Book Review: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
In a secondary fantasy world inspired by early 20th Century China, a young woman’s determination and drive to succeed and excel at any cost runs into the horrors of war, conflict and ancient, suppressed forces in R. F. Kuang’s excellent debut novel, The Poppy War.
Comics Review – A Weird Beat in the Motor City: ABBOTT #1 and 2
Welcome to the latest installment of my comics review column here at Skiffy & Fanty! Every month, I use this space to shine a spotlight on SF&F comics (print comics, graphic novels, and webcomics) that I believe deserve more attention from SF&F readers. This month, I’m shining a spotlight on a new series that debuted in January, 2018, and that, as I predicted in the Skiffy & Fanty Looking Back, Moving Forward: The 2018 Edition podcast, checks absolutely all my boxes: Saladin Ahmed and Sami Kivelä’s Abbott. (This review contains spoilers!)
Book review: Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman is a deeply affecting young adult novel that is part coming-of-age and part episodic road trip. It focuses on the eponymous Tess, a young woman who runs away from home to escape the restrictive life that is slowly smothering her. Rachel Hartman is best known for her Seraphina duology. Tess of the Road is not only set in the same world, but Tess is Seraphina’s half sister. New readers don’t need to have read the previous series in order to read this book; it makes clear how the world works. However, Tess of the Road takes place after the events of Seraphina and Shadow Scale. Several of the characters from these books make cameos and I highly recommend reading them first if you are adverse to spoilers.
Retro Childhood Review: Justice and Her Brothers
Justice flicked her eyes this way and that. All else around the parlor appeared ordinary. The light of sun set the room aglow in corners and on walls. It was an eerie effect, but not something she hadn’t seen before. The house was stifling, as it had been for weeks. But there was nothing odd about sunlight, about heat, at this early hour. Yet, since the summer started, she’d got the notion at times that something deadly strange was going on. When I was considering what book to read for Black History Month, I was once again struck with how inadequate my small library of childhood favorites is in representing any perspective that is not white. Thank goodness for Google. I’m upset with the system that existed in my small, very white town. A system that seems to have excluded voices of color and, indeed, made attempts on numerous occasions to explicitly do so. All of this means that I was never introduced to the exceedingly talented Newbery Medalist author, Virginia Hamilton. I suspect this is not JUST because she is a black woman, but because, at least when it comes to Justice and Her Brothers, one could easily mistake her work for “Not Sci-fi.” This is a mistake that needs immediate rectification because nothing could be further from the truth.
Book Review: The Binti Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor
Binti is a prodigy among her people, the Himba, in a mid-future world constructed by author Nnedi Okorafor. Binti’s desire to go the finest University in the galaxy breaks all sorts of norms. Binti’s like that, though, breaking norms and boundaries as she finds her way to the University, back home, and what happens thereafter. Binti’s story is told in Okorafor’s Binti, Binti: Home and the finale of the trilogy, Binti: Masquerade.
Book Review: Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra
Orders of female warriors, psychic weapons and quests for revenge are at the centre of Rati Mehrotra’s debut novel Markswoman. Nearly a thousand years after an apocalypse, humanity lives on in clans, and executions are carried out by orders of elite warriors. Kyra belongs to the oldest of these orders: the Order of Kali. Their leader, Shirin Mam, is renowned for her wisdom and power. Things begin to go wrong when Kyra returns one day to discover Shirin Mam is dead. Although the death appears natural, Kyra is convinced her mentor has been murdered… and she’s pretty sure she knows the culprit. It is up to her to claim justice.
