New York Times: Okorafor invents wild, fantastical creatures and world, but she’s got an even rarer gift, too: She can describe the effect of using magic—the emotional and physiological repercussions of it—so viscerally, it’s as if it were a fever we’d contracted ourselves. Okorafor describes Sunny’s moments of anguish beautifully, as well as her feelings of kinship and wonder. This is a novel about a girl who’s just trying to find her place in the world, even when she’s called upon […]
B&N SFF Blog: From its opening pages, Elizabeth Bear’s The Stone in the Skull wears its virtues on its sleeve, introducing us to two characters, Dead Man and the Gage, who are immediately enigmatic, yet also compelling and achingly human (doubly impressive for the Gage, a towering automaton powered by a human soul). And this is where the book truly excels, beyond the magic-laced action scenes and top-tier worldbuildingin the way Bear loads layered relationships between a whole host of characters into a relatively slim page count. With […]
From Hugo and Nebula award winning author Nnedi Okorafor, an original five-comic series about strange things unearthed at LaGuardia airport, to Karen Berger at Dark Horse, via Donald Maass.
RT Reviews: Tanzer crafts a dark, heady tale of sensuality and the supernatural, full of deceptively complex characters and plenty of dangerous surprises. Tanzer deserves credit for creating a complex and insightful relationship between her two sisters, and providing them such a gripping adventure in which to grow.
From Edgar Award winning editor Leslie S. Klinger (In the Company of Sherlock Holmes) and Bram Stoker winning author and editor Lisa Morton (Ghosts: A Haunted History), a volume of rediscovered classic ghost stories, to Claiborne Hancock at Pegasus Books, via Donald Maass.
Locus: Full disclaimer: I haven’t read Elizabeth Bear’s first trilogy set in the Eternal Sky world (Range of Ghosts, etc.) but am also not sure it matters. While I’m sure a reading of The Stone in the Skull would be enhanced by knowing about this world before dropping into it, that knowledge is not required to enjoy the visit there. And it is enjoyable. The story opens with the Gage, a brass automaton, and the Dead Man, a drifter, of sorts, trudging over ice-choked mountains to deliver […]
DLMA congratulates Jim Butcher on winning two 2017 Dragon Awards! Best Comic Book: The Dresden Files: Dog Men, by Jim Butcher, Mark Powers, Diego Galindo Best Graphic Novel: Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: Wild Card, by Jim Butcher, Carlos Gomez
Publishers Weekly: In Likitalo’s lovely sequel to The Five Daughters of the Moon, based on the last days of the Romanovs, the lyrical prose takes full advantage of the richness of Russian mythology and perfectly captures the enduring chill that surrounds the girls. Likitalo’s emotional and lyrical dark fairy tale will give readers plenty to think about.
RT Reviews: Bear skillfully weaves a brand-new saga into the landscape of her famed worlds from previous novels, hinting at the histories but not relying on them. The new stories and characters are fresh and captivating, from the young monarch with the creepiest drug addiction, to the elderly poet-warrior with the subversive skillset. There is little to critique here, though the romances can seem extraneous and unnecessary. The near-apocalyptic cliffhanger leaves the reader anxious for more. A definite must-read, and one to highlight in anticipation for the sequel. The […]
Booklist: Elena was the product of a virgin birth, but it wasn’t a miracle; just garden variety, statistically improbable, yet no less possible, parthenogenesis. What is a miracle, however, is her ability to heal people… Hutchinson always keeps the story firmly grounded in Elena’s relationships and, more importantly, her believable growth, particularly when it comes to her own faults. Surreal, brainy, and totally captivating.