Category Archives: Books

Aida Hudson and Susan-Ann Cooper’s Windows and Words: A Look at Canadian Children’s Literature in English

Lory Hess penned this review. Most people’s knowledge of Canadian children’s literature runs the gamut from Anne of Green Gables to . . . well, Anne of Green Gables. Thus it comes as no surprise that in this volume of … Continue reading

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John Scalzi’s METAtropolis 

Shared-world projects have what can kindly be referred to as an uneven history. Thieves’ World, Wild Cards, Future Boston, Liavek (complete with possibly the only minnow-headed god in the history of fantasy literature) — all had their ups, downs, and other, less definable moments. METAtropolis, edited … Continue reading

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Charles Stross’ The Halting State 

Sunshine, The Halting State is the best near future thriller I’ve read since first encountering John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider nearly thirty years ago. Indeed I’m quite surprised that it’s being marketed as sf genre fiction and not as a mainstream novel! Like The Shockwave … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Hand’s Aestival Tide 

Aestival Tide is the second installment of Elizabeth Hand’s post-apocalyptic trilogy that begins with Winterlong. It portrays, in loving detail, the decadence and destruction of Araboth, the city created as a refuge from the horrors of war and pestilence unleashed by earlier … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Hand’s Winterlong

Elizabeth Hand’s Winterlong is not an easy book. It challenges the reader from the first page – really, the first sentence. It sprawls across genre boundaries as if they weren’t there, effortlessly mixing mythopoeic fantasy with horror with post-apocalyptic science fiction with … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Hand’s Waking the Moon

Naomi de Bruyn penned this review. Katherine Sweeney Cassidy is a new student at the University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine, simply called ‘the Divine’ by those familiar with it. The student body is composed of various … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Hand’s Saffron and Brimstone

The title of Elizabeth Hand’s new collection of short stories is just one of the many clever things about this book, referencing the two stories that begin and end the collection, “Cleopatra Brimstone” and “The Saffron Gatherers,” respectively. However, despite … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Hand’s Black Light

Elizabeth Hand’s Black Light is a foray into the world of dark gods, misty legends, and deep secrets. Lit Moylan (her real name is Charlotte) is about to finish high school. She lives with her parents in Kamensic, New York, a village … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Hand’s The Bride of Frankenstein: Pandora’s Bride

It has always seemed a little ironic to me that out of the classic monster triad of the vampire, the werewolf, and Frankenstein’s monster, it is this last one–the only one written by a woman–which has failed to produce a … Continue reading

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Elizabeth Hand’s Mortal Love

Elizabeth Vail penned this review. This is probably the first book that I heartily enjoyed, but barely understood. Throughout this wide-spanning, endlessly complex novel, I was overcome by the sensation similar to that of a child listening to an adult conversation, … Continue reading

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