Books – Escape Pod

Book Review: “Crimson Death” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 15:00:54 +0000

Well, Laurell K. Hamilton has done it again. She's written a pretty decent police procedural and then tacked on about 300 pages of relationship angst. Yes, that's right, it's time for me to review Crimson Death, the latest Anita Blake novel.

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Book Review: “Only Superhuman” by Christopher L. Bennett

Josh Roseman — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 14:00:36 +0000

Given that I enjoyed Christopher L. Bennett's Star Trek tie-in novels, I figured I'd like his first original novel, Only Superhuman. And I did. Mostly.

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Book Review: “Libertaria: Genesis” by Sabrina Peña Young

Josh Roseman — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:00:55 +0000

Award-winning composer Sabrina Peña Young sourced the entire world for her virtual production of Libertaria. But Young has taken her opera one step further, converting the show into a novel, Libertaria: Genesis.

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Book Review: Murder with Monsters by KT Katzmann

Josh Roseman — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:00:59 +0000

A lot of authors have subverted classic horror tropes, but author KT Katzmann has chosen instead to be aware of them and use their power for good, instead of evil, in his genre detective novel Murder with Monsters.

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Book Review: Snapshot by Beau Hall

Josh Roseman — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 14:00:16 +0000

Marietta, Georgia, isn't a small town anymore. But fifty years ago it was, and fifty years ago Mary Frances began blackmailing Marvin Hill into becoming a serial killer. Now, in Beau Hall's new novel Snapshot, Marvin wants out. By any means necessary.

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Book Review: The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett

Josh Roseman — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 14:00:57 +0000

On September 1, my Kindle automatically downloaded my preordered copy of The Shepherd's Crown. By September 3, I'd finished reading the final Discworld novel. Now the book is closed on the Discworld, at least in this form, and... well... I don't think I can wrap my head around that.

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Book Review: “Dead Ice” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Sun, 21 Jun 2015 14:00:05 +0000

After finishing Dead Ice, the latest Anita Blake novel, I'm worried that things are backsliding a little toward the muddled middle of the series. And that's not good.

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Book Review: Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain by Richard Roberts

Josh Roseman — Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:00:37 +0000

In a world where superheroes and supervillains are locked in honorable combat… in a world where science and magic are both real… in a world where superheroism is an inherited trait… three middle-school students are about to discover their true potential. The book: Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m a Supervillain. The author: Richard Roberts. […]

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Book Review: Ghosts of Engines Past by Sean McMullen

Josh Roseman — Tue, 13 May 2014 14:00:13 +0000

When I was offered the opportunity to review Ghosts of Engines Past, a short-story collection by Sean McMullen, the initial e-mail said it was a steampunk anthology. I suppose this is broadly true, in much the same way that an anthology about veterinarians might be 80 percent dog stories. In this case, the 80 percent is stories of flight. And if there's one thing McMullen knows how to do, it's make people fly.

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Book Review: “Affliction” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 14:00:28 +0000

I just recently finished Affliction, the latest Anita Blake novel by Laurell K. Hamilton, and while it had a lot of really good action sequences, some of the problems that plague the other tales are just as evident in this one.

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Book Review: Dodger by Terry Pratchett

Josh Roseman — Fri, 12 Jul 2013 14:00:34 +0000

Terry Pratchett is well-known in the world of genre writing mostly for his Discworld series. However, in the decades he’s been active, Pratchett has written several different stories outside of the Discworld. The latest is Dodger, a historical fantasy with all the charm of Discworld and none of the thousands of pages of background a […]

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Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Josh Roseman — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 14:00:22 +0000

I recommend The Ocean at the End of the Lane to any fans of Neil Gaiman's work, and to anyone who's ever gone back to the home they loved most as a child and realized that all they can do is remember how it used to be.

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Book Review: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Josh Roseman — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:00:20 +0000

There's a reason The Phantom Tollbooth is a classic. Adults will appreciate the humor. Parents will appreciate the lesson the book teaches their kids. Kids will appreciate the fantastical elements and the way that the hero manages to work stuff out more and more the farther into the book they go.

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Book Review: Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman

Josh Roseman — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:00:01 +0000

As a fan of superhero stuff, I've been aware of Austin Grossman's Soon I Will Be Invincible for quite some time. I got an electronic copy of it about a year ago and really wanted to read it, but I've been busy. Lots of books to read. Until now.

