Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
These are stand alone novels (not part of a series).
In the summer of 1897, English author H. Rider Haggard took a short vacation in Holland, and just as his winter holiday to the Holy Land in 1900 would inspire him to pen no fewer than three works — the nonfiction book A Winter Pilgrimage (1901), Pearl-Maiden (1903) and The Brethren (1904) — this sojourn to the land of the Dutch would also bear literary fruit. Thus, in 1899,
June 10th, 2020. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | H. Rider Haggard | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
Some time ago, I read a novel that promised to combine a man-vs.-nature survival narrative with a ghost story. It disappointed me, not delivering enough of either. When reading Caitlin Starling’s The Luminous Dead, I couldn’t help thinking that this book was what I wanted that one to be. The Luminous Dead succeeds at both the (wo)man-vs.-nature stuff and the eerie goings-on — not to mention a character study of two complicated,
June 9th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Caitlin Starling | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Just before her twelfth birthday, Zoe finds an impossibly small, breathtakingly cute kitten hiding behind her parents’ garage. Having been forbidden from bringing home any more animal rescues — and there have been many — the obvious course of action is for Zoe to sneak the kitten into her bedroom, text photos to her best friend Harrison, and go eat cake. The next day, she tells her family about the new arrival (christened Pipsqueak) and, to her great joy, she’s finally allowed to keep this one. After all,
June 5th, 2020. Jana Nyman´s rating: 4.5 | Sarah Beth Durst | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
I loved Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap so much that I was almost afraid to read Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All (2019). How could it possibly live up to my expectations of it? After having read it, I can report that I do still think I liked Bone Gap better, but that Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All is also a good read.
June 5th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Laura Ruby | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Solstice (2020), by Lorence Alison, is subtitled “A Tropical Horror Comedy” and is a thinly fictionalized take on the disastrous Fyre Festival, with the addition of an eldritch sea monster lurking beneath the waves. I wasn’t expecting high literature from it, just the proverbial “beach read” to distract myself from the fact that there is no beach anywhere near me (and if there were, it would probably be closed anyway). But the more I think about it, the more it just doesn’t work for me.
June 4th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 2 | Lorence Alison | Horror, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
“There shouldn’t be any monsters left in Lucille.” The city of Lucille is a utopia. A generation ago, a resistance toppled all the monsters — monsters in this case meaning people: unjust politicians, bigots, predators. The leaders of the revolution are now called “angels” and are revered as elders. Jam is a teenage girl growing up in Lucille, and she appreciates the better world the angels built; as a black trans girl, she knows the world that came before would not have been as welcoming to her. But she still has questions that her teachers are hesitant to answer.
June 3rd, 2020. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 5 | Akwaeke Emezi | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
They say that the Undersea was the dwelling place of the gods. They say many things of the Myriad, and all of them are true. The gods were as real as the coastlines and currents and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools.
No one knows who or what the gods were, the giant creatures who lived in the sea and then, mysteriously, all died. But everyone knows that a piece of a dead god can make your fortune. Hark is still a child himself,
June 1st, 2020. Terry Weyna´s rating: 3.5 | Frances Hardinge | Horror, Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Grand Tour by E. Catherine Tobler
E. Catherine Tobler created Jackson’s Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade, a carnival/circus where things are not necessarily what they seem… or in some cases, exactly what they seem, no matter how strange that might be. The stories appeared in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and now, in The Grand Tour: A Jackson’s Unreal Circus and Mobile Marmalade Collection (2020), Apex has gathered up nine of the tales, which traverse earth and time, as we meet Jackson and the people who find their way to the circus,
May 28th, 2020. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | E. Catherine Tobler | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge
Here in the UK, Frances Hardinge is everywhere. Her new book, A Skinful of Shadows (2017), was plastered all over the London underground in the run-up to its publication, thrusting Hardinge into the mainstream.
I heard Hardinge talk about A Skinful of Shadows at a local bookshop and she admitted that she’d felt some pressure when writing. I can’t help wonder if this pressure somehow seeped into the novel as she wrote.
May 28th, 2020. Katie Burton and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3, 5 | Frances Hardinge | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow
Tavia is a siren. This fact is enough trouble to her that she’s trying to contact the spirit of her grandmother (who was also a siren) to learn whether there’s any way to rid herself of the power.
Her best friend/adopted sister Effie isn’t really a mermaid; she just plays one at the Renaissance Faire. She’s a totally normal human — or so she thinks.
A Song Below Water (2020), by Bethany C. Morrow,
May 27th, 2020. Kelly Lasiter and Jana Nyman´s rating: 4 | Bethany C. Morrow | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
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