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The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore
I owe a debt of gratitude to writer Marvin Kaye, who selected Guy Endore‘s classic novel of lycanthropy, The Werewolf of Paris, for inclusion in Kim Newman and Stephen Jones‘s excellent overview volume Horror: 100 Best Books. If it hadn’t been for Kaye’s article on this masterful tale, who knows if I would have ever run across it. And that would have been a real shame,
April 1st, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Guy Endore | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay
Since this is a fantasy review site, let’s get this out nice and early. Outside of its setting — a fictionalized and truncated version of China’ s 11th century Northern Song Dynasty — there is next to no fantasy in River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay’s newest work. A few ghosts, an occasional fox-woman, and that’s it. So fantasy readers will have to take those few bones tossed their way and then settle for graceful, lyrical prose, beautifully drawn characters,
March 21st, 2013. Bill Capossere and Rob Rhodes´s rating: 5 | Guy Gavriel Kay | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by Charles de Lint
From its charming dustcover to the muted two-page illustration at the end, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest is a beautiful book that I would love to read with, or to, a child. Charles de Lint and artist Charles Vess form a perfect collaboration here, with a wonderful, magical story for middle readers.
This novel is an expansion of de Lint’s novella, The Circle of Cats. De Lint uses as inspiration many of the Appalachian folk-tales,
March 7th, 2013. Marion Deeds and Ruth Arnell´s rating: 5 | Charles De_Lint | Children | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Suppose that the world had gone through an apocalypse based on a conflict between two groups of super-technologically-advanced people with fundamentally different beliefs on how technology should be applied. One group wanted the logic of technology to replace human thought, and the other wanted technology to merely enhance human perception. Could this difference provide the footing for outright war?
Ecktor is a Demi, a human who has been enhanced with physical and mental abilities hard-coded into his DNA. His wife has died; her memories are everywhere and permeate the very home he lives in.
March 5th, 2013. John Hulet´s rating: 5 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett
OK, here’s the thing about The Daylight War, Peter Brett’s third book of the DEMON CYCLE, following The Warded Man and The Desert Spear. I really, really want to say, Don’t Read This Book. Honestly. No sarcasm. No humor. That’s my first instinct. Because it’s bad? No. Because it disappoints in comparison to the first two, each of which I’ve given 4.5 stars to? No. No,
February 22nd, 2013. Bill Capossere and Tim Scheidler´s rating: 5 | Peter V. Brett | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Jack Vance Treasury by Jack Vance (edited by Terry Dowling & Jonathan Strahan)
While I don’t think there’s any one novel or short story or even collection of Jack Vance‘s work that comes close to capturing all the best aspects of his writing, I do think that this 633-page Subterranean Press collection does a fairly good job of exposing the reader to a wide array of Vance’s oeuvre. In addition to eighteen stories that span much of Vance’s writing career, there’s a brief comment from Vance himself after each story that gives a little view into how his mind worked while in creative mode,
February 21st, 2013. Steven Harbin´s rating: 5 | Jack Vance, Jonathan Strahan | Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Chessboard Planet and Other Stories by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore
Chessboard Planet and Other Stories is a collection by science fiction’s foremost husband-and-wife writing team, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore. The collection is comprised of a novella, two longish short stories, and a short piece.
The novella, “Chessboard Planet,” originally appeared under the title “The Fairy Chessmen” in the January and February 1946 issues of John W. Campbell’s Astounding Science-Fiction and, in my opinion, is an unjustly forgotten masterpiece. In it, the United States and the European union known as the Falangists have been at war for decades,
February 15th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Terror by Night: Classic Ghost and Horror Stories by Ambrose Bierce
Wordsworth Editions, published in London, has a wonderful thing going with its current series entitled “Tales of Mystery & the Supernatural,” bringing back into print short story collections and full-length novels from such relatively unknown authors as Gertrude Atherton, Edith Nesbit, D.K. Broster, Marjorie Bowen, May Sinclair and Dennis Wheatley. The imprint’s collection of horror tales from Ohio-born Ambrose Bierce is a very satisfying and generous one,
February 11th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Ambrose Bierce | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Daredevil (Volume One) by Mark Waid (writer) and various artists: Paolo Rivera, Joe Rivera, Marcos Martin, Javier Rodriguez, and Muntsa Vicente.
Mark Waid’s Daredevil is one of the best comic book titles of 2012, and I’m comparing his work with some of my favorite authors of all time who have written top-notch runs on Daredevil: Frank Miller, Brian Michael Bendis, and Ed Brubaker. Waid’s work, though different, is equally good, and even though I’d recommend as excellent starting points both the runs by Bendis and Brubaker,
February 8th, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Marvels by Kurt Busiek (writer) & Alex Ross (artist)
Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross have produced a masterpiece in Marvels. It is simply one of the best superhero comics ever written. As far as I’m concerned, people who say they don’t like superhero comics haven’t earned the right to that claim unless they’ve read this comic. And even if their tastes remain unchanged, I can’t imagine anyone arguing that the book doesn’t have great literary and artistic merit. Marvels itself is a Marvel.
February 1st, 2013. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Comics | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
I'm going to go out on a limb and guess both you guys like Kay.
Geez, guys, a brace of remarkably well-written reviews here. Hat's off!
What a perceptive and beautiful review. You make it clear that Yamada not only knows the story she wants to…
Read together with The Serpent Mage, the series is one of the best works of art out there. The main…
thanks for this really well-written review. You've definitely piqued my interest in this, particularly in how you highlight the still…