The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Paperback edition, Bantam, 2007 The Lies of Locke Lamora came out in 2006, but I only got around to it in 2019. I’m coming out of a long period where I did not read current science fiction or fantasy, only old favorites. It caught my attention at …
Steampunk, a term coined in the mid-1980s, is a catch-all term for artistic design and subject matter that harks back to the Victorian Age, when steam-powered machinery and clockwork mechanisms began to drive the Industrial Revolution. The term was invented by SF writer K.W. Jeter in a tongue-in-cheek reference to Cyberpunk. But the term and …
Tales of knights in shining armor don’t always end happily.
Tales from Watership Down by Richard Adams Avon Books, March 1998 [Challenge # 39: A book with a non-human (animal or fantastic creature) main character] I don’t think any talking-animal story has ever come close to what Richard Adams accomplished with Watership Down, an epic tale of rabbits who flee their doomed warren. It had …
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemison Current, Penguin Group, 2013 [Challenge # 14: A book about a person of color (PoC), any variety, written by an author of the same variety] Up to now, I haven’t read much current fantasy, that is, books published after 2001. In recent years I read fantasy YA …
The Thorn Boy by Storm Constantine Stark House, 2001 Better known as a fantasy novelist, Storm Constantine has also written a surprising number of short stories. This collection, published in 2001, features nine stories set in or around the fictional kingdom of Magravandias, which figures in her Sea Dragon Heir trilogy. The Magravandias world resembles …
Here’s a different take on the classic Snow Queen story. What if she was ill, and needed Kay’s lifeblood to survive?
Lost kingdoms and hidden cities are a staple of pulp adventure fiction — and SFF! — as are their rulers, which, most of the time, are gorgeous, powerful, scantily clad women. Often they serve as foils for the male adventurers and, occasionally, romantic interests. The magazine cover above illustrates Phorenice, the ruler of Atlantis. With …
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