The advanced reader’s copy of Erin Morgenstern’s debut novel The Night Circus comes with a four-page document tucked inside. Most ARCs have some kind of sexy cover letter tucked in them that talks up the book you are about to open. Usually, there are advanced quotes from big-name writers and useful-but-dull details about price and [...]

Gathering up the ezines, which don’t fill me with excessive enthusiasm, and tackling another urban fantasy anthology. Is it just me, or are there a whole lot of these around all of a sudden? The Good Story award goes to Bradley Denton’s WWII tale from the Strange Streets anthology, despite the absence of actual streets. [...]

A bin Laden figure shows up in Lavie Tidhar’s Osama, whose title alone would seem to suggest one of those occasional SF works whose timing unfortunately almost situates them in the backwash of actual events, like Norman Spinrad’s excellent Russian Spring appearing on the eve of the dissolution of the Soviet Union or the film [...]

Chosen ones, princesses, sorcery, military rivalries, and even religious conflicts are well-worn fantasy elements, often mixed and matched with archetypal characters to create all-too-familiar, all-too-bland high fantasy trilogies. (It must always – or nearly always – be a trilogy.) This makes it all the more wonderful that Rae Carson’s debut young-adult novel, The Girl of [...]

Another mix of print and online sources. I’m seeing a lot of anthologies coming in for review these days. Publications Reviewed Panverse Three, edited by Dario Ciriello Redstone Science Fiction, September 2011 Strange Horizons, September 2011 Apex Magazine, September 2011 Albedo One, Issue 40 2011 Panverse Three, edited by Dario Ciriello The third in a [...]

Daniel Polansky’s debut novel Low Town is hardboiled fantasy, taking the structure of a noir crime novel and setting it not in the mean streets of our world but in a fantasy universe. The closest analogue that comes to mind is Alex Bledsoe’s Eddie LaCrosse series, which transforms the wisecracking private investigator into a freelance [...]

by Gary Westfahl As one watches the assemblage of mismatched footage – sometimes sharp, sometimes out of focus, shaky, or inadequately lit – that makes up Apollo 18, and still becomes enthralled by its unfolding narrative, a message emerges that is entirely unrelated to its story, one also conveyed by the film that this one [...]

Most of the stories from print publications again this time: two new digests, a vampire anthology with few actual vampires, and a couple of first-of-the-month ezines. The Good Story award goes to Kij Johnson’s novella in Asimov’s. Publications Reviewed Asimov’s, October/November 2011 Analog, November 2011 Blood and Other Cravings, edited by Ellen Datlow Clarkesworld, September [...]