Books

cover of forgotten sisters by cynthia pelayo
Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews Forgotten Sisters by Cynthia Pelayo

locusmag 0 Comments

Forgotten Sisters, Cynthia Pelayo (Thomas & Mercer 978-1-662-51391-6, $16.99, tp, 284pp) March 2024. Cover by Olga Grlic.

Cynthia Pelayo’s Forgotten Sisters begins with a nightmare, then moves to a nuanced family history of sisters Jennie and Anna, who live in a historic bungalow on the Chicago River that was owned first by their grandparents, then their parents, and now is theirs to treasure and maintain. In the second chapter, ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Niall Harrison Reviews Beyond the Light Horizon by Ken MacLeod

locusmag 0 Comments

Beyond the Light Horizon, Ken MacLeod (Orbit 978-0-356-51482-6, £10.99, 336 pp, tp) May 2024. Cover by Duncan Spilling. (Pyr 978-1-64506-066-6, $21.00, 336pp, tp) June 2024.

Are Ken MacLeod novels realistic? Twenty-five years ago I would have said no. Reading the Fall Revolution series (1995-1999) as a teenager, part of the thrill (I see now) was the vivid granular depiction of a world that (I thought then) didn’t work that ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Echo of Worlds by M.R. Carey

LocEditor 0 Comments

Echo of Worlds, M. R. Carey (Orbit 978-0316504690, trade paperback, 512pp, $19.99) June 2024

I pled for the author’s and publisher’s mercy in my review of the first captivating book in this series—Infinity Gate—begging for a quick sequel. Well, about fourteen months later, a reasonable interval, here we are. Prayers answered!

I also mentioned then that Infinity Gate was billed as the first book in a series. ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews The Knife and the Serpent by Tim Pratt

locusmag 0 Comments

The Knife and the Serpent, Tim Pratt (Angry Robot 978-1915202802, $18.99, 400pp, tp) June 2024.

between Tim Pratt novels, I always forget just how unabashedly pulp he is as a writer. I say pulp as a compliment, not a criticism. Pratt has a gift for embracing the ridiculous and turning it into entertainment: playing the emotional field with seriousness while rolling around in weird and wacky SFFnal propositions. In ...Read More

Read more
cover of the familiar by bardugo
Books Reviews 

Alexandra Pierce Reviews The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

locusmag 0 Comments

The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo (Flatiron Books 978-1-25088-425-1, 400pp, $29.99 hc) April 2024. Cover by Jim Tierney & Emma Pidsley.

Spain in the 1500s was not a great place to be if your family were converso – a term applied to Jews or Muslims who had been (often force­fully) converted to Catholicism – and worse still if you were caught secretly practicing your familial faith: It was the time of the ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Ian Mond Reviews Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera

locusmag 1 Comment

Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera (Tordotcom 978-1-25084-768-3, $27.99, 304pp, hc) June 2024.

To quote Tom Clancy (or was it Jeff Bezos?), it takes ten years to become an overnight success. I suspect Vajra Chandrasekera can relate. He spent a decade working on his craft, with short fiction published in various genre magazines and anthologies. Then, last year, Chandrasekera published his first novel, The Saint of Bright Doors, which immediately caught ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

locusmag 0 Comments

The City of Stardust, Georgia Summers (Redhook 978-0-316-56148-8, $29.00, hc, 352 pp) January 2024.

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers blends our recognizable world, mostly through the home of the Everly family in the English countryside, with the fictional city of Fidelis, a place of academics and magic that hides a horrific truth. (And that horror really is bad; we’re talking ritual-sacrifice-of-kidnapped-children kind of bad.) Violet Everly lives ...Read More

Read more
cover of forgotten sisters by cynthia pelayo
Books Reviews 

Gabino Iglesias Reviews Forgotten Sisters Cynthia Pelayo

locusmag 0 Comments

Forgotten Sisters, Cynthia Pelayo (Thomas & Mercer 978-1-66251-391-6, $16.99, 303pp, tp) March 2024. Cover by Olga Grlic.