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Book Review: The Mirage by Matt Ruff

Josh Roseman — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:00:39 +0000

Sometimes, alternate history doesn't require telling the reader what the crisis point was that got changed. Sometimes, the reader just needs to know things are different. And that's where The Mirage by Matt Ruff begins.

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Book Review: This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It by David Wong

Josh Roseman — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:00:54 +0000

I can't even write an excerpt for my review of This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It without spoiling David Wong's previous novel, John Dies at the End. So, if you don't want that one spoiled for you, just pick up both books and read them. That's my recommendation.

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Book Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Josh Roseman — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 15:00:03 +0000

I'd written this long intro, but it's kind of pointless, so instead I'm just going to tell you I'm reviewing Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and leave it at that.

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Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Josh Roseman — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:00:15 +0000

Every now and then, a book comes along with a great premise and solid execution that a lot of people like and recommend with great gusto. Ready Player One by Ernest Kline is such a book. And it is good -- very good -- except for the places where it can't get out of its own way fast enough.

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Book Review: John Dies at the End by David Wong

Josh Roseman — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:00:42 +0000

John Dies at the End by David Wong is ostensibly about a drug called soy sauce that immensely sharpens a person's perception of reality. But it's about so much more than that as well. So much that it took me four days to write the review.

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Book Review: “Serpent’s Storm” by Amber Benson

Josh Roseman — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:00:52 +0000

So here's the thing about Serpent's Storm by Amber Benson: at first I thought she'd turned into Laurell K. Hamilton. Then I thought she was writing a madcap roller-coaster adventure. Then I got completely lost. The ending was good, but the journey didn't work for me.

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Book Review: Cat’s Claw by Amber Benson

Josh Roseman — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:00:34 +0000

Amber Benson returned to her Death's Daughter universe in 2010 with Cat's Claw, a sequel that pretty much depends upon the main character making bad decisions for the story to succeed. Make no mistake, I still had fun reading the book, but there was an awful lot of narrative convenience in it.

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Book Review: The Tyrant Strategy: Revenant Man by Jonathan C. Gillespie

Josh Roseman — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:00:15 +0000

When author Jonathan C. Gillespie put out his new novel The Tyrant Strategy: Revenant Man I wasn't sure if it was going to be my cup of post-apocalyptic, augmented humanity, military-style, humans-aren't-so-great tea. Turns out the book had lots of things I liked, even though the tea wasn't ultimately to my taste.

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25 Days of TNG, Day 19: The Relaunch

Josh Roseman — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:00:49 +0000

Even though Star Trek canon says that, after Nemesis, there was no more official Trek until Spock attempted to save Romulus, I think we all knew the intellectual property was too valuable to just be left lying there. So they relaunched it.

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25 Days of TNG, Day 16: The 10 Best Tie-In Novels

Josh Roseman — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:00:10 +0000

Now that I've given you my list of the 10 worst tie-ins, how about I go in the other direction? Is your favorite TNG tie-in on my top-ten list?

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25 Days of TNG, Day 15: The 10 Worst Tie-In Novels

Josh Roseman — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:00:52 +0000

I've been reading the TNG tie-in novels since they were first released. Unfortunately, there have been some real stinkers over the years. Here are ten of them.

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Book Review: Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele

Josh Roseman — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 14:00:12 +0000

The current trend in YA is to write an adult novel and then trim away everything extraneous, leaving behind a tightly-written, fast-paced story. Allen Steele's new YA sci-fi adventure, Apollo's Outcasts, definitely fits that bill.

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Book Review: Wrayth by Philippa Ballantine

Josh Roseman — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:00:50 +0000

As far as a "second-in-the-trilogy" novel goes, Wrayth is a good entry into that milieu. Like its predecessors, the book moves quickly and has strong characterization, furthering the worldbuilding and setting up a very unexpected Big Bad. But it wasn't without its problems.

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Book Review: The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Josh Roseman — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:00:26 +0000

If there was an infinite number of Earths and you could move from one to the other, would you go exploring? The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, looks at this idea (and others). I just wish it was more Pratchett-y.

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Book Review: Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias

Josh Roseman — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:00:45 +0000

US foreign policy as it relates to immigration is a hot-button issue. US policy in general tends to be getting more extreme by the day. Put those two sentences together and you have Ink, the new novel by Sabrina Vourvoulias.

