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Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel Aaron
My teenage daughter (Tali) and I enjoyed listening together to the audiobook editions of Rachel Aaron’s HEARTSTRIKERS series, so we were pleased to learn that Aaron wrote (and self-published) a spin-off series also set in the Detroit Free Zone (DFZ), which takes place a couple of decades after the end of Last Dragon Standing.
But you don’t need to read the HEARTSTRIKERS books first, so feel free to jump in right here with Minimum Wage Magic (2018).
May 18th, 2022. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Rachel Aaron | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Cave of a Thousand Columns by T.E. Grattan-Smith
I have never been to the continent of Australia before, and after watching a number of videos, both online and on television, concerning the fauna and flora there, I am really in no great rush to go. Perhaps you’re familiar with some of the videos I mean? Australia, it would seem, is home to the inland taipan snake (the world’s most venomous snake), kamikaze magpies, the freshwater bull shark, the Australian honeybee (one of the world’s most poisonous insects), raining spiders,
May 10th, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | T.E. Grattan-Smith | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman
Fans of THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY series will enjoy 2020’s The Dark Archive. Cogman’s intrepid librarian Irene bounds from one adventure to another, armed with her wits, magical knowledge and the power of the Library’s Language. This story adds important information to the conspiracy that is bubbling in the background, while serving up a comfortable, familiar set of adventures for Irene and her team. Along the way, we get to know some secondary characters a bit better.
When Irene’s detective friend Peregrine Vale takes Irene through a suboceanic tunnel to retrieve a vitally important letter,
April 27th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Genevieve Cogman | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Noor by Nnedi Okorafor
Nnedi Okorafor’s 2021 Noor is a short, fast-paced science fiction novel. The futuristic energy delivery system called Noor, and the “Red Spot” dust storm are innovative, made plausible by Okorafor’s grounded writing and her fine eye for detail.
Anwuli calls herself AO for Artificial Organism. Considered “wrong” even before birth, AO was seriously injured in a car accident when she was a young adult. An experimental process gave her prosthetic limbs and cerebral implants. She is an outsider, tolerated,
April 21st, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Nnedi Okorafor | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Sea Girl by Ray Cummings
A little while back, I had some words to say concerning Garrett P. Serviss’ truly excellent apocalyptic novel The Second Deluge, which was originally released in 1911. In that book, the Earth passes through a so-called “watery nebula,” and the resultant downpours cause the world’s oceans to rise over 30,000 feet, effectively inundating the entire planet! Well, now I am here to tell you about another Radium Age wonder, with precisely the opposite scenario.
April 20th, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Ray Cummings | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Devolution by Max Brooks
I spent countless hours as a kid rummaging the local libraries and shops for stories about Bigfoot. I was a walking encyclopedia for all things Sasquatch, Yeti, Yowie, Skunk Ape, Hairy Man, and even Harry Henderson. The idea of an 8-foot primate rampaging through the forest terrorizing campers is really my jam.
Although I now may no longer “believe” in the Bigfoot story as an actual thing that exists, I’m still a sucker for a good Sasquatch story. I couldn’t get to the bookstore fast enough when I heard that World War Z author Max Brooks had taken a crack at some Bigfoot horror with his novel Devolution (2020).
April 19th, 2022. Justin Blazier´s rating: 3.5 | Max Brooks | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Vampires of the Andes by Henry Carew
Just as it’s patently obvious that “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” it seems to me that one might justifiably add the statement “You can’t judge a book by its title, either.” Case in point: the novel that I recently experienced, Vampires of the Andes. Now, with a title like that, one might automatically be led to assume that this would be a rather pulpy, empty-headed affair; a simply written story, perhaps concerning a gaggle of caped and transplanted Carpathian neck noshers,
April 13th, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Henry Carew | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 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 |
The Quarter Storm by Veronica G. Henry
Mambo Reina Dumond is a Vodou practitioner, a servant of the lwa Erzulie, whose domain comprises river waters, healing and love. Born in Haiti, Reina moved with her family to the USA when she was a child, and now she lives and practices her tradition in New Orleans. Reina’s life is beset by mundane struggles—like getting paid for her sessions or having a bad hair day—until a brutal mutilation-murder in the French Quarter seems to point to a fellow vodouisant, Mambo Salimah. When Reina starts to investigate,
March 11th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Veronica G. Henry | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Sea Demons by Victor Rousseau
In his 1896 short story entitled “The Sea Raiders,” British author H. G. Wells wrote of a newly discovered race of giant cephalopods, Haploteuthis ferox, that suddenly takes to terrorizing and devouring some unfortunate residents on the Devonshire coast. It is a wonderful tale, really, expertly written by the legendary author in an almost documentary manner. But this, of course, was hardly the first time that an English writer would give us a tale of oceanic monstrosities rising up from the deep.
February 15th, 2022. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Victor Rousseau | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…
It's hardly a private conversation, Becky. You're welcome to add your 2 cents anytime!
If the state of the arts puzzles you, and you wonder why so many novels are "retellings" and formulaic rework,…
I picked my copy up last week and I can't wait to finish my current book and get started! I…