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 …
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 …
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 …
Monday night was a big night for a lot of people. There was a sportsball game (several in fact for different sports) and the new fall season episodes are in full blast; more importantly though? The world was introduced to the official trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Teasers have been out there for a while …
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 …
When playing role-playing tabletop games, such as Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder, the players will often regale each other with the tales of their character’s courageous successes, overcoming hordes of foes, going against all odds, and coming out on top against the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy for those who don’t play). Honestly though, we’ve …
The Library at Mount Char is one of my favorite books of 2015, and I sat down with author Scott Hawkins to discuss languages, dogs, and homicidal librarians. Christina Ladd: What had you picking languages as the focus of your book? Scott Hawkins: Part of it was my academic background in computer science, so I …
You know the adage “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”? Of course you do. No matter how much you might want to take issue with that, just don’t judge this book by this cover. I’m not sure what happened, but the text and the image don’t match at all. The jaunty, over-bright colors, the …