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Book Review: “Death’s Daughter” by Amber Benson

Josh Roseman — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:00:01 +0000

My favorite Death is the one who TALKS LIKE THIS. I also like the one who dresses in black and wears an ankh. But the one who's a middle child and just wants to work in the fashion industry? The one in Death's Daughter by Amber Benson? Surprisingly, I kind of like her too.

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Book Review: “Kiss the Dead” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:00:54 +0000

I struggled mightily to find some things that stood out about this book. I managed to find a few, but it wasn't easy. Overall, Kiss the Dead was a prosaic entry in the Anita Blake universe, and while fans will probably love it, average readers should just skip it.

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Book Review: Hunter and Fox by Philippa Ballantine

Josh Roseman — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:00:52 +0000

It still amazes me that Philippa Ballantine can do in 280 pages what it takes some authors 800 or more to achieve. Hunter and Fox is an interestingly-built world with compelling characters... but for some reason, I still didn't really feel satisfied when I finished the book.

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Book Review: “Railsea” by China Mieville

Josh Roseman — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:00:19 +0000

Unlike The City & the City & Iron Council, when I finally got to the end of China Mieville's new novel Railsea, I wasn't left feeling beaten or empty. But otherwise we're looking at pretty standard Mieville here.

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Book Review: “Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion”

Josh Roseman — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:00:57 +0000

It doesn't take much effort to observe that I've been on one hell of a Joss Whedon kick over the course of the past year. So when Amazon's algorithm suggested I purchase PopMatters's Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion, I figured it would be something I'd enjoy.

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Three Dragons, Three Tattoos: a review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Part 2 of 2)

Josh Roseman — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:23:01 +0000

Stieg Larsson's novel of murder, intrigue, history, and hacking, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, has been adapted into two films -- a Swedish one and an American one. Despite having the same source material, they're very different movies. Find out just how different in the second part of this two-part review.

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Three Dragons, Three Tattoos: a review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Part 1 of 2)

Josh Roseman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:22:45 +0000

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Book Review: “Out of Oz” by Gregory Maguire

Josh Roseman — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:25:45 +0000

Although I liked Wicked, I didn't really care for the next two books in Gregory Maguire's "Wicked Years" series. The conclusion, Out of Oz, just came out, and I figured it was worth taking a look. Perhaps I should've just learned my lesson.

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Myths of Origin by Catherynne M. Valente

Sarah Frost — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 01:39:17 +0000

It is easy to love a book when it has been cruel to you. Myths of Origin by Catherynne M. Valente is a hard book, and one that will encourage most readers to put it down. It contains four short novels, each of which will challenge the reader to make sense of its elaborate metaphors […]

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Book Review: “Bigfoot: I Not Dead” by Graham Roumieu

Josh Roseman — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:02:49 +0000

Human who like juvenile humor, poop joke, and self-deprecating retelling of life of mythical creature should read "Bigfoot: I Not Dead" by Bigfoot, as retold by Graham Roumieu. It contain many funny words about what Bigfoot been doing past few years, since last Bigfoot book released. (And not worry: entire review not written in Bigfoot dialect.)

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Book Review: “11/22/63” by Stephen King

Josh Roseman — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:59:20 +0000

The assassination of JFK was a watershed event in human history, one that many people believe should never have happened. In Stephen King's new novel, 11/22/63, we learn that, no matter what we think should've happened, history is a pretty powerful force and it doesn't want to be changed.

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Book Review: The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

Sarah Frost — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:00:43 +0000

Before the internet, before television, before jets and superhighways shrank the world to a manageable size and science gave us the tools to understand it, men of substance and education created wunderkammer. These rooms showcased curiosities, genuine artifacts and forgeries, from around the world. Their creators did not distinguish between plant and animal, ancient artifact […]

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Book Review: The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein

Sarah Frost — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:00:33 +0000

Rosemary Kirstein’s remarkable book, The Steerswoman, exists in the place between science fiction and fantasy. It looks like a fantasy novel, and uses the familiar story of an improbable band of heroes on a quest through a fantasy kingdom as a backdrop, but its core is made of the hardest science fiction. The underlying story […]

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Book Review: “Snuff” by Terry Pratchett

Josh Roseman — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:52:23 +0000

Every cop series has an obligatory "get stuck doing cop stuff while on vacation". In Terry Pratchett's latest novel, Snuff, Commander Samuel Vimes goes on vacation and ends up doing a whole lot of it. Also, his son discovers the wonders of poo.

