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  • 10/01/2024 18:41 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Death of Jane Lawrence cover

    The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling

    (Titan Books, 2022)

    Reviewed by Steven French

    This is a dark and deeply weird book. Set in an alternative nineteenth century England, whose capital is ‘Camhurst’, it opens with the protagonist, Jane Shoringfield, formally meeting her soon-to-be husband, Dr. Augustine Lawrence. Having lost her parents in the war with Ruzka, Jane has been brought up by her guardians, Mr and Mrs Cunningham, in the small town of Larrenton. With Mr Cunningham about to take up a judgeship in Camhurst, however, Jane must find her own way in the world and so she decides to marry but purely as a business agreement. With her mathematically trained mind and having kept her guardian’s ledgers, she feels she has a lot to offer a small-town GP. Dr Lawrence, for his part, tries to put her off, emphasising that there will be blood ‘and great sadness and terror’. He even adds an inviolable stipulation—he must spend his nights at his ancestral home, several miles outside of town and she can never join him there.

    Continue reading…

    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 08/01/2024 16:55 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Behind a Broken Smile cover

    Behind a Broken Smile by Penny Jones

    (Black Shuck Books, 2022)

    Reviewed by Dev Agarwal

    Penny Jones is a Devon-based horror writer. She is a short fiction author with a previously published collection, Suffer Little Children (Black Shuck Books), that was short-listed for the British Fantasy Award in 2020 (for Best Newcomer). Her novella, Matryoshka, was also a finalist for the British Fantasy Award in 2022.

    Behind a Broken Smile is Jones’ second collection. In it, Jones draws inspiration from the word sonder—defined as the realisation that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as your own, despite your lack of awareness of it.

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    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 06/01/2024 09:38 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Hollows cover

    The Hollows: A Storm is Coming by Daniel Church

    (Angry Robot, 2023)

    Reviewed by Steven French

    The opening pages of this ‘folk horror’ novel are strongly reminiscent of a scene from the BBC tv series Happy Valley: a middle-aged policewoman, carrying the weight of personal tragedy on her shoulders, is looking at a snow-covered body in an isolated valley in the Peak District, just a couple of days away from the winter solstice. For Ellie Cheetham, local constable in the village of Barsall, this is not such an unusual occurrence as people sometimes come to grief in the harsh terrain. However, this is no lost hiker or poorly prepared tourist, this is a local man, one Tony Harper, a member of the clan of miscreants and troublemakers who live on a nearby farm. And bizarrely, he froze to death, knife in hand, with a mysterious symbol drawn in charcoal on the rock behind him.

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    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 03/01/2024 08:46 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Sinister Booksellers of Bath cover

    The Sinister Booksellers of Bath by Garth Nix

    (Gollancz, 2023)

    Reviewed by Susan Peak

    If you already read and like Garth Nix’s books, then you will like The Sinister Booksellers of Bath and its predecessor, The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. If you haven’t read his books, then this duology (as it is at present) is a good introduction to his writing.

    It very much is a duology, too—there is background material in the first book that’s necessary to understanding both the booksellers and the kind of dangers they deal with that isn’t repeated in this second book. And, while The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is self-contained, a key plotline and character relationships are continued into this book—so I am taking care to avoid spoilers for either book.

    Continue reading…

    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 29/12/2023 08:53 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Book of Gaheris cover

    The Book of Gaheris: An Arthurian Tale by Kari Sperring

    (Newcon Press, 2023)

    Reviewed by David Lascelles

    The legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table are among the most well-known tales in Europe and the US, if not wider. There have been many interpretations throughout history and the tales have contributed significantly to the tropes of ‘knights in shining armour’ that we know and love today.

    I’m willing to bet that everyone can name at least some of the knights. They’d certainly recognise Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain and Galahad.

    These knights are not the heroes of this book. They appear, but only as cameos. Here, we are looking in detail at the lesser-known knights, in particular Gaheris.

