This being my first review for BSC, I wanted to say one thing straight away: objectivity is a myth. I have none. My reviews will be guided almost exclusively by my enjoyment, or not, of …
Continue readingThe Best Mystery Crime Fiction of 2009
2009 was without question one of the best years for crime fiction in many years, and trust me when I tell you that my top ten has changed so many times in the last six …
Continue readingStumptown – A Study In Retro Noir
If you missed Stumptown then you might not be blamed for the omission in your reading stack. Hell, even if you got the comic you might have missed the subsequent issues because the four issue …
Continue readingHeat Wave + Naked Heat by Richard Castle Review
New York City is in the grip of a heat wave, and Detective Nicki Heat is in the grip of a stubborn case. Real estate mogul Matthew Starr was pitched from his balcony, and the …
Continue readingCoffee and Conversation with Hegel and Manfried Grossbart – Jesse Bullington Guest Blog
Jesse Bullington – Good morning, and thank you for agreeing to this interview. Hegel: [Mutters something incomprehensible to Manfried] Manfried: [Mutters back. This goes on for some time, until:] Uh huh. Mornin. Hegel: Sure. Good …
Continue readingWorld’s Worst Interview with Victor Gischler
In case you haven’t noticed, over the past few weeks Boomtron has been republishing Victor Gischler’s World’s Worst Interview series, which he conducted on his old blog at the end of 2004 through the middle of …
Continue readingBrent Weeks Interview + The Way of Shadows Review
Our guest this week is Brent Weeks, author of The Night Angel Trilogy, recently published by Orbit Books. Unless something changes in the next few weeks before the end of the year, The Way of …
Continue readingAn Open Letter to Those Terrified of E-Piracy – Gary Gibson Guest Blog
There are many pro writers out there worried by piracy, who see the internet as the greatest illegal intellectual land-grab of all time. Here’s the deal: if you’re worried enough to want to stop it, …
Continue readingWest Coast Blues by Jacques Tardi and Jean-Patrick Manchette Review
Jean-Patrick Manchette was a French crime novelist who wrote 10 novels. He is held in the highest possible regard by his English-speaking audience. To date only two of his novels have been translated. Let me …
Continue readingTop 50 Favorite Novels of the Decade: 2000-2009
Not too long ago I decided to make a list of my top 10 favorite books of the decade, from 2000-2009. I easily knocked out a list with a couple of dozen titles then decided …
Continue readingThe 7-part Interview Series with R.A. Salvatore continues
When you think of the most popular character from the Wizards of the Coast stable, I do not think there is much debate. Drizzt Do’Urden leads the pack. Today we have R.A. Salvatore answering some questions we had …
Continue readingQuatrain + Fortune and Fate + Troubled Waters by Sharon Shinn Review
Quatrain is a collection of, as the name suggests, four all-new novellas from Sharon Shinn. Each is set in a distinct world established from previous books, and each story stands firmly against the others. Shinn …
Continue readingThe Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville Review
Those who believe that the short story is dead and/or irrelevant, and those who don’t see the value in publishing stories in e-zines that pay very little, if at all, to a circulation that is in …
Continue readingNotes on Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon
I’m picking my way through Inherent Vice, and I’m not even quarter of the way through it yet but I wanted to post some informal thoughts. By the end of the first chapter I was …
Continue readingScience Fiction and Why It Needs Secret Decoder Rings – Gary Gibson Guest BLog
It does seem like the eternal war between SF and the mainstream just goes on and on and on, doesn’t it? One minute you think it’s dead and buried, the next it’s climbing back out of …
Continue readingThe January Dancer by Michael Flynn Review
Michael Flynn is one of the more unusual figures in modern SF and especially in technically rigorous science fiction, one who delves into areas seldom touched by other writers: taking a “hard” science approach to social science in …
Continue readingFantasy: Violation of the Possible? – Betsy Tobin Guest Blog
Is it possible to break the rules of fantasy writing by adhering to them too strictly? When Borders UK first shelved my novel Ice Land in the Fantasy/Sci Fi section, I was gobsmacked (to use …
Continue readingA Bad Day For Sorry by Sophie Littlefield Review
When young mother Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help with her no-good husband, Roy Dean, it looks like an easy case. Until Roy Dean disappears with Chrissy’s two-year-old son, Tucker. Stella quickly learns that Roy …
Continue readingEvermore by Alyson Noël Review
Evermore is the first book in Alyson Noël’s new YA series, The Immortals. Fittingly, considering the title, a lot of E words popped into my mind when I was thinking of how to describe it: Enchanting. …
Continue readingMPD – Psycho No.1 by Eiji Otsuka Review
MPD Psycho was a mini-series that came out in 2002 and was inspired by a Manga that came out in 1997. Dark Horse has been releasing the book in America since 2007. I’ve been meaning …
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