I was never much afraid of the Corinthian. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he’s a good character. A great one. But mouths for eyes and a taste for eyeballs? It doesn’t really do it for me. Still, I have to admit to getting the delighted shivers–the kind you get sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories–when …
The final book in the Lunar Chronicles is coming out in a few short days, so I’m in one of my periodic states of agony. To cope, let’s talk about the first 3.5 books, and what Marissa Meyer is and isn’t doing that makes those books successful. It doesn’t take a fanatic to notice that …
There’s a lot of mileage in fairy tales, and I don’t know why people keep going back to the same old Disney classics when they could just open Grimm’s and find something fresh to remake in their own image. My guess is that they’ve read The Seventh Bride and are intimidated. Maybe they saw how it was …
Christina Ladd: Area X Cross-contamination between various media was always inevitable. Books that read like movies–and now books that read like video games–were always going to happen, and I’m not sorry they did. But there’s always a special pleasure reserved for books that do what other media can’t, taking full advantage of not only a …
One of the blurbs on the back of A Borrowed Man describes the book as “Wolfean.” Meaning, that it was written by and is quintessentially representative of Gene Wolfe, one of our modern SFF masters. This is simultaneously a very silly and very true thing to say, because of course what he writes ought to be …
The Clean Room #1 is a tantalizing first step into a world that is altogether a little too familiar. Everything is overexposed–in graphic detail–but somehow still full of hidden agendas. Each character’s story immediately dramatically unfair, and madness is in ample supply. It’s a comic very much for and about this suspicious generation, weaned on corporate marketing …
The first and only thing you need to know about this book is that it’s magnificently, enthrallingly, undeniably brilliant and you should read it. Immediately. Well, what are you waiting for? Go, go! Unconvinced? Sigh. Fine. Simon Snow is the Chosen One, but he’s a bit shaky on what exactly he’s been chosen for. After all, …
There’s a story about the punk movement that goes like this: Someone asked me “what is punk?” so I kicked over a garbage can. He kicked over another garbage can and asked, “so that’s punk?” “No,” I said. “That’s just trendy.” That’s pretty much what you need to know to start reading The Unnoticeables by …
Apparently it’s music week here at Geekly, because after the punk-rock showdown that was The Unnoticeables, we now have Last Song Before Night, a decidedly different take on what happens when you mix magic and musicians. Ilana C. Myer’s debut—coming out today!—introduces us to a world of uneasy peace between the vast network of musician-poets …
I’m a sucker for fairy tales. A large part of that probably comes from growing up in the golden age of Disney animation. Another large part of that comes from the fact that fairy tales–the real, original ones–acknowledge the horrors of life as well as the adventure and romance. For Sarah Pinborough, the terrors are the …