Category Archives: Books

Mike Ashley’s The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy Vols. I and II

I’ll admit, a couple of years ago I knew little about the genre of “comic fantasy.” It hadn’t really even occurred to me that there might be such a thing, though I probably would have been able to come up … Continue reading

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Lauren Groff’s Matrix

Lauren Groff continues to make a name for herself as an author of unusual and engrossing fiction. This time she brings us a fast-paced tale of an unconventional nun in Medieval England, only a few years after the island emerged … Continue reading

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Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140

So I’m going about this backward. I’ve already read and reviewed Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2020 speculative fiction tome The Ministry for the Future, in which likeable and powerful people grapple with the climate crisis in the near future. Now I’m … Continue reading

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Patricia A. McKillip’s Ombria in Shadow

Tracy Willans wrote this review. I love Patricia McKillip’s work. I think I’d better state the obvious early, so my bias is known from the beginning. I revel in the lushness of her language. I love to read it out … Continue reading

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An interview with Patricia A. McKillip, October 2008

Deborah J. Brannon conducted this interview with Patricia A. McKillip. Several of your novels can be called literary fairy tales: lovely narratives that interweave fairy tale tropes into new (and sometimes surprising) shapes. What do you think the role is … Continue reading

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Patricia A. McKillip’s The Moon and the Face

In The Moon and the Face, Patricia McKillip revisits Kyreol and Terje from her lovely young adult novel Moon Flash. Kyreol and Terje, having followed the river to the Dome in book one of this duology, now push beyond the … Continue reading

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Gregory A. Wilson’s Grayshade

Gregory A Wilson’s Grayshade, a rewritten and revised version of the novel of the same name, introduces a conflicted and well drawn hero, his conflicts, and yes, the start of a trilogy. Our hero is an assassin, and a holy … Continue reading

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Alison Bechdel’s The Secret to Superhuman Strength

I’ve loved Alison Bechdel’s work from the first page of her award winning graphic memoir Fun Home. I know I’m not alone in my enthusiasm for her work, but I just want to get out there that I connect with … Continue reading

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Ursula K. Le Guin’s Worlds of Exile and Illusion

Ursula K. Le Guin’s Worlds of Exile and Illusion collects the three earliest published novels by the author. Specifically the first three Hainish novels (Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions) are contained with the pages of the large … Continue reading

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Sharon Kay Penman’s The Queen’s Man, Cruel as the Grave, and Dragon’s Lair

Since Ellis Peters started it all with her Brother Cadfael series, the medieval mystery genre has exploded in popularity: Candace Robb’s Owen Archer series; Margaret Frazer’s Sister Frevisse mysteries; Edward Marston’s Norman Domesday tales. Noted for her historical novels, such … Continue reading

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