Cynthia Pelayo has made a name for herself in horror by bringing to the table a mixture of horror, crime fiction, and folklore that always contains a dash of poetry and by telling stories that invariably take place in Chicago, a city that Pelayo always turns into a character in her work. ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Two Vancian Novels by Wm. Michael Mott

LocEditor 0 Comments

Pulsifer: a Fable, Wm. Michael Mott (Spatterlight Press 978-1619474918, trade paperback, 306pp, $16.95) Jan 2024

Land of Ice, a Velvet Knife, Wm. Michael Mott (Spatterlight Press 978-1619474932, trade paperback, 306pp, $16.95) Feb 2024

It is very seldom—perhaps almost never—that one opens up one’s copy of the Sunday New York Times and discovers that the lead article in the Magazine section is devoted to a still-living author whose roots ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Paul Di Filippo Reviews Ghost of the Neon God by T.R. Napper

LocEditor 0 Comments

Ghost of the Neon God, T. R. Napper (Titan 978-1803368115, hardcover, 128pp, $17.99) June 2024

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the publication of William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and, arguably, 1984 can serve as the birthday of the cyberpunk genre as well or better than any adjacent year. I think at this point, we can cease debating about the nature of cyberpunk, its utility and whether it’s here ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume Three: 1941 by David Ritter, Daniel Ritter, Sam McDonald, & John L. Coker III

locusmag 0 Comments

The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom, Volume Three: 1941, David Ritter, Daniel Rit­ter, Sam McDonald, & John L. Coker III (First Fandom Experience 978-1-73665-965-6, $149.00, 504pp, hc) April 2024.

If someone were to tell me that a lavish 500-page coffee-table book selling for $149 is basically a microhistory describing what a bunch of people I’ve mostly never heard of were doing in 1941, I’d quite reasonably be skeptical; ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova

locusmag 1 Comment

Foul Days, Genoveva Dimova (Tor 978-1-250-87731-4, $17.99, 368pp, tp) June 2024. Cover by Rovina Cai.

Foul Days is Scotland-based Genoveva Dimova’s debut novel. It mixes folklore and modernity, setting itself between the walled ghetto-city of Chernograd – where monsters roam the streets, magic is as commonplace as poverty, and in order to leave you have to pay people-smugglers to get you across the wall – and the prosperous city ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Paula Guran Reviews Wild Cards: Sleeper Straddle edited by George R.R. Martin & Melinda M. Snodgrass

locusmag 0 Comments

Wild Cards: Sleeper Straddle, George R.R. Mar­tin & Melinda M. Snodgrass, eds. (Bantam 978-0-59335-783-5, 402pp, $28.00, hc) February 2024.

The Wild Cards universe is a fertile play­ground for writers, as its premise encour­ages a wide creative range. Created by George R.R. Martin, the universe departs from ours in 1946, when an alien virus arrives on Earth. Ninety percent of those who contract it die; the DNA of the ten percent ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Niall Harrison Reviews Elephants in Bloom by Cécile Cristofari

locusmag 0 Comments

Elephants in Bloom, Cécile Cristofari (NewCon Press 978-1-91495-367-5, 240pp, £26.99, hc) Janu­ary 2024. Cover by Enrique Meseguer.

Cécile Cristofari’s debut collection El­ephants in Bloom is, as debut collections so often are, exciting but uneven. Perhaps my favourite story, “Soaring, the World on Their Shoulders” (2020), demonstrates the combination of imagination and precision that she can bring to bear. What begins as a relatively standard dystopian setting, with France voting ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee by Ellen Oh

locusmag 0 Comments

The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee, Ellen Oh (Crown 978-0-593-12594-6, $19.99, hc, 295pp) January 2024. Cover by Audrey Mok.

In Ellen Oh’s The Colliding Worlds of Mina Lee, the title character has a big problem: She does not want to pursue the life her father has mapped out for her. High school senior Mina is an artist and desperate to follow in her deceased mother’s footsteps and attend ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Adrienne Martini Reviews The Hermit Next Door by Kevin Hearne

locusmag 0 Comments

The Hermit Next Door, Kevin Hearne (Subter­ranean Press 978-1-64524-195-9, $40.00, 96pp, hc) June 2024. Cover by Dominic Harmon.

The Hermit Next Door, a novella by Kevin Hearne, is a lighthearted romp about grief. Really. Winnie Mae is newly widowed and decides to move from Tennessee to ex-urban Oregon. She finds a house that meets her needs: The neighborhood is quiet enough so that she can continue teaching her ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews Lady Eve’s Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow

locusmag 0 Comments

Lady Eve’s Last Con, Rebecca Fraimow (Solaris 978-1-83786-159-0, $16.99, 368pp, tp.) June 2024.

