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2023’s Red Rabbit, by Alex Grecian, is a solid entry in a category of speculative fiction I call fantastical Americana. Set in the American Midwest a few years after the Civil War, the book starts when some men in a town in Burden County, Kansas, put a bounty on the head of the local witch. This brings all kinds of killers into the county. Meanwhile, farther south, two former union soldiers partner up with Old Tom, self-proclaimed witch-master, and the mute child,
April 24th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Alex Grecian | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Closed Worlds by Edmond Hamilton
In Edmond Hamilton’s 1967 novel The Weapon From Beyond, Book #1 of his so-called STARWOLF TRILOGY, the reader had been introduced to Morgan Chane, an orphaned Earthling who had been brought up and raised by the piratical Starwolves of the planet Varna. In that first installment, Chane had been forced to flee from the vengeful Varnans after having killed one of them in self-defense, and had gone on to work with a group of mercenaries,
March 17th, 2025. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Edmond Hamilton | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Carnivale of Curiosities by Amiee Gibbs
This carnival book completely satisfied. 2023’s The Carnivale of Curiosities, by Amiee Gibbs, is set in 1880’s London. It’s a slow-burn, late-Victorian-styled literary novel, filled with magic, lies, secrets, and revenge plots, all centered around Ashe and Pretorius’s Carnivale of Curiosities, and its leader, Aurelius Ashe, who can grant anyone nearly any wish… for a price.
Unlike other circuses and carnivals of the day, Ashe uses real magic and many of his “freaks” have magical powers. Some are simply unusual-looking people,
March 6th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Amiee Gibbs | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Days of Shattered Faith by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Days of Shattered Faith is the third book in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s TYRANT PHILOSOPHERS series, continuing that series’ strong run of quality. While each book is meant to stand alone, and this one certainly can, reading the others will allow for a richer experience given the reappearance of multiple characters.
As with the other two books, Tchaikovsky shifts to a new setting in this universe and introduces a new group of characters (with some old ones as noted),
February 27th, 2025. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | SFF Reviews | no comments |
When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance by Riley Black
Riley Black’s The Last Days of the Dinosaurs made my top ten books of the years when it came out (if you haven’t read it, you absolutely should), so I was excited to read her follow-up When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance. I’m happy to report that like its predecessor, it’s an impressive work of popular science marked by wonderful prose and an engaging voice.
February 25th, 2025. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Conventional Boy by Charles Stross
I haven’t read a LAUNDRY FILES story in at least a couple of years. Charles Stross’s latest, 2025’s A Conventional Boy, is a fun novella and a nice welcome back to the series. The book is filled out by two short stories, “Overtime” and “Down on the Farm,” featuring Bob Howard. It was great to spend time with Bob again, but Derek Reilly, the protagonist of A Conventional Boy, was the real star.
The charge of Britain’s “Laundry,” a part of their intelligence and security services,
February 24th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Charles Stross | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
When the third book in Heather Fawcett’s EMILY WILDE series opens, the irascible scholar Emily and her lover, the faerie prince and erstwhile scholar Wendell Bambleby have entered his realm and intend to reclaim the throne, after Emily deposed his usurper stepmother in the second book. Emily is far from optimistic about this plan, since the court is filled with traitors and those still loyal to the usurper queen. When Wendell bests his uncle Taran in a contest,
February 18th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Heather Fawcett | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital (2023) will, for some people, barely qualify (if that) as a novel, leaving them crying “Where’s the plot? Nothing happens!” And you know, I can’t argue with them. If you define a novel as a series of plot steps from a to b to c such that change occurs, then yes, Orbital probably won’t squeeze in under that definition. Its focus is less on “what is happening” and more on “what am I feeling about what is happening?” or “What am I thinking about while things are happening?” And if you’re looking for conflict or fleshed out and distinctive characters who are different at the end than when we first meet them,
February 4th, 2025. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Samantha Harvey | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott
I loved GennaRose Nethercott’s novel Thistlefoot, one of the best books I’d read in a long time, so I followed it up with 2024’s story collection, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart and Other Stories. This collection displays the beautiful, the eerie, the surreal, and the terrible, written in Nethercott’s precise, poetic prose that reminds me of the writing of Kelly Link.
The books contains fourteen stories.
January 31st, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | GennaRose Nethercott | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
2024’s Bringer of Dust, J.M. Miro’s second book in the trilogy of THE TALENTS, finds our survivors from Book One, Ordinary Monsters, scattered across Europe. Maybe “scattered” isn’t the right word, because their locations are purposeful, as they seek to find an orsine they can open, to return to the world of the dead and rescue Marlowe, the Shining Boy.
A quick review of the magic: Clanks can manipulate their own flesh,
January 28th, 2025. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | J.M. Miro | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…
this sounds like a fun one
These weird westerns are always interesting and have been popping up more in recent times (it seemed like there was…
Looking forward to reading the review.