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We are living in a Golden Age of the short story of the fantastic, as is ably demonstrated by John Langan in his first collection of short stories, Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters. Langan writes the sort of psychological horror that reminds one of both Henry James and M.R. James, as Elizabeth Hand points out in her introduction to this collection. Each story is elegantly written, with craft evident in every sentence.
November 7th, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 4 | John Langan | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
Torak and his father have been living alone, away from their clan, for as long as Torak can remember. When a demon-possessed bear attacks them one night, Torak’s father is mortally wounded. Before he dies, he makes Torak promise to seek the Mountain of the World Spirit. On his journey to the mountain, Torak meets a recently orphaned wolf cub who becomes his guide, and then the boy and his wolf are captured by a tribe who wonder if Torak will fulfill their prophecy and save them from the demon-bear.
November 7th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Michelle Paver | Audio, Children | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Paul Donner, a New York police officer who was murdered in the early 21st century, finds himself brought back to life several decades later, in the wake of a viral attack that caused the “Shift.” Donner becomes part of the new underclass known as the “reborn”: reanimated corpses who gradually grow younger and who aren’t exactly appreciated by the living segment of New York’s population, trapped under the geodesic Blister that protects the rest of the world from the Shift virus. Lost in an unfamiliar future, Donner begins a quest for vengeance,
November 5th, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Michael Dempsey | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
In this universe, experience counts.
John Perry is 75 years old, his wife is dead, and he has nothing left to live for. It’s a perfect time to join the army, and the Colonial Defense Force is recruiting. They need a lot of loyal human bodies to maintain the universe colonization project, so their preference is to recruit old people, rejuvenate their bodies (nobody on Earth knows exactly how this happens), and train them to fight for the human race. Most of them will be dead within a few years,
November 5th, 2011. Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | John Scalzi | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Curse of Four by Caitlin Kittredge
The Curse of Four was my first introduction to Caitlin Kittredge’s Black London series. Most of the work in this series is novel-length but the Curse of Four, offered by Subterranean Press, is a novella. Based on this story, I definitely want to read the longer books.
The Curse of Four features a strange and attractive cover. I am a slow study, so I stared at the misty,
October 31st, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4 | Caitlin Kittredge | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Double Shadow by Clark Ashton Smith
Halloween is right around the corner, so I thought I’d get in the mood by reading a collection of spooky stories by Clark Ashton Smith, a writer and poet who’s known for his contributions to the pulp magazine Weird Tales. Smith was a friend of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard and an influence on many of the later pulp writers.
The Double Shadow collects six of Clark Ashton Smith’s excellent short stories.
October 28th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Clark Ashton Smith | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel
This Dark Endeavor is the first in a YA series of Frankenstein prequel books by Kenneth Oppel. To be honest, when I first heard of the book, I was a bit skeptical of the concept, unsure of what a prequel would offer that wouldn’t either be simply Frankenstein retold (“see the first time Victor creates life and how it goes bad!”) or wouldn’t trivialize Frankenstein’s characters and themes (“see young Victor try to resuscitate a beetle!”) But when I learned Oppel was the author,
October 26th, 2011. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Kenneth Oppel | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Steel and Other Stories by Richard Matheson
Steel and Other Stories is a collection of stories written by Richard Matheson who is probably best known for his novels I am Legend and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Most were originally published in pulp magazines in the 1950s, though two are recent and have never been collected before. Each is quite short:
October 26th, 2011. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Richard Matheson | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Jewel of the Kalderash by Marie Rutkoski
The Jewel of the Kalderash is the third and final book in the children’s historical fantasy series The Kronos Chronicles by Marie Rutkoski. The first, The Cabinet of Wonders, was excellent (I gave it a strong 4 in my review) and while the second book, The Celestial Globe, wasn’t quite as good, that was mostly due to Cabinet being so strong. The Jewel of the Kalderash,
October 25th, 2011. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Marie Rutkoski | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Highest Frontier by Joan Slonczewski
It’s been about a decade since Brain Plague, Joan Slonczewski’s last novel, came out, but I’d bet good money that more people instead remember the author for a novel that’s by now, unbelievably, already 25 years old — the wonderful and memorable A Door into Ocean, which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Now, ten years after her last novel, Joan Slonczewski presents The Highest Frontier,
October 22nd, 2011. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Joan Slonczewski | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
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.