Since jumping wholeheartedly back into genre fiction a few years ago, I’ve understood that my corner of speculative fiction isn’t necessarily representative of fantasy full stop. And one of the best examples is the staggering popularity of Sarah J. Maas, whose works are almost never recommended in my circles. But this year’s Book Bingo has… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series was a big hit within genre fiction at a time when I was mostly checked out. It sounded like the sort of thing I would like, so I’ve been meaning to circle back to it at some point. And while I still haven’t made it to the original trilogy, the… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Translation State by Ann Leckie
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Echo of Worlds was released on June 25, 2024. Last year, I described the opening book in M.R. Carey’s Pandominion duology as being exactly what you want in an epic series-opener. It set up… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Echo of Worlds by M.R. Carey
This review is based on an eARC (Advance Reading Copy) provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Service Model was released on June 4, 2024. I’ve been a fan of Adrian Tchaikovsky for a few years now, though his tendency to release books faster than I can read them has kept… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
It’s been a busy June, with travel, the end of SPSFC, and Hugo Readalong in full swing, but I still managed to get through my two usual magazines, even if it’s later than usual. Let’s take a look! Clarkesworld I don’t know that the June issue of Clarkesworld had one story that really stood out… Continue reading Tar Vol Reads a Magazine (or Two): Reviews of Clarkesworld and GigaNotoSaurus (June 2024)
I’d been hearing a lot about the work of John Scalzi for a long time, but I hadn’t actually read any until his pandemic novel, The Kaiju Preservation Society, made the 2023 Hugo shortlist. And with the appearance of Starter Villain on the 2024 Hugo shortlist for the Best Novel category, this is the second… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Starter Villain by John Scalzi
I’ve read a little bit of Vajra Chandrasekera’s short fiction, and I’ve been consistently impressed with his prose and creativity, but just as consistently finding myself at the end wanting a little bit more. So I decided to skip his debut novel, The Saint of Bright Doors, only circling back around when it surprised me… Continue reading Fantasy Novel Review: The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera
There were a pair of novels in 2023 with eerily similar—and discouraging—hype cycles. Both Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh and Witch King by Martha Wells were hailed as the next big thing, with as much pre-release buzz as anything I saw last year, and then completely fell off a cliff post-release, with a few… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
We’ve made it to the finals of the third annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. My team has whittled down a slush pile to two semifinalists, and then joined up with two more teams to cut our combined six semifinalists to just two finalists. Now everybody is reading the same books, as only six remain. And… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Children of the Black by W.J. Long III
We’ve made it to the finals of the third annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition. My team has whittled down a slush pile to two semifinalists, and then joined up with two more teams to cut our combined six semifinalists to just two finalists. Now everybody is reading the same books, as only six remain. And… Continue reading Sci-fi Novel Review: Memoirs of a Synth–Gold Record by Leigh Saunders
