Blade Runner: Origins Vol 2: Scrap by K. Perkins, Mellow Brown, Mike Johnson Art by Fernando Dagnino
(Titan Comics, 2022)
Reviewed by John Dodd
I’ll go on record as saying that I love all things to do with Bladerunner, from the original films (in all its many forms), to the book and its sequels, to the film sequel and all the lore and mythos that has been built up over time.
This was something I hadn’t yet encountered and that was a very refreshing thing to encounter.
Cal Moreaux (the significance of the name is not lost on me), is a man who has been brought in by the LAPD to assist on a case involving problems with the Nexus 4 model replicants. It quickly becomes apparent that there are issues with the 4’s malfunctioning, with the first one that they encounter going into a recursive loop till their programming comes to the conclusion that it needs to, albeit that no one knows what the conclusion should be.
Continue reading…
Review from BSFA Review 18 - Download your copy here.
The Last Legacy by Adrienne Young
(Titan Books, 2022)
Reviewed by Anne F. Wilson
The story starts with our heroine, Bryn Roth, arriving by ship to the Bastian city docks. After the death of her parents fourteen years ago, Bryn has been brought up abroad by her great aunt who has taught her to be ladylike. Now Bryn is eighteen she has been summoned home by her controlling Uncle Henrik to meet the rest of her family, and find her place in it.
The Roth family business is jewellery, or rather, fake gemstones. They also indulge in piracy. They occupy an unfashionable house in a downmarket district. The household is disproportionately male, including, apart from one self-effacing aunt and a female housekeeper, Bryn’s male cousins, her uncles, and a number of craftsmen. Henrik’s ambitions involve using Bryn, who is ladylike and marriageable, to help him join the merchants’ guild, and take a step up the socio-economic ladder.
Chasing Whispers by Eugen Bacon
(Raw Dogs Screaming, 2022)
Reviewed by Phil Nicholls
This collection of 13 Afro-irrealist short stories by Eugen Bacon, an African Australian writer, is published by Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2022. The book includes a short introduction by American novelist and critic D. Harlan Wilson, who sets these stories in context within the current state of black speculative fiction.
A book of short fiction, even one from a single author, is even harder to categorise than a novel. Bacon includes only limited genre elements in many of these stories, but the overall effect is a magical re-imagining of modern life. Chasing Whispers fits neatly within the wider definition of magical realism, if the term can genuinely be applied beyond the work of South American writers.
The Tangleroot Palace & other stories by Marjorie Liu
I really like Monstress in all its volumes, so I was very interested to read the stories that came purely in words, so when The Tangleroot Palace came up for review, I was straight in there.
‘Sympathy for the Bones’ is a tale of magic and death, of family and the things that we must do for them, no matter what it costs us, no matter where it takes us. Most of all, it was about making your own choices, no matter what the family you have will make of them and living with the consequences or delights of those actions.
‘The Briar and the Rose’, a tale of two women, both of them monsters in their own way, but one with far more to quantify them as such. This isn’t just Sleeping Beauty, this is something else entirely.
Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson
I’m not a big Brandon Sanderson fan, so I’m going to apologise in advance if I’ve missed some of the nuance in the book because I haven’t read anything else of his.
Dawnshard is the story of Rysn, a captain who seeks her own way out on the ocean with her crew and companions. She’s different from other captains in that she doesn’t have the use of her legs, and so has to make up for this with the use of her mind and her mental alacrity. I’m making a point of this in the review because this is heavily noted in the beginning of the book, which is at odds with how things continue in this book.
Silver Queendom by Dan Koboldt
(Angry Robot, 2022)
Silver Queendom is Dan Koboldt’s first book for Angry Robot, but the geneticist writer has previously published fiction and non-fiction titles. His new release is the story of a small band of thieves who run a battered inn on the edge of civilisation in the queendom of Rethalta. Of course, the Red Rooster inn is only a front for the band’s nefarious activities.
It is these illegal activities which form the core of this entertaining book, starting with low-level crime at a glittering ball and increasing in scope as the plot develops. Each crime seems to bring a fresh twist, which makes the crew ever more desperate and ready to accept a more daring heist for their next adventure. It is this spiral of events which makes the plot move so fast with flowing action.
The House of Sorrowing Stars by Beth Cartwright
(Penguin Random House, 2022)
Reviewed by Estelle Roberts
This beautiful and atmospheric novel, the second by author Beth Cartwright, has a very magical realist feel and sensibility. Despite beginning in a city which could very much be in nineteenth century western Europe, it has the elements of magic being alive within a seemingly normal and mundane world.
Liddy Harchwood is the daughter of a marchpane maker. Despite her young age, she has learnt much from her father, and is almost as accomplished as he is. She also delivers the sweets to homes around the town, allowing the reader to become acquainted with some of its residents, including Lady Chamberlain, who holds an annual party which she never attends, preferring to listen from her sickbed. Liddy sits with her on these occasions, providing comfort and company.
Embertide: A Fallow Sisters Novel by Liz Williams
(NewCon Press, 2022)
Reviewed by D.A. Lascelles
Embertide is the third in the Fallow Sisters series that began with Comet Weather and continued in Blackthorn Winter. If you are coming to this book having not read both of these, it would definitely be worth looking at these first otherwise you will get lost.
In Comet Weather we were introduced to the Fallow sisters—Bee, Stella, Serena and Luna—as they searched for their missing mother, Alys, and came to understand something of their family’s occult legacy. Bee lives in the old family home in Somerset, Stella and Serena work in London and Luna lives on the road with her Romany boyfriend, Sam. Throughout the previous books, each sister faces challenges and discovers things about themselves, in particular each one learns about their magical abilities.
The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh
(Hodder & Stoughton, 2022)
Reviewed by Ksenia Shcherbino
Axie Oh’s The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea is a sweet and neat fairy tale about coming of age through the encounter with the fantastic.
In a village by the sea they have a cruel tradition. Every so often a maiden beautiful, or skilled in crafts, or intelligent and otherwise distinguished, is thrown into the sea to become Sea God’s bride and ensure her people’s safety. Mina is neither, but she is brave, strong-willed and devoted to her family. So, when her brother falls in love with a girl who is chosen for this year’s rite, she secretly follows them to the sacrificial site and jumps into the water to take the bride’s place. This is Mina’s entry into the Spirit world, and for some inexplicable twist of fate, or rather, red ribbon of fate, she is tied to the Sea God. The Sea God is no monster, but a young boy under a deep spell. His sleep is affecting not just the human world, but the Spirit realm as well. Our self-appointed bride is determined to protect her village, but finds herself in the centre of palace intrigues, shape-shifting dragons, shifting identities and shuffled allegiances. She embarks on a journey to break the spell and wake the Sea God, and the truth she uncovers changes her life forever.
Only a Monster Can Kill a Hero by Vanessa Len
Girl meets Boy, something special about him, first date soon results in mass murder…
Well, it’s not Twilight, that’s for sure.
Joan doesn’t believe that she’s a monster. She thinks that her gran is just saying those things in the way that misguided older relatives often do, and so she makes her way in the world till she finds someone who’s interested in her and takes the chance of going out to see them, to take her first steps in the adult world. Things don’t quite go to plan. Joan realises that her gran was telling the truth, and that she is in fact a monster and worse, that the boy she went to see for the first time is a Hero.
The Hero.
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