(spoilers ahead) This week my journey to read all the award-nominated and award winning short fiction from the last decade led me to Sarah Pinsker’s “The Court Magician”, which originally appeared in Lightspeed and was nominated for a Nebula. Narrated… Read More ›
Book Reviews
Max Brooks’ Devolution Strikes a Balance Between Nature’s Revenge and a Sinking Hope
In the fifties, William Levitt changed the world. Realizing that the surging population wanted a private backyard with a white picket fence, he used quick manufacturing techniques to deliver millions of homes for cheap. In Max Brooks’ Devolution, a billionaire… Read More ›
Award Nominees Reread: Would “A Year and a Day in Old Theradane” by Scott Lynch make a Good Movie?
Being late to a party doesn’t mean the party isn’t still fun. I stumbled onto Scott Lynch’s novelette while perusing the last decade of Locus and Hugo nominees (2015), and I pounded the table after reading it. This should be considered a modern classic! It’s one of the finest examples of the fantasy novelette genre, and will stay with readers for a long time. Lynch’s gorgeous writing, which created a cinematic experience for me as the reader, got me wondering how someone from Hollywood might evaluate it.
Paul Jessup’s July Short Story Roundup!
Oh boy where did the month ago? Is it time for another monthly short story roundup? Well, I guess it is. This month has a been a strange month, for certain, but then again all months have been strange months… Read More ›
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark
Of the things that I celebrate about our future with lots of eBooks is the explosion of eBooks at a wide variety of lengths. Some are very long. I was able to purchase and read the entire Song of Ice… Read More ›
Rivers Solomon’s The Deep
This novel’s brilliant premise alone is enough to make it a must read, but I found its poetic language, and fully developed metaphors bordering on allegory, to have a mesmerizing effect as beautiful as a rolling sea.
On M. John Harrison’s Sunken Lands
I always struggle to think about what to say about books that are The… Books… Of… The… Season! This is no exception. It’s a brilliant and unsettling thing, like holding a book that slowly turns into a silvery fish in… Read More ›
Extraterrestrials by Wade Roush and Season 1 of Space Force
“Where is everybody?” the great Enrico Fermi asked, exquisitely stating the question that has vexed astronomers for centuries. If we are alone in the universe, where are the other civilizations and societies? In this MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series book,… Read More ›
The Warped Lens: A Review of Richard Kadrey’s The Getaway God and episode 1 of HBO’s Watchmen
Sometimes, being late to the party is a good thing. Those who know me know the last few months have been a struggle, and that struggle has created a longing for comfort; to return to familiar places and stories long… Read More ›
Early Reviews are trickling in for WAY OF THE LASER: FUTURE CRIME STORIES
Howdy to all you folks staying safe and social distancing and doing the best you can. The first thing I saw was an advance look at the ALA Booklist review coming out in June. “It’s an entertaining collection featuring a… Read More ›