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Book Review: “Changing Planes” by Ursula K. Le Guin

Sarah Frost — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:49:03 +0000

Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin is a book based on a little pun — the idea that the relentless hostility of airports to the human mind can, at times, drive a person out of our plane of reality and into another. While waiting to change planes, then, one might find one’s self actually […]

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Book Review: “The Colorado Kid” by Stephen King

Josh Roseman — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:11:37 +0000

The concept of a TV-show being based on a literary work is stretched pretty thin when it comes to Haven being based upon Stephen King's The Colorado Kid.

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Book Review: City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Sarah Frost — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:10:08 +0000

Science fiction always runs the risk of getting caught up in pointless details. City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is one of those science fiction novels that spends too much time looking down at its feet and not enough time staring up at the wondrous ideas that it is proposing. Half explore-the-ancient-machine, half first-contact, […]

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Book Review: “Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresault” by Genevieve Valentine

Sarah Frost — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:02:05 +0000

In a time of thousand-page fantasy epics, a little book like Genevieve Valentine’s Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti is easy to overlook. I recommend making the effort to track it down. Mechanique is a beautifully written book. Genevieve Valentine says more with hints and suggestions than some authors can say in a thousand […]

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Book Review: The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Sarah Frost — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:09:23 +0000

Books like The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells are why I love fantasy literature. In The Cloud Roads, Wells has built a world where people aren’t just divided by color and language, but by species and life-cycle. In a surprisingly short time, Wells touches on the kinds problems that a world like hers would have, […]

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Book Review: “H.I.V.E.: Higher Institute of Villainous Education” by Mark Walden

Josh Roseman — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:11:10 +0000

Take the tried-and-true story framework of Harry Potter and set it at a school for super-villains and you've got H.I.V.E., a young adult novel by Mark Walden. I found it pretty funny, and think it's worth a read.

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Book Review: “The Magician King” by Lev Grossman

Josh Roseman — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:27:27 +0000

In The Magician King, Lev Grossman's return to the magical world of Fillory continues lampooning and lampshading the fantasy tropes we've all put in our fiction, and if the plot is a little weak, the storytelling makes up for that.

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Book Review: Fade to Black by Josh Pryor

Josh Roseman — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:09:25 +0000

If you like science, CSI, stories that take place in Antarctica, or lots-of-people-crammed-into-a-small-space-slowly-going-mad, then you'll enjoy Fade to Black. But the main character we were supposed to like was the one I disliked the most, and there was just too much for me to overlook in terms of tropes and internal monologuing.

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Book Review: “River of Gods” by Ian McDonald

Sarah Frost — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 19:07:07 +0000

The average science fiction novel takes one or two interesting ideas from recent history and modern science and extrapolates them forward for fun and enlightenment. In River of Gods, however, Ian McDonald found a place for a little bit of everything in the caldron of India’s future. Artificial intelligence, climate change, extreme body modification, alien […]

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Book Review: “Spectyr” by Philippa Ballantine

Josh Roseman — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 19:51:26 +0000

Spectyr contains action, adventure, exotic locales, airships, and a good Boss Fight, all well-written and without the info-dumps many fantasy authors fall prey to. I just wish the book hadn't followed almost the exact same story arcs (albeit with different settings and characters) as its predecessor.

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Book Review: “Osama” by Lavie Tidhar

Josh Roseman — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 02:37:39 +0000

Despite being a short novel, Lavie Tidhar's Osama didn't really draw me in, which is a shame because it has a lot of good ideas and rich scenery.

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Book Review: “Pirates” by Nobilis Reed

Josh Roseman — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:08:37 +0000

The things I really liked in Scouts are back in Pirates -- worldbuilding, characterization, and wry humor -- but I didn't feel the sense of discovery with Pirates that I had with the previous book, and, for me, that's its downfall.

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Book Review: “Geist” by Philippa Ballantine

Josh Roseman — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:51:41 +0000

Geist, by Philippa Ballantine, combines the best of what I like in 1990s fantasy fiction with the scope of a doorstop novel... and then pares out all the extraneous crap that makes a fantasy novel into a doorstop. It's an enjoyable book to read, even if it's got a few too many tropes that we've all read before.

