The story you’ll find in James Lovegrove’s WORLD OF FIRE is a familiar one. A special agent has been recruited to find out what’s gone wrong on a planet with its own rules, political system, and no small amount of problems from its magma-rock mining infrastructure. Oh yeah, and there’s a race of AIs called the […]
Book Review: The Ultra Thin Man by Patrick Swenson
August 26, 2014 by Leave a Comment
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS WHAT SOME MAY CONSIDER MINOR SPOILERS. Blending elements of noir crime and science fiction isn’t a new thing, but Patrick Swenson in The Ultra Thin Man (Tor), tackles the mashup with enormous talent and verve. The author also throws in elements of the espionage thriller just so readers don’t get bored. Not […]
Book Review: Dead Man’s Hand: An Anthology of The Weird West, ed. John Joseph Adams
August 19, 2014 by Leave a Comment
I enjoy a good Western now and then. Mainly cinematic ones, though I have read a number of novels over the years. The weird western is a relatively new phenomenon, emerging probably from some of the writings of Joe R. Landsdale and others, though he writes a more contemporary version, not to mention the recent […]
Book Review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
August 16, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Haruki Murakami is not known as a genre writer, but his dabbling in the fantastika shares many of the common tropes found in modern fantasy. His novels feature gateways to other worlds, ghosts, monsters, and ordinary characters that embark on their own form of the hero’s quests. When his previous novel, 1Q84, was released in the US, […]
Book Review: FOOL’S ASSASSIN by Robin Hobb
August 12, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The stories of FitzChivalry Farseer were well documented by Robin Hobb in the Farseer Trilogy and the Tawny Man Trilogy. His actions even had consequences only seen in the Liveship Traders Trilogy and the Rainwild Chronicles. And for some time everyone thought Fitz, aka Tom Badgerlock, was going to live the happily ever after he […]
Book Review: SODA POP SOLDIER by Nick Cole
August 11, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Soda Pop Soldier by Nick Cole Very entertaining adventure through the life of a future gamer who faces extreme odds of survival in game and out. Our gamer, PerfectQuestion, is the leader of a ColaCorp professional first person shooter team who is losing game after game to a big time team in WonderSoft. The cost […]
Book Review: FROSTBORN by Lou Anders
August 8, 2014 by 1 Comment
I think kids are going to love Forstborn: Thrones and Bones by Lou Anders. As someone who has never been interested enough in middle grade fantasy (fantasy for ages 8-12), I was really impressed with how much I liked this. Frostborn is a smart adventure story for fans of dragons, frost giants, dwarves, swordfights and […]
Book Review: HOLLOW SPACE: VENTURE by T.F. Grant & Colin F. Barnes
August 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment
HOLLOW SPACE: VENTURE is the first book in the Xantoverse series, brought to us by TF Grant and Colin F Barnes. This book, while highly unexpected, is yet another example of the powers of co-authorship. It’s also an example of excellent space opera. HOLLOW SPACE brings us to a world that is familiar, but not. When Sara […]
Book Review: The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron
July 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron For me, this Stoker award winning collection has a lot of merit, but simply doesn’t capture me on an individual level. It’s hard for me to say where exactly the book doesn’t work me. In many of the stories, I simply spaced out and lost […]
Book Review: DEVICES AND DESIRES by K.J. Parker
July 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
“The quickest way to a man’s heart,” said the instructor, “is proverbially through his stomach. But if you want to get into his brain, I recommend the eye-socket.” So begins Devices and Desires, the first novel in K.J. Parker’s masterful Engineer Trilogy. (It also happens to be the opening lines of Evil for Evil, and […]
