Previous SFF Author: Martin L. Shoemaker
Night Flights (2018) by Philip Reeve is a collection of three short stories set in the world of the MORTAL ENGINES QUARTET (also known as the HUNGRY CITY CHRONICLES), and focuses on the character of Anna Fang, a fearless aviatrix. Its timing seemed to be connected to the release of Peter Jackson’s filmic adaptation of Mortal Engines, the first book in the series, and Reeve’s touching dedication at the front of the book confirmed this.
November 25th, 2019. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4.5 | Philip Reeve | Short Fiction, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Laugher at the Academy by Seanan McGuire
Laughter at the Academy (2019) is Seanan McGuire’s first short story collection as Seanan McGuire (apparently there is a Mira Grant collection). McGuire is amazingly prolific, and this expensive Subterranean Press anthology showcases that. In her foreword, McGuire tells us that she chose these specific stories because she loves them the most. The contents were published between 2009 – 2017. They all take place outside her “pre-existing universes,” as she calls them, but there are resonances with October Daye,
November 22nd, 2019. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Seanan McGuire | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Adrian Tchaikovsky is an unusually versatile author. I never know what to expect from him — insect and shapeshifter fantasy, Iron Man-inspired science fiction, and Regency/Napoleonic historical fantasy are just a few examples — but I know it’s going to be imaginative and intelligently written. The last work I read by him, Walking to Aldebaran, was science fictional horror with an unusual literary streak. In a nearly 180 degree turn, Tchaikovsky now offers up the novella Made Things (2019),
November 19th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Adrian Tchaikovsky | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Aylmer Vance: Ghost-Seer by Alice & Claude Askew
As I have said elsewhere, this reader has long been a sucker for the Victorian/Edwardian ghost hunter. Previously, I had enjoyed the exploits of Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence — who had tackled, in the author’s five-story collection of 1908, a haunted house, a French town peopled by shape shifters, an Egyptian fire elemental, devil worship, and a nontraditional werewolf — and William Hope Hodgson’s Thomas Carnacki, who had gone up against, in the six-story collection of 1913 that was expanded to nine stories 35 years later,
November 14th, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Alice & Claude Askew | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The New Voices of Fantasy edited by Peter Beagle
This collection of nineteen fantasy short works, edited by Peter Beagle, is definitely worthwhile if you like speculative short fiction. Many of them left an impact on me, and a few are true standouts. These stories are by relatively new authors in the speculative fiction genre and are all fantasy; otherwise there’s no discernable overarching theme.
These stories have almost all been published previously over the last seven years, and several of them are Hugo or Nebula winners or nominees.
November 7th, 2019. Tadiana Jones, Jana Nyman and Skye Walker´s rating: 4 | A.C. Wise, Amal El-Mohtar, Ben Loory, Brooke Bolander, Hannu Rajaniemi, JY Yang, Maria Dahvana Headley, Max Gladstone, Peter S. Beagle, Sarah Pinsker, Sofia Samatar, T. Kingfisher | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton
Perhaps because she is one of the most esteemed writers of the 20th century, Edith Wharton may not be immediately associated with the genre of horror. Today, she is probably best remembered for her novels The House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920), which latter book copped her the Pulitzer Prize, as well as for her classic novella from 1911, Ethan Frome, a staple reading assignment for all English majors.
October 30th, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Edith Wharton | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Queen’s Advantage by Jessie Mihalik
The Queen’s Advantage (2019) is the second story in Jessie Mihalik’s ROGUE QUEEN series. These are short and entertaining science fiction novellas. I enjoyed the first one, The Queen’s Gambit, because it’s fast-paced, has a strong female protagonist, an appealing love interest, and a nice sense of humor. You’ll want to read it before picking up The Queen’s Advantage.
I listened to Tantor Audio’s edition which is narrated by Rachel Dulude.
October 22nd, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Jessie Mihalik | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay
A person — whose name and gender are never specified, because that person is “you” — wakes up, alone in a room. You’re blind and in intense pain, and at first you remember nothing at all of your past. You only hear one person, Dr. Anne Kuhn, who instructs you through a speaker: testing you mentally, badgering you to exercise, and, little by little, giving you bits of information about your past life and about why you are where you are now. Gradually it becomes clear that something disastrous has happened.
October 21st, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3 | Paul Tremblay | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Wand that Rocks the Cradle edited by Oren Litwin
The Wand that Rocks the Cradle: Magical Stories of Family (2019) is a new anthology, edited by Oren Litwin, that’s just what it says on the tin: a collection of short stories about magic and family. As our reviewer Marion Deeds is one of the featured authors, I’m going to follow Skye, Jana, and Bill’s lead by eschewing the star rating, as they did when reviewing Marion’s Aluminum Leaves.
October 18th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter and Bill Capossere | Marion Deeds | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Queen’s Gambit by Jessie Mihalik
I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed The Queen’s Gambit (2017), the first novella in Jessie Mihalik’s ROGUE QUEEN series. It’s about Samara, the queen of a nation that stayed independent in a war between two powerful galactic empires. But, without allies to trade with, the people of Queen Samara’s Rogue Coalition are practically starving.
To earn some money for her country, Samara decides to attempt to rescue emperor Valentin Kos from the Quint mercenaries who are holding him captive,
October 15th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Jessie Mihalik | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Martin L. Shoemaker
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…