Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
These are stand alone novels (not part of a series).
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
“sentence (n)1. A grammatical unit comprising a word or a group of words that is separate from any other grammatical construction, and usually consists of at least one subject with its predicate and contains a finite verb or verb phrase; for example, ‘The door is open’ and ‘Go!’ are sentences.”
I didn’t know what to expect from Louise Erdrich’s metafictional ghost story The Sentence (2021) and she still managed to surprise me. Starting with the title,
January 11th, 2022. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Louise Erdrich | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Amber Crown by Jacey Bedford
The Amber Crown (2022), by Jacey Bedford, contains several elements that tend to have me leaning away rather than into a book, including rape, implied rape, threatened rape, and some torture/horrid executions. I mention them upfront for the convenience of those who can tell already the book isn’t for them and so will stop reading the review now (I should note they aren’t egregiously gratuitous, mined for trauma [as characterization] rather than titillation; the book is far from torture porn). For those for whom those are not dealbreakers,
January 10th, 2022. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Jacey Bedford | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The British publishing firm Sphere Books had a really wonderful thing going for itself back in the 1970s: a series of 45 books, both fiction and nonfiction, curated by the hugely popular English supernatural novelist Dennis Wheatley, and titled Dennis Wheatley’s Library of the Occult. This reader had already experienced seven of these novels in the natural order of things, in other editions – titles such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897),
December 29th, 2021. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Marjorie Bowen | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Absynthe by Brendan P. Bellecourt
Absynthe (2021) is the new novel by Brendan P. Bellecourt, the pen name of Bradley Beaulieu, author of the excellent SONG OF THE SHATTERED SANDS series. Talk about a change. Beaulieu leaves the desert far behind to head for the big noisy city in a complex Jazz Age/Psi-powers tale set in an alt-history US.
A decade ago America fought the Great War with the St. Lawrence Pact made up of Great Britain, Canada,
December 20th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Brendan P. Bellecourt | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
First He Died by Clifford D. Simak
As I think I may have mentioned elsewhere, stories about time travel can sometimes give me a headache right between the eyes. And really, who among us hasn’t, at one time or another, come close to getting a major-league migraine when trying to suss out the temporal conundrums inherent in many of these tales? Fortunately for me — and my head — the novel that I have just experienced is one that does indeed feature time travel in its story line, but that lays out its complexities in a manner that leaves the reader blissfully headache free.
December 16th, 2021. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Clifford D. Simak | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
With the title, you figure out pretty quickly that 2016’s The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, by Kij Johnson, is a Lovecraft pastiche, modeled on The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. If you’re like me, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that the beginning at least is a gentle send-up — or, to be polite, a “nod” — to academic novels.
Vellitt Boe,
December 14th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Kij Johnson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamad
Whether it’s writing weird horror, fantasy, science fiction or science horror fiction — a subgenre I think I just made up — Premee Mohamad is one of the best around right now, and she does great work in the novella length. Her latest example is 2021’s The Annual Migration of Clouds, a short, harrowing work set in a tight-knit community surviving after catastrophic climate change and a loss of arable topsoil.
Reid is a teenaged girl in a small,
December 7th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Premee Mohamed | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Alyson Hagy’s slim 2018 literary novella Scribe mines Appalachian folktales for a bleak, harrowing and poetic story about loss, guilt, love and honor. By deliberately setting the story in a world outside of our time and space, Hagy forces attention onto the characters, which at times gives the book the feel of a stage-play more than a story or a poem.
In spite of an otherworldly setting, this novel isn’t speculative fiction. Hagy isn’t raising questions about how people live in a world like this one.
November 23rd, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Alyson Hagy | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
Sophia’s life is perfect. She adores her husband, her company is much sought-after in the luxurious gated community she and her various neighbors share, she has endless tasks and joys to fill the long days while she waits for her husband to return from his various freelancing jobs. So why does everyone keep asking if she’s happy? Why has her husband forbidden her from breaching their home’s basement? Everything is perfect … right?
It would be easy to call Comfort Me With Apples (2021) a retelling of the “Bluebeard” folktale,
November 19th, 2021. Jana Nyman, Terry Weyna and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4.5 | Catherynne M. Valente | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine
12-year-old Elodie is leaving her rural home and traveling to the city of Two Castles where her family expects her to be apprenticed to a weaver for ten years. But there are two things Elodie’s family doesn’t know. One is that Elodie has no intention of being apprenticed to a weaver. Instead, she wants to be a mansioner, which is basically an actor. (Her parents wouldn’t approve of this career.) The second thing that Elodie and her parents don’t know is that there are no more ten-year apprenticeships offered in the city of Two Castles.
November 16th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Gail Carson Levine | Audio, Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
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