Rating: 4.5

Network Effect: Complex connections

Network Effect by Martha Wells

Martha Wells’ Murderbot has been gathering enthusiastic fans (which would be certain to have Murderbot hiding behind its opaque armored faceplate), along with multiple Nebula, Hugo and other awards and nominations, as each of the first four novellas in the MURDERBOT DIARIES series has been published over the last three years. In Network Effect (2020), the first full-length novel in this series, Wells is able to explore a more complex plot and to more fully develop Murderbot’s character and its relationships with others.

December 29th, 2022. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman, Marion Deeds, Kat Hooper and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Martha Wells | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

The Hourglass Throne: Rune creates his court

The Hourglass Throne by K.D. Edwards

The Hourglass Throne, published in 2022, is the third book in K.D. Edwards’s THE TAROT SEQUENCE, following the adventures of Atlanteans transplanted to Nantucket Island. This review may contain spoilers for The Last Sun and The Hanged Man, the two previous books. I recommend reading both earlier books; at least read The Last Sun to better understand what is happening here.

December 5th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | K.D. Edwards | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Killing God: Concluding novel is a huge leap up in quality

The Killing God by Stephen R. Donaldson

I was not, to put it mildly, a fan of Seventh Decimate, the opening book of Stephen R. Donaldson’s GREAT GODS WAR trilogy. Book two, The War Within (2022), was an improvement, but marginally. The good news is that book three, The Killing God, is a big jump up, though the obvious bad news is one has to get through the first two to arrive here,

November 10th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Stephen R. Donaldson | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Inheritance of Orquídea: A book filled with secrets, magic, and heart

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova

2021’s The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina was practically a perfect book for me. It’s filled with fantastical magic that baffled me and thrilled me, and it brought to mind the early books of Isabel Allende. The Montoya family were complicated and realistic, in a real-world setting that simmers with magic and strangeness. While much of the story takes place in an undesignated “present” that seems very much like now (without pandemics), the history of Orquídea Divina’s life takes us to Ecuador in the late 1950s and early sixties.

Echo of a Curse: “A Very Long and Very Strange Story”

Echo of a Curse by R.R. Ryan

xIn several of my earlier musings here on FanLit, I made reference to the list that editor/author Karl Edward Wagner released in the pages of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine back in the summer of ’83; the so-called Wagner 39 List. This overview of KEW’s favorite horror novels, and those that he felt were most in need of being brought to the public’s attention, was divided into three categories: The 13 Best Supernatural Horror Novels, The 13 Best Science-Fiction Horror Novels,

The October Faction: Volume 2: A Halloween Story

The October Faction: Volume 2 by Steve Niles (writer) and Damien Worm (artist)

The October Faction volume two picks up right where volume one ended, and though there is a third volume in the initial run, there is good closure at the end of volume two compared to volume one, which left us wondering what happened to Merl Cope, who was killed by Frederick Allan, was buried in their expansive back yard, and rose from the dead to join his sister and mother in their plotting against the Allan family.

The Allan family includes in addition to Frederick,

October 29th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |

The Nectar of Nightmares: Long may Gidney write!

The Nectar of Nightmares by Craig Laurance Gidney

It’s horror season for me, the time of year where I usually settle in with a cozy haunted house story, but sometimes branch out into the region of the genuinely horrifying or the truly weird. Craig Laurance Gidney’s short story collection The Nectar of Nightmares, published in 2022, fits that bill. As with most collections, I loved several, and a few were misses for me. This is even more likely to happen with a horror collection than,

The Ink Black Heart: A compelling addition to the series

The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)

Detective duo, Strike and Robin, are back for the sixth instalment of the CORMORAN STRIKE series, and they’ve got their work cut out for them. They’re presented with a case unlike any they’ve come across before and what ensues is a twisting mystery that might just be the best book of the series so far.

When Edie Ledwell enters the office of the detective agency, Robin Ellacott doesn’t know what to make of her. She’s disheveled, panicked and, when she asks the agency to investigate the online abuse she’s been receiving,

October 20th, 2022. Ray McKenzie´s rating: 4.5 | J.K. Rowling | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

What Lives in the Woods: A mysterious MG haunted house story

What Lives in the Woods by Lindsay Currie

Ginny — or Gin — Anderson is looking forward to the summer writing workshop she’s going to attend with her best friend Erica, in their hometown of Chicago, until Dad upends the family’s plans because of a job. He’d going to restore a century-old house-turned-hotel, The Woodmoor Manor, in Michigan. The family will live there while he works.

This sounds terrible to Gin and her older brother Leo. While Leo is soon appeased by the news that Saugatuck, the nearby small town,

The October Faction (Volume one): A horror comic about a monster-hunting family

The October Faction (Volume one) by by Steve Niles (writer) and Damien Worm (art)

The October Faction is a family affair. Meet the Allans: goth girl and daughter Vivian who has just graduated from high school; Geoff, the son who is college-age but not in college; Frederick, the professor-husband and father and former monster hunter; and Deloris, the absentee and seemingly unfaithful wife and mother who used to assist her husband. Frederick ends his lecture on monsters and meets with an old friend, Lucas, with whom he used to fight monsters, and he warns Frederick that Deloris seems to be up to something suspicious,

October 15th, 2022. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Bill Capossere on The Malevolent Seven: Bitterness needs nuanceMay 28, 2023
Yep, which is why I'm willing to give a sequel a shot
Katharine Ott on The Malevolent Seven: Bitterness needs nuanceMay 27, 2023
Thanks for the reviews you two. I put the book on my TBR as soon as I saw ads for…
Marion Deeds on The Malevolent Seven: Bitterness needs nuanceMay 26, 2023
We seem to be on the same page. Yeah, the depiction of some (at least two) of the women characters…
Marion Deeds on WWWednesday: May 24, 2023May 24, 2023
The correct and more accurate term for the book thing is "challenged," I think. Frankly, the intentional removal of books…
Paul Connelly on WWWednesday: May 24, 2023May 24, 2023
Not sure I can be persuaded on two of these articles. When I was young book-banning meant you couldn't sell…

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