Pros: Just plain piratic fun! Cons: … Rating: 5 out of 5 Catherine Lundoff edits the anthology Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space). The stories in here run the gamut from whimsical and charming to somewhat dark. They…
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Short Take: “The Ballad of Black Tom,” Victor LaValle
Pros: Dark, swirling, magnificent Cons: … Rating: 5 out of 5 Victor LaValle’s short book The Ballad of Black Tom takes place in 1920s New York. Thomas Tester lives in Harlem and hustles to make a living and support his…
Review: “Academic Affairs: A Poisoned Apple,” Peter Likins
Pros: Nice whimsical mystery Cons: Rape does not go with whimsical Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Peter Likins’s Academic Affairs: A Poisoned Apple takes place in 1930s Alabama at a religious university. The opening is a bit rushed and confusing,…
Review: “H.G. Wells, Secret Agent,” Alex Shvartsman
Pros: Fun, silly light reading material Cons: Fairly reader-dependent Rating: 3 out of 5 In Alex Shvartsman’s H. G. Wells, Secret Agent, it’s an alternate history spy-vs-spy world, where all the truly brilliant inventors work for one government or another.…
Review: “Shadow of Night,” Deborah Harkness
Pros: Better than volume 1 Cons: Mary Sue; inconsistent details Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Witch Diana Bishop and her husband (vampire Matthew de Clermont) have time-walked back to the 1500s in order to find a book and a…
Posted in Reviews Tagged with: All Souls Trilogy, Deborah Harkness, historical, time travel, urban fantasy
Review: “In the House of Leviathan,” B.D. Bruns
Pros: Fascinating locale and time period Cons: Occasional word salad Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Review ebook provided free by publisher via NetGalley. B.D. Bruns’s In the House of Leviathan takes place in 1860s Amalfi, Italy. Giuseppe, whose nickname…
Review: “Seductive Supernaturals,” various authors
Pros: Some interesting ideas Cons: Stories that don’t stand on their own Rating: 3 out of 5 Review copy provided free by Full Moon Books, LLC via NetGalley. SEDUCTIVE SUPERNATURALS: 12 Tales of Shapeshifters, Vampires & Sexy Spirits is…
Review: “A Grave Matter,” Anna Lee Huber
Pros: I’m not a historicals person, and I loved it Cons: I’m not a historicals person… Rating: 4 out of 5 Review book courtesy of Penguin Group Expected release date: July 1, 2014 In 1830s Scotland, Lady Darby has…
Review: “Coalescent,” Stephen Baxter
Pros: Fascinating story Cons: Misleading back cover text; confusing ending; non-obvious that it’s a series book Rating: 4 out of 5 George Poole’s father has died. This sends him on a slow path to ferret out family secrets that…
Posted in Reviews Tagged with: Destiny's Children, historical, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, SF, Stephen Baxter