Few fantasy series kick off with lines that reverberate through the genre’s collective consciousness quite like Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” It summons an urgent and barren image: one man midstep atop a sandy dune, following his quarry across a vast, dying landscape. It…
I have heard for years how lovely Katherine Arden’s The Winternight Trilogy is, and despite it sitting on my shelves, I hate to admit that I have not read it yet. So it feels weird to be here today, reviewing Arden’s newest release, The Unicorn Hunters. But I had to start somewhere, and I’m very…
Letting the cat right out of the bag, I think Platform Decay is pretty bad. Martha Wells’ Murderbot series has been one of my favorite stories in recent years, even though it feels like a book that was split up to make more money at this point. The last two entries (Fugitive Telemetry and System…
Oh lord almighty, it’s another K.J. Parker novella! Pulling the Wings Off Angels embroils readers in a quickfire theological conundrum with a divine winged being at its heart. We’ve praised Parker in the past for Prosper’s Demon (a novella masterpiece) and many other works. Does Pulling the Wings Off Angels have the same heft? Let’s…
Continue reading ➞ Pulling The Wings Off Angels – Helluva Novella
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,…
