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Shaun Tan’s The Arrival is a highly acclaimed graphic novel about immigration. There are no words in this graphic novel, allowing Tan to rely entirely on images to reveal the doubts and conflicts that his characters face. On his website, Tan explains that:
“In ‘The Arrival’, the absence of any written description also plants the reader more firmly in the shoes of an immigrant character. There is no guidance as to how the images might be interpreted,
November 4th, 2011. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 5 | Shaun Tan | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Stormed Fortress by Janny Wurts
Stormed Fortressis the eighth novel in the WARS OF LIGHT AND SHADOW series by Janny Wurts, and the fifth and final novel in the Alliance of Light sub-arc. I’ve reviewed every novel in the series so far, and all of those reviews have been extremely positive, so by now it’s probably no secret that I’m a huge fan of these books and their author. That being said, Stormed Fortress is an outstanding novel even by the incredibly high standards of this series.
October 25th, 2011. Stefan Raets and John Hulet´s rating: 5 | Janny Wurts | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron
According to Webster’s, “occultation” means “the state of being hidden from view or lost to notice” or “the shutting off of the light of one celestial body by the intervention of another; esp: an eclipse of a star or planet by the moon.” Both definitions seem appropriate to Laird Barron’s collection, Occultation and Other Stories, the latter as metaphor, because Barron can scare you as much with what remains hidden in his stories as with what he drags from the shadows and exposes to your horrified view.
October 17th, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 5 | Laird Barron | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
THE SANDMAN series was originally released in comic form, later in trade paperback collections (above), and most lately in larger omnibus editions (the first one is shown here). It’s thus rather difficult (and time-consuming) to review the individual volumes, and so I’m going to review the series as a whole, noting as I do so that some volumes were better than others.
Despite some slight ups and downs, I overall found THE SANDMAN a remarkable work, well worthy of the praise it has received over the years.
October 4th, 2011. Tim Scheidler´s rating: 5 | Neil Gaiman | Comics | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Caution: it is difficult to write about The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters and not give anything away. This post might contain spoilers.
The Little Stranger is a book about a haunted house. Sarah Waters evokes emotion masterfully here. It’s not heart-pounding terror or a nauseated response to some gruesome revelation. She evokes dread, dread and a growing sense of anxiety that has you peering into the shadows and flinching at the creaks and sighs of your own house.
October 3rd, 2011. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Sarah Waters | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Icefall by Matthew Kirby
Last year I wrote this about Matthew Kirby’s novel The Clockwork Three:
“Amid the several highly anticipated children’s and YA works this year by big names such as Suzanne Collins and Rick Riordan, one can be forgiven for missing the entry onto the stage of Matthew Kirby’s first novel, The Clockwork Three. Forgiven, but no longer excused, for among all those much more hyped releases (though they are often justifiably hyped), this stands out as among the best.
September 27th, 2011. Bill Capossere, Kelly Lasiter and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Matthew Kirby | Audio, Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 13 comments |
Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”
The “angels” and “devils” of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone (2011) are not quite what those words would lead you to expect, but are given an original twist. The angels are closer to the angels we know — specifically the fearsome, fiery warrior type of angel, not the gauzy kind that helps adorable children cross bridges.
September 26th, 2011. Kelly Lasiter, Tadiana Jones, Marion Deeds, Terry Weyna and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4, 4.5, 5 | Laini Taylor | Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Hazel and Jack have always been best friends, bonding over their shared love of science fiction and fantasy. They play make-believe “superhero baseball” and hang out in a derelict house they call the Shrieking Shack. But now that they’re eleven, Hazel’s mom is pushing her to make some female friends, and Jack is more interested in hanging out with his male friends than with Hazel. Then the impossible happens: Jack is taken away by a mysterious witch, and Hazel is the only one who can rescue him. Anne Ursu’s Breadcrumbs is a retelling of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen,” and it’s fantastic.
September 21st, 2011. Kelly Lasiter and Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5, 5 | Anne Ursu | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Night’s Master is the sort of book that not everyone will like, but for what it is, it’s brilliant. The styling is exquisite, the characterization direct and to-the-point in a way I’ve rarely seen before, getting right to a character’s essence without any muddying around. The plot concerned me at times while reading, but eventually proved itself beyond my expectations. I rarely say this, but this is a novel that stays with you.
As I said above, I did have my doubts coming into it.
September 14th, 2011. Tim Scheidler and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5, 5 | Tanith Lee | Audio | SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
Cyberabad Days by Ian McDonald
Cyberabad Days is a fully realized vision of a near-future India — indeed, of a near-future world in which India is a major player, even more so than today. Ian McDonald’s prose sparkles, the plots of the stories are uniformly tight, but it is the imagination, the picture of the future, that really works here. If you want that “sense of wonder” that science fiction is most famous for, this is the place to find it.
Cyberabad Days is set in the same universe as McDonald’s River of Gods,
September 13th, 2011. Terry Weyna´s rating: 5 | Ian McDonald | Short Fiction | 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.