Category Archives: Book Reviews

The Tale of the ARC

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Marion

One really good thing about being a reviewer is that I get lots of free books. One really bad thing about being a reviewer is that I get lots of free books. Because I don’t use an e-reader, these are … Continue reading →

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I Read “The Algorithms of Value;” I Got Angry

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Marion

Clarkesworld Issue 112 leads with a story by the prolific SFF writer Robert Reed, “The Algorithms of Value.” The story is set on Earth, probably less than one hundred years in the future. The planet is seriously overpopulated with humans, … Continue reading →

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A Devil’s Brew: Thoughts on The Witches, by Stacy Schiff

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Marion

I’m still reading The Witches by Stacy Schiff. After the first third, I started to struggle, and set the book aside to read a few other things. Part of this choice is emotional. It’s difficult to be reminded, page after … Continue reading →

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The Big Knockover by Dashiell Hammett

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Marion

In 1962 Lillian Hellman compiled a collection of Dashiell Hammett’s short stories and published them as The Big Knockover. In 1965 she wrote an introduction for the later edition of this collection. The bulk of the stories represented here are … Continue reading →

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Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith

Posted on November 24, 2015 by Marion

Career of Evil is the third Cormoran Strike novel by Robert Galbraith. That’s the pen-name J.K. Rowling uses for her murder mystery series. Career of Evil is a dark book, darker even than the second novel, The Silkworm. Galbraith takes … Continue reading →

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Critters I Can Do Without; a Discussion of Urban Fantasy

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Marion

I read a lot of a fantasy subgenre called Urban Fantasy. Although the name implies that these tales take place in metropolitan areas (and many of them do) the real hallmark of a UF book is that is it set … Continue reading →

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“My Mother, Dancing” by Nancy Kress

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Marion

Hugo and Nebula award winning writer Nancy Kress just published a story collection with Subterranean Press. It’s called The Best of Nancy Kress. My review of the whole book is available here. (And a plug, ordering the book via FanLit’s … Continue reading →

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The Magician’s Lie by Greer MacAllister

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Marion

The Magician’s Lie opens in 1905 Iowa. In the early pages, two off-duty policeman watch a woman illusionist chop a man in half onstage. The trick is gory and breath-taking, but after the show ends, they find a body killed … Continue reading →

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Michele Anna Jordan: The Good Cook Comes to Copperfield’s Books

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Marion

Michele Anna Jordan gave a presentation at the Sebastopol Coppefield’s on Saturday, October 17. Jordan has revised and reissued several of her classic food books, and she highlighted them for us. This particular Saturday she had driven down from an … Continue reading →

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Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Marion

In the Afterword to Stone Mattress, Nine Wicked Tales, Margaret Atwood explains that she chose the word “tales” deliberately, to differentiate from stories. A story can be a telling of an actual occurrence; a “tale” is always made up and … Continue reading →

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