Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
These are stand alone novels (not part of a series).
This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, it’s almost soul-crushing. I adored the first 25% of Zack Jordan’s The Last Human. It was on its way to being my favorite book so far this year. It was imaginative, clever, exciting, funny, and warm. I loved it. Then, it took a turn, and I struggled to finish it.
The Last Human (2020) is about a girl named Sarya who is being raised by a huge sentient black widow spider.
May 6th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Zack Jordan | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
Marie Lu’s The Kingdom of Back (2020) is a historical fantasy based on the lives of Wolfgang Mozart and his beloved sister Marie Anna whose pet name was Nannerl. Nannerl was four years older than Wolfgang and a musical prodigy when she was a child. Tutored by her father, Leopold, she was much admired and praised as “the rare woman with a good ear” according to one of the characters in Lu’s novel.
As a child,
May 5th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Marie Lu | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Way Past Winter by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
The first thing about this book that caught my eye was just how beautiful it was: the green binding, the interior pattern, the embossed cover-art — I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but it really is a lovely object to behold.
The story itself rides the current popular wave of Scandinavian-based fairy tales, and reads a little like Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen”. Winter has lasted for five years in Eldbjørn Forest, and siblings Oskar,
April 29th, 2020. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5 | Kiran Millwood Hargrave | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Forgotten Worlds by Howard Browne
I’ve always thought that if I were ever fortunate enough to get a novel written, and then even more fortunate to actually get it published, then that hard-created piece of work would most certainly – and proudly – appear under my own name. But there are any number of reasons why authors today choose to use pseudonyms for their work, and more reasons still for the creators of pulp fiction material 70 to 100 years ago. For example, an author might have used a pen name for fiction and reserved his given name for his main occupation (such as mathematician Eric Temple Bell,
April 24th, 2020. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Howard Browne | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Catfish Lullaby (2019), a Nebula Award-nominated novella, might be described as Louisiana swamp monster folklore colliding with eldritch Lovecraftian horror. Author A.C. Wise (who also has a second Nebula nomination this year, for her short story “How the Trick is Done”) visits Caleb, the biracial, queer son of the local sheriff, at three key points in his life. We follow Caleb from childhood to adulthood as he navigates his friendship with Cere Royce, the daughter of a once-prominent and depraved local family, and they try to conquer the black magic that haunts her and has destroyed her family.
April 21st, 2020. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | A.C. Wise | Horror, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Curious Toys by Elizabeth Hand
Pin Maffucci wanders the midway and aisles of Chicago’s Riverview Amusement Park, running errands and delivering dope for Max, the carnival’s She-Male performer. At nearly fourteen, Pin is considered small for his age. That’s partly because Pin, with his trousers, cropped curls and cap, is really a girl in disguise. When a young woman from the nearby Essenay Film Studio is found murdered in one of the dark rides, Pin investigates, putting her own life at risk, and she has no idea who to trust.
Elizabeth Hand’s 2019 novel Curious Toys is an historical mystery set in 1915.
April 20th, 2020. Marion Deeds´s rating: 4.5 | Elizabeth Hand | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Of the nine books that I have read over the last year or so from Armchair Fiction’s current Lost World/Lost Race series, which runs to 24 volumes, no fewer than three of them have involved the discoveries of hitherto unknown civilizations far beneath the Earth’s surface. In Rex Stout’s truly thrilling Under the Andes (1914), three unfortunate Americans go through a hellacious experience at the hands of a lost race of Incas beneath the mountains of Peru. In S.
April 16th, 2020. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Richard Tooker | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sisters Eleanor and Mike have come to rely on each other for comfort and love. The space beneath Eleanor’s bed is a favorite hiding place where they can retreat from real life when their parents begin to fight almost every night.
One night, after their abusive father breaks the family heirloom they call the “witch ball,” the girls find a river running under Eleanor’s bed. After falling in, they discover that the river leads to a land of dreams and nightmares and that, according to strange creatures who live there,
April 15th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Fran Wilde | Audio, Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Leia: Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray
The thing about STAR WARS tie-in books is that they can never contradict what happens in the films, which means they also can’t have stakes that are particularly high. The big galaxy-shaping events have to be saved for the big screen.
So it makes sense that a lot of them come across as “filler” or “prequel” stories, which add details and background to things we already know have happened. In the case of Leia: Princess of Alderaan,
April 15th, 2020. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3 | Claudia Gray | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu
I really tried to give Hao Jingfang’s Vagabonds (2020; translated by Ken Liu) a fair shake, pressing on even though I’d had problems with the book relatively early. And I think, given that I just about reached the halfway point (48% according to by Kindle), I did give the book a decent enough chance to win me over. But I just couldn’t push myself past that 50%, despite some intriguing ideas.
In the world of Vagabonds,
April 14th, 2020. Bill Capossere´s rating: 0.1 | Hao Jingfang | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
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