The Smoke Thieves by Sally Green is an intriguing high fantasy with excellent political intrigue but which lacks the grit and pathos of the Half Bad trilogy. It is Green’s first foray into a wholly fantastical world, and her tentative approach undercuts some of the drama and intrigue. Still, with its complex, interwoven story lines, …

I live in the heart of a major city, and I almost never think about the fact that nature wants to kill me. Everything I fear on a daily basis is to do with my own species, and not the plants and animals that I mostly observe for their adorability, not edibility. But in the …

Prior to the release of Only Human, the final entry in the Themis Files trilogy by Sylvain Neuvel, I did a little research. I wanted to see how many Sci-Fi titles include the word human. It seemed like there should be a fair few, since most SF is painstakingly concerned with the human condition, but …

Space Opera (Catherynne M. Valente) – April 3 – Earth finally makes first contact with alien life, only to find that battles are fought in song and dance rather than with laser guns and battle cruisers. Now a small group will have to burst quite literally on to the galactic stage if Earth wants to …

So, I did something dumb and started A God in the Shed, by J-F. Dubeau, late at night. I’m not really a horror buff, and this book is straight horror, no mixer, no chaser. There’s…something…that lives in the town of Saint-Ferdinand. A spirit, a small god, a devil, an evil—something. There’s a serial killer too, …

For International Women’s Day, here are some badass women of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) who defy the odds in order to pursue their passions and develop their intellects. Whether in fictional worlds or our own, the sciences are no magical haven of rationality: they’re beset with the same sexism, racism, and other social …

Between publishers and bookstores and authors themselves clamoring for attention—preorder gifts! promotional temporary tattoos! listicles!!!—I sometimes forget to be grateful. It’s especially humbling, therefore, to come across a book that reminds me so powerfully that we are privileged to live in a time when such good writing on such meaningful topics is so readily available. …

People often repeat the truncated quote “blood is thicker than water,” forgetting that the full quote is “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.” Impressively, both of these mutually contradictory statements are true of The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton. Family, its pull, and its limits …

The last fifty pages of The Belles took me as long to read as the rest of the book, because I didn’t want the story to end. Plus, the tension was unbearable. There were so many betrayals and revelations packed into the last glittering moments, which is impressive, because the other 375 pages weren’t slow. …

When Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out, I was as delighted as anyone else. What a clever concept! I thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was, a not-too-serious romp through Regency England and a droll abuse of copyright loopholes. And then came the swarm. I would go into more detail, but as with most …