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Medusa’s Sisters: A bitingly insightful feminist viewpoint

Medusa’s Sisters by Lauren J.A. Bear

Every now and then my reads fall into a pattern, the most recent being a trio of reimaginings of Greek tales. Medusa’s Sisters, by Lauren J.A. Bear falls in between the other two in terms of the reading experience, with engaging characters, good narrative voices, a moving close, and a nice refocusing of the ancient story of Medusa and Perseus (rather than of Perseus and Medusa).

Bear begins, well, at the beginning (after an excellent opening that gives us right away the classic Perseus-Kills-Medusa moment,

Light Bringer: A mostly excellent series

Light Bringer by Pierce Brown

In my review of the fifth RED RISING book, The Dark Ages, I said that Pierce Brown’s series was beginning to feel its length. Brown is out now with that book’s sequel, Light Bringer, and I’d say that description holds even more true, even if there’s lots of good writing here.

The issue I’m having with these later books isn’t with the individual titles themselves. Considered on its own,

July 25th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Pierce Brown | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

The Whistling Ancestors: Caspar, the unfriendly host

The Whistling Ancestors by Richard E. Goddard

And so, I have just come to the end of another lot of books from the remarkable publisher known as Ramble House. And what an octet of books they were! In chronological order: Elliott O’Donnell’s The Sorcery Club (1912), which tells of ancient Atlantean magic being used by a trio of men in modern-day London; G. Firth Scott’s Possessed (1912), in which a deceased business magnate takes over the body of one of his former employees;

Beastly: The 40,000-Year Story of Animals and Us

Beastly: The 40,000-Year Story of Animals and Us by Keggie Carew

In Beastly: The 40,000-Year Story of Animals and Us, Keggie Carew takes us on an always passionate, sometimes meandering, often fascinating, sometimes disorienting, often depressing, occasionally encouraging tour of humanity’s lengthy and often abusive relationship with the animals we share this world with. Like many such works, it makes for some difficult reading, but it’s often the things we find difficult that are the most important to face.

The book is divided into ten sections,

July 19th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Nightborn: I hope Friedman isn’t done revisiting this world

Nightborn by C.S. Friedman

It’s been nearly 30 years since C.S.Friedman concluded her COLDFIRE trilogy, one of my favorite fantasy series with a brilliant character at its core. Now Friedman is back with a prequel, Nightborn, which thanks to the unique setting of the series is actually more science fiction than fantasy. Though not as immersive and compelling as the original trilogy, it’s a fast-moving and often tense book that if anything is too short. It also includes a novella (or sort of includes, it’s complicated) that jumps forward a few centuries and bridges us to the original series.

July 14th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | C.S. Friedman | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

Mad-Doctor Merciful: A very impressive medical thriller/supernatural horror hybrid

Mad-Doctor Merciful by Collin Brooks

On three separate occasions over the past few months, I have been asked the question “Where do you find all those strange books that you read?” The answer from me has been the same for the past few years now: Armchair Fiction, Ramble House and, most recently, Valancourt Books, three publishers that specialize in reviving obscure, unusual and out-of-print sci-fi, horror, fantasy and mystery works for a new generation to appreciate. I have been on something of a tear with Ramble House lately, and would like to tell you now of the seventh book in a row that I have experienced from this remarkable firm.

The Devil of Pei-Ling: You can’t keep a good Satanist down!

The Devil of Pei-Ling by Herbert Asbury

In 2002, Martin Scorsese brought to the big screen his 18th film as a director, Gangs of New York. The picture was based on a nonfiction book by one Herbert Asbury, namely The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld, but the screenwriters played so loosely with the facts in Asbury’s book that the film was famously Oscar nominated for a Best Original Screenplay award,

30 Days of Night: A modern classic horror comic book

30 Days of Night by Steve Niles (story) and Ben Templesmith (art)

30 Days of Night is an excellent horror comic by Steve Niles with quite creepy art by Ben Templesmith. After a short introduction by Clive Barker, we are taken to Barrow, Alaska on November 17, 2001, the last day the sun shines before there are thirty days of night, which, if you think about it, would be just about perfect for you if you were a vampire with some serious allergies to the sun!

Possessed: Milquetoast takeover

Possessed by G. Firth Scott

In my recent review of Elliott O’Donnell’s 1912 novel of the supernatural, The Sorcery Club, I mentioned that the book had been initially released by the British publisher William Rider & Son, which, after taking over the occult publisher Phillip Wellby in 1908, proceeded to come out with some two dozen outre works from 1910 – 1924. In 1911, the firm would release Bram Stoker’s classic (and, for me, borderline unreadable) The Lair of the White Worm,

The Whispering Gorilla & Return of the Whispering Gorilla: Attack of the 400-pound plumbutter

The Whispering Gorilla by Don Wilcox & Return of the Whispering Gorilla by David V. Reed

By my rough count, the publisher known as Armchair Fiction currently has, in its constantly expanding catalog, something on the order of 317 “double-novel” volumes for sale, not to mention its “single-novel” and short-story volumes. But of all those many two-novel volumes, which usually incorporate an unrelated pair of shortish but full-length pieces under one cover, the potential buyer would have to look long and hard to find a wackier pairing than is to be found in the publisher’s D-119: The Whispering Gorilla and Return of the Whispering Gorilla.

May 30th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | David V. Reed, Don Wilcox | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

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