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The Fire Spirits by Paul Busson
During the course of four of my recent reviews here on FanLit – for Walter S. Masterman’s The Yellow Mistletoe (1930), Mark Hansom’s The Shadow on the House (1934), R. R. Ryan’s Echo of a Curse (1939) and H. B. Gregory’s Dark Sanctuary (1940) – I had cause to refer to editor/author Karl Edward Wagner’s highly regarded list of 39 of his favorite horror books,
June 23rd, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Paul Busson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Devil’s Mistress by J.W. Brodie-Innes
A little while back, I shared some thoughts here regarding two books – Elliott O’Donnell’s The Sorcery Club (1912) and G. Firth Scott’s Possessed (also from 1912) – that were released by the London-based publisher William Rider & Son, whose specialty was occult literature. Now, I would like to pull off a hat trick of sorts by discussing still another supernatural book from this enterprising house;
June 16th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | J.W. Brodie-Innes | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
The Sorcery Club by Elliott O’Donnell
1912 was something of a banner year in the field of fantastic literature. Here in the U.S., Edgar Rice Burroughs jump-started his writing career with the releases of Tarzan of the Apes and A Princess of Mars, while Jack London came out with one of his finest fantasy creations, The Scarlet Plague. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond,
June 6th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Elliott O’Donnell | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Essential Peter S. Beagle: Volumes I and II by Peter S. Beagle
It’s a good time to be a Peter S. Beagle fan. In short order this mid-year, we’ve been gifted The Way Home — two novellas set in the world of the beloved classic The Last Unicorn — and two collections of Beagle’s short stories: The Essential Peter S. Beagle: Volumes I and II. And true gifts they are. You can see my review of the novellas here,
June 2nd, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Peter S. Beagle | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Revivial (Volume Two): Live Like You Mean It by Tim Seeley (writer), Mike Norton (artist), Mark Englert (colors), and Crank! (letters)
Wasau, a small town in Wisconsin, is our locale for strange happenings in Revival: The dead are coming back to life. And not in some zombie-like fashion, either. In fact, if you did not know they were dead to begin with, and they had died fairly recently, you would not even know that they were dead watching them move around. There are also ghost-like figures in the woods,
May 27th, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
King Bullet by Richard Kadrey
With 2022’s King Bullet, Richard Kadrey brings the novel series about Hellion wizard James Stark, AKA Sandman Slim, to a conclusion. As Kadrey once said, Stark is a monster who wonders if he can become human. We readers figured out that answer a while ago, but in King Bullet, Stark faces the answer himself, along with an adversary who may defeat him once and for all.
L.A. (if not the USA and/or the world—we don’t know) is hunkering down in the throes of a devastating virus,
May 23rd, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Richard Kadrey | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Reposting to include Bill’s new review.
Deadly Memory by David Walton
In 2023’s Deadly Memory, by David Walton, the challenges humanity faces have never been higher. A virus so deadly it can kill nearly every species on the planet is loose, and a pheromone-based drug that allows the wearer to dominate everyone who smells it is in the hands of authoritarians from more than one global power. The source of the substance, and the possible antidote to it, is hidden away,
May 22nd, 2023. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | David Walton | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Corpus Earthling by Louis Charbonneau
As revealed in David J. Schow and Jeffrey Frentzen’s essential reference book The Outer Limits: The Official Companion (1986), that TV series’ producer and co-creator, Joseph Stefano, was laboring with some pretty serious concerns before the airing of Season 1’s ninth episode, “Corpus Earthling.” To quote from the book: “’When “Corpus Earthling” was finished and the music added, I sat there wishing I could say don’t air this,’ said Joseph Stefano. ‘I had never thought it could be that scary,
May 12th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Louis Charbonneau | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Justin Cronin burst onto the big scene with his apocalyptic vampire doorstopper The Passage (first of a trilogy), a fantastically harrowing blockbuster of a novel that still maintained amidst its action/thriller/horror aspects the quietly intimate elements of his earlier literary novels. His newest, The Ferryman, while not quite as strong and despite having a few more noticeable issues, shares some of the same strengths that made The Passage so successful, as I imagine this one will be.
The story takes place on an archipelago isolated from the rest of the world by something known as The Veil,
May 11th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Justin Cronin | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Revival (Volume One): You’re Among Friends by Tim Seeley (writer) and Mike Norton (artist)
Revival is marketed as “rural noir,” but it is horror, too. Tim Seeley and Mike Norton have created an eight-volume story, and volume one, “You’re Among Friends,” starts off, after an introduction by Jeff Lemire, with a shocking event: Ms. Tao, a reporter given the worst columns to write, is forced to write one on unusual jobs. In the opening scene, she is making a video recording as she interviews the town’s crematorium technician at one in the morning.
April 22nd, 2023. Brad Hawley´s rating: 4.5 | Comics, Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
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.