The Horrid Glory of Its Wings by Elizabeth Bear

May 21, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Horrid Glory of Its Wings by Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (18 pages)
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

There’s a harpy with bronze wings living in the dumpster behind Desiree’s building. She’s ugly and she eats garbage, but she has a little kingdom back there. Desiree wants something of her own, too — something all hers. Can that foul old thing possibly help her?

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Desiree was a foster child who was living with an incurable, disfiguring illness. The doctors had originally thought she’d die at a very young age, so she wasn’t entirely sure what to do with herself once she outlived all of their earlier predictions. While there were times when I wished she could have a more optimistic opinion about what her life would be like after she aged out of foster care, I also understood why she feared turning eighteen so much. She had been dealt a tough hand in life, and she didn’t have the support system that most people have at that age.

It was interesting to compare Desiree’s place in society to how the harpy was treated. They shared far more in common than I originally guessed they would, from their loneliness to their troubles connecting to almost anyone who happened to stumble across them in life. This wasn’t something I was expecting to find in this story, but I sure did enjoy finding examples of all of the types of experiences that both of them could relate to.

The ending was everything I’d hoped it would be. Based on how few choices Desiree and the harpy had in the beginning of this piece, I could only think of a few different ways their encounters would eventually end. I’d grown to like Desiree that I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to them and if she’d figure out a way to fix some of the problems that had been plaguing her since birth.

The Horrid Glory of Its Wings was a dark tale that I’d recommend to anyone who has ever felt stuck in unfortunate circumstances.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Existence Augmented by Channing Whitaker

May 18, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Existence Augmented by Channing Whitaker
Publisher: Off Speed Press (Self-Published)
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (50 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Existence Augmented is a dystopian, sci-fi novelette and psychological thriller. The world outside is cold, hostile, and virtually lifeless. Human existence depends on sophisticated, technological living compounds. The people who don’t have them, once driven to theft and murder, are believed to be long since dead. Alden, a genius of physical and computer engineering, spends his time tending his hydroponics garden, maintaining and improving the complex systems critical to survival, and, in turn, continually refining the pleasant life he’s created with his wife, Laurel. On a day like any other, everything is following Alden’s plans until the power begins to fail…

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Alden’s character development was phenomenal. His flaws were so realistic that I actually found myself feeling a little irritated with some of his shortcomings at first. He was so well-rounded that I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn’t an autobiography. On the positive side, his strengths were written just as vividly. When he spoke kindly to his plants or worried about his loved ones, I smiled and hoped that nothing but good things would happen to him and his kin.

There was only one small thing I would have liked to see differently done in this tale, and that had to do with the pacing of it. So much time was spent setting up the beginning that there wasn’t quite as much space left to explore the incredibly clever plot twists later on as I would have preferred to see. With that being said, this was a minor criticism of something I otherwise loved quite a bit.

The world building was just as excellent as the character development. Alden lived in a cramped home where he had find space to filter his water, grow his own food, and provide for nearly all of his other needs as well. When he felt overwhelmed by the breakdown of equipment he needed to survive or once again noted the lack of space in his house for anything that wasn’t essential, I shuddered in sympathy.

Existence Augmented is a must-read for anyone who enjoys plots that are full of surprises.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

This Chance Planet by Elizabeth Bear

May 18, 2018 By Leave a Comment


This Chance Planet by Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“This Chance Planet” by Elizabeth Bear is a near future science fiction story about a young Russian waitress with ambitions to become an engineer and her musician boyfriend, who wants her to gestate a liver for money so his band can tour. Plus, there’s a dog.

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The world Petra and her boyfriend lived in was very similar to our own in many ways. Some of the most interesting scenes were the ones that showcased the few but important differences between them. For example, I was fascinated by the descriptions of how growing a new liver or other organ for a stranger worked and what their society did to encourage people to sign up for this medical procedure. It seemed like something that could happen in our world if the current laws didn’t exist, and that made those scenes even more attention-grabbing than they would have otherwise been.

It would have been helpful to have a better understanding of how the science fiction elements of this plot worked. They were mentioned so briefly and rarely that I was never quite sure how they all fit together. While I definitely do enjoy thinking about what an author meant by a specific reference or throwaway line, there simply weren’t enough of those hints in this tale to explain to me what was happening when dog seemed to know what was going on in the main character’s life.

One of my other favorite parts of the storyline had to do with that stray dog that Petra befriended while taking the train in to work every day. The dog didn’t have a name or a home, but she was intelligent enough to ride the train on her own and get to know the humans she met there. I’ve heard of similar things happening in Russia in real life, so I really enjoyed seeing a fictionalized account of what this sort of thing might be like.

If you like dogs, I’d recommend checking out This Chance Planet.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , ,

Last One to the Bridge by Kathy Joy

May 17, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Last One to the Bridge by Kathy Joy
Publisher: 1888 Blackhill Press
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Length: Short Story (48 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Exhilarating and otherworldly, Last One to the Bridge seamlessly blends sci-fi with thriller in this spectacular chase between a space refugee and a seemingly unstoppable threat.

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Never stop running.

