The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison is a brilliant but perplexing book, straddling the line between fantasy and literary fiction. It’s sort of proto-fantasy in which two principal characters, Shaw and Victoria, play out their lives, as if stuck to a purpose that no longer fits them, hardly able to […]
Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard
Aliette de Bodard’s prose swept me through Fireheart Tiger like a single brushstroke of many beautiful strands toward a strong conclusion that came just a little too easily and a little too soon. She is a master at plunging the reader at once into a richly imagined fantasy world yet without distracting the mind with […]
Finna and Defekt: Books 1 and 2 of Nino Cipri’s LitenVerse
I wasn’t prepared for Finna and Defekt, the two novellas so far comprising Nino Cipri’s LitenVerse. It’s hard to find stories that effectively satirize consumer capitalism and combine that with penetrating portraits of relationships, but here they are! These are absorbing and insightful stories skillfully blending emotional realities of dealing with gender, love, and loneliness […]
Creative Surgery by Clelia Farris
I am embarrassed to admit that I started reading Clelia Farris’s brilliant story collection Creative Surgery thinking I was in the middle of a different book. That can happen with Kindle. Everything looks the same. There are no beautiful covers, unique typefaces, pages to turn down. You just open and there is the text. I […]
Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
I like writers who take risks in introducing their heroes. Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa sets this first book of The Nameless Republic series on the continent of Oon and its dominant country called Bassa. But unlike the image of the sleek figure on the cover art, the protagonist appears before us […]
Signs of Life – Science Books for SFF Readers
Here are two books in this ongoing series of posts on science books for SFF readers that explore basic signs of life, one at the cellular level here on Earth, the other at the molecular level on Mars. The Sirens of Mars The Sirens of Mars by Sarah Stewart Johnson is an exciting record of […]
