Previous SFF Author: Vera Nazarian
Kids nowadays have it easy. If you’re into fantasy, there’s a good chance that the books you like have a devoted following and a few dedicated web sites. There may be movie franchises and/or an HBO series about them. You can buy Team Jacob/Team Edward shirts, Harry Potter glasses and A Game of Thrones calendars. There may be book release parties, even people sleeping in front of the bookstore when the next book is due out. There’s GoodReads,
February 10th, 2011. Stefan Raets and Terry Weyna´s rating: 4.5 | Jo Walton | Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis
With Blackout and All Clear, which together comprise a single fluid story, Connie Willis returns to the time travel universe that was home to her acclaimed early novel Doomsday Book. If anything, she has only gotten better with, ahem, time.
In the late 21st century, time travel is a tool employed by historians to observe and to take part in historic events, though it appears that something inherent about the travel precludes them from being sent to extremely pivotal points and settings so as to ensure they do not change history.
October 27th, 2010. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Connie Willis | Hugo Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Originally published in 1984, William Gibson’s debut novel, Neuromancer, has it all: clones, artificial intelligences that manipulate human affairs, and ninjas. In contrast, our burned out hero, Henry Dorset Case, is not very impressive. But he’s trying.
When we meet him, Case is doing his best to hustle a living in Chiba City, Japan. He used to be a hacker, but his employers corrupted his body when they caught him stealing. Now, Case is searching for a miracle cure or perhaps a ticket out of this life.
October 24th, 2010. Ryan Skardal, Kat Hooper and John Hulet´s rating: 5 | William Gibson | Audio, Hugo Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
In The Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon blends science fiction, neuroscience, and her own experience to speculate about a future in which scientists have nearly eliminated the symptoms of autism.
Lou Arrendale’s cohort is the last of the impaired autistics. Thanks to early intervention programs, Lou and his colleagues are verbal, take care of themselves, and work for a pharmaceutical company that makes use of their savant abilities, yet they lack the social understanding needed to integrate into “normal” society.
October 14th, 2010. Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Elizabeth Moon | Audio, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
The Claw of the Conciliator is the second book in Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun quartet. If you read The Shadow of the Torturer and felt like you were lost (or drunk), and weren’t sure whether things would get clearer in the second book, I have to tell you that no, they don’t. But if you, like me, enjoy that dreamy I’m-not-sure-where-I-am-or-how-I-got-here-or-where-I’m-going-but-everything-sure-feels-fine literary experience, then read on,
September 14th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Coraline’s family has just moved into a new flat. Her parents are always busy with their own work and Coraline (please don’t call her Caroline) has no friends or siblings to play with. She spends her time exploring her new apartment complex and the surrounding grounds. She’s got some eccentric neighbors: two little old ladies who love to reminisce about their time on the stage and an old man who trains mice to sing and dance.
But what’s really strange is the extra door in Coraline’s flat.
June 23rd, 2010. Kat Hooper, Rebecca Fisher and Ryan Skardal´s rating: 5 | Neil Gaiman | BSFA Award, Children, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
The Best of Michael Moorcock by Michael Moorcock
The Best of Michael Moorcock is a collection of the legendary author’s best short fiction, containing several of his classic stories, as well as one previously unreleased story.
The collection, lovingly edited by John Davey with Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, is nothing short of excellent. There are really no bad stories here, and some that are simply stunning. As someone who has read many of Michael Moorcock‘s novels but barely any of his shorter work,
January 7th, 2010. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4 | Michael Moorcock | Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology by Gordon Van Gelder (ed.)
The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology is an excellent collection of 23 stories picked from the treasure trove of short fiction that’s been published in the eponymous magazine over the past 60 years. Editor Gordon Van Gelder — also the editor of the magazine since 1997 — has done an admirable job, picking stories that illustrate the diversity of both the genre and the magazine.
October 12th, 2009. Stefan Raets´s rating: 4.5 | Harlan Ellison, Jeffrey Ford, John Kessel, Michael Swanwick, Neil Gaiman, Peter S. Beagle, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, Roger Zelazny, Stephen King, Ursula K. Le-Guin | Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
Brilliance Audio and Audible Frontiers have recently produced audio versions of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, so it seemed like a great time for me to finally read them. Within two minutes of putting Swords and Deviltry on my MP3 player and pressing play, I was completely enthralled. The first part of the novel (which is really a compilation of short stories) tells the tale of Fafhrd’s liberation from the taboos, close-mindedness, and “icy morality” of his mother and clan (and the girl he got pregnant) in the northern wastes.
September 3rd, 2009. Kat Hooper, Rob Rhodes, John Hulet and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4.5 | Fritz Leiber | Audio, Hugo Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Pretty Monsters is Kelly Link’s latest short story collection aimed at young adults. My young adult phase passed a long time ago but I found this book to be as deep and packed as Link’s Magic for Beginners and Stranger Things Happen.
The first thing that caught my eye is the overall aesthetic of the book. The jacket, designed by Will Staeble, is upbeat and eye-catching, whether it’s simply the presentation of the blurbs or the text on the cover flap.
August 3rd, 2009. Charles Tan (GUEST)´s rating: 4 | Kelly Link | Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: Vera Nazarian
Not entering. A few fantasies and related books this month. The Potion Gardener by Arden Powell. An alternative, early 20th…
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Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi A brilliant and varied collection of mostly-SF stories, many of which focus on the interactions…