Book Review: CRYPT OF THE MOON SPIDER by Nathan Ballingrud
Gothic creepiness pervades the entirety of the novella, with a self-contained story whose characters and plot perfectly fit into the strengths of that format’s length.
Movie Review: CIVIL WAR (2024), directed by Alex Garland
The plot of Civil War actually doesn’t matter at all. It’s just a backdrop of events to explore the worst of human selfishness.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: The World of Tiers series by Philip José Farmer
Robert Wolff has had a series of hard knocks in his life. He can’t remember anything before the age of twenty, and in fact was fostered and taken care of by a family whose last name he now borrows. He has a wife and is looking to buy a new house, but being on the verge of a nervous breakdown and at his retirement age to boot, not even the end years of his life seem to be set to be peaceful or happy. So, when he discovers a strange inter-dimensional portal in the basement of said house and an invitation to use the aural horn-like key to open it, Wolff doesn’t hesitate. On the other side, he finds a wondrous artificial universe built like the layers of cake, with creatures out of mythology, magical portals, dread forces working against him, and the true secret of who and what he *really* is. Welcome to the World of Tiers.
