Dane Shipps is a worker aboard the spaceship King Space Void, a gigantic ship that fuels itself by eating planets. He and the other workers worship the ship as their god and believe it will take them to a paradise called the Edge. On an especially bad day for Dane, he meets a woman from […]
Book Review: The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney
April 6, 2016 by 1 Comment
Paul Kearney’s The Wolf in the Attic (Rebellion/Solaris) is a coming-of age-story. The publishers suggest it will appeal to people who love the work of Tolkein, C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman, and I agree. Curiously enough, a fictionalised version of the creator of the Narnia novels makes an appearance as a character, albeit highly disguised as […]
Book Review: Rock ‘N’ Roll Headcase by Lee Widener
April 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Chaino Durante is a loser working the night shift at the Nuclear Burger. He bids his time working up the courage to rob the place, just so he has a chance to have control for once. One day at work, he happens to discover the disembodied head of Alice Cooper (it happens) who helps him […]
Book Review: A Borrowed Man by Gene Wolfe
February 10, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Gene Wolfe’s A Borrowed Man (Tor) is a novel that sneaks up on you. Beneath its cosy exterior, elegant origami-like folds of spare prose and apparently simple storyline, beats a very dark heart. A hundred years in the future, when our civilisation is virtually gone, the recloned narrator, former author E.A.Smithe, is now nothing more […]
Book Review: Pixiegate Madoka by Michael Sean LeSueur
January 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Due to a weird mix-up, foreign exchange student Julian Argento finds himself transferred to Urobochi High, a training academy for magical girls. There he teams up with a kitchen-themed squad to stop his evil sister, Florence, from destroying Japan. My re-attached arm vibrates with life. My fingertips can now unhinge to reveal soap cannons. My […]
Book Review: Halo: Last Light
January 15, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It’s a good time to be into Science Fiction, hell it’s a good time to be into any genre fiction. But science fiction is having a hey-day because of the franchises that abound. Star Trek has been rebooted, Star Wars has awoken, Mass Effect is spreading to another galaxy, and Halo… well, Halo is fighting the […]
Book Review: The Monstrous, ed. Ellen Datlow
December 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
In The Monstrous (Tachyon Publications), the latest anthology in which she holds the editorial reins, Ellen Datlow presents us with yet another utterly compelling cornucopia of horrors. In this case, tackling the theme of monsters and the various interpretations thereof. In her fascinating introduction, Ms. Datlow gives us the entomology of the word “monster”; originally it had […]
Book Review: A God of Hungry Walls by Garrett Cook
December 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment
(Disclosure: I’ve taken writing workshops from Garrett Cook, and he’s done editing work for me.) There’s horror fiction out there that seeks to entertain, like the thrillers by the late Richard Laymon. Then there’s horror that seeks to get under skin and disturb you on a deep psychological level, like Jack Ketchum’s incredibly difficult masterpiece […]
Book Review: Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb
December 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Sequels come with expectations. None more so than a book that follows a predecessor that ended on a moment of change. Fool’s Quest is Robin Hobb’s sequel to Fool’s Assassin, which I reviewed last year, and that book ended on something of a cliffhanger. Meaning my expectations for Fool’s Quest were high, if not very […]
Book Review: Brother by Ania Ahlborn
November 25, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Ania Ahlborn’s Brother reminds me a lot of Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God, which to me is entirely a good thing. If I were to pitch this book to someone, I would probably say it was like if Erskine Caldwell wrote House of 1000 Corpses. The Morrows are a family with strange traditions. If “strange” […]
