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Recent ReviewsBeyond the Rift by Peter Watts 07 March 2014 Beyond the Rift presents a disconcertingly othering view of women. The Age of Ice by J. M. Sidorova 05 March 2014 The Age of Ice, the debut novel from J. M. Sidorova, is a very fine historical fiction that makes adroit use of fantasy elements. But I can well imagine readers of historical fiction giving this book a miss because the fantasy clearly belies the primary duty of the historical novelist to imagine the past into life; while fantasy readers are unlikely to be tempted by a novel that traces, in some detail, the last 250 years of Russian history. Such, at least, is the only possible reason why this wonderful novel is not being lauded from the rooftops by all and sundry. Short Fiction Snapshot #7: "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" by Ted Chiang 03 March 2014 "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" is trying to do something very typical of Chiang's fiction, using an imaginary technology to make us wonder about the building blocks of our consciousness, and the ways in which that consciousness has already been altered by technology. 28 February 2014 Thao Worra's poems revel in their own monstrosity, in their mixing of languages and influences from Laos, the United States, and elsewhere. Stranger Still by Laura Madeline Wiseman 26 February 2014 Utilizing the recognizable, asexual green Martian form, Wiseman writes not of gender, but instead curiously, humorously and perhaps unintentionally poses a question: what is it like to live without the perspectives of gender roles? 24 February 2014 Out of two dozen-odd poems, only a few stand out for their poetic grace and power. Empress of the Sun by Ian McDonald 21 February 2014 Starting from its in media res opening paragraphs, in which a multiverse-traveling steampunk dirigible crashes into the forest of a gigantic constructed disk world, Empress of the Sun revels in its pulp adventure milieu. Tropic of the Sea by Satoshi Kon 19 February 2014 With no chance of new works from Kon, scholars and fans have naturally turned their attention to his early pre-directorial career. This is not only a chance to discover more stories by Kon, but also to discover more pieces in the great puzzle, to reveal more of his legacy which consists of tragically small body of work. Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture by Ytasha L. Womack 17 February 2014 Afrofuturism, as described by Womack and others, is not only about the future, but it uses the future as a source of energy. 14 February 2014 The central achievement of this fine novel lies in confounding many of the clichés of generic horror not by subverting them precisely, but by confronting them head on. The Memory Palace by Hari Kunzru 12 February 2014 We are meant to be aware that we are looking at approximations and representations of things we were not and are not there to see. We are looking at a memory palace. It evokes something, certainly, and what it evokes is interesting and moving, but it cannot be the original experience; it is something of its own. 10 February 2014 While Wolves can definitely be understood as a re-commitment to science fiction, it is by no means a simple embrace, since Ings seems to be deliberately following in the footsteps of one of the most ambiguously committed men of the genre, M. John Harrison. View older reviews in our Archive, thanks to the kindness of our authors who allow us to keep their material online. |
