Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
These are stand alone novels (not part of a series).
I don’t always agree with Nick Mamatas or his views on humanity, but I think he is one of the most interesting writers working right now, and Sabbath (2019), while it’s strange, is definitely interesting. The story behind the story is interesting and a little strange too. Sabbath (2019) is a novelization of a graphic novel called Sabbath: All Your Sins Reborn, by Matthew Tomao, which does not seem to be well known or much admired on the internet.
November 13th, 2019. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3 | Nick Mamatas | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates is, of course, supremely well-known, and justifiably so, for his non-fiction, whether that be his essays/columns, or his long-form works such as We Were Eight Years in Power or Between the World and Me. Now he’s out with his first fiction work, The Water Dancer (2019), a blend of realism and the supernatural set in the antebellum period. While Coates’ already-documented strengths as a writer are evident, particularly on a sentence level,
November 12th, 2019. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Ta-Nehisi Coates | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
In the 1980s, Terri Windling created the FAIRY TALE SERIES, a collection of stand-alone retellings for adults, featuring some of the best writers in the field. The series continued into the early 2000s and spans a wide variety of styles, tones, and interpretations of the tales. Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose (1992) was the sixth in the series and combines its fairy tale with an all-too-real historical horror. It won the Mythopoeic Award in 1992,
November 11th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4 | Jane Yolen | Mythopoeic Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
During my first, recent visit to London, besides doing all the typical touristy things, I also happened to visit several of the very fine bookstores that the great city currently offers. The used-book stores on Charing Cross Road were especially interesting to me, but I also stopped in at Forbidden Planet (so much better than the Forbidden Planet store here in NYC), the mammoth independent bookstore called Foyles, and, of course, the Waterstones on Piccadilly. It was at this gigantic bookstore, supposedly the largest in Europe,
November 11th, 2019. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | A.G. Birch | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente
In her Afterword, Catherynne M. Valente lays out the inspiration for 2017’s collection of linked short stories The Refrigerator Monologues. Valente was inspired partly by the work of comics writer Gail Simone, who created and popularized the term “Women in Refrigerators” as a way to describe women cape-and-mask heroes, and how they are treated in conventional comics. As for structure, Valente looked toward Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking theatrical work The Vagina Monologues.
November 8th, 2019. Marion Deeds and Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 4 | Catherynne M. Valente | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Nora Walker is all alone in the world. Her whole family are rumored to be witches, which sets her apart from other kids her age. Her grandmother is dead, and her mother is something of an absentee parent. And now that winter has set in at Jackjaw Lake, all the tourists are gone, leaving behind only Nora in her cottage and the residents of the nearby camp for delinquent boys. Nora’s isolation increases still further when a storm drops four feet of snow on the area, cutting off the roads and knocking out the phone lines.
November 5th, 2019. Kelly Lasiter and Jana Nyman´s rating: 3 | Shea Ernshaw | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Lost and Found by Orson Scott Card
Fourteen-year-old Ezekiel has a special power. Not a superpower; though, just a small power: he’s drawn to lost items — hair scrunchies, toys, and even bikes — combined with the innate knowledge of who the owners are and where to go to return the items, and a strong compulsion to return them. Unfortunately, this hasn’t worked out so well for Ezekiel: everyone thinks he stole the things and returned them for the attention or a reward. He’s got quite a file with the police by the time he’s a teenager,
November 5th, 2019. Tadiana Jones´s rating: 4 | Orson Scott Card | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
The Future of Another Timeline (2019) was a miss for me, which surprised me given how much I enjoy this writer. Many people on Amazon give it high ratings, so, as we say, your mileage may vary.
There are five-time machines embedded in the earth’s crust in Annalee Newitz’s 2019 novel. These objects, growing out of prehistoric rock, may be machines, or sentient entities, or some kind of strange natural occurrence, but they react to certain rhythmic sounds by sending a person back in time … and allowing them to return to their present.
November 4th, 2019. Marion Deeds´s rating: 2.5 | Annalee Newitz | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
SHORTS: The annual Halloween edition. Our horror-themed column this week, reviewing some recent online short fiction works, features demon babies, slasher film heroines, ghosts and more.
“Growing and Growing” by Rich Larson (2019, free at Nightmare Magazine)
Ignacio and Hector are on their way home after a night of drinking when they find a baby crying in the middle of the road. Ignacio decides to bring it home for the night so he can take it to the hospital in the morning. But on the way home,
October 31st, 2019. Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones | Jonathan Carroll | Audio, Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
A nightmarish disease has attacked a small but growing group of people in rural America. They are walking, zombie-like, across the country together. Nobody knows where they’re going or why. They can’t be communicated with and they can’t be stopped. Some of their family and friends follow behind, trying to keep them safe.
The CDC is investigating, trying to track down the origins of this strange outbreak. Homeland Security is worried that it’s a biological weapon. POTUS can’t decide whether or not she should send in the military.
October 28th, 2019. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Chuck Wendig | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
"Nor Iron Bars a Cage by Kage Harper" Freudian slip there. ;)
[…] (Fantasy Literature): In 1957, Hammer Studios in England came out with the first of their full-color horror creations, […]
I'm going to have to find these and read them.
R ,if you live in the USA, you win a Fan Lit T-shirt (please specify 1st and 2nd preferred sizes)…
Great review. Thanks!