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The Court of the Midnight King by Freda Warrington
The Court of the Midnight King (2003), by Freda Warrington, is an alternate history of England’s King Richard III with some supernatural elements. I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t discover it in 2003, because I’d probably have liked it even more. I was going through a big Plantagenet and Tudor phase, and if you could find a way to work Goddess religion into the plot, so much the better. As it is,
July 23rd, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Freda Warrington | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey
In publication order, By the Sword (1991) is the ninth novel in Mercedes Lackey’s VALDEMAR saga, but if you haven’t read any VALDEMAR novels before, don’t let that stop you. By the Sword can stand alone and it’s a fine place to enter Lackey’s universe. There are several beloved VALDEMAR characters in the novel, but it doesn’t matter if you meet them now or later. In general, the VALDEMAR saga is divided into several different trilogies and a few stand-alones and anthologies.
July 14th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Mercedes Lackey | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Noemí Taboada is a 22-year-old flighty socialite living in Mexico City. She loves to dress up in beautiful gowns and high heels and go to parties with handsome young men. One evening she’s called home from a party early. Her wealthy father has received a strange letter from Catalina, Noemí’s recently married cousin. Catalina thinks she’s in danger from her new husband’s family and is begging for help. Is Catalina really imperiled, or is she suffering a mental breakdown?
Noemí’s father asks her to visit her cousin at High Place,
July 14th, 2020. Kat Hooper, Marion Deeds and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5, 4.5 | Silvia Moreno-Garcia | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Across a Billion Years by Robert Silverberg
In Across a Billion Years (1969), Robert Silverberg introduces us to Tom Rice, a young archaeologist in training, who is writing to his twin sister on their 22nd birthday in 2375. While Tom feels some guilt that he is on the most exciting field trip in the history of Earth while his paralyzed sister is confined to a hospital bed, he is still eager to tell her about his work and he knows that she is just as eager to hear about it.
July 13th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Robert Silverberg | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Hella is a harsh planet that was colonized by a few dozen humans about 100 years ago. The gravity of Hella is lower than Earth’s, so all of the plants and animals are enormous. The tilt of the planet makes its climate harsh in the summer and the winter, so the human colony migrates every season. As they migrate, they try not to contaminate the environment (who knows what effect humans will have on it?) and they must be careful of the huge carnivores that also migrate.
Kyle,
July 9th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | David Gerrold | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Golden Fleece by Robert Graves
The Golden Fleece (1944), also sometimes known as Hercules, My Shipmate, was Robert Graves’s attempt to create a unified, mostly realistic version of the legend of Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the titular fleece. He incorporated a variety of ancient sources, some of them contradictory, some of them fragmentary, keeping the elements he thought made the most sense and assembling them into a single narrative. The result is this novel, which has been nominated for a Retro Hugo in 2020.
July 8th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 3.5 | Robert Graves | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Or What You Will (2020), by Jo Walton, is an at times charming, at times frustrating work of metafiction that reads, even distanced by the novelist’s artifice, as a warmly personal, almost intimate love letter to Florence, the Renaissance, art, reading, the classics, and creativity. I’m guessing it will receive a mixed, varied response from Walton’s readers.
Sylvia Harrison is a mid-range author of a good number of novels, including several set in the quasi-fantastical Illyria — imagine Renaissance Florence with magic where people do not die save by willful intent (their own giving up of life,
July 6th, 2020. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Jo Walton | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Creatures of Want and Ruin by Molly Tanzer
At first glance, based on the title and cover art, Molly Tanzer’s Creatures of Want and Ruin (2018) looks and sounds like it’s a sequel to her earlier novel Creatures of Will and Temper, but it’s not. The stories have different characters and settings, so I’m going to treat Creatures of Want and Ruin as a stand-alone novel.
During prohibition, Ellie West is a bootlegger in Amityville,
July 6th, 2020. Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Molly Tanzer | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Last Curtain Call by Juliet Blackwell
It hardly seems necessary to continue to review Juliet Blackwell’s HAUNTED HOME RENOVATION MYSTERIES because fans are going to read them no matter what I say but, since the audiobook publisher keeps providing me with review copies, I’ll keep doing it. I love Tantor Media’s audio editions of Blackwell’s two cozy paranormal mystery series (this one and WITCHCRAFT MYSTERIES) because they’re narrated by the fabulous Xe Sands. They are a pleasure to listen to and I recommend them to fans (or future fans) of Blackwell’s books.
July 3rd, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Juliet Blackwell | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale by Lauren Myracle & Isaac Goodhart
I’ve been going through these YA graphic novels for a while now, each one in the series focusing on a famous DC heroine (Harley Quinn, Raven, Princess Mera, Selina Kyle) and exploring what her adolescence might have been like. They’re not canon-compliant with any other comic books, television shows or films, but usually have the aesthetic you might expect from the character’s history.
In this case, you can expect Selina Kyle to be involved with cats, living on the streets,
July 3rd, 2020. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
That's what I think,too!
As an old fan of '60s-era Marvel comics, I must say that this book looks FUN!
COMMENT Book #3 of this trilogy is very much a heist story, and I quite enjoyed it!
Pirate stories and heist stories... Do we ever get enough of them?
Very interesting, Ulrich! Thanks for clueing me in!