Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo (Fantasy Novella, 2023). This one is the fourth short novel in an richly-imagined, secondary world type fantasy series. I haven’t read the previous works (my loss, I have no doubt), but each is said to be complete unto itself and I certainly had no trouble getting into and […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Mammoths at the Gates"Unrestricted Access by James Rollins (Short Story Collection, 2020). A best-selling novelist, James Rollins has now come out with his first collection of short fiction and it’s a dandy. Here you will find 11 previously published short stories, brief nonfiction accounts on where each of these came from, plus 1 brand-new novella. I should note […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Unrestricted Access"This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (SF Novella, 2019). This splendid novella brings together the special talents of the award-winning Amal El-Mohtar and Hugo-nominated Max Goldstone. Two factions, one high tech-centered and the other nature-based, wage a sprawling war for dominance through time itself. Despite their differing word-views, […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW:This Is How You Lose the Time War"Strange Weather by Joe Hill (Short Horror Novel Collection, 2017). As per the title, each of the four long stories/short novels here make reference, to one degree or another, to abberant weather conditions. All are, of course, horrific in nature and treatment. But there’s nothing repetitive about them. Each tale has a different setting, tone and […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Strange Weather"Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar (Dark Fantasy Novella, 2017). Richard Chizmar, a multiple award-winning author (and editor and publisher) has teamed up with the incomparable Stephen King to produce one of the most evocative, insightful and powerfully humane short novels of dark fantasy/contemporary horror in recent memory. The book opens in the […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Gwendy’s Button Box"Here’s the front and back covers of issue #3 of Skelos, a print magazine of weird fiction and fantasy. I’m proud to say I have work here–though my contribution is a mere book review article. But this one is chocked full of a wide range of fiction, poetry and nonfiction from such respected and award winning […]
Read more "Skelos 3: Now available from Amazon Books!"Three in Death by J.D. Robb (SF/Crime Novella Collection, 2008). Nora Roberts is a pretty extraordinary writer–a huge and deserved success in a variety of genres with a fistful of series written under her own name and, as in this case, using the J.D. Robb pen-name. In some ways the “in death” series (numbering over 2 […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Three in Death"Trajectory by Richard Russo (Story Collection, 2017). The latest book from Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Russo is a collection of four novella-length works. Three previously saw publication elsewhere, while the fourth is new. They all display Russo’s skills in characterization, as well as deftly presenting their various settings. In “Horseman,” a young college professor confronts plagiarism from […]
Read more "REVIEWED: Trajectory"And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman. (Novella, 2015/2016). This little book (76 pages, which includes several outwardly simple yet very appropriate illustrations by Ella Laytham) is a heartrendingly beautiful and poignant mediation on losing a loved one to senility. I confess it got to me, bigtime. A series of quietly […]
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