Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
These are stand alone novels (not part of a series).
The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes
The Children of Jocasta (2018), by Natalie Haynes, does a nice job of shifting our view of some of the characters in the classic Oedipus tale, but was by the end a solid but somewhat disappointing read that felt its length and also felt too hemmed in by the tale as we all know it.
Haynes makes two good decisions early on. One is the structural choice to weave back and forth between two time periods.
July 28th, 2023. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3 | Natalie Haynes | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Whistling Ancestors by Richard E. Goddard
And so, I have just come to the end of another lot of books from the remarkable publisher known as Ramble House. And what an octet of books they were! In chronological order: Elliott O’Donnell’s The Sorcery Club (1912), which tells of ancient Atlantean magic being used by a trio of men in modern-day London; G. Firth Scott’s Possessed (1912), in which a deceased business magnate takes over the body of one of his former employees;
July 24th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Richard E. Goddard | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Mad-Doctor Merciful by Collin Brooks
On three separate occasions over the past few months, I have been asked the question “Where do you find all those strange books that you read?” The answer from me has been the same for the past few years now: Armchair Fiction, Ramble House and, most recently, Valancourt Books, three publishers that specialize in reviving obscure, unusual and out-of-print sci-fi, horror, fantasy and mystery works for a new generation to appreciate. I have been on something of a tear with Ramble House lately, and would like to tell you now of the seventh book in a row that I have experienced from this remarkable firm.
July 12th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Collin Brooks | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Beast Or Man? by Sean M’Guire
A little while back, I shared some thoughts here on FanLit regarding American author David V. Reed’s unforgettable 1943 novel Return of the Whispering Gorilla. In this truly sui generis creation, an army of gorillas is brought together by Plumbutter – a 400-pound member of their own species with the surgically implanted brain of a human male – and fights a regiment of Nazis in equatorial Africa. But, as it turns out, 13 years earlier, on the other side of the pond,
July 7th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Sean M’Guire | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
“There was a vulture on the mailbox of my grandmother’s house.”
A couple of weeks ago there was a big discussion on Twitter about “cozy horror.” I followed it, but never really understood what “cozy” was supposed to be. I feel confident saying that T. Kingfisher is the queen of Cozy Horror, though —if “cozy” means there’s a house (haunted or not) and the ending has some bit of optimism. With 2023’s A House With Good Bones,
June 30th, 2023. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | T. Kingfisher | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Devil of Pei-Ling by Herbert Asbury
In 2002, Martin Scorsese brought to the big screen his 18th film as a director, Gangs of New York. The picture was based on a nonfiction book by one Herbert Asbury, namely The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld, but the screenwriters played so loosely with the facts in Asbury’s book that the film was famously Oscar nominated for a Best Original Screenplay award,
June 28th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Herbert Asbury | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Fire Spirits by Paul Busson
During the course of four of my recent reviews here on FanLit – for Walter S. Masterman’s The Yellow Mistletoe (1930), Mark Hansom’s The Shadow on the House (1934), R. R. Ryan’s Echo of a Curse (1939) and H. B. Gregory’s Dark Sanctuary (1940) – I had cause to refer to editor/author Karl Edward Wagner’s highly regarded list of 39 of his favorite horror books,
June 23rd, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Paul Busson | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Devil’s Mistress by J.W. Brodie-Innes
A little while back, I shared some thoughts here regarding two books – Elliott O’Donnell’s The Sorcery Club (1912) and G. Firth Scott’s Possessed (also from 1912) – that were released by the London-based publisher William Rider & Son, whose specialty was occult literature. Now, I would like to pull off a hat trick of sorts by discussing still another supernatural book from this enterprising house;
June 16th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | J.W. Brodie-Innes | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
Charlotte Perkins Gilman is well-known in literary feminist circles for her novel The Yellow Wallpaper, and for her periodical, which she published in the early decades of the 20th century. I didn’t know about Herland, a feminist utopian novel, until a few years ago. She wrote two sequels; With her in Ourland and Moving the Mountain. Herland is worth reading for historical context, and also for a lot of laughs—because in addition to being a genuine feminist utopian,
June 14th, 2023. Marion Deeds | Charlotte Perkins Gilman | Stand-Alone | Giveaway!, SFF Reviews | 9 comments |
Possessed by G. Firth Scott
In my recent review of Elliott O’Donnell’s 1912 novel of the supernatural, The Sorcery Club, I mentioned that the book had been initially released by the British publisher William Rider & Son, which, after taking over the occult publisher Phillip Wellby in 1908, proceeded to come out with some two dozen outre works from 1910 – 1924. In 1911, the firm would release Bram Stoker’s classic (and, for me, borderline unreadable) The Lair of the White Worm,
June 12th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | G. Firth Scott | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
I really enjoyed this book. The lack of melodrama (as "plot") was a feature, not a bug, I think. Parts…
good points Mariion-. I actually had meant to talk about the ham radio but the review was getting long (I…
You got your review up before I could even write one. I loved this book--one of my favorite reads of…
Hey, any book with a ghost, a goat girl AND a vampire can't be all bad, right?
Whoa! Cool.