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Book Review: “Hit List” by Laurell K. Hamilton

Josh Roseman — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 21:15:55 +0000

While Laurell K. Hamilton's Hit List is better than the three Anita Blake books that preceded it, it still suffers from the same problems that bothered me about the others -- specifically, even though the action is well-written, none of the characters will just shut up and let the action happen.

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“Deathless” by Catherynne M. Valente

Sarah Frost — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 21:15:11 +0000

“This is Russia and it is 1952. What else would you call hell?” The retold fairytale is an old and well-worn road in the fantasy genre. Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente, still manages to arrive with something new. Valente hasn’t just taken “The Death of Koschei the Deathless” into modern Russia. She has also made […]

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Book Review: “Embassytown” by China Mieville

Josh Roseman — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:00:19 +0000

What if you had to physically act out similes before you could say them? What would you be like if you were "the girl who was hurt in the dark and ate what was given to her"? China Mieville's Embassytown explores that theme and others, and is a smashing success at doing so.

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Book Review: “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” by N.K. Jemisin

Josh Roseman — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:00:19 +0000

In the superbly-titled The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Yeine Darr must fight a battle of political succession to determine the next ruler of the world. The problem is: I've read this book before, and I'm not sure this one brings anything new to the telling of the tale.

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Book Review: “Scouts” by Nobilis Reed

Josh Roseman — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:28:43 +0000

You've heard of warp drive and folding space as methods of faster-than-light travel. But I bet you've never heard of an orgone drive, or how you charge it. Nobilis Reed has, and in Scouts, he shows you exactly how to get across the galaxy.

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Jeff VanderMeer Covers Finnish SF in Two Part Series

Mur Lafferty — Sat, 21 May 2011 16:20:36 +0000

Ann and Jeff VanderMeer recently went to Finland to attend lectures and learn about the SFF community there. in a two-part blog series, Jeff talks about authors he met and the experience of interacting with SFF fandom in a country where the government actively supports the arts (including SFF!) communities. Supported by that community, a […]

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Book Review: “Blind Man’s Bluff” by Peter David

Josh Roseman — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:14:39 +0000

For fourteen years, Peter David has been writing about Captain Mackenzie Calhoun of the U.S.S. Excalibur. In his latest New Frontier novel, Blind Man's Bluff, he continues in the fast-paced adventure vein that his fans have come to enjoy.

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Brave New Worlds, edited by John Joseph Adams

Sarah Frost — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:23:47 +0000

Anyone who is interested in the grim meathook side of the science fiction genre should pick up Brave New Worlds, the new anthology of dystopian fiction. Once again, John Joseph Adams has proved that he has a keen eye for a good story. These are not easy stories to read. Few of them have happy […]

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Book Review: “Ship Breaker” by Paolo Bacigalupi

Josh Roseman — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:23:16 +0000

Which side will you be on when the world ends? Will you live in relative luxury, with good food and affordable health care, safe from the weather and the rising ocean? Or will you be like Nailer, the main character of Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker?

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Book Review: “Nascence” by Tobias S. Buckell

Josh Roseman — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:21:43 +0000

All writers fail at writing at some point in their careers. But do we really want to read an entire book of failed short-stories? The answer may surprise you.

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Book Review: “Seize the Fire” by Michael A. Martin

Josh Roseman — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:20:52 +0000

I've always enjoyed the Star Trek: Titan novels, as they've taken up the mantle of single-episode stand-alone novels. The Titan entry to the Typhon Pact series, while not flawless, is a worthy addition to them.

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“God’s War” by Kameron Hurley

Sarah Frost — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:05:16 +0000

God’s War by Kameron Hurley opens with our hero, Nyxnissa, who has just sold her uterus for petty cash and then blown it all on drugs and gambling. Then things get worse. This book picks up the reader and drops them onto an alien planet, thousands of years in the future. It is a world […]

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Book Review: “Soft Apocalypse” by Will McIntosh

Josh Roseman — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:11:07 +0000

Apocalypse fiction has been around for many years, usually in the form of a cataclysmic event that destroys a good chunk of the entire planet. After reading Soft Apocalypse, I can tell you that being eaten by a giant space squid is far more palatable than what author Will McIntosh foresees.

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Book Review: “Dancing with Bears” by Michael Swanwick

Josh Roseman — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:21:27 +0000

From Han Solo to Mal Reynolds, the law-breaking but good-hearted character is one that most of us have come across in our consumption of media. And then there's Darger and Surplus, who have absolutely no desire to be a force for good. They're the main characters of Dancing With Bears, the new novel by Michael Swanwick.

