Passing Strange by Ellen Klages is a remarkably restful piece of quiet fantasy that I can’t recommend enough. Set in the queer quarters of 1940 San Francisco, we follow the budding romance between two women: an artist for the pulps and a singer newly arrived trying to find a place to belong. That’s it. And …
Otaku by Chris Kluwe will have to be compared to Ernie Cline’s Ready Player One because they have a lot in common. Stop me if you’ve heard this one: a dystopian world that’s gone to hell and it would really suck if there wasn’t some kind of global virtual reality game for people to get …
A war is waged by two rival time-traveling agents: Red, who comes from a world ruled by technology, and Blue, who comes from a world rooted in organic life. The narrative is told through letters between the women, at first passionately loathsome, then– surprising both– passionately loving. Through visceral, poignant, and intricate wordplay, El-Mohtar and …
Live from PAX West, a book review! There’s something to the notion of a time war, isn’t there? One faction wants This, another faction wants That, and time is the battlefield. There’s also something futile to the notion, but that’s another book (All of an Instant by Richard Garfinkle [out of print]). This book is …
I’m fussy about fantasy. I need more than a D&D transcript and those epic series of epicness (looking at you, Jordan, Martin, Eddings etc) are work. But sometimes the freshest thing you can do to a genre doesn’t involve razing everything to the ground, but tweaking one aspect and taking that change very seriously. Enter …
I am living for this series of books [DC Icons series]. As a fan of comic books who is sick of the ossification and stagnation of the Big Two, these books are a welcome breath of fresh air in that they are fun tweaks to familiar characters. Wonder Woman is young, naive and conflicted on …
A City Dreaming by Daniel Polansky is… …what Doctor Who (or Strange?) would have been like if he’d been portrayed by David Bowie at his louchest. Or maybe Harry Dresden played by Tom Waits. Neverwhere written by Lou Reed. …Vonnegut and Tolkien had an illegitimate love child raised by Douglas Adams. …a balm for any …
Six-Gun Snow White is a quiet delight that demands to be read aloud, preferably by Sam Elliott. Valente has taken the Snow White story and reforged it into a Wild West with a pinch of magic and while there are nods to what you know and have read before (her horse is named Charming… because …
And just when I say I’m sick of memoirs by white people, I get to enjoy The Liminal People, which is decidedly not. The book is a variation on Wild Cards or Heroes: people with phenomenal powers who are simply people: good, bad, psychotic, noble… and everything that happens next without invoking aliases or Lycra. …
I have to admit that I really liked the Disney version of “The Three Musketeers.” It’s not the book (obviously) and misses a lot of the nuance (duh!) but it had wit and sparkle and was eminently quotable (“You, boy, are arrogant, hot tempered and entirely too bold. I like that. Reminds me of me.”) …
