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The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
The Girl in the Tower (2017), a medieval Russian fantasy, continues the story of Vasilisa (Vasya), a young woman whose story began in Katherine Arden’s debut novel The Bear and the Nightingale, one of my favorite fantasies from early 2017. That makes it a hard act to follow, but there’s no sophomore slump here. The Girl in the Tower is an even stronger novel,
January 1st, 2018. Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Katherine Arden | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard
Pablo Picasso had his “blue period,” Max Ernst his “American years,” and Georgia O’Keeffe her later “door-in-adobe” phase. For J.G. Ballard, the early part of his career could be called his “psychological catastrophe years.” Using environmental disaster as a doorway to viewing minds under duress, novels like The Drowned World, The Drought, and The Crystal World unpacked the underlying subject matter.
December 19th, 2017. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 5 | J.G. Ballard | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Spoonbenders (2017) by Daryl Gregory, is multi-generational family saga. It’s a coming-of-age story. It’s a psychic adventure story and a weird conspiracy tale for lovers of shadowy CIA projects like MKULTRA. It’s a gangster story. There’s a heist. There is a long con, and a madcap comedy along the lines of classic Marx Brothers routines. There are a couple of romances, a direct-distribution scheme, a medallion, a cow and a puppy. If we’re talking genre, I don’t know what Spoonbenders is.
December 18th, 2017. Marion Deeds, Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 5 | Daryl Gregory | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
When George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords (2000) begins, the War of the Five Kings has just ended, and it looks like the Lannisters have won the realm. They control King’s Landing, Westeros’ capital city, as well as the fifteen-year-old King Joffrey. Stannis Baratheon is in retreat, and their remaining foes, the Starks and the Greyjoys, have turned on each other rather than allying against a common enemy. Basically, the bad guys have won, but A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE isn’t over.
December 14th, 2017. Ryan Skardal, Greg Hersom, Jason Golomb and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | George R.R. Martin | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood was once, via a review of her work, once taken a bit publicly to task by Ursula K. LeGuin for not wanting her books (specifically The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood) to be labeled “science fiction,” because, LeGuin speculated, Atwood did not want to be relegated to the genre ghetto. Atwood, however, responded that it was merely a definitional issue.
November 29th, 2017. Bill Capossere, Stuart Starosta, Rebecca Fisher and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Margaret Atwood | Audio, Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Black Tides of Heaven & The Red Threads of Fortune by J.Y. Yang
J.Y. Yang’s short works of fiction have been published online and anthologized, and one particular element has always stood out to me: their ability to convincingly craft fictional circumstances and characters within a graceful economy of prose. Within the TENSORATE series of novellas, beginning with The Black Tides of Heaven (2017) and its twin The Red Threads of Fortune (2017),
November 28th, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 5 | JY Yang | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Ends of the Earth by Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard had already created one of the best short story collections in the genre, The Jaguar Hunter, which won the 1988 World Fantasy Award and Locus Award for Best Collection, with “Salvador” winning the Locus Award in 1985 and “R&R” winning the Nebula Award in 1987. His work is steeped in magical realism, supernatural horror, Central America and other exotic locales, and hallucinatory depictions of futuristic warfare. In my opinion, Shepard is one of the best stylists to ever work in the genre.
November 24th, 2017. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Lucius Shepard | Short Fiction, World Fantasy Award | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Stranger Things created by the Duffer Brothers
Like The Hunger Games and Star Wars before it, Stranger Things is that rare breed of entertainment which becomes a franchise almost instantly upon release. What’s more, it firmly established Netflix’s media strategy: The Binge. With the days of having to wait a week between episodes firmly over — and at a modest eight episodes long — some people managed to finish the first series in a day. So what winning formula managed to establish such a die-hard legion of fans?
November 15th, 2017. Ray McKenzie and Jana Nyman´s rating: 5 | Film / TV | SFF Reviews | no comments |
It Devours! by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor
Considering the massive, continuing success of their Welcome to Night Vale podcast and the first Night Vale tie-in novel, Welcome to Night Vale, it’s no surprise that Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor wanted to keep the ball rolling and co-write a second Night Vale novel. Skeptical or worried readers could be forgiven for justifiable fears about the quality of It Devours! (2017): what if the core concept began to wear thin,
October 31st, 2017. Jana Nyman´s rating: 5 | Joseph Fink | Horror | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
During the entire month of October, in the late 1800s, in a year when the full moon falls on Halloween, strange forces gather in a village outside of London. Various iconic characters ― who will be familiar to fans of Victorian literature and classic horror movies ― create shifting alliances, gather herbs, instruments of power and the odd eyeball and femur, and prepare for a mystery-shrouded event that will take place on Halloween night.
A Night in the Lonesome October (1993) is narrated by the aptly-named Snuff,
October 31st, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Roger Zelazny | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
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…