About Book Marks
Recent Reviews
N K Jemisin
Positive Booklist Established fans of Jemisin’s work and general fantasy and sf readers alike should check out this collection of diverse and exciting new speculative fiction.
Andy Duncan
Rave Booklist \"This collection brings together a wide variety of Duncan’s short fiction from a 20-plus-year career. Stories include evocations of folklore such as Big Rock Candy Mountain in which a rail-riding hobo and a determined young woman journey out from the fabled paradise. Other stories revisit classic works of literature ... Highly recommended for fans of Kelly Link or other slipstream writers, and for any reader looking to lose themselves in an engaging and fun reading experience.
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Rave Booklist The horror on offer ranges widely in style and tone, from brief encounters with monsters or the supernatural to apocalypses of cosmic proportion to horrors invented out of the human heart ... This collection is highly recommended for anyone interested in contemporary horror and dark fantasy, as well as anyone looking for a collection of some of the best and most horrifying short fiction currently available.
Laird Hunt
Positive Booklist Hunt’s accomplished prose creates the atmosphere of possibility and danger that lurks in the best fairy tales, where anything can happen but everything has a cost. Highly recommended for fans of that amorphous border between fantasy, horror, and literary fiction.
Michael Rutger
Rave Booklist Online Rutger’s first novel follows Nolan Moore, an internet personality and \'rogue archaeologist\' who hosts The Anomaly Files, a web series on the paranormal ... Nolan and his crew, along with a journalist and a representative of the foundation, travel to the Grand Canyon to investigate a mysterious lost cavern supposedly found by G. E. Kincaid around the end of the nineteenth century. As they journey deeper into the cavern and uncover more and more mysterious and bizarre artifacts ... Mixing a brisk and engaging narrative with strongly developed characters, Rutger deftly depicts the claustrophobic depths explored by the endangered expedition.
Julian Gough
Positive Booklist Laced throughout with epigrams and quotes from noted scientists and philosophers, Connect imagines a world of systems within systems in which the alteration of a few human cells could have far-reaching and astounding effects on the universe. Recommended for those who enjoy near-future speculation coupled with an engaging and effective exploration of a fractured family.
Abbey Mei Otis
Rave Booklist Many of the stories share an emphasis on physicality and embodiment, whether it be bodies distorted by alien environments or artifacts or people thrown into their own bodies through suffering at other, human hands. Her deft and enthralling writing handles science fiction, fantasy, and everything in between with aplomb ... Otis’ debut is highly recommended for anyone interested in weird fiction, sf, or just a breathtaking reading experience.
Alan Dean Foster
Positive Booklist As he journeys through the galaxy, Ruslan’s search leads him to discoveries he could never dream of and provokes conflicts he could never expect. The story is brisk and engaging, and Relic’s world, where alien scientists pore over the ghostly remnants of a fallen human civilization, should satisfy not only existing fans of Foster’s work but also any sf reader looking for an entertaining new space-opera read.
Cixin Liu, Trans. by Joel Martinsen
Rave Booklist Ball Lightning continues Liu’s combination of intriguing scientific speculation and engaging, evocative prose. Highly recommended for fans of Liu and any general readers looking for an exciting and breathtaking new sf read.
George R. R. Martin
Mixed Booklist Online The Wild Cards universe, in which an alien virus created the superpowered \'aces\' and the physically mutated \'jokers\' alike, is no stranger to bizarre and astounding phenomena ... Low Chicago weaves a story that travels from the neat present to the troubled 1968 Democratic convention to 1920s gangland and even Chicago’s prehistoric past. The twenty-fifth Wild Cards novel should not only satisfy long-time fans of the series but also provide newcomers to it an engaging and exciting entry into its world.
Michael Andreasen
Positive Booklist The stories in The Sea Beast Takes a Lover often wander more toward the literary, but overall each strikes the balance between fantasy as metaphor and fantasy in itself very well ... Highly recommended for both fans of literary speculative fiction and general readers.