Click on stars to FIND REVIEWS BY RATING:
Recommended: 
Not Recommended: 
The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
The Saint of Bright Doors, a debut novel by Vajra Chandrasekera, opens with an absolutely killer beginning (literally, as the very young main character is being trained as an assassin) that had me sure I was going to love this novel. But while I did love parts of it, and was in the end happy I’d read it, I can’t say it lived up fully to the promise of that beginning.
But oh,
June 19th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Vajra Chandrasekera | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet by Matthew Shindell
Mars has long fascinated us Earthlings, whether we were gazing up at it with eyes or telescopes, gazing down at it via orbital probes, or vicariously rolling across/flying over it via a slew of lander expeditions, several of which are still up there tooling around. That long obsession with the planet has prompted a huge number of books, fiction and non-fiction, centered on our red neighbor and now Matthew Shindell has added another — For the Love of Mars — which rather than focusing on Mars itself looks at our long-enduring but changing relationship.
June 15th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Jupiter Knife by D.J. Butler & Aaron Michael Ritchey
Hiram Woolley and Michael are back in The Jupiter Knife (2021), a follow-up to The Cunning Man. (Each novel can stand-alone so it’s not necessary to read The Cunning Man first, but I think you’ll enjoy The Jupiter Knife a little more if you do).
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Cunning Man (first in THE CUNNING MAN series) when I read it a couple of years ago.
June 13th, 2023. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Aaron Michael Ritchey, Dave (D.J.) Butler | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Val Hall: The Odd Years by Alma Alexander
Val Hall: The Odd Years, by Alma Alexander, is the second collection of linked stories set in what is basically a retirement home for superheroes (or possibly villains as one story asks). Particularly “Third-class superheroes”, those who have a singular, lesser power that might only have been used once or a handful of times. As with just about every collection, the stories vary in effectiveness/impact, but overall, as with Val Hall: The Even Years,
June 9th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Alma Alexander | SFF Reviews | no comments |
G.O.G. 666 by John Taine
When famed Scottish mathematician Eric Temple Bell released his first novel, 1924’s The Purple Sapphire, no one could have foreseen that his literary career would extend 30 more years and encompass 15 books of very high-quality science fiction. Looking back on the eight books by Bell that I have read so far – all of them written under his pen name, John Taine – the thing that strikes me first is how very different each one is from the others.
May 8th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | John Taine | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Crashing Suns by Edmond Hamilton
In his serialized novel of 1930 entitled The Universe Wreckers, which originally appeared in the pages of Amazing Stories magazine, Ohio-born author Edmond Hamilton gave his readers a tale concerning the pancake-shaped residents of Neptune who were trying to increase the spin rate of our sun for their own nefarious purposes. But this was hardly the first time that Hamilton had presented his audience with a gaggle of bizarrely shaped aliens who were weaponizing the celestial bodies;
April 25th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Edmond Hamilton | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Magick of Physics: Uncovering the Fantastical Phenomena in Everyday Life by Felix Flicker
Felix Flicker’s relatively unique take on popular science is right there in the title: The Magick of Physics: Uncovering the Fantastical Phenomena in Everyday Life. Taking Arthur C. Clarke’s old adage that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” Flicker presents his layperson’s explanations of modern-day physics as a wizard’s manual of sorts, as in one scene where a wizard illuminates her path with a crystal spelled into glowing and then cuts through a bolt with a “stream of light.” In reality though (at least our reality),
April 14th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Untethered Sky by Fonda Lee
Untethered Sky is a mostly enjoyable fantasy novella by Fonda Lee, but one whose brevity I felt prevented it from reaching its full emotive potential. This is, however, something I often feel upon reading novellas (though not always as per my 5-star review of The Lies of the Ajungo), so readers of this review should keep that in mind. Some of us, it appears, are just generally not built for the form, though exceptions can always break through.
April 11th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Fonda Lee | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Secret Skin by Wendy N. Wagner
There are so many scary things in Wendy N. Wagner’s short 2021 novella, The Secret Skin. There is the nasty housekeeper who gives the nasty housekeeper in Rebecca a run for her money. There is the leering, unpleasant overseer of the Vogel family sawmill. There is Abigail, a deeply disturbed little girl who may be telekinetic. There is the “community meeting” of the white men in the nearby town of Coos Bay, Oregon, and their white robes and hoods.
February 16th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Wendy N. Wagner | Horror, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo
When 2023’s Hell Bent, by Leigh Bardugo, opens, a demon has trapped Galaxy Stern, who goes by Alex, in the basement of the Black Elm house, along with two ghosts. Upstairs, her friend and mentor, Darlington, who was sucked into a hell dimension in Ninth House, Book One of the ALEX STERN series, waits in demon form. It’s safe to say things aren’t going well.
The second book brings us back to dark Yale and the home of the various secret societies,
February 7th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Leigh Bardugo | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.
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!