How do you review Lafferty? I asked myself a similar question when I wrote an Author Spotlight post about him last year, and it returns as I consider the short story collection The Best of R.A. Lafferty. Because this isn’t a novel, there is no plot to summarize, but even if there were, it wouldn’t… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Collection Review: The Best of R.A. Lafferty
Sarah Pinsker has written some of my absolute favorite short fiction over the last couple years. And while I know the jump from short fiction to extended work is non-trivial, her shorts had hit a level of consistent quality that made it an easy call to move her second novel to the top of my… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Ogres will be released March 15, 2022. Adrian Tchaikovsky has only come to my attention in the last couple of years, but he’s quickly becoming a must-read author. After loving a pair of… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Novella Review: Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Xiran Jay Zhao’s Iron Widow was billed as an angry feminist tale inspired by Chinese history and featuring anime-style mech battles. That billing didn’t appeal to me much, but I heard so many people talking about its quality that I thought I should give it a read anyways. A few days later, I feel comfortable… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
If you spend a lot of time among heavy readers of self-published fantasy, it’s hard not to have heard of The Thirteenth Hour, Trudie Skies’ tale of a conspiracy that threatens the established order of a steampunk world of twelve races living in a tenuous peace. My SPSFC judging has shifted by indie reading heavily… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
January delivered plenty of “Best of 2021” recommended reading lists, and so February was my heaviest month of short-fiction reading since I jumped back into the form in 2020. I made plenty of additions to my Hugo Nomination Draft, and I had such a good time reading that, even after going back at the end… Continue reading February 2022 Round-up and Short Fiction Focus
As I wrap up my hard mode Bingo card, I’m tackling a few of the most difficult-to-fill squares on the board. But Backlist (hard mode: published before 2000) is an exception—while I certainly wouldn’t naturally come across examples while reading for the Hugos or SPSFC, I had so many intriguing options that I simply had… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: Daughter of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts
I’ve openly complained about how getting too aggressive with this year’s reading challenges has prevented me from doing much mood reading. But with this book, Bingo has led to another winner. I read Bethany C. Morrow’s A Song Below Water last year and generally enjoyed it. I thought it tried to do too much, and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: A Chorus Rises by Bethany C. Morrow
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Reclaim the Stars was released February 15, 2022. One of the Bingo squares that had me hunting the longest this year was Latinx Author, whose hard mode required fewer than 1000 ratings on… Continue reading Sci-fi/Fantasy Anthology Review: Reclaim the Stars by Zoraida Córdova
There are quite a few books that I’ve picked up just because they seemed perfect for a Bingo square, but I’ve rarely had to look as hard as I did to find The Queen of Blood. The hard mode Forest Setting square requires the entirety of the book to take place within a forest, and… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst
