Along with my more focused efforts on climate fiction, I’ve also wanted to dissect the role of science and engineering within the science fiction fantasy genre. Player Piano sort of spurred on my more recent fervor, but I feel that my general critique of science fiction plays with these ideas. Hence, when we were sent…
Bone of My Bone by Johanna van Veen is a horror novel that’s about the obsessive, deep sort of love that you would do anything for. Set in Germany amidst the Thirty Years' War, van Veen uses horror to explore love, the prevalence of violence, and the influence religion has in making sense of chaos. …
On some level, I think art is the singular most important element of the human condition. So let's talk about it. And Side by Side They Wander, by Molly Tanzer, is a short novella about an intergalactic art heist. Unfortunately, I think this powerful short was done dirty by the marketing tactics. Looking at the…
Continue reading ➞ And Side by Side They Wander – Galactic Art 101
I am always game for a mix of Fantasy and Science Fiction, so a book about a space race to the moon by wizards immediately caught my attention. First Mage on the Moon, by Cameron Johnston, is a clever little book about reimagining the space race between the US and Russia, but set in an…
Continue reading ➞ First Mage On The Moon – Divine Home Invasion
Sunyi Dean’s The Girl With A Thousand Faces is a ghost story that has haunted its characters for generations. In this story, it’s not only the grief and trauma that linger. The dead stick around, and they have a story to tell. The walled city of Kowloon sits in the shadow of Hong Kong, home…
Continue reading ➞ The Girl With A Thousand Faces – A Mask Unveiled
Kate Elliot has dazzled me in the past with her Alexander the Great-inspired space opera – The Sun Chronicles, and her fantasy novellas. I’ve always had too much on my plate to dive into her Crown of Stars series, but I may be changing my mind about that. The Witch Roads duology, by Kate Elliott,…
The Quill to Live favorite author, Sebastian de Castell, has a weird little project going on that I am a big fan of. de Castell is the author of many books at this point, but his original major series was the fantastic Greatcoats Quartet. Now, many years later, de Castell is writing a sequel series…
The Franchise, by Thomas Elrod, is a standalone book that pulls elements from fantasy, science fiction, and dystopian horror to create a strange amalgamation of a book with a lot to say. It is a philosophical story about breaching the line between fiction and reality, a commentary on our relation as audiences to the characters…
Continue reading ➞ The Franchise – Tolkien Cinematic Universe
Holly Black knows how to write an interesting urban fantasy with a magic system intertwined with a healthy dose of crime. You’ll find this same dark and gritty fun in The Charlatan duology, and having loved that, I decided it was time to read White Cat, one of Black’s earlier works that had a similar…
I read The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang in one sitting, fearing I would miss a word if I set it down. And words are what’s important in this story because language is a portal to the stars, quite literally in Ro’s case. Star Eaters are the only alien species that can locate…