Lady Eve’s Last Con is Rebecca Fraimow’s debut novel, and what an interesting debut it is. Set in a far-future solar system in the glittering, elite high society of New Monte, it stars a small-time grifter who’s decided to run a long con for revenge, only to find herself falling for her mark’s half-sister.

Ruthi Johnson ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Colleen Mondor Reviews The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond

locusmag 0 Comments

The Frame-Up, Gwenda Bond (Del Rey 978-0-593-59773-6, $10.00, tp, 325pp) February 2024.

Author Gwenda Bond hit the NY Times best­seller list for the Stranger Things tie-in Suspicious Minds and prior to that authored several YA titles (including a trio about young Lois Lane). In recent years she has quietly been carving out a niche in magical romance and her latest, the art heist adventure The Frame-Up, fits nicely ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Adrienne Martini Reviews The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

locusmag 0 Comments

The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Waste­lands, Sarah Brooks (Flatiron Books 978-1-250-87861-8, $28.99, 336pp, hc) July 2024.

Trains make great narrative devices. You can get all of your characters in the same place and keep them there while they move through space and time. Pick up the well-known Agatha Christie train mystery, if you like a good murder on the rails. Or, if you bend more toward science fiction, ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Ian Mond Reviews Takaoka’s Travels by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa

locusmag 0 Comments

Takaoka’s Travels, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (Stone Bridge/Monkey 979-8-98868-870-9, $18.95, 178pp, tp) May 2024.

In 865, at the age of 65, Imperial Japanese Prince Takaoka, the third son of Emperor Heizeil, a Bud­dhist monk who also went by the monastic name Shinyo, set forth from Canton with three aides to Hindustan (India). Sadly, Takaoka never com­pleted the journey, reportedly mauled and eaten by a tiger somewhere near the Malay peninsula. In ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Alexandra Pierce Reviews The Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar

locusmag 0 Comments

The Man Who Saw Seconds, Alexander Boldizar (Clash 978-1-96098-807-2, $19.95, 325pp, tp) Cover by Joel Amat Güell. May 2024.

A precog, an anarchist, and an assistant director of the NSA walk into a bar….

Preble Jefferson can see five seconds into the future. Fish is an anarchist, lawyer, and Jefferson’s friend. Thad Bigman is an assistant director at the NSA. The action in The Man Who Saw Seconds centres on ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Alexandra Pierce Reviews The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8 edited byAllan Kaster

locusmag 0 Comments

The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 8, Allan Kaster, ed. (Infinivox 978-1-88461-265-7, 358pp, $19.99, pb). Cover art by Maurizio Man­zieri. June 2024.

The discussion about what counts as “hard” science fiction is a perennial one; and depending on the reason for having it, it can often be unproductive. In his introduction to this eighth in Infinivox’s Top Hard SF Stories series, Allan Kaster doesn’t offer a definition or a ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Paula Guran Reviews The Proper Thing and Other Stories by Seanan McGuire

locusmag 0 Comments

The Proper Thing and Other Stories, Seanan McGuire (Subterranean ISBN 978-1-64524-192-8, 508pp. $50.00, hc) April 2024. Cover by Carla McNeil.

Probably best-known for her Wayward Children series, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winner Seanan McGuire is also a prolific writer of short fiction. McGuire’s second collection (she has two others writing as Mira Grant) is both massive and enchanting. The two dozen stories tend toward darkness but, more often than not, ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews In the Shadow of the Ship by Aliette de Bodard

locusmag 0 Comments

In the Shadow of the Ship, Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean Press 978-1-64524-147-8, $40.00, 96pp, hc) September 2024. Cover by Maurizio Manzieri.

In the Shadow of the Ship is the latest Xuya universe story from Aliette de Bodard. A short novella or a long novelette, it clocks in at around 90 pages of text, and it has many of the elements I’ve come to expect from de Bodard: elders who ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Liz Bourke Reviews Road to Ruin by Hana Lee

locusmag 0 Comments

Road to Ruin, Hana Lee (Saga 978-1-66803-561-0, $18.99, 368pp, tp.) May 2024.

For a debut novel, Hana Lee’s Road to Ruin is a tour de force. Inventive and entertaining, it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole way through.

