Category Archives: Books

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson Sands of Dune: A Collection

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson Sands of Dune: A Collection puts together four short novellas in Frank Herbert’s famous universe.  There is a nice introduction in which the storytelling origin for each of these little pieces is explained. Interesting … Continue reading

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Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun

Western education, when it comes to the history of China, can be rather scanty in my experience. If you are lucky, you get a list of Chinese dynasties with little context as to what they are and how they came … Continue reading

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T. Kingfisher’s A House with Good Bones

Samantha (Sam) Montgomery is an archaeoentomologist, returned for a rare extended visit to her mother’s home in North Carolina. She’s been looking forward to it, is excited as she approaches the house, and initially not that worried by her brother’s … Continue reading

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Ben Aaronovitch’s Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7) (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (narrator)

Lies Sleeping picks up after The Hanging Tree, and it’s a continuation of that story, essentially the second half of the story. As much as you’ve been told not to read this series out of order, really don’t read these … Continue reading

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Mia Tsai’s Bitter Medicine

Chinese traditional magic, European fae magic, and the magic of other cultures exists alongside the non-magical world. Elle is a descendant of a Chinese medicine god. She’s got considerable magical talent, and was supposed to be a doctor. Instead, she’s … Continue reading

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Ekaterina Sedia, editor’s Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy

Deborah J. Brannon wrote this review. Paper Cities is a collection of urban fantasy in the truest sense of the term: stories of the fantastic from or about the city and all the wonderment and horror that entails. I imagine … Continue reading

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Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, editors’ The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Fifth Annual Collection

Joselle Vandershoot wrote this review. Since the first Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology was released in 1988, the series has been a touchstone for remarkable and ground-breaking genre writing from around the world, and the series’ fifth edition (covering … Continue reading

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Kristine Kathryn Rusch‘s Unity Con (A Spade/Paladin Conundrum)

Spade is in Garland, Texas, hanging out with people he likes instead of going to Unity Con, a convention he has sworn not to attend because it’s been organized by a group, or rather two groups, of people at the … Continue reading

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Janet Kagan’s Uhura’s Song (Star Trek: The Original Series #21)

I’ll admit upfront this is a nostalgic favorite. I think it’s also very good. Early in her career, Lt. Uhura met a young diplomat from the world of Eeiauo. The two women bonded over music, singing, and the songs of … Continue reading

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Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s At Witt’s End (A Spade/Paladin Conundrum),

Spade is back and this time the problem he faces is conducting a memorial for a recently deceased BNF (Big Name Fan) who never wanted any memorial, along with auctioning off the man’s fabulous collection of science fiction fandom memorabilia, … Continue reading

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