving of its Locus Award for Best Young Adult novel. The sequel, Shadow Captain, a Locus Award finalist (but not winner) was a significant step down for the series. I was hoping for at least a return to form in the third and final novel, Bone Silence (2020),

Servant of the Crown: A faltering close to the trilogy

Servant of the Crown by Duncan M. Hamilton

Servant of the Crown (2020) closes out Duncan M. Hamilton’s DRAGONSLAYER trilogy, a series that I thought started out weakly with Dragonslayer and then improved somewhat, though not quite enough, with Knight of the Silver Circle. Unfortunately, I can’t say the third book continues that improvement, meaning I can’t recommend the series.

The book picks up shortly after the events of its predecessor with Guillot,

March 5th, 2020. Bill Capossere´s rating: 1.5 | Duncan M. Hamilton | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Bloodsuckers: When Peter Met Patrick

Bloodsuckers directed by Robert Hartford-Davis

Perhaps I should state at the outset that my only reason for renting out the 1970 British film Bloodsuckers is that it stars two of my very favorite English actors, Peter Cushing and The Avengers‘s Patrick Macnee, appearing in a theatrical picture together for the first and only time. Well, I suppose that helps to explain my double disappointment with this film, a horror outing without a single shiver, and moreover, one in which Cushing and Macnee share not a single scene together.

October 22nd, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 1.5 | Film / TV, Horror | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |

Knight: This series is not recommended

Knight by Timothy Zahn

Knight (2019) is the second book in Timothy Zahn’s SYBIL’S WAR series. You need to read the first book, Pawn, before starting Knight. However, I really don’t recommend either one of these books.

When we left Nicole, Bungie, and Sam in the last book, Nicole had been named Protector of the Fyrantha. Why anyone would want Nicole in charge of that ship is anyone’s guess.

Aerie: An unnecessary and disappointing sequel

Aerie by Mercedes Lackey

Aerie is the fourth and final book in Mercedes Lackey’s DRAGON JOUSTERS series. This review will spoil some of the plot for the previous three books, Joust, Alta, and Sanctuary, so it’d be best to not read further in this review if you haven’t read those books yet.

I’m convinced that Aerie exists only because Lackey left a thread dangling in the third book,

Seventh Decimate: A sorely disappointing experience

Seventh Decimate by Stephen R. Donaldson

Seventh Decimate (2017) is the first book of Stephen R. Donaldson’s newest series, THE GREAT GOD’S WAR. The story centers on two nations that have been locked for generations in devastating warfare, each having their own version of how the war began. Amika has all the advantages: size, money, population, trading partners, more wielders of magical forces (“decimates”), against the smaller, land-locked, more beleaguered Belleger.

The story, though,

May 7th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 1.5 | Stephen R. Donaldson | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

Realm of Ruins: Definitely not for me

Realm of Ruins by Hannah West

Though billed simultaneously as a stand-alone companion novel and a sequel to Hannah West’s Kingdom of Ash and Briars, I would strongly recommend reading Realm of Ruins (2018) after that novel, as many of the events and characters from the first novel are mentioned in the second, and not having any references for those details tended to distract me whenever they cropped up in the text.

European fairy-tale references abound throughout THE NISSERA CHRONICLES,

David C Walton on Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Ambitious, atmospheric, and ultimately unevenJuly 3, 2025
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Marion Deeds on Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil: Ambitious, atmospheric, and ultimately unevenJuly 3, 2025
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.
Sandy Ferber on The Druid Stone: Ugony and the EcstasyJune 30, 2025
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
Paul Connelly on The Druid Stone: Ugony and the EcstasyJune 30, 2025
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…
Sandy Ferber on Late Star Trek: The Final Frontier in the Franchise EraJune 29, 2025
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!

Rating: 1.5

Fandom, The Next Generation

The Voyages of Star Trek: Nothing new or surprising

Harrow the Ninth: The haunted palace is Harrow’s mind

Bone Silence: An unsatisfying ending

Servant of the Crown: A faltering close to the trilogy

Bloodsuckers: When Peter Met Patrick

Knight: This series is not recommended

Aerie: An unnecessary and disappointing sequel

Seventh Decimate: A sorely disappointing experience

Realm of Ruins: Definitely not for me

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