James P. Blaylock was one of the writers, along with Jonathan Carroll, that was at the forefront of reeducation of what Fantasy was or rather could entail, and it was work like The Paper Grail …
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Review of your favorite books. From bestsellers to the next hidden gem, from novels to short stories we review it all here. For more books reviews check out Nekoplz.
Jhegaala by Steven Brust Review
Steven Brust brings us another tale of our hero Vlad Talos as he goes to the East to learn about his family in the town of Burz. Being the outgoing chap that he is, Vlad starts asking about the family Merss (his mother’s side of …
Continue readingAsh: A Secret History by Mary Gentle Review
ASH – A Secret History can in many respects be regarded as Mary Gentle’s magnum opus, both in terms of volume (a whopping 1100 pages) and in terms of its ambition and scope. It is …
Continue readingNAOMI NOVIK and CHARLES ARDAI at THE EXPLORERS CLUB
Recently, I received a splashy invitation to the kind of event that a genre-bender like me can’t refuse. The location of the festivities was the Explorers Club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. I couldn’t wait …
Continue readingCon Report – Readercon 18
Readercon 18 was held July 5th through the 8th, 2007, in Burlington, MA, USA. Readercon is known as a very focused convention: there are none of the art shows, music, gaming, costumes, etc. that one …
Continue readingA Mystery/Crime Fiction Primer
Awhile ago here at BSC we had a contest to win a copy of The Blonde. And when the person who won the contest finished reading it he placed his thoughts in the review comments …
Continue readingEkaterina Sedia Interview and The Alchemy of Stone Review
Ekaterina Sedia’s second novel, The Secret History of Moscow, has made her a new author to watch. It has garnered critical praise, from no less than Neil Gaiman and is selling quite well. The novel …
Continue readingUn Lun Dun by China Mieville Review
China Mieville is the premiere iconoclast of the fantasy genre. Before (or at the same time) that “punk” (as in cyberpunk, splatterpunk and mythpunk) became a common subgenre suffix, Mieville laid out the manifesto of …
Continue readingThe Man on the Ceiling by Steve Rasnic & Melanie Tem Review
Tem’s fantastical memoir The Man on the Ceiling, about his wife Melanie. And Melanie’s character, in one of her narrative turns, tells us how a strange and lost man did one night climb through her …
Continue readingPost Mortem: Uncovering the Real Ending of The 50/50 Killer by Steve Mosby
I almost feel like this doesn’t need to be said but I’ll say it anyway. This isn’t a review; it’s a critical piece that deals with text specific examples. In other words there WILL be …
Continue readingMaledicte by Lane Robins Review
Maledicte marks Lane Robins’ first effort as a novelist, and a glance at the cover – which depicts and androgynous face in profile, eyes covered with an ornate Venetian-style domino, the title written with gothic …
Continue readingDeepsix by Jack McDevitt Review
Deepsix is the second novel in Jack McDevitt’s “Academy” series, which can be described as mostly-hard science fiction with a few exceptions like faster-than-light travel included out of narrative necessity. However, while it has the …
Continue readingThe Magician and the Fool by Barth Anderson Review
Barth Anderson’s second novel, The Magician and The Fool, is marketed as a thriller in the DaVinci Code mode, with the hidden history behind the Tarot being the focus. Indeed, the novel is fast-paced and …
Continue readingThe Demon and the City by Liz Williams Review
Seneschal Zhu Irzh, demonic scion and star of the first Detective Inspector Chen Novel, is now officially, if grudgingly, a member of the Singapore 3 police force while Chen is on his honeymoon. An investigation …
Continue readingThe Last Dragon by J.M. McDermott Review
In Last Dragon, J.M. McDermott strips the fat from the bones of epic quest-driven fantasy, then dresses up the resulting skeleton of story in layer upon layer of fragmented and elliptical narrative. The fit of …
Continue readingThe Lost District by Joel Lane Review
“One night, I dreamt that trapped cries of ecstasy were turning to water between the floors, staining my ceiling with the shape of a naked woman. I woke and turned on the light, but couldn’t …
Continue readingGod’s Demon by Wayne Barlowe Review
Hell is a setting but never quite a theme in Wayne Barlowe’s debut novel God’s Demon; this explains both the book’s successes and its disappointments. At its best Barlowe’s novel provides a fairly typical, quasi-medieval …
Continue readingYour Prescription for Reading?
This is the first of a new monthly feature we are calling Synergy. Basically, one of our contributors offers a single question for our other contributors to give answer to. Beyond that, we go out …
Continue readingInterfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing Review
What makes certain writings “interstitial” is largely a matter of expectations, say Delia Sherman and Theodora Goss, editors of Interfictions: An Anthology of Interstitial Writing. How, then, to set expectations for the anthology itself? For …
Continue readingFleet of Worlds by Larry Niven, Edward M Lerner – Review
“Fleet of Worlds” is part of Larry Niven’s Known Space future history best known as the setting of the Ringworld books. However, while it utilizes characters and settings from other Known Space books, extensive knowledge …
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