Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
These are stand alone novels (not part of a series).
The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo
What if Jay Gatsby literally sold his soul to a demon, in order to woo and win the love of Daisy Buchanan? With that one question, Nghi Vo ushers us into a strange, familiar, wonderful and terrifying world with her first full-length novel, The Chosen and the Beautiful (2021).
In a 1920s USA where magic is common and ghosts walk side by side with people, Vo introduces us to Jordan Baker, bosom friend of Daisy Fay Buchanan.
June 3rd, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Nghi Vo | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey
After being betrothed to a man she doesn’t love and watching her secret lover, Beatriz, get hanged for aberrant behavior and possession of unapproved reading materials, Esther decides to run away. So she hides herself in the wagon of the traveling Librarians, the distributors of all approved reading materials, who are passing through her town.
When the stowaway is discovered, Esther attempts to convince the librarians that she always wanted to be one of them but, in reality, she is hoping their good morals and upright behavior will rub off on her so she will no longer feel deviant.
May 28th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Sarah Gailey | Audio, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
The Man From Tomorrow by Stanton A. Coblentz
In Robert Silverberg’s masterful 1968 novel The Masks of Time —just one of three novels that the author released that year, during one of his superhumanly productive periods — the Earth of 1998 is visited by a man name Vornan-19, who has arrived from the year 2999, and whose advent leads to all manner of upheaval and complications. But this, of course, was hardly the first time that an author had written about a visitor from the far future.
May 27th, 2021. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Stanton A. Coblentz | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory
It’s 2001, and Luce Delgado, homicide detective for the Las Vegas PD, has come to a casino on the strip to deal with a celebrity murder. Dead, “Dr. M,” manager of the hottest boy-band act on the planet, the WyldBoyZ. Suspects? There are plenty, but her top five are the brilliantly harmonizing human/other-mammalian hybrid band members, the Boyz themselves. The challenge? A locked room on the fifty-sixth floor of the casino hotel.
Almost equally important to Luce is her attempt to keep from breaking the heart of the WyldBoyZ’s number one fan — Luce’s nine-year-old daughter Melanie.
May 25th, 2021. Marion Deeds´s rating: 5 | Daryl Gregory | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Tochi Onyebuchi’s Riot Baby (2020), a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, and Hugo Awards for Best Novella, is a mind-expanding story about growing up Black in America. Kevin, the titular “riot baby,” was born in South Central Los Angeles during the riots of 1992 which were sparked by the acquittal of the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King after a traffic stop turned into a high-speed chase.
Before Kevin is born, Onyebuchi sets the scene by introducing Ella,
May 24th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Tochi Onyebuchi | Audio, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
16-year-old Sheetal seems like any other normal Indian-American teenager. She’s close to her large family, has a best friend and a boyfriend, and she’s looking forward to going to college. What most people don’t know, though, is that her father, a famous astrophysicist, married a star.
Sheetal’s mother left years ago to ascend to her celestial court, and she told Sheetal never to let anybody suspect that she’s half star. To hide this fact, Sheetal dyes her silver hair black, but lately the hair dye has not been taking.
May 21st, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Shveta Thakrar | Audio, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
A Game of Fox & Squirrels by Jenn Reese
11-year-old Samantha and her big sister have just arrived at their Aunt Vicky’s farm in Oregon. Samantha is not happy that the girls have been taken away from their parents and she wants to go home, even though her dad sometimes has a pretty bad temper. Aunt Vicky and her wife are clearly not prepared to take the girls in, but they do their best to make the sisters feel at home.
Aunt Vicky gives Samantha a game called The Game of Fox &
May 19th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4.5 | Jenn Reese | Audio, Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Klara and the Sun (2021) is the newest novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, and the best description I can think of it is that it’s the newest novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. In other words, it’s very “Ishiguro”-like in its themes, its voice, its prose style and will call up memories of earlier works such as Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, which I consider high praise indeed.
May 13th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 5 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Into Plutonian Depths by Stanton A. Coblentz
Starting in 1906, scientists began searching for definitive proof of a theorized ninth planet; a heavenly body that would go far in explaining Uranus’ perturbations of movement that could not be wholly ascribed to the presence of Neptune alone. And it was 23-year-old astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh who, in the winter of 1930, ultimately made that discovery, while employed at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. The new planet would be dubbed Pluto on May 1st of that year, and was, naturally enough, a major news story at the time.
May 11th, 2021. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Stanton A. Coblentz | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Sunken World by Stanton A. Coblentz
Ever since reading the truly beautiful and unforgettable fantasy When the Birds Fly South (1945) around 3 ½ years back, I have wanted to experience another book from the San Francisco-born novelist and poet Stanton A. Coblentz. Unfortunately, just as “Coblentz” is not exactly a household name these days, his books are hardly to be found at your local modern-day bookstores. Coming to my rescue once again, however, were the fine folks at Armchair Fiction,
May 3rd, 2021. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Stanton A. Coblentz | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
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