(this review contains spoilers for Book of Night, the first book in this duology) Thief of Night is the rare sequel that not only improves its predecessor—it redeems it. I came to this duology as a fan of The Folk of the Air, expecting something equally dark and irresistible. Instead, the first book, Book of…
Acclaimed author Annalee Newitz has a swing and a miss with Automatic Noodle. A short story with multiple heavy themes, the work’s failure to adequately explore many (if any) of the points it makes has it falling far short of first base. The war has ended with California being independent of America. Staybehind, a former…
All Systems Red is the first story in Martha Wells’ Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning Murderbot Diaries series. As this is science fiction rather than sci-fi romance, I might not normally have picked it up, but a surprising number of romance authors have mentioned the series on social media, and for that reason I decided…
Connie Willis came to my attention when I was looking through some of the older reviews at AAR and came across one for Doomsday Book, a science fiction time-travel story about a young student who goes back in time to England during the time of the Black Plague. I gobbled it up (and have since…
Narrated by a Full Cast* see below I’ve had Clean Sweep on my TBR and my TBL (the original version narrated by Renee Raudman; AudioGals review here) since they first came out but I never did get around to reading or listening. As it happened, this worked to my advantage because the entire story was…
I put off writing this review while I tried to unravel my feelings about the characters, the plot, and its execution. I was hooked right from the get-go and based on the strength of Szpara’s writing, I couldn’t put the book down. So it was something of a disappointment when I retrospectively learned that although…
Here and Now and Then is a literary science fiction novel which focuses on family – how we can never have too much of it and how we will do anything to protect those we love. His mind is going, his memories fading along with it. In the year 2142 Kin Stewart is a special…
Did you read The Handmaid’s Tale and think it just wasn’t bleak enough? If so, have I got a recommendation for you. The Slave and the Free, by Suzy McKee Charnas, is set in a world where women aren’t just considered men’s property. Here, women aren’t even seen as human. The Slave and the Free…
Severance is the hotly anticipated end of days tale by newbie author Ling Ma. It’s a provocative look at the future which shows the dangers of getting caught in a meaningless present and being obsessed with a sentimental view of the past. This story shifts back and forth in time between chapters but for the…
Julia Fine enchants with a towering, powerful tale of womanhood, frustration, coming of age and deep love, in What Should Be Wild. We begin with birth emerging from death; Maisie Cothay, delivered breathing from the body of her dead and literally rotting mother, is afflicted with a terrible and mysterious curse – the touch of…
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