It’s been a very long time since I’ve reread anything that wasn’t a short story or a children’s book, but after an intense R.A. Lafferty binge about a decade ago, I thought it was time to return to some favorites and see how they hold up. And for whatever reason, I decided to skip right… Continue reading SFF Novel Review: The Three Armageddons of Enniscorthy Sweeny by R.A. Laffery
Being a big fan of R.A. Lafferty, it’s hard not to hear lots of recommendations for the other Catholic sci-fi writer known for his creativity, symbolism, and prose style that’s considered by many fans to be an all-time great. And yet, perhaps intimidated a bit by his reputation for unreliable narrators and confusing plots, it… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the author in exchange for nothing (but it’s getting an honest review anyway). Three Grams of Elsewhere will be released on May 4, 2023. Evidently, I’ve spent enough time recommending The Nothing Within that Andy Giesler thought I’d be interested in reading an… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Three Grams of Elsewhere by Andy Giesler
r/Fantasy’s Book Bingo is back, and with it comes my favorite period on the reading calendar: the massive influx of recommendations and churning of the TBR that comes from a new Bingo card with 25 different categories to satisfy. Filling out a card requires reading–between now and March 31, 2024–25 books by 25 different authors,… Continue reading Planning 2023 Fantasy Bingo
After a mad scramble through various “Best of the Year” lists in February, March slowed down a little bit, with one more magazine and bit less miscellany. That said, I still found some really fantastic short fiction, even outside my normal sources. And I read a pair of novels that read very outside the norm,… Continue reading March 2023 Round-up and Short Fiction Miscellany
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. March’s End will be released on May 9, 2023. Perhaps this will change, since I seem to have read quite a few of them lately, but I still have a soft spot for portal… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: March’s End by Daniel Polansky
My favorite reading challenge is winding down, and for the third consecutive year, I have completed a pair of Bingo cards. I’ll talk more about my themed card in a while (probably after April 1), but today, we’re looking at my first totally unplanned Bingo card. Sure, I went through the recommendation threads last… Continue reading 2022 Fantasy Bingo Card
In January, I started a new series, which I hope to continue all year, in which I read and review sci-fi/fantasy magazines. I’ve settled on three publications to follow this year: my two favorites from 2022 and a third that has been a titan of the genre for decades. I’ve yet to have a month… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Three): Reviews of Clarkesworld, GigaNotoSaurus, and F&SF (March 2023)
I don’t usually branch out into horror, but Alien has proved that I can enjoy a good haunted house in space, and when Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes got picked up as part of r/Fantasy’s New Voices Book Club, the description sounded interesting enough to make it worth a try. Dead Silence opens with the… Continue reading Sci-fi/Horror Novel Review: Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes
The first round of the second annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition (SPSFC2) has ended, and my team has hand-picked three semifinalists to send to two other teams of fellow judges. In return, we have received six semifinalists from two other judging teams, which we will read before the end of April. One that I was… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: The Last Gifts of the Universe by Rory August
