Blog Posts

Short Fiction Review: May 2018

This month, I have two stories that will give you heavy, negative feels (but in a good way, I promise!), and one story that can probably cheer you up afterward. In “One Day, My Dear, I’ll Shower You with Rubies” by Langley Hyde, which appears in Podcastle Episode 520 (May 1, 2018), a genocidal wizard is put on trial years after the war, and his daughter is called to testify against him. She won’t forgive him, and he won’t apologize. This story is challenging, unique, surprisingly real. Want a story about a succubus in the age of social media? Check out “Sucks (to Be You)” by Katharine Duckett, which appears in Uncanny Magazine Issue 22 (May/June 2018). It’s thoughtful and deeply unsettling in the very best way. Finally, I loved “Our Side of the Door” by Kodiak Julian, which appears in Lightspeed Magazine Issue 96 (May 2018). It’s a warm, beautiful portal fantasy that left me thinking about ethics and gender.

Blog Posts

Book Review: BLOOD ORBIT by K.R. Richardson

I don’t recall exactly what drew me to picking Blood Orbit out of the many options for potential reviewing here. Likely it was a combination of good experience/trust in the publisher and the description of a crime noir/science fiction blend, a combo of two of my beloved genres. I certainly didn’t recognize the name of the author, and upon finally beginning the novel I had no memory of what that blurb said it was even about. I started reading the electronic copy Pyr had provided expecting a typical slow start. Without the ease of a physical copy I find getting into a novel really challenging while trying to ‘turn’ back to firmly get characters or the seeds of plot to stick in mind. Instead I found little need for that, and my finger tapped through pages in a focused rush to read more. Blood Orbit is exceptionally crafted from its opening, and at no point through its last page did I ever end up feeling like it faltered. Happening to be at Barnes & Noble at the time, I soon decided to get up and just get the actual book, because I already had a feeling this “Gattis File” debut would be one series I’d want to keep up with.

Blog Posts

Book Review: The Realms of God by Michael Livingston

Drawing together strands, plots, and conflicts from the first two novels, The Realms of God winningly completes Michael Livingston’s Shards of Heaven trilogy. In the Shards of Heaven series, Michael Livingston has been weaving the real-life history of the early Roman Empire with magic and myth in a potent combination. Starting with The Shards of Heaven and through The Gates of Hell, the author has been telling the story of the Shards, pieces of Divine power on Earth, and those trying to win control of them, mastery of them, and mastery of the world as a result. The series features both historical characters as well as (especially in The Gates of Hell)  supernatural ones, telling stories that sit within the known history but do not contradict it or change it. They are good examples of Secret historical fantasy, eschewing any changes from our own world, but also grounding the novels in real events and real history.

SF in Translation, The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

Speculative Fiction in Translation #5: Frankenstein, Future Fiction, and Wiscon

https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SFiTEpisode5FrankensteinFutureFictionAndWiscon/Sfit-Episode5-FrankensteinFutureFictionAndWiscon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSMay is absolutely filled to the brim with SFT. With five short stories, seven novels/collections, interviews, reviews, and more, you’ll never be at a loss for something to read. Rachel also talks about the SFT panel at Wiscon (the annual feminist science fiction convention in Madison, Wisconsin) and what she’s been reading and translating. And a huge congratulations to Rodrigo Fresan and Will Vanderhyden for winning the 2018 Best Translated Book Award for The Invented Part (Open Letter)! With new stories and books coming to our attention each week, make sure to check the SFT website for updates. Enjoy, and keep reading! A bientôt! Show notes:

Blog Posts

Book Review: Ida by Alison Evans

Next weekend I’ll be attending Continuum, a speculative fiction convention held in Melbourne. Whenever I’m attending a convention, I always like to try to review something by one of the Guests of Honour. This year, Continuum is playing host to Alison Evans, one of Australia’s up-and-coming talents in YA SFF. Their debut novel Ida won the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award and was shortlisted for this year’s Aurealis Awards. The story is about Ida, a young woman with the ability to go back in time and revisit any decision she’s ever made. The decision can be as trivial as which type of shampoo she buys to something as important as choosing to drive another route in order to avoid a fatal car crash. However, one day Ida finds herself saddled with the consequences of a decision she’d previously tried to avoid. Then she starts traveling back in time against her will.

Blog Posts

Book Review: To Guard Against the Dark by Julie Czerneda

To Guard Against the Dark, the final novel set in the Trade Pact ’verse by Julie Czerneda, winningly ties together characters, plot-lines and threads into a grand, unifying finale. Pulling off a capstone to a set of nine novels is no easy task. After the original Trade Pact Trilogy (A Thousand Words for Stranger, Ties of Power, To Trade the Stars ) and then the Stratification Trilogy (Reap the Wild Wind, Riders of the Storm, Rift in the Sky ), author Julie E. Czerneda has put together the two strands of her universe together in a capstone trilogy appropriately called Reunification.

Scroll to Top