Since I enjoy fictional worlds with otherworldly or religious elements and often dip into existential horror, Empire:Spiral is right up my alley. I got a kick out of the inclusion of touch stones of existential horror such as gigantic tentacled demons and the Yellow King. The high fantasy element is relatively dark; however, although many […]
This understated, almost cozy, historical fantasy is unusual in many aspects. It focuses on a friendship that forms between drifters hopping trains as they travel in search of agricultural work. However, this group of damaged and dispossessed men possesses a subtle magic, and their newest member, Joe, not what he seems to be. Joe’s story
Sequoia Nagamatsu’s collection of interlocking stories spanning centuries, explores plague and how people deal with loss. The characters are diverse and intricately linked and the plot is wildly imaginative. How does one relate talking pigs, to funerary skyscrapers, to euthanasia theme parks, to melting permafrost? Read and find out. Be aware How High We Go
In Elizabeth Moon’s Remnant Population, a colony’s corporate overlords order all residents off the planet. But elderly Ofelia, who has had quite enough of being bossed around, chooses to remain, a remnant population of one. Or so she believes, until she hears new of new colonists and an unexpected indigenous population. Ofelia, overlooked an devalued
Three people board a doomed bus: a wayward teen, a disabled vet, and an autistic child. But their problems don’t end after a snowy crash ends their lives. A brutal despot rules purgatory. Instead of helping souls move on, he drains souls and harvests their energy. Purgatory has devolved into a nightmarish decrepit America rife
The History of Soul 2065, A Review Interlocking stories with a magical realism and speculative fiction feel This gorgeous set of interlocking stories follows the souls of two families as they navigate the 20th and 21st centuries.Each story is the literary equivalent of a gem and collectively tell a tale with elements of magical realism,
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Steampunk-Alternate History-Magical Fantasy and Talking Crows! 1908-Russia: A scrappy intelligence officer from war torn North America hires herself out as a mercenary in the service of Catherine the Great. Both women are “Queens,” descendants of the Gods possessing certain powers. Eryma communes with crows, and her birds provide reconnaissance and protection. Though bashed, battered and
Hotel Bars and a number of other stimuli triggered my consciousness to consider how life’s three stages intersect with literature. According to Daisy, the three stages of life should be titled: Childhood, sexual, and the difficult to name one, postsexual. As you’ve probably noticed, humans are obsessed by life’s sexual stage during which the focus
Hotel Bars and the Art of Being Conscious is more of a thought experiment than a novel but a thought experiment well worth reading. After Daisy drops her teenage son off at boarding school, she’s officially an empty nester. What should she do with the last phase of her life, the phase past child rearing,
