I Keep Secrets: Review of Victor LaValle’s Lone Women

Jeremy Brett Under Review:Lone Women. Victor LaValle. One World, March 2023. Victor LaValle is no stranger to showcasing horror in places that already inspire a sense of dread or discomfort, whether a disorienting mental asylum in The Devil in Silver or the urban strangeness of New York City in The Changeling. With Lone Women, LaValle … Continue reading I Keep Secrets: Review of Victor LaValle’s Lone Women

Mistborn Era 2 in Retrospect

Alex Kingsley If you’re at all connected to the SFF world, you’ve probably heard that Brandon Sanderson just released The Lost Metal, which concludes the Mistborn Era 2 series, part of his fictional universe called the Cosmere. So what is the Cosmere, why does it have so many die-hard fans, and why is The Lost … Continue reading Mistborn Era 2 in Retrospect

Coming Home Changed: Review of Dead Country by Max Gladstone

Coming Home Changed: Review of Dead Country by Max Gladstone Misha Grifka Wander Under Review:Dead Country. Max Gladstone. Tordotcom, March 2023. Tara Abernathy is a master necromancer. She has faced down gods. She is friends with a gargoyle, a goddess, an immortal skeleton king. She walked through a cursed desert to learn her craft, and … Continue reading Coming Home Changed: Review of Dead Country by Max Gladstone

Some Heroes Are Made, Not Born: Review of T. Kingfisher’s Nettle & Bone

Some Heroes Are Made, Not Born: Review of T. Kingfisher’s Nettle & Bone REVIEW AUTHOR NAME Under Review:Nettle & Bone. T. Kingfisher. Tor Books, April 2022. I’m always fond of the reluctant hero image: the person who, Frodo Baggins-style, would much rather be left alone to live a quiet life but takes on the mantle … Continue reading Some Heroes Are Made, Not Born: Review of T. Kingfisher’s Nettle & Bone

Heaven Can Wait: A Review of Even Though I Knew the End

Heaven Can Wait: A Review of Even Though I Knew the End Jeremy Brett Under Review:Even Though I Knew the End. C.L. Polk. Tordotcom, November 2022. C.L. Polk’s fiction is deeply concerned with the societal, psychological, and personal costs of magic, and the ways in which magic and social inequalities interact. In her 3-novel Kingston … Continue reading Heaven Can Wait: A Review of Even Though I Knew the End

Investigator Outsider: Exploring the Off-Kilter World of Robert Freeman Wexler’s The Silverberg Business

Investigator Outsider: Exploring the Off-Kilter World of Robert Freeman Wexler’s The Silverberg Business Melissa Benton Barker Under Review:The Silverberg Business. Robert Freeman Wexler. Small Beer Press, August 2022. Sometime in 1888, a private investigator, Shannon, returns home to coastal Texas for what he assumes will be a quick visit. He is soon called upon to … Continue reading Investigator Outsider: Exploring the Off-Kilter World of Robert Freeman Wexler’s The Silverberg Business

What We Can Know about Alan Moore: A Review of Illuminations

What We Can Know about Alan Moore: A Review of Illuminations Alex Kingsley Under Review:Illuminations. Alan Moore. Bloomsbury, October 2022. Alan Moore is best known as the creator of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, both comic book series popularized by their film adaptations. Watchmen explores the idea of state-sponsored superheroes, whereas V for Vendetta has … Continue reading What We Can Know about Alan Moore: A Review of Illuminations

Marvelous Flights: A Review of When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

Marvelous Flights: A Review of When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill Jeremy Brett Under Review:When Women Were Dragons. Kelly Barnhill. Doubleday Books, May 2022. Some women already resemble dragons, it seems to me – fierce, desiring to fly free, too big to be ignored – but here comes Kelly Barnhill with her new novel … Continue reading Marvelous Flights: A Review of When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

A Jewish Gothic Family Saga: A Review of Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver’s Uncommon Charm

A Jewish Gothic Family Saga: A Review of Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver’s Uncommon Charm Valerie Estelle Frankel Under Review:Uncommon Charm, Emily Bergslien & Kat Weaver. Neon Hemlock, May 2022. Besides being clever and punchy, recent fantasy has been light and snappy. Novellas and novelettes are filling the shelves and entertaining with quick, quirky reads … Continue reading A Jewish Gothic Family Saga: A Review of Emily Bergslien and Kat Weaver’s Uncommon Charm

We Are All of Us Entertained: A Review of The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

We Are All of Us Entertained: A Review of The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez Karlo Yeager Rodriguez Under Review:The Spear Cuts Through Water, Simon Jimenez. Del Rey, August 2022. Reading a novel that adopts the structures and cadences of both theater and oral storytelling, with shifting perspectives and voices adding to the … Continue reading We Are All of Us Entertained: A Review of The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez