Click on stars to FIND REVIEWS BY RATING:
Recommended: 
Not Recommended: 
Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer
Molly Tanzer took quite a bit of inspiration from Oscar Wilde’s classic 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray for her 2017 novel Creatures of Will and Temper, and yet manages to make her story far more unique than simply gender-switching some characters and tossing in modern-sounding references to changing social mores.
Evadne Gray and her younger sister Dorina are completely different — Evadne loves fencing above all else,
December 28th, 2017. Jana Nyman and Marion Deeds´s rating: 4, 4.5 | Molly Tanzer | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Sometimes, you pick up a book expecting to know what’s in it, and expecting that you’ll like it, and your expectations are met and everyone goes home happy. This scenario is at least good, often excellent, sometimes superlative, and by this time in my book-reading life that’s usually what I get.
But there’s a peculiar kind of pleasure in picking up a book which you have no expectations for, good or bad, putting it down after the first chapter, and saying, “I don’t know what’s going on here,
December 27th, 2017. Nathan Okerlund´s rating: 4.5 | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Bear and the Serpent by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Bear and the Serpent (2017), an epic shapeshifter fantasy set in a Bronze Age type of era, is the sequel to 2016’s The Tiger and the Wolf. It follows the continuing adventures of a young woman named Maniye, who has an unusual dual heritage that allows her to instantly shapeshift into Wolf (her father’s people) and Tiger (her mother’s). Now Maniye has been gifted a third form by the gods, called a Champion: a massive wolf/tiger/bear hybrid creature that’s a serious threat in battle.
December 13th, 2017. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Mandelbrot the Magnificent by Liz Ziemska
Prior to reading this novella, what I knew about the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot would have fit into an embarrassingly small thimble (with plenty of room to spare). I identified fractal shapes simply as “tessellations on steroids” and my only reference point for a “mandelbrot” was a delicious cookie.
But thanks to Liz Ziemska, I have a much greater appreciation for Mandelbrot’s work in his field, as well as the passion and determination that sustained him through his years in Nazi-occupied France.
December 8th, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Liz Ziemska | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Dark Melodies of Madness: The Supernatural Novellas of Cornell Woolrich by Cornell Woolrich
Because New York City-born author Cornell Woolrich so excelled at tales of suspense, crime, murder and noirish mayhem, there might be some who find it hard to believe that he could also excel in the arena of horror. But those who have read Woolrich’s truly frightening novel of 1945, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, which combines the occult, clairvoyance, death and predestination into one tasty chiller, already know how capable he could be in that field.
December 6th, 2017. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Cornell Woolrich | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Persepolis Rising by James S.A. Corey
(Some of these lines are direct quotes from Persepolis Rising (2017), the seventh book in James S.A. Corey’s series THE EXPANSE.)
Holden looked at Naomi over the cloud from his coffee. “I think it may be time for us to do something else. For me to do something else, anyway.”
Naomi stopped eating and looked up at him. “Walk me through it.”
“Pirates. Martians. The Protomolecule.
December 4th, 2017. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | James S.A. Corey | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen by Daniel Falconer
Getting a glimpse behind the scenes of a favorite film is always exciting — it’s rather like pulling the curtain back and, rather than seeing a humdrum old snake oil salesman, actually discovering a great and powerful wizard. David Falconer’s Middle-Earth: From Script to Screen gives credit to the several hundred wizards hard at work re-creating and re-inventing J.R.R. Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS novels and The Hobbit into two sets of visual feasts.
November 23rd, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | J.R.R. Tolkien | Non-fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire
I have enjoyed Seanan McGuire’s OCTOBER DAYE urban fantasies, but a few of her more recent novels in the series seemed to introduce too many characters and bring too many different magic systems into play. However, the latest two novels, Chimes at Midnight and The Winter Long (which I’ll review soon), have knocked my socks off with tight plotting and memorable characters. Now I once again find myself impatient for the next one to arrive,
November 10th, 2017. Terry Weyna and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Seanan McGuire | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s 2017 novel The Beautiful Ones is an historical romance, a comedy of manners set in an alternate world. This world has the social mores and the esthetic of Europe’s Belle Époque (the late 19th century). Certain people in the world of The Beautiful Ones have telekinetic abilities, but while these abilities do play an important part in the story, this is not a story of magic unless it’s the magic of the human heart.
November 6th, 2017. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Silvia Moreno-Garcia | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Emma Newman’s After Atlas (2016) is the pseudo-sequel to her first sci-fi offering, Planetfall (2015). As Kat explained in her review, Planetfall is about a colony of humans who left Earth to follow Suh, an alleged prophet who received a supernatural message giving her the coordinates of an unknown distant planet where she was supposed to travel to receive instructions about God’s plans for humanity. After Atlas takes place on Earth,
November 2nd, 2017. Jason Golomb and Jana Nyman´s rating: 3, 4.5 | Emma Newman | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
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…