Category: Books

  • Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 108, May 2019

    Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 108, May 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars SCIENCE FICTIONCocoons (Nancy Kress) – This story could very easily have gone to a horror place. But instead it ends up being about the complexity of humanity, the perils of colonizing a new world, and hope. This Way to…

  • Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 107, April 2019

    Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 107, April 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars SCIENCE FICTIONThe Archronology of Love (Caroline M. Yoachim) – This short story involves an interesting idea where an alien race has created a VR history, but to make an analogy with archeology, when you view part of the history,…

  • Review: Come Tumbling Down

    Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book has a more straight-forward narrative style rather than the more poetic one of the last few stories. Chronologically, it takes place after the events of Beneath the Sugar Sky. Books 4 and 4.5 are prequel novellas. In addition to completing (maybe?)…

  • Review: Juice Like Wounds

    Juice Like Wounds by Seanan McGuire My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a short story that was posted to Tor.com that fills in a key story that was briefly mentioned in In an Absent Dream. Even though it was a key plot point in that book, it makes a lot of sense to…

  • Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 106, March 2019

    Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 106, March 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars SCIENCE FICTION The Synapse Will Free Us from Ourselves (Violet Allen) – a story that seems (however horrifying) even more likely now than it did when this issue was first printed. I don’t want to give anything away so…

  • Review: In an Absent Dream

    In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire My rating: 5 of 5 stars Another prequel entry in the Wayward Children series. I read this almost entirely in one sitting because I was transfixed. I love logic fantasy worlds and I loved the idea of this one where the world enforces a sense of balance and…

  • Review: Beneath the Sugar Sky

    Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book continues the story from book 1, not book 2. (Which makes sense since Down Among the Sticks and Bones was a prequel) We’re introduced to some new characters and get a little more background on some of the others. I…

  • Review:  Down Among the Sticks and Bones

    Down Among the Sticks and Bones by Seanan McGuire My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book serves as a prequel to Every Heart a Doorway but should definitely be read after that book in order not to spoil any plot points. The book elicits an incredible amount of emotion and I believe this is…

  • Review: The Burning God

    The Burning God by R.F. Kuang My rating: 4 of 5 stars R.F. Kuang brought this story to a conclusion in exactly the right way, given the story they were telling. This final entry didn’t begin as depressingly as part 2 (thank goodness!), but Kuang writes realistic fantastical fiction. Both this trilogy and Babel: An…

  • Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 105, February 2019

    Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 105, February 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars Here are my reviews per story: SCIENCE FICTIONLife Sentence (Matthew Baker) – This story’s a real doozy. It’s about a potentially different way to handle criminal punishment. Because this is a well-written story, it’s not simple to decide which…

  • Review: Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 104, January 2019

    Lightspeed Magazine, Issue 104, January 2019 by John Joseph Adams My rating: 4 of 5 stars I think the only story here that didn’t really click with me was “With Teeth Unmake the Sun”. It was beautiful and I appreciated that, but it wasn’t my fave. “Midway” hit me very hard at this age. Endor…

  • Review: The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

    The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars I was part of the kickstarter that funded this book I did not immediately jump into this book (Sanderson’s Secret Project #2) because it was not a Cosmere book. (The Cosmere being the equivalent of the MCU for…

  • Review: Fantasy Magazine, Issue #89, March 2023

    Fantasy Magazine, Issue #89, March 2023 by Arley Sorg My rating: 4 of 5 stars Relatively quick read this month. Here are the reviews per story: Enchanted Mirrors Are Making a Comeback. That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing. (Mari Ness): I recognized the author’s name, but I couldn’t remember where I recognized it from. Then…

  • Review: The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)

    The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book started off in a very hard to read place because the author had to deal with the aftermath of the first book. It made everything Rin goes through feel earned. Nothing comes too easily. But it did mean that it was…

  • Review: Uncanny Magazine Issue 26: January/February 2019

    Uncanny Magazine Issue 26: January/February 2019 by Lynne M. Thomas My rating: 3 of 5 stars This issue started off unevenly for me, but I ended up liking most of the stories and non-fiction essays. A Catalog of Storms (Fran Wilde): A fantasy world in which weather becomes sentient. I failed to gel with the…