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The great Escape Pod Lovecraft readalong

Adam Christopher — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:00:09 +0000

I’m a fan of Howard Philips Lovecraft. In fact, he’s my favourite (deceased) author. Perhaps unusually for someone of my age, I didn’t actually come to him through the Call of Cthulhu RPG, which seems to have been the main route of discovery for most people. In fact, I was introduced to Lovecraft and the […]

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Book Review: “Agatha H. and the Airship City”, by Phil and Kaja Foglio

Josh Roseman — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:39:27 +0000

Steampunk? Fantasy? Humor? Sharply-written dialogue? Nuanced characters, both good and evil? Full-figured women in their underthings? If any of these appeal to you, then you need to get a copy of Agatha H. and the Airship City. And even if they don't, you'll still like the book.

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Review: “I Am Not a Serial Killer” by Dan Wells

Sarah Frost — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:36:16 +0000

I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells is the story of a fifteen-year-old sociopath. It’s the sort of young adult book that gets shelved in with adult novels, because the experiences of a fifteen-year-old white boy are the sort of thing that everyone is supposed to be able to relate to. (Where this […]

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2011 Award Season: The British Contingent

Adam Christopher — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:20:17 +0000

The 2011 awards season is well and truly upon us – it’s an exciting time of year, with all but one of the big awards having released their shortlists, and the SF community engaging in discussion and debate both online and off. I’m sure that there are a lot of us who know some of […]

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Book Review: “Paths of Disharmony” by Dayton Ward

Josh Roseman — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:42:39 +0000

Here's the basic plot of Paths of Disharmony: For 200 years, these dudes have been our friends, ever since we helped them make peace with these other dudes who were our friends even longer. But now they're all pissed at us. So let's send our most awesome dude to their house and hold a giant party, inviting everyone. That'll totally work! || But in all seriousness, it's a pretty good book.

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Book Review: “Rough Beasts of Empire” by David R. George III

Josh Roseman — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:10:28 +0000

We love Spock. We love Sisko. But will we love them in the same book at the same time? A review of David R. George III's Rough Beasts of Empire reveals that... well... we won't.

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2010 Nebula Nominees

Bill Peters — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:36:33 +0000

Congratulations to everybody, and if you want to listen to two of them we’ve already podcast the ones with Love in the title — Conditional Love and I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno. What this says about us or SFWA can be speculated on in the comments. SFWA: Short Story ‘‘Arvies’’, […]

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Book review: “Zero Sum Game” by David Mack

Josh Roseman — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:00:50 +0000

After the demise of the Borg, our Star Trek heroes needed a new Big Boss to fight. So the editors gave us the Typhon Pact. "Zero Sum Game" is the first in the miniseries, and... well, I'm a little disappointed.

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Book Review: “Kraken” by China Mieville

Josh Roseman — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:50:25 +0000

Though Del Rey released the Kraken in the US last summer, I've only now gotten around to reading it. And as far as I can remember, no one in the book makes a Clash of the Titans reference. Anywhere.

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Book Review: The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

Sarah Frost — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:08:46 +0000

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald is the kind of science fiction novel that rewards the attentive reader. It begs its fans to create timelines and diagrams and carefully-plotted maps of the characters’ paths through the Queen of Cities. I felt I was missing layers of meaning, and if I just took the time to […]

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Book Review: “Super Sad True Love Story” by Gary Shteyngart

Josh Roseman — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 01:26:54 +0000

Though Gary Shteyngart's latest novel is called Super Sad True Love Story, I found it to be a frighteningly-accurate portrayal of near-future America. It's also hilarious.

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Review: “Monster Hunter International” by Larry Correia

Sarah Frost — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:57:26 +0000

I had a warm spot in my heart for Larry Correia after reading his HK rant. (“Because you suck. And we hate you.”) Unfortunately, I decided to read his novel, Monster Hunter International. This book was originally self-published, and owes its success to Mr. Correia’s marketing instincts. I don’t have space to cover all the […]

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Review: For the Win by Cory Doctorow

Josh Roseman — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 22:22:42 +0000

Most of us have heard the term "gold farmer", and we know it means "someone who plays games to get gold and rare items, then sell them". But who are the gold farmers? In For the Win, we find that they're just like us. Or, maybe, just like our kids.

