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!)
Horror Review: Penny Reeve on Victor LaValle’s The Changeling
“When you believe in things you don’t understand you suffer” Stevie Wonder’s words serve as the epitaph to Victor LaValle’s The Changeling; accurately summing up the ensuing 431 pages wherein we’re introduced to a genre-defying novel that mixes horror with the fantastic and monsters both real and imagined come a-knocking.
A Book by its Cover – Chuck Wendig #5: The Raptor and the Wren by Miriam Black
After a few entries, popular series can become quite problematic. The author can stick to what works and hit all the same notes that brought success and breed comfortable familiarity. Scores of fans will eat it up, but it risks the series turning formulaic and dull. The author can try to switch things up, reinvent a groundbreaking core, or diverge the story into new characters and territory. But change too much of what the fans hold dear without winning some new hearts, and it could all come crashing down.
Speculative Fiction in Translation #1: Introductions
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SFiTEpisode1IntroducingTheSpeculativeFictionInTranslationPodcast/Sfit–Episode1–IntroducingTheSpeculativeFictionInTranslationPodcast.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSThe brand-new and sparkling Speculative Fiction in Translation podcast is here! In her 1st episode, Rachel introduces herself and talks about what to expect from the podcast throughout 2018. She also takes a quick look back at 2017 and its SFT riches and forward to the rest of 2018 and the novels/collections coming up. Episodes moving forward will feature two segments: 15 minutes of up-to-date news, new-releases, and details about speculative fiction in translation available online 15 minutes of interviews with wonderful translators, publishers, editors, authors, and readers. A bientôt!
Reviews: Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley & Everything That’s Underneath by Kristi DeMeester
Many of the reviewers associated with the Skiffy and Fanty team have a contribution specialty. I’ve always avoided this because I don’t like the limitations; I read/review outside of these genres even. But if I were to have a niche, it would probably be short fiction. I adore the variety it affords and the low commitment to discover new authors. It’s easier to convince myself to step away from work for a moment to read a short story, compared to equal time reading a portion of longer works that may not have obvious stopping points. Most importantly, some of the most exciting writing I’ve seen comes from the short form.
Month of Joy: The Comforting Embrace of Horror by David Annandale
For my contribution to the theme of this month, I was originally going to put together a short list. But the more I thought about one of the entries on that list, the more I felt I had to devote the entire post to this one book, and even that would fall short of doing it justice. Because if there is one book that has brought me more joy than any other, it would have to be Denis Gifford’s A Pictorial History of Horror Movies. Gifford’s tome came into my life in March of 1976, and it changed everything. I was already obsessed with monsters and dinosaurs, and I bought the book because it had pictures of the biggest dinosaur I had ever seen: Godzilla. Gifford’s text introduced me to the wonders of the cinema of Georges Méliès and James Whale and Val Lewton, to German Expressionism, to Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and in short defined the academic, creative and professional paths the rest of my life would take.
