Publishers Weekly: Winslow’s kaleidoscopic narrative technique, employing first-person accounts from multiple characters, makes for engaging reading.
Dec 072017
Dec 062017
Publishers Weekly: Klinger’s stellar fourth In the Shadow Of reprint anthology (after 2015’s In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe) educates readers about genre history and introduces them to talent that’s mainly obscure today.
This is a must-have volume for classic crime fans.
Dec 052017
Kirkus: Readers who appreciate relationship-driven novels will have much to savor. Elena’s bisexuality is refreshingly unproblematic—simply another aspect of her nature that is accepted by those around her—an echo of the deft treatment of differences among the diverse cast of characters. A creative and original tale shot through with quirky humor that entertains while encouraging readers to ponder questions of free will and social responsibility.
Dec 012017
RT Reviews: If earlier installments of this engrossing, heady political SF epic were thrilling in some small part because it seemed near impossible for Palmer to keep such a volatile mix compelling as she went forward, by the time of this third book of four, it is increasingly clear that we are in the hands of a new master of the genre.
As events bring this future (too flawed to be utopia, too promising to be dystopia) to the brink of possible disaster and ruin, the narrative is just as meaty and satisfying as before, the narrative voices just as cleverly chosen and implemented, the turns just as surprising and logical, the characters just as vivid and complex.
There’s a resonance and richness to the Terra Ignota series that is like almost nothing else being written today, and the finale ought to be a thing of wonder.
Nov 272017
Kirkus: Nicky Drayden’s debut novel The Prey of Gods is a surprising cornucopia of genres and characters taking place in a futurist South Africa and with seemingly disparate, multi-layered storylines that slowly progress toward each other–just as the characters do. It’s a little bit surreal, a little bit weird, a lot of fun and wholly impressive.
In a world that is constantly bombarding me with evil and awful news, reading something so queer, so beautiful, so hopeful, so cool–well, do you wonder why I wanted more?
Nov 222017
B&N SFF Blog: This is one of those books that can’t be adequately described; better to silently hand it to someone and nod sagely, implying with your expression that this is the book that will change everything.
Describing the universe Lee creates here isn’t easy, but here’s a go at it: it’s a consensus reality, shaped by the shared and very rigid belief of the inhabitants, belief is controlled by numbers, equations, and other mathematical processes. Reality itself is therefore governed by an accepted application of formula but what happens if there’s a rebellion of thought? In our own world, cutting-edge math and physics are merely disturbing. In Lee’s, they upset the very fabric of reality.
Nov 202017
Booklist: Ireland delivers a necessary, subversive, and explosive novel with her fantasy-laced alternate history. America is changed forever when the dead begin to prowl battlefields during the Civil War.
A smart, poignant, thrilling novel that does the all-important work of exploring topics of oppression, racism, and slavery while simultaneously accomplishing so much more. From page one, Jane is a capable, strong heroine maneuvering through a world that is brilliant and gut-wrenching.
Dread Nation will take readers on a breathless ride from beginning to end.
Nov 152017
Kirkus: Annalise Williams, 24, is obsessed with an unsolved crime: the disappearance and presumed murder years earlier of a 16-year-old girl with the same first name: Annalise Wood—”the kind of girl you look at and think, of course someone would want to take her.”
An intriguing, suspenseful, and briskly paced story with complex characters, evocative descriptions of England’s Cambridgeshire, plenty of clever misdirection, and a satisfying ending.
Nov 102017
Locus Magazine: With Elizabeth Bear’s previous novels in the same world: the Eternal Sky trilogy of Range of Ghosts, Shattered Pillars, and Steles of the Sky. That trilogy is one of the best – most deeply thought, carefully structured, and elegantly finished – epic fantasies of the last decades.
Bear’s worldbuilding is, as ever, a richly detailed delight, rendered tangible in cut-glass prose. The precision and care with which she employs language make the landscapes through which her characters move come powerfully to life – and gives those characters, too, powerful presence and compelling life.
It’s an enormously rich and textured novel, magnificently compelling – and really easy to read. Despite its sprawling, epic canvas, its pace is tight, and Bear cuts between plotlines with an adroit eye for tension. The Stone in the Skull is an astonishing delight of a book.
Nov 092017
Washington Post: With over 200 color and black-and-white illustrations, six appendixes and nearly 1,000 annotations, this edition of “Frankenstein” is a cornucopia of background information … Klinger’s edition allows readers to understand the complexities of the novel as well as the difficulties endured by its author. Only then can one be truly inspired by Mary Shelley’s genius and her bravery.