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Review: Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen

Josh Roseman — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:00:24 +0000

Every now and then, a sci-fi or fantasy novel or series comes along that completely redefines your definition of “the best sci-fi book I’ve read”. Which is not to say it’s the best book ever, or that everyone who reads it will love it. However, in the case of author Sean McMullen’s Souls in the […]

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Review: The Habitation of the Blessed by Catherynne Valente

Sarah Frost — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:00:24 +0000

The Habitation of the Blessed, being the first volume of A Dirge for Prester John, is the newest addition to the long and honorable tradition of fan fiction dedicated to a 12th-century forgery. The original letter described a kingdom in the generically exotic and conveniently distant “east,” where a Christian priest ruled a nation of […]

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Superhero fiction: the next big thing?

Adam Christopher — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:53:53 +0000

There is an old writing adage worth paying attention to: don’t write for the market. What’s hot now may not be hot next year, and considering a book may take two to three years to come out after being picked up by a publisher – and that’s not counting the time it takes to actually […]

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Announcements from Pyr, Angry Robot, and Cory Doctorow!

Mur Lafferty — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:52:17 +0000

First, Pyr is releasing a free ePub Novelette in celebration of its 100th book published: The Wolf Age by James Enge. From the press release: The Wolf Age is the third novel to feature Enge’s character Morlock Ambrosius, a wandering swordsman, an exile, and a drunk. Blood of Ambrose, Enge’s first Morlock novel, was on […]

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Apocalypse now

Adam Christopher — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:22:30 +0000

So, you like The Walking Dead, huh? It’s neat, right? An ongoing post-apocalyptic TV series about zombies, based on an award-winning comic. What’s not to love? And fortunately, they’ve done a mighty fine job on the adaptation. This viewer is pleased. Zombies are popular at the moment, cresting at the top of one of those unpredictable […]

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Review: Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Sarah Frost — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:11:50 +0000

While I do not read romances, and I have not read a book by Jane Austen since high school, I nevertheless decided to pick up Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal. She is a brilliant writer, and I trusted her to write something I could endure. As it turned out, enduring the […]

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The story is king

Adam Christopher — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 16:01:44 +0000

A friend pointed out to me on Twitter just the other day that as of this week, it is exactly one year since I picked up my first Stephen King book and started reading. That book was Under the Dome, which came out in November 2009, and I was utterly enthralled from beginning to end. […]

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Review: The Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle

Sarah Frost — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:00:39 +0000

“For my part, I prefer aliens that look alien. Then when they ritually eat their first-born, or turn arthropod halfway through their life-cycle, it isn’t so much of a shock. You expect it. Humanoid aliens, they’re trouble.” — Mary Gentle, The Golden Witchbreed A few months ago, I finally picked up Mary Gentle’s science fiction duology, The Golden Witchbreed […]

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Review: Zero History by William Gibson

Sarah Frost — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:00:02 +0000

With the possible exception of the Very Ugly Shirt, I think I’ve seen all of the technology in William Gibson’s new novel, Zero History, featured on BoingBoing. Zero History is a science fiction novel because a science fiction writer wrote it. If it had been written by someone other than William Gibson, it could have […]

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Review: “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Josh Roseman — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:54:00 +0000

If I only read e-books, I'd never have stopped at the B&N discount rack on my recent vacation and picked up A Princess of Mars. There's a reason it's a classic.

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What We’re Reading: “Gregor the Overlander”

Mur Lafferty — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 17:19:12 +0000

I am the mom of an eight-year-old, so I do keep up with the kids’ book market, but I chose these books because they were written by the Queen of Pacing, Suzanne Collins, author of the huge hit, The Hunger Games trilogy. (Which I loved, despite the disappointment of Mockingjay, but that’s another blog post.) […]

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Book Review: White Tiger, by Kylie Chan

Mur Lafferty — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 16:55:09 +0000

Confession time: I don’t finish books I don’t like. I find it a waste of my time, and if I don’t care to finish the book, I don’t care to find out what happens at the end. * The sad truth is, I didn’t finish White Tiger. It hooked me, quite well in fact. I […]

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Book Review: I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett

Josh Roseman — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:59:43 +0000

The world of genre fiction was dealt a serious blow when author Terry Pratchett announced that he suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. It didn’t stop him from writing, but it may have moved up the end of his writing career. His previous Discworld novel, “Unseen Academicals”, was – to my mind, anyway – full of […]

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