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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Four edited by Ellen Datlow
Anything Ellen Datlow edits automatically finds a place on my list of books to read. For many years, this included the excellent anthology series The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, which Datlow coedited with Terri Windling. When that series disappeared, much to the dismay of fans of short fiction everywhere, Datlow undertook to publish The Year’s Best Horror, which has been published by the terrific smaller press,
December 3rd, 2012. Terry Weyna´s rating: 5 | A.C. Wise, Ellen Datlow, Glen Hirshberg, John Langan, Laird Barron, Margo Lanagan, Peter Straub, Stephen King, Terri Windling | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Jagannath: Stories by Karin Tidbeck
Strange. Disturbing. Unimaginable, but imagined. Weird. Karin Tidbeck’s first collection of short stories, Jagannath: Stories, can be so described, but one must also include compelling. It is not usual for me to want to read story after story in a single-author collection in a single sitting, but here each story was better than the last, and I stayed up long into the night reading. This Swedish author, who translated her own work into English, has an odd mind that produces odd stories,
November 16th, 2012. Terry Weyna´s rating: 5 | Karin Tidbeck | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Montezuma’s Daughter by H. Rider Haggard
Written between June 5 and September 3, 1891, H. Rider Haggard’s 16th novel out of an eventual 58, Montezuma’s Daughter, was ultimately published in October 1893. The previous winter, Haggard and his wife Louisa had been in Mexico hunting for treasure and, on February 8th, the author had learned of the death of his 9-year-old son “Jock” back in England. The grieving father wrote Montezuma’s Daughter as what his biographer D.S.
November 9th, 2012. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | H. Rider Haggard | Free!, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone was one of my favorite books last year, a sparkling, quirky gem of a fantasy. Karou, with her blue silk hair and the eyes on her palms, captivated me. The mysterious story ended darkly, but it was filled with humor and whimsy.
Days of Blood & Starlight has plenty of darkness, at least at the beginning. Karou has left Prague and her art student life and fled to Marrakesh,
November 5th, 2012. Marion Deeds and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4, 5 | Laini Taylor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Schismatrix Plus by Bruce Sterling
What a great read this was. I’ve never been much of a fan of cyberpunk and I’m not particularly a fan of the authors generally noted to be founders of the genre (William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, etc.), but I really loved Schismatrix Plus and it has put Bruce Sterling near the top of my list for sci-fi writers. Sterling does an excellent job of melding his cyberpunk ethos with a space opera-ish background that is combined with the ‘Grand Tour’
October 29th, 2012. Terry Lago´s rating: 5 | Bruce Sterling | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny
In 1971, Roger Zelazny penned a wonderful mix of fantasy and science fiction that I think rivals his AMBER books for sheer imagination and exciting action. Jack of Shadows is set on an imaginary world, similar in some respects to our Earth, vastly different in others. One side of the planet (which does not rotate) is always in light, while the other is constantly at night. The “dayside” is much like 20th century Earth, with science ruling and the inhabitants enjoying the fruits of modern industry and technology.
October 25th, 2012. Steven Harbin´s rating: 5 | Roger Zelazny | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Batman: The Dark Knight #0, “Chill in the Air” by Gregg Hurwitz
Batman remains my favorite character in comics much the same way the sonnet remains my favorite form in poetry: I know what to expect, what the conventions are, and I like to see an author play artistically with those expectations to produce a mixture of familiarity and surprise. Today’s review focuses on a Batman story I read recently that does both of these things by building off the familiar initial murder that shaped Bruce Wayne and offering a new look at his shifting philosophic view as it was influenced as a young man by his memories of his father’s words and by his professors at his boarding school.
October 19th, 2012. Brad Hawley´s rating: 5 | Gregg Hurwitz | Comics | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire has caused me to abandon work and kept me up nights more than any other author I’ve read recently. Her work is so compelling that I absolutely must find out what happens next. Ashes of Honor (2012) was no exception to this rule. It’s the sixth and latest in the OCTOBER DAYE series, and offers up new surprises about the knight and hero of the Court of Shadowed Hills, Toby Daye.
Toby is surprised herself when Etienne,
October 17th, 2012. Terry Weyna and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4, 5 | Seanan McGuire | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Existence is David Brin’s first novel in some time and while I’ve long bemoaned his absence, it’s hard to complain about the time he takes if this is what he ends up with. Existence is a big novel, bursting with ideas and filled to the rim with characters and plot. If not all of them play out fully; well, I’ll take that flaw happily considering the pay off here.
The novel is set in the next century in a world changed by a host of events,
October 11th, 2012. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | David Brin | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
September returns to Fairyland to find that her shadow, which she sacrificed to save a child in the previous book, has become the Queen of Fairyland-Below. Worse, the shadows in Fairyland are disappearing into Fairyland-Below, where they enjoy the freedom to be the masters of their own fate. But the shadows are the sources of magic in Fairyland, and as more of them leave for the underworld, magic is disappearing from Fairyland. September has to solve this problem before Fairyland disappears forever.
October 9th, 2012. Ruth Arnell, Bill Capossere and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 5 | Catherynne M. Valente | Children | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
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…
Thanks for the kind words, Ira! Much appreciated!
Fine review