Sing, Muse!: Moses Siregar III‘s The Black God’s War Two very different realms have struggled against each other for years. The Rezzians, worshipers of ten deities, have engaged in a holy war against their godless neighbors, the Pawleons. With the birth of a royal son who is also a prophesied holy leader with divine powers, […]
Wasteland by Mur Lafferty starts immediately after the climactic conclusion of Earth, the previous book in the Afterlife series. If you have yet to read the series up to this point, be forewarned. There be spoilers ahead. Daniel is left alone, one eyed (still- or is it again?), and wandering the wasteland with the […]
Dealing with the running of Heaven, the creation of a new Earth, and a literal administrative Hell has the newly deified Kate and Daniel both frazzled and emotionally drained in Earth, the third book of Mur Lafferty‘s Afterlife series. Despite their godly powers and knowledge, they lack the experience to handle their new […]
Thirteen Years Later by Jasper Kent ISBN-10: 1616142537 First off: Thirteen Years Later, as the title suggests, is the second book in the series. It stands alone nicely, but I do recommend reading the first one before this one. Spoilers in the review are of the most minor sort, but there will be a few. […]
(Author’s Note: BEWARE: here there be spoilers!) “We tell the truth best by becoming lies.” – Avice Benner Cho To start this review, I need to make a brief confession: I have had Embassytown in my possession for a few months, and finished reading it weeks ago. But when I sat down to write my […]
“The journey is as important as the destination.” – God In Hell, Book II of the Afterlife series by Mur Lafferty, Kate and Daniel learn this important principle as they once again journey through the afterlife. God sends them on a divine mission, literally going through Hell – from Hades of Ancient Greece […]
A savage pant—almost a laugh—puffed foul breath that blew hair from Sanders’s forehead. Sanders raised a fist, but the beast caught his arm with ease and slammed it on the concrete floor. Liam felt bones give way with a sickening snap and was pinned between satisfaction and revulsion. Sanders howled. A talon plunged into […]
The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman ISBN-10: 0765325535 All of the stuff I saw about Half-Made World indicated it was Steampunk. Given my lack of luck with that genre recently, I had my reservations. Half-Made World has Steampunk elements, sure. But that’s probably the least influential genre in this book. Weird West, Magical Realism, military […]
“So you’re saying that the journey is key, not the destination.” – Kate This sentiment – expressed in the very beginning of Mur Lafferty‘s Heaven – echos heavily throughout the novella. After dying in a car crash, best friends Kate and Daniel find out death isn’t what they expected. While they’re both superficially happy […]
“Ah!” Malagigi’s eyes flickered over the three staffs of power we carried—the staffs that were our Prospero Family legacy: Gregor’s Staff of Darkness, Erasmus’s Staff of Decay , and my flute, The Staff of Winds—before coming to rest upon Durandel riding in its sheath at Erasmus’s side. Softly, he murmured. “Maybe, with […]
Publisher: Spectra ISBN-10: 0345520858 ISBN-13: 978-0345520852 Nights of Villjamur Mark Charan Newton Shrouded in snow and ice, and facing the threat of an endless winter, the city of Villjamur is–understandably–under a great deal of stress. Refugees stream from all over the Empire, the Emperor is mad and paranoid, councilors are being murdered, cultist tensions are […]
hierophant noun. 1. (Historical Terms) (in ancient Greece) an official high priest of religious mysteries, esp those of Eleusis 2. a person who interprets and explains esoteric mysteries Back when I wrote a review of Finch, I called Jeff Vandermeer the “Hierophant of the New Weird”. I used that unusual word on purpose, then, and I use […]
Take a captain of a beat up old ship that sometimes can barely fly, but he loves it to death. He’s a veteran of a recent war, has no love for the Navy, and seeks freedom and profit, from trading between ports to a bit of light piracy and theft now and again. He […]
Desdaemona by Ben Macallan Desdaemona is a stand-alone Urban Fantasy set in London. The protagonist, Jordan, hears a banshee’s scream late at night. He finds a teenage girl cowering in a bus station, under attack by a pack of werewolves. The girl has no one else to help her, so seventeen-year old Jordan stands between […]
Galileo’s Dream, by author Kim Stanley Robinson, takes the reader on a time traveling adventure between the moons of Jupiter and the most famous cities of the Renaissance, between the political turmoil of the distant future to the inner turmoil of Galileo’s own mind. Our guides throughout the journey are a man named […]
A Review of Engineering Infinity, edited by Jonathan Strahan Jonathan Strahan is a freelance editor known for the wide variety of anthologies and author collections he has helped mold into shape. Ranging from collections of Jack Vance and Larry Niven to the New Space Opera to the Sword and Sorcery anthology Swords and […]
Hex, by Allen M. Steele, is the sixth book in his Coyote series, taking place a number of years after the original novel. It’s a fast, exciting read, but one that fails to live up to expectations. Humanity has been opened up to the stars via a network of gates and tentative connections with other […]
Do I dare disturb the universe? – (TS Elliot) quoted by The Mastermind Timecaster by Joe Kimball, a self described Eco-punk novel set in a green utopean future, promises all the thrills, violence, sex, and groin punches that you probably wouldn’t expect in that setting. It’s not short on humor either. In […]
The creature stalked forward, bent, its talon like hands flexing, and Burton saw that his first impression was accurate: the thing walked on two-foot-high stilts. Its lanky body was clad in a skintight white scaly suit that glittered in the dim light of the single guttering gas lamp. Something circular glowed on its […]
Cowboy Angels A novel by Paul McAuley Review by Paul Weimer “There are white-tailed deer and woodland caribou and mule deer. Wolves and black bears, and short-faced bears too-those are as big as grizzlies. A few panthers.” “Pretty good hunting in Manhattan” “We call the island New Amsterdam here…If you want to hunt something […]
The Winds of Khalakovo A novel by Bradley P Beaulieu Review by Paul Weimer “You look thin” Rehada said, perhaps growing tired of the silence. She held two snifters of infused vodka, one of which she handed to Nikandr as she settled gracefully upon the nearby pillows. “The work on the Gorovna…” Thankfully the wasting […]
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