Impressed as I was by Simon Jimenez‘ beautiful and moving first novel, The Vanished Birds, I have to say I’m just staggered by his second, The Spear Cuts Through Water. Using the second person, the narrator lures “you” with intensely lyrical but dramatically apt prose into a world between worlds. One of several story tellers […]
One Arm Shorter Than The Other by Gigi Ganguly
Gigi Ganguly’s One Arm Shorter Than The Other begins quietly enough in 1986 as a grandfather, Maurice, a resident of Delhi, like all the characters of this beautiful debut novella, wanders in the past of his memory. That habit worries his son James, who thinks dwelling in memories is unhealthy. James feels that his father […]
Neom by Lavie Tidhar – A Review
In the helpful afterward to his hauntingly beautiful new novel, Neom, Lavie Tidhar describes his process of writing it as one of discovery. He wrote about a robot going to the flower market of the bustling city of Neom to buy a single rose. But why? He had to write another story to answer that […]
Azura Ghost by Essa Hansen (Part 2 of The Graven) – A Review
Essa Hansen’s Azura Ghost, second book in The Graven series, marks an enormous step up from her already impressive debut, Nophek Gloss. This new story takes us deeper into the mysterious multiverse of the Graven, an ancient race of vast accomplishments that disappeared ages ago but left numerous traces both in architectural and technological remnants […]
The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed – A Review
Premee Mohamed’s beautiful novella (her third this year)The Annual Migration of Clouds, while set in a dystopian future, is more about a young woman saying goodby and leaving home, like birds leaving the nest, seasons turning, the movement of natural forces. It focuses on hard-won hope in the face of uncertainty rather than the devastating […]
Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky – A Review
Adrian Tchaikovsky has an immense imagination, and the scope of Shards of Earth gives it vast space. Literally vast since the novel and its strange crew of salvagers moves from one planetary system to another through the terrifying bent space-time depths known as unspace in what seem to be moments. But those moments are pure […]
