Happy Canada Day!

Sandy: Moi? I have just finished reading my first Doc Savage novel since I was in high school, 1933’s Quest of the Spider, and hope to get a review out for you very soon. Next up for me will be a book of stories featuring another pulp character who is not nearly as well remembered as Doc Savage; namely, the Surgeon of Souls, who appeared in seven stories throughout the 1930s in the pulp magazine Spicy Mysteries. The collection is appropriately titled The Surgeon of Souls and Other Tales of Terror, by Robert Leslie Bellem, and I look forward to getting into this one very much indeed…

Tadiana: In the last two weeks I’ve read Iron and Magic, the first book in Ilona Andrews‘ new IRON COVENANT urban fantasy series (a spin-off of their KATE DANIELS series); The Book of Secrets, the first book in Melissa McShane‘s new urban fantasy series; and (finally!) finished Space Opera, Catherynne Valente‘s new novel that’s been aptly described as Eurovision in space, with a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy type of humor. It was rather exhausting, frankly! My non-SFF reads included A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, which was wonderful; and a couple of fairly interesting new contemporary fiction novels, Hannah McKinnon’s Sailing Lessons and Carola Lovering’s Tell Me Lies. I’m currently reading Garth Nix‘s YA fantasy Frogkisser!, nominated for the 2018 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee for Children’s Literature and the 2018 Locus Young Adult Book award.

Terry: I’m still working on a few books that have been hanging around with bookmarks in them for more than a month. But I finished Blood Orbit by K.R. Richardson, which was quite good, and I read The Queen Underneath by Stacey Filak, which was a promising first novel, even if it was a promise rather than its fulfillment, and I started reading The Essential Ellison in honor of Harlan Ellison, who died this week. I’d had this foolish hope that Ellison would be at WorldCon this year, and maybe I’d get a chance to finally meet him, but alas, that is not to be.

Tim: This week, I finished Annette Marie’s Red Winter, which was an entertaining YA fantasy based on Japanese folklore. I liked the Japanese setting and the bombastic fight scenes, but got kind of tired of the protagonist, who struck me as too much of an old-school YA heroine – a meek, pretty hand-wringer whose major skill seems to be inspiring other characters to do stuff on her behalf.

Author

  • Tim Scheidler

    TIM SCHEIDLER, who's been with us since June 2011, holds a Master's Degree in Popular Literature from Trinity College Dublin. Tim enjoys many authors, but particularly loves J.R.R. Tolkien, Robin Hobb, George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and Susanna Clarke. When he’s not reading, Tim enjoys traveling, playing music, writing in any shape or form, and pretending he's an athlete.