We’ve reviewed recent and classic novels, noted graphic stories and Hugo-nominated prose fiction. For our final Summer Review, we look at Derwin Mak’s 2011 novel, which holds particular appeal for fans of anime and manga.
Category Archives: Books
Summer Reading: “Leviathan Wakes”
The first book of the forthcoming Expanse series blends old-school Space Opera, current SF trends, and Summer Blockbuster characters and plotting. In short, it may be best thought of as SF Summer Reading.
Summer Reading: 2312
Kim Stanley Robinson has won nearly every coveted SF writing award, and remains best-known for his extraordinary Mars Trilogy. He claims his most recent book takes place in its own universe, but that universe looks a great deal like the Mars Trilogy’s, one hundred years after Blue Mars, three hundred after our time.
Book Review – Rendezvous With Rama
It’s time to take a look at another classic science fiction novel, that currently hasn’t been reviewed on the site – Arthur C. Clarke’s classic “Big Dumb Object” novel – Rendezvous With Rama.
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Summer Reading Review: Boy’s Life
Robert R. McCammon won the World Fantasy Award for best novel back in 1992 for this book, about a boy who witnesses a horror and begins retelling the events that unfold in the year that follows. Although written from the perspective of a twelve-year-old, it plays as a more mature version of King’s It or Simmons’s Summer of Night. Despite strong elements of horror (McCammon began his career as a horror writer) this feels more like magic realism.
Corey is twelve. Summer approaches.
Summer Reading Review: “Summer of Night”
Dan Simmons has achieved his greatest fame with clever, complex SF novels such as Hyperion and Illium. He plays with mind-bending concepts, though his work has at its core a fairly conservative world-view. Both the genre-bending and the political leanings should probably be kept in mind when one reads his earlier, more conventional thriller fiction.
Thus we come to Summer of Night, a Lovecraft/Stephen King-influenced horror novel wherein a group of supremely competent children in 1961 Illinois uncover an eldritch evil whose awakening will bring about the apocalypse.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Has Ransom Riggs written the next Harry Potter? No, but his first novel, a YA fantasy, has won him bestseller status and a movie deal, and he clearly wrote it with the intention of launching a sequel. Indeed, he wrote it a little too clearly with the intent of launching a sequel.
The book has been illustrated with and was partially inspired by creepy old photographs of the sort found in faded cardboard boxes in second-hand book stores and antique barns, pressed between pages of books and lost behind wooden desks.
Book Reviews – Leviathan Wakes & Among Others
I’ve now come to this week’s review (which was uploaded on Friday), where I give my thoughts on the two Hugo Award nominees for Best Novel that still had my interest, and the one which I’m interested in the most. Continue reading →
Book Review – The Quantum Thief
As I approach getting caught up, we come to my review of The Quantum Thief, one of the best SF novels of 2010 not to win any awards – and also one of the best Trans-humanist Post-Scarcity Heist Novels of all time. I also give my thoughts on the movie The Avengers. Continue reading →
Book Review: Cities In Flight (Vol. 1) – They Will Have Stars
This week I give my thoughts on the first part of James Blish’s classic SF series, Cities in Flight. Also, I give my thoughts on the Hugo nominees of Best Long Form and Short Form dramatic presentation. Continue reading →