Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
These are stand alone novels (not part of a series).
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
I was a big fan of Katherine Arden’s WINTERNIGHT TRILOGY and ended my review of that series by saying I was greatly looking forward to seeing what she did next. Well, what’s next is The Warm Hands of Ghosts (2024), a standalone historical novel set in the horrors of WWI that happily mostly maintains the high bar of quality Arden set with that earlier trilogy, though I had a few issues with some elements.
February 29th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Katherine Arden | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
The Butcher of the Forest (2024) is a dark fantastical novella by Premee Mohamed that hearkens back to the original old folktales by refusing to sand off the edges of the genre to make it safe or cozy. More faerie than fairy, as much horror as fantasy, it is as unsettling and bittersweet a read as it is a worthy one.
The tale is set in an empire ruled by The Tyrant, “the man with a thousand names and a thousand cities under his bootheel … bringer of death,
February 27th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4.5 | Premee Mohamed | Horror, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Sentinels From Space by Eric Frank Russell
In the science fiction novel of 1953, mutants and their various abilities – especially telepathic – were apparently all the rage. Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, the first novel to win the Hugo Award, showed us how difficult a proposition murder could be in a society of mind readers. In Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore’s Mutant, the “Baldies” referred to in the title had to learn how to live among a society that feared and despised them.
February 23rd, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Eric Frank Russell | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
“It’s easier to be a villain than a pub owner, I’ll tell you that much.”
I think most people know the plot of John Scalzi’s 2023 novel, Starter Villain. Our protagonist, Charlie, is divorced. He’s been downsized out of his job as a business journalist, and is eking out a living as a substitute math teacher. When the story opens, his best or only friend is his cat Hera. Then Charlie learns that his enigmatic Uncle Jake,
February 19th, 2024. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | John Scalzi | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Reign of Wizardry by Jack Williamson
Perhaps because Jack Williamson was named the second science fiction Grand Master, in 1976, and managed to cop both the coveted Hugo and Nebula Awards, it is easy to forget that the Arizona Territory-born author did write in other fields than just sci-fi. For example, I have already written here of his marvelously scary novella “Wolves of Darkness” (1932), as well as his now-classic lycanthropy novel Darker Than You Think (1948) … two works that doubtless helped him win the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement,
February 6th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Jack Williamson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
There are many words I could use to describe Lute by Jennifer Thorne. I could say words like “atmospheric” or “haunting.” I could also say “beautiful” or “terrifying.” Lute is a book that evokes many descriptors, but none really captures the story in its totality. The blurb from Tor Nightfire says “Wickerman meets Final Destination.” That description is about as accurate as it gets.
Lute is an island off the coast of Scotland,
January 22nd, 2024. Justin Blazier´s rating: 4 | Jennifer Thorne | Audio, Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Daybreak – 2250 A.D. (aka Star Man’s Son) by Andre Norton
It’s 2250 A.D., two hundred years after a nuclear holocaust destroyed most life, knowledge, history, and civilization on Earth. Fors, a young man with a mutation that renders his hair silver and his hearing and sight extra keen, is a descendent of a group of scientists who used to do nuclear research before it all went wrong. Fors desperately wants to become a Star Man like his father who died on a quest ten years ago.
January 10th, 2024. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Andre Norton | Audio, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
And so, I have just come to the end of a lot of nine novels from the remarkable publisher known as Valancourt Books. And what an ennead they were! In chronological order: Ernest G. Henham’s Tenebrae (1898), a tale of fratricide, guilt, madness … and giant spiders; R.C. Ashby’s He Arrived at Dusk (1933), which tells of the ghost of a Roman centurion haunting modern-day Northumberland; G.S. Marlowe’s I Am Your Brother (1935),
December 29th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | John Symonds | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Master of the Macabre by Russell Thorndike
Ever since I was a wee lad, I’ve been a fan of the type of motion picture known as the “anthology-horror film.” It was 1965’s Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors that first pulled me in back then, a product of the British studio Amicus, which would go on to deliver six more similar films over the next nine years. Oh … for those of you wondering what I mean by an “anthology-horror film,” simply stated, it is a type of picture with one overarching story line and numerous stand-alone side stories included.
December 26th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Russell Thorndike | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The White Wolf by Franklin Gregory
In 1948, future sci-fi Grand Master Jack Williamson released the expanded version of his novella “Darker Than You Think,” which had appeared originally in the December 1940 issue of Unknown magazine. The resultant full-length novel was a one-shot horror excursion for the author, and would go on to be proclaimed one of the finest fictional treatments on the subject of lycanthropy – that is to say, werewolves – ever written. This reader has experienced the book twice over the years,
December 12th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Franklin Gregory | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
Oh, Marion, you say "but dark" as if it were a bad thing! 😂
Hammer Studios is... reborn? I only ever read the "Kane" stories, which I found good but dark. It's a little…
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!
Sorry if I mislead you in this detail, Paul...the voyage by ship was only the first leg of the quintet's…