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    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 26/12/2023 09:01 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    All the Hollow of the Sky cover

    All the Hollow of the Sky by Kit Whitfield

    (Jo Fletcher Books, 2023)

    Reviewed by Anne F. Wilson

    All the Hollow of the Sky is a sequel to Whitfield’s previous novel, In the Heart of Hidden Things. This introduced us to the three generations of Smiths who live in the village of Gyrford: Jedediah the farrier, Matthew his son and John his ten-year-old grandson, an intelligent lad who never knows when to keep his mouth shut. I don’t think you need to read the first book in order to enjoy the second, but it is delightful and why wouldn’t you?

    The novels are set sometime between the medieval period and the early eighteenth century, before steam power. The location is unspecified, but Kidderminster is a nearby town. The struggles of the villagers do not relate to the outside world, however, but to their relations with the Fey, or the “Kind Friends” who cause more upsets when they try to help the humans than when they don’t.

    Continue reading…

    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 22/12/2023 08:58 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm cover

    The Wistful Wanderings of Perceval Pitthelm by Rhys Hughes

    (Telios Publishing, 2023)

    Reviewed by John Dodds

    Writer, explorer, inventor, Perceval Pitthelm’s story in this short novel (or novella) begins on a writing retreat in the town of Figuera da Foz, Portugal. Though it is not his story we first hear, but rather the fantastical tale told by a man Perceval meets in the town, Old Rogerio.

    To say the Old Rogerio’s tale—and the novel itself—is fanciful would be to do both a major disservice. When I posted on a science fiction group on Facebook that this was my current read, one commentator said it sounded “bonkers”, which pretty much sums up what I felt. Seriously bonkers. But in a really good way.

    Continue reading…

    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 20/12/2023 09:02 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Pomegranates cover

    Pomegranates by Priya Sharma

    (Absinthe Books, 2023)

    Reviewed by Jamie Mollart

    Pomegranates falls nearly into two literary trends which will hopefully lend it the success it richly deserves. As a retelling of a classic Greek myth, it calls to mind the successes of Madeline Miller’s ‘Circe’, ‘Ariadne’ by Jennifer Saint and ‘Ithaca’ by Claire North. And elsewhere I’m seeing an enjoyable trend for novellas, so it’s especially gratifying to read one in a space which has traditionally been all about length and scope.

    That said, this novella is a deceptively simple piece of work, packing so much into its limited palette that it somehow feels epic despites its slight page count. The plot is taut and crisp. The construction elegant and elusive. The brilliant writing, while sparse, is still redolent with imagery, mystery and portent. Meaning the whole packs much more of a punch than its size would suggest.

    Continue reading…

    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 15/12/2023 09:23 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Warlock Effect cover

    The Warlock Effect by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman

    (Hodder & Stoughton, 2023)

    Reviewed by Dave M. Roberts

    The first page of this book is a ‘Reader’s Secrecy Covenant’, reminiscent of the announcement at the end of Dyson and Nyman’s play Ghost Stories in which the audience was asked not to reveal any details of the play. The reader starts by being implored not to reveal any revelations contained in the book. In this case, it’s actually a book within the book that the covenant strictly applies to. Even so, the reader is being set up with the expectation that there will be twists and revelations, and foreknowledge of these would spoil the experience. Whilst this is true of most good fiction, the reveals in this novel feel like the explanation for a stage illusion. Once understood most, if not all, of the magic has gone.

    Continue reading…

    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


  • 13/12/2023 19:27 | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The Malevolent Seven cover

    The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien De Castell

    (Jo Fletcher Books, 2023)

    Reviewed by John Dodd

    Always liked the Magnificent Seven, and with that, always liked plays on the nature of that particular story, especially when they take a turn in a direction that wasn’t expected.

    Enter Cade Ombra, stage right, as a mercenary mage, a wonderist, with powers far beyond those of mortal creatures, who has no interest in working for the greater good or saving those who cannot save themselves. If anything, he’s likely to be the one on the other side that the peasants need saving from.

    Continue reading…

    Review from BSFA Review 21 - Download your copy here.


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