Jin-Lu makes her living crossing the wasteland. She’s a courier, one of the few who travel outside the safety of the walled cities known as kerinas, delivering ...Read More

Read more
cover for The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits by Ben Berman Ghan
Books Reviews 

Jake Casella Brookins Reviews The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits by Ben Berman Ghan

locusmag 0 Comments

The Years Shall Run Like Rab­bits, Ben Berman Ghan (Buckrider Books 978-1-98949-688-6, 300pp, $21.00, tp) May 2024.

Sometimes, I really enjoy speculative fiction that works more by image and dream logic than plot and worldbuilding. Not to say Ben Berman Ghan’s The Years Shall Run Like Rabbits lacks those traditional elements: The ingredients here are quite recognizable – deadly cyborgs and lunar colonies, time travel and genetic engineering. But Ghan ...Read More

Read more
cover of lyorn by brust
Books Reviews 

Adrienne Martini Reviews Lyorn by Steven Brust

locusmag 0 Comments

Lyorn: A Vlad Taltos Novel, Steven Brust (Tor 978-0-76538-286-3, $27.99, 288pp, hc) April 2024.

Before you read further know this: Lyorn, the 17th novel in Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series, is not the place to begin. So much has happened to Vlad since Jhereg was published in 1983 that there is really no way to jump directly into this part of the ocean. Even for those who’ve kept ...Read More

Read more
cover for mood swings by frankie barnet
Books Reviews 

Ian Mond Reviews Mood Swings by Frankie Barnet

locusmag 0 Comments

Mood Swings, Frankie Barnet (Astra House, 978-1-66260-259-7, $26.00, 304pp, hc) May 2024.

The Ministry of Time wears its time travel on its literary sleeve. Frankie Barnet’s debut novel, Mood Swings, isn’t nearly as overt. In fact, it begins with the world in lockdown – not because of the pandemic (though I did get flashbacks) but because animals have turned on humanity. “Wasps targeted small children and the elderly; ...Read More

Read more
cover of book censors library
Books Reviews 

Alex Brown Reviews The Book Censor’s Library by Bothayna Al-Essa

locusmag 0 Comments

The Book Censor’s Library, Bothayna Al-Essa (Restless Books 978-1-63206-334-2, $18.00, 272pp, tp) April 2024. Cover by Joy Richu.

In a not-too-distant future in an unknown nation, we meet our unnamed protagonist in Bothayna Al-Essa’s new satire The Book Censor’s Library. All freedom of expression, individualization, and interpretation is banned. Everything revolves around God, government, and sex. Blasphemy is banned, but all holy texts have been heavily edited. No ...Read More

Read more
Books Reviews 

Gary K. Wolfe Reviews The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo

locusmag 0 Comments

The Brides of High Hill, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom 9781250851444, $19.95, 128pp, tp) May 2024.

Over the past few years, Nghi Vo has parlayed the East and Southeast Asia-inspired world of her Singing Hills cycle into not only a delightful playground for the adventures of her itinerant Cleric Chih, whose ostensible mission is to collect stories for his monastery, but also into a kind of laboratory for storytelling itself. Earlier novellas ...Read More

Read more
cover of the book those beyond the wall
Books Reviews 

Adrienne Martini Reviews Those Beyond the Wall by Micaiah Johnson

locusmag 0 Comments

Those Beyond the Wall, Micaiah Johnson (Del Rey 978-0-5934-9750-0, $28.99, 384pp, hc) March 2024.

Micaiah Johnson’s Those Beyond the Wall isn’t so much a sequel to 2020’s The Space Between Worlds as it is one that tracks parallel to it. The timeline has advanced slightly, but her created world looks different from this location. Rather than focus on the power dynamics in wealthy, walled Wi­ley City, we’re in Ashtown, ...Read More

Read more
cover for in the shadow of the fall
Books Reviews 

Wole Talabi Reviews In the Shadow of the Fall by Tobi Ogundiran

locusmag 0 Comments

In the Shadow of the Fall, Tobi Ogundiran (Tordotcom 978-1-25090-796-7, $20.99, 160pp, hc). July 2024.

Less than a year ago, Tobi Ogundiran pre­sented us with Jackal, Jackal, a delightful selection of dark tales accessibly infused with legends and folklore. One of those stories was ‘‘Guardian of the Gods’’ (first published in FIYAH), which tells the story of Ashâke, an acolyte who can’t hear the gods speak. I reviewed it ...Read More

Read more