“The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects.” I can’t really improve on that first line and so I’m going to reproduce it for my own review, which …
Horror is a fairly broad genre. Suspense and gore fall under its umbrella, the subtle and the explicit. Monsters both human and non-human, with and without motive, inhabit its works, and the architects of its worlds seek quite the spectrum of responses. Are you unnerved, or actively nauseous? Do you check under the bed for …
A Psalm for the Wild-Built, the new novella from Becky Chambers, though obviously brief, is a complete meal: it has the rich depth of philosophical reflection, the acid brightness of humor, and the unfamiliar spices of a whole new planet. (Well, moon.) Most of all it is satisfying. This is the kind of book that …
Sometimes a book is so good that you go look up whatever else the author has written and devour that, too. And then sometimes a book is so very, very good that when you learn the book is a debut, you nonetheless go find the press that published such an audacious novel and start planning …
American stories about people with powers often involve organizations and the general public getting swept up in their struggles. The government wants to use them! Scientists want to study them! The media will hound them! Those stories are always a bit fatiguing to me in their paranoia (not unjustified paranoia, but still), because in reality, …
It’s no secret that we here at Geekly love Tamsyn Muir and her gothic sensibilities. But does her necromantic space opera mean that she can write a fantasy-based fairy tale as well? Of course it does. Duh. Muir is brilliant in a way that has already transcended genres. Why wouldn’t she be able to pull …
Self-defense storytelling is only a little younger than storytelling itself. Shahrazad is the most famous victor of such a contest, but Egil Skallagrimsson did it in Iceland’s famous Egil’s Saga, and there are fairy tales and legends from across the globe that feature getting creative with a narrative to save your neck. And it’s no …
It has been a long three years, but the next installment of Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives is finally here with Rhythm of War. One year has passed on Roshar since the end of Oathbringer, and a lot has changed in the war between Odium’s forces, the combined might of the returned Fused, and the now-free Singers …
Fall! Finally, an excuse to pretend we’re inside by choice. Cozy blankets, hot cider, and the kind of scares that stay safely within the frame of a TV set or the pages of a book. If you’re looking to feel a chill down your spine that pairs well with the spooky season and maybe some …
In a reading rut? Wondering what to do with yourself as the heat fluctuates wildly and the pandemic presses on (in America, at least)? Here are eight very different books for this eighth month of this endless year. I enjoyed all of them, and I hope you’ll enjoy at least one, too. 1. The Wizard’s …