As I previously noted, the Old West is being retrodden by not a few new authors looking for the stories not previously found. Another of those is Lila Bowen, with her stellar debut Wake of Vultures. Her Old West is not quite the one we know in terms of geography, and it’s certainly not the …
The American West is coming into vogue in a big way. Brandon Sanderson’s getting into it, Rae Carson has a new trilogy set there, and there’s also Vengeance Road, Under a Painted Sky, and Wake of Vultures. It’s an exciting time to be reading all these books, because they’re all so different from each other and so …
We now have several reports of Lionsgate developing The Rook, a book about a British supernatural agency in crisis, into a Hulu series. Helmed by Stephanie Meyer of Twilight fame. Cue the screams. Look, I’m thrilled to bits that The Rook is getting an adaptation. Daniel O’Malley deserves all the money that can possibly be thrown at him, …
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, …