Cabinet of Wonders, 3.7.15
This week, the cabinet is full of fantasy. I’m dreaming of better weather by slipping into the dreamworlds of others. Dolphins, dragons and doves in the depths of conflict: take a trip with these three tales to take a break from your reality. A Review of Surfacing, by Marissa Lingen, at Lightspeed Magazine […]
Gingko, Pigeon, Light
“It’s not like the bird has a key.”
Desperate Love
“A restraining order back home is just another speeding ticket on the interstate of life.”
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer
A Suspenseful, Eerie Page-Turner Jeff VanderMeer’s star has been rising for some years now, and if Annihilation, the first book of The Southern Reach Trilogy is any indication, this series will satisfy long-time readers and earn him many new ones. The story unfolds as a group of four women scientists travel into “Area X” a […]
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
Delightful, Enchanting and Scary Do you remember what it feels like to be a child, able to believe in the possibility of magic? This book transported me back to, once again, believing in the delightful world of make believe … or is it? The story starts off with a death and a funeral, in which […]
Brown Girl in the Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson
Serving the Spirits In this near future, post-apocalyptic Toronto, the wealthy live in the suburbs. In the inner city, government and social structures have disintegrated after a series of riots. “The ones who couldn’t or wouldn’t get out,” use a system of barter, and live under the shadow of crime-lord Rudy and his posse. Ti-Jeanne, […]
The short stories of Kelly Link
Nobody writes cooler stories than Kelly Link. Link’s stories draw from fairy tales, myth, pop culture, experimental, horror, gothic, and detective fiction, the tabloids, dreams, nightmares, and half a dozen other things. But this is not merely pulp fiction—wham, bam, thrill and chill. Link uses the tools of pulp fiction to deal with literary concerns: […]
Waking the Moon, by Elizabeth Hand
The Moon with a Knife-Sharp Edge Three unwitting college students stand between the reawakening of a dark goddess and the Benandanti, a secret society of magicians who have been running the world for thousands of years. Waking the Moon, which won a Mythopoeic Award and a James Tiptree, Jr. Award, is part horror, part coming […]
Silently and Very Fast, by Catherynne M. Valente
A Beautiful View of The Singularity Imagine if you could go anywhere, do anything, and never be alone. Would it bother you if your closest companion and co-creator was a machine? You might think so, but then again you might change your mind after reading this gorgeous, evocative novel, narrated by Elefsis, the machine in […]
lost boy lost girl, by Peter Straub
This novel, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, is part murder mystery, part ghost story and part family drama, with an unexpected, transcendent ending. The story follows Tim Underhill, (a character from earlier novels by Straub), as he attempts to cope with a series of tragic, mysterious events afflicting the family of […]