Author: admin

This is essentially a grand Space Opera that doesn’t seem like a Space Opera, only because it’s good, and our perceptions of the term hasn’t dug itself out of the stigma even with the best efforts of others like Reynolds, Wright, and Macleod among others. Go visit the Circus of Pathet Lao and tell me Harrison isn’t the best SF writer in the field – either that or he is thumb wrestling Gene Wolfe for honors.

I love the big ideas (The Weaver) and the quite moments (Lin why did you look?).

After reading this book, when someone threatens to paper cut you – you will run – or shank them first.

Plus, a guy carries around a hammer that can end the world – how cool is that?

Cassaday’s pencils are simply sublime.

This (overall the other books here) gets my vote as the one book you can recommend to that person you know who truly believes in the concept of fantastic literature and you will get a call back (not an email – a real call, ringing and everything – I promise) of appreciation. Damn bugs.

A prime example that what elements -no matter how traditional or cliche – an author uses doesn’t have to indicate quality. A master is master, and Wolfe is wolf even in sheeps clothing.

Or, I can be taking books too seriously again…

Epic fantasy can not only be good, it can rival the best stuff being written, and it’s nice of Martin to supply me with something tangible to point to when saying that.

I take solace that if I don’t make it the other way, there are small presses in hell. By the way, if I didn’t stress it enough, Punktown kicks all kinds of ass – that’s a quality purchase that will have you searching for other Thomas efforts in that setting.

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

27. Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk (1999)

That guy who wrote Fight Club. This is his best book.

What? That should be enough…

What? That should be enough…

In short, I don’t know much about mystery, but I like this book.

It’s just a wonderful example of SF/F being the tool and not the product itself (another idea that is lost in many corners of SF/F).

…and God narrating a story just tickled me.

So…who the hell is Tim Etchells?

I still have no damn clue, but this collection is an intriguing and nifty cynical (which in the 21st century means realistic) look at modern values in England.

Alas, the other Ducornet works I have read were written before a decade ago (her Phosphor in Dreamland is an all time favorite of mine) – and a list like this that doesn’t include her would have very little validity.

I’m think I’m going to change my name to Japan H.P. Kafka.

“Her stories are not snapshots. They are what happens to snapshots.”

If my name was Japan H.P. Kafka I think I could say something deep like that to.

There aren’t too many geat anthologies anymore. Remeber all the hype for the Legends stuff? I liked it because they had some necessary reads from authors like a Martin in them (Martin fans will buy anything that includes something aSoIaF related – and rightfuly so), but they define uneven stories. Most of them were big names, who never could write anyway and were out of element in the short form. With Leviathan you have collected some of the best in the business.

Fuck that!

If you think those are actual detractions than you’re an idiot. I don’t know about anyone else but one of my main goals – a daily goal – is to maximize my enjoyment and have fun. This is Fritz Leiber after watching Reservoir Dogs and that can’t possibly be bad.

The Gentleman Bastards are an institution – someone give me an official T-Shirt.

When he writes a book the genre is better and worse – better for his latest inclusion, but looks worse in comparison. This collection, a laid back shot to the soul is classic Harrison – it’s not a performance, it’s an experience.

This is a journey via a fictional woman’s diary that carries a historical authentic feel of the turn of the century NW U.S., while the protagonist begins a (sometimes fantastic) adventure into the woods to search for the child of one of her employees. This is mysterious, adventurous, and presents one of the more enjoyable decidedly feminist characters I have read.

Moorcock is an author who transcends. As every time one wants to use him as a standard he goes off and establishes new standards, some of which we don’t realize until decades afterwards. Moorcock is in my mind the soul of SF/F – one we don’t know if is ascending or descending, but are assured no one better can chronicle that journey in-between.

For now we simply behold the man.

Stories like The Clapham Antichrist and The Cairene Purse shows an author not on top of the game, but playing one we aren’t invited to yet.

This is a case of seeing an author mentioned enough times by other authors (that write work I enjoy) that motivated me to make a purchase. My favorite is his Tours of the Black Clock, and you simply have to love a author always worthwhile and most of the times outstanding fiction in a lean package around 300 pages long that never lack for content. In some 2500 some-odd pages (or 2-3 epic fantasy tomes) he has put out eight books worth putting on the shelf that might be among the best in the last couple of decades. Frankly, I enjoy his body of work more than I do Pynchon’s (who I’m also a big fan of).

Stories like The Pottawatomie Giant make Duncan just as astounding to me as the Links and Chiangs – which is the highest praise I can think of.*

*Note – I corrected this, after rereading the passage it seemed to infer that the story was in the collection, it’s not, I just wanted to give a sample of Duncan’s writing that is available online.

Blade of Tyshalle goes away from the more and more common narratives where power is born through subtlety, yet it never falls into the gratuitous pits that many authors mistake as more relevant. I reviewed this book here (one of my first review attempts).

In the end it’s 800 pages that never fail to hold interest, something not even the much-lauded Susanna Clarke pulled off in her most excellent debut – and honestly not many do. It’s good to see smebody still writing books that both kicks ass and features a character who kicks ass.

“However, most people (including myself) are of average intelligence and Mr. Ackroyd does not seem to have written this book with us in mind. Mr. Ackroyd’s use of the English language is polished but too intelligent for the average person to understand. He should have written at a more mainstream level.”

Ignorance is not a problem it seems, people seem to know they are indeed rather daft, and in this case are proud of it? I don’t know, I have to admit I was rather ignorant of More and found it informative (admittedly I have no reference to question veracity), I tend to read biographies to find out about a subject and Ackroyd accomplishes that and does so in a manner that I found entertaining as well.

While most consider page turners to represent the best of reads, this is a collection one has to savor and take a break in between the stories as Shepard packs this collection with some of his emotionally exhaustive work to date, each lush in content as any novel.

I’m not going to make a habit of linking reviews, but Niall Harrison reviewed this collection story by story and does it justice.

Lethem has stood the test of time, and enough so he is no longer just stylish, he has become a standard.

More than any other novel of 2004 it captured place (like Bowes did in 2005) for me, I wasn’t told where I was, I was transported there, and after he last page I still miss it.

This book represents the pinnacle of epic fantasy in my mind; Martin is just showing off here, complete mastery of POV and perspective, and juggling them by the dozen, 98% of the authors who snicker at epic fantasy could not have pulled this off. The Red Wedding is one of the all time classic chapters in fantasy.

Queue The Rains of Castamere…

The world needs more books by Cisco.

This is a book that replaces the tree nobody here’s falling with people nobody ever hear.

Thomson’s story about a man turned blind regaining his vision threatens to give the term thriller some sense of respectability.

It’s a mixture of melancholy and beauty, and I will be damned if one can be unmoved by the reading.

Has become the standard I gauge subsequent horror against.

One of the best SF novels in recent years.

Joyce never disappoints. When I was in high school we called people like this fiends.