Volk: A Novel of Radiant Abomination, by David Nickle
“There is no strident simplistic chest-thumping: the arguments, as well as the historical facts, are very well explored, and the often horrific consequences are demonstrated with great imagination.”
The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jemisin
“Conquerors live in dread of the day when they are shown to be, not superior, but simply lucky.”
Nutshell, by Ian McEwan
“Now I live inside a story and fret about its outcome.”
The Emerald Circus, by Jane Yolen
“[A] very large yellow butterfly with black spots like microchips on its wings; flying toward her: It had a scrunched-up, old man’s brown face, with wrinkles, sort of pruney, she thought.”
Mongrels: A Novel, by Stephen Graham Jones
A Howling Good Time I reviewed Stephen Graham Jones’s Mapping the Interior here recently, and I’m glad to report that Mongrels: A Novel is very different. It also deserves every accolade it’s received. Mongrels won a slew of best novel nominations, including for the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award and Bram Stoker Award. In contrast to […]
Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World and Other Stories, by Caroline M.Yoachim
“She was not a ship at all; she was the ocean, deep and vast, with a form forever changing in waves of green and blue.”
She Said Destroy, by Nadia Bulkin
Destroying Your Certainty Nadia Bulkin’s debut collection comes roaring out of the gate with one of the strongest titles of the year. As far as I know, the title is nothing to do with Marguerite Duras’s Destroy, She Said. Nor, fortunately, is it anything to do with the song by Death in June. But it […]
Mapping the Interior, by Stephen Graham Jones
Inescapable Origins I already had the pleasure of reviewing Stephen Graham Jones’s superb short story collection After the People Lights Have Gone Off, so it’s an equal pleasure to renew acquaintance with his often very domestic focus. But that’s domestic in an entirely different sense than you might think. Here, it’s a 1140 square feet […]
The New Voices of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman
By the time Aiko leaves, her footsteps echoing down the hallway, I’ve dug deep gouges in the door’s paint with my nails and teeth, my mouth full of her intoxicating scent. The key word in this anthology’s title is new, and if that doesn’t quicken your heart, a sampling of the impressively diverse voices will. […]
The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, by James Morrow
Now he began spinning in circles—like a deranged dancer, or a whirling dervish, or a man inhabited by devils…. James Morrow explores ideas with visionary audacity and a satirical (yet nonetheless disturbing) bent perhaps unequaled since Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld series—as if directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. I like to imagine eavesdropping as some curious stranger—hearing […]