Literary fantastic, magical realist and weird fiction books
Review by William Grabowski By the time Aiko leaves, her footsteps echoing down the hallway, I’ve dug deep gouges in the door’s paint with my nails and teeth, my mouth full of her intoxicating scent. The key word in this anthology’s title is new, and if that doesn’t quicken your heart, a sampling of […] Read more »
Review by William Grabowski Now he began spinning in circles—like a deranged dancer, or a whirling dervish, or a man inhabited by devils…. James Morrow explores ideas with visionary audacity and a satirical (yet nonetheless disturbing) bent perhaps unequaled since Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld series—as if directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. I like to imagine […] Read more »
Reviews of weird fiction on the web, by Lauren Colie Examine your feelings this week. Reflect on the wholesome (if obsessive) glow of a mother’s love, the writhing hate of love gone sour and the echoing loneliness of love that is pale and shallow. We’re traveling the whole spectrum – grab some tissues and a […] Read more »
Review by William Grabowski “We had not planned for children,” Mission Control’s message ended. “We’re sorry.” With an Introduction by Karen Joy Fowler, author Ellen Klages takes so-called hard Science Fiction, clasps its rigid hand, and leads it into fantastical narratives haunted by childhood summer camps, science projects, a Mars settlement, a corrupt […] Read more »
Review by Paul StJohn Mackintosh Un-Broken N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy needs no recommendation. The first book, The Fifth Season, won a 2016 Hugo Award. The second, The Obelisk Gate, is on this year’s Hugo shortlist. The third title, The Stone Sky, is due August 2017. I, like many others, am waiting on tenterhooks to […] Read more »
Review by William Grabowski …I was standing on my head…leaves were growing from my body, and roots were sprouting from my hands… Some novels seize—like hawk on mouse—an idea, zip through empty space and leave us whirling in turbulence. Han Kangʼs Man Booker International Prize-winning The Vegetarian achieves far more, and cultivates with infinite […] Read more »
Review by Paul StJohn Mackintosh Falling Towards the Weird Jeffrey Thomas will be familiar to many readers as the author of the Punktown series of stories – scratch that, Jeffrey Thomas is famous among weird and science fiction readers, RPG players, and even comic book fans, as author of the Punktown chronicles of bizarre […] Read more »
… and Other Ways Women Rule Reviews of weird fiction on the web, by Lauren Colie This week, women are depicted with agency and complexity (surprise!) Be it an ill-advised but wholly satisfying obsession with sex, a monster-slaying talent for badassery or the timely triumph over a rotten-hearted emperor, these ladies are making their own […] Read more »
Review by William Grabowski We’re not Post-Apocalyptic, we’re Post-Yesterday. It’s tempting and easy to compare writers, but this habit often is unfair to both object and subject. Example: thematically, and stylistically, the work of Jeremy Robert Johnson can be compared to that of John Shirley, Chuck Palahniuk (who lauds Johnson as “a dazzling writer”), or […] Read more »
Reviews of weird fiction on the web, by Lauren Colie Phantom Limbs, Terrible Neighbors & A Half-hearted Love God Enjoy variety and freshness in stories that flow along at a quick clip. This Cabinet features a serious contemplation of the fluidity of memory and time, explores the weird inherent in the manufactured perfection of suburbia […] Read more »
Review by Lauren Colie There’s something in the water… The vacation began as many do: with warmed and glistening skin, softly-scented sunscreen wafting in the breeze and a child’s energetic romp through the yard before lunchtime. Amanda and daughter Nina settled in for a week of relaxation in a rural rental, with Amanda’s husband set […] Read more »
Susan held the straw for the core. “You know, in the Semitic languages – Arabic, Hebrew, and Akkadian specifically – the word for tree sap is dem. It’s also the word for blood.” Read more »
Aficionados of the tradition ghost story will find much to enchant them - in fact, one story, “Who Is This Who Is Coming?” is one of the best tributes to M.R. James I’ve read, at once comprehensively referential, sardonically funny, and ultimately chilling. But there is plenty more experimental and challenging work too. The question of who haunts what and how comes up again and again in the tales, with no single clear and prescriptive answer. Read more »
Be careful what you wish for...but we all know that. Yet, we continue to test the waters. Dip a toe in this week for the black magic of a woman scorned, the gleeful wrath of a dark goddess and the triumphant revolt of a girl who shakes off the shackles of normal. Read more »
* Their family trees are full of beautiful men who were hanged as witches or lost at sea, and all their houses are haunted. (The Rockport Boys originally appeared in Aghast #1) IT’S HARD TO stay haunted in California, she says, taking a slow drag on her cigarette. That hungry something is in her eyes again, […] Read more »