The plot twists kept me guessing. I didn’t figure out most of them ahead of time, so being surprised by what happened next was always a thrill. It was especially interesting to look back and think of the subtle clues that Ms. Joy left early on that I hadn’t picked up on. Nothing she wrote came out of nowhere. It all fit together nicely in the end, and that made those parts of the storyline even more fun to reflect on after I finished the final scene.

There was a minor plot hole regarding the origins of the antagonists. While I can’t go into any details about it without giving away spoilers, the explanation the narrator heard about where they came from never fully explained a key part of their origins. This small detail was crucial in order to understanding what the antagonists wanted and how they began killing innocent people, so it was a little disappointing to me to see it brushed over even though I deeply enjoyed this tale in every other way.

The world building was really well done. Reva lived in a time when humanity had paid a steep price for all of the pollution that earlier generations had dumped on Earth. Human populations had seriously declined, and no one was sure if our species would survive in the long term at all. This strong sense of regret and anxiety about the future made the perfect backdrop for Reva’s struggle to survive on a spaceship once she woke up and realized something had gone horribly wrong while the passengers were in cryosleep. There were no guarantees for anyone in this universe, and that made this a tale I didn’t want to stop reading.

Last One to the Bridge made my heart race. This is the kind of science fiction I’d recommend to anyone who loves a fast-paced and intense story.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes

May 17, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Historical
Length: Short Story (54 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“Burning Girls”, by Veronica Schanoes, is a fascinating dark fantasy novella about a Jewish girl educated by her grandmother as a healer and witch growing up in an increasingly hostile environment in Poland in the late nineteenth century. In addition to the natural danger of destruction by Cossacks, she must deal with a demon plaguing her family.

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The world building was phenomenal. I loved the fact that the author incorporated scenes from well-known fairy tales and real historical events into the troubles that Deborah, the main character, and her family faced. Not only was it fun to pick out those elements of the plot, they made the early twentieth century come alive in my imagination. I could imagine exactly what it would be like to live in Poland or the United States during that period of time.

I would have preferred to see some more time spent on character development. Deborah and her family made the same mistakes over and over again while they were trying to escape the clutches of the demon who was tormenting them. I was surprised by the fact that they didn’t seem to learn from their previous mistakes, and I would have liked to know why they kept making choices that hadn’t worked out well for them at all in the past.

One of the things I appreciated the most about this story had to do with how witches were treated in it. Deborah was only a little girl when her family realized that she’d inherited her grandmother’s special abilities, and they made sure she had all of the training she needed in order to become proficient at her future occupation. Her talents were seen as a gift, not a curse. While she did require guidance and training, I liked the fact that being a witch was thought of as a positive thing in this universe.

Burning Girls is a must-read for anyone who adores fairy tales.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Get Off My Cloud by Anne Kane

May 16, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Get Off My Cloud by Anne Kane
Publisher: Changeling Press
Genre: Contemporary, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (34 pages)
Other: M/F
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Six months ago, Lucas met the woman of his dreams, but after a night of amazing sex he woke up to find himself alone. Sent to rescue the daughter of a billionaire from her own folly, he discovers her to be the same woman, and this time he intends to make sure she stays put.

When Olivia discovers a herd of live dinosaurs existing on a small island in the South Pacific, she’s ecstatic. This discovery could crown her career as a paleontologist and put to rest the rumors that her daddy bought her position for her! Of course, when her father sends someone to drag her home, she’s not willing to comply and the couple must find a way to deal with the sizzling attraction between them while running from a herd of angry prehistoric beasts.

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I really enjoyed this story – how it turned the tables on the usual “love ‘em and leave ‘em” style of man. This time it was Lucas who had been thoroughly bedded and left by Olivia. This really appealed to me and I could even accept the super-fast speed they took the sexual aspect of their relationship. Because of their past it didn’t seem too much of a stretch to me that Lucas and Olivia almost literally took one look at each other and immediately went for it.

While this near-immediate jumping into bed helps keep the sexiness level steaming for such a short length story, I really would have liked a little bit more depth to the conclusion. I was left with a bunch of questions – did Lucas’ explanation satisfy Olivia’s father? What happened with the dinosaurs? Did Olivia get the credit her discovery deserved? It didn’t appear to me that this was the first book in a series (or serial) and so having a number of unanswered questions was a little unappealing for me, personally, but this proved the story certainly drew me in!

There was a definite “happy for now” feel to the ending but I really did feel like much of the rest of the story was only really a vignette sort of snapshot, not a whole, completed story in and of itself. The romance aspect was definitely given the majority of the focus, but when I reached the last page – having so many questions still remaining for me made me feel as if the non-romantic parts of the story were just padding and not really given the justice they deserved.

That said I really enjoyed both Lucas’ and Olivia’s characters. I found Olivia a strong character and determined to get her way – not some pampered princess as originally alluded to Lucas by her father. I also found Lucas to be a strong and capable character and a good hero in my eyes. Their chemistry and attraction really sold the story for me and I enjoyed it – even with the lingering questions.

A quick and steamy read, this was a fun short story.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Final Now by Gregory Benford

May 14, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Final Now by Gregory Benford
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal
Length: Short Story (17 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Once upon a moment, the One spoke to He and She, and learned that infinity and eternity are slippery concepts. At best.
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Imagine being able to see the end of the universe in person!

One of my favorite parts of this book was the philