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
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
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
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
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
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: Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb
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
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” […]
Review: Whispers from the Abyss ed. Kat Rocha
Whispers from the Abyss (01 Publishing) describes itself as “An anthology of H.P. Lovecraft inspired short fiction.” But the authors within its pages are no slavish Elvis tribute acts. Instead, they are his mutant bastard offspring, whose mission is to misbehave dreadfully and have a wonderful time doing so. These Children of the Night run amok, gleefully […]
Book Review: Journey, A Short Story Volume I by Mykl Walsh
Journey, A Short Story Volume I begins in the year 10,001. An expedition team from Earth lands on a planet in a neighboring galaxy. Exploring the planet, they find that human-like life once existed on the planet a long time ago. While most signs of civilization are now gone, they still discover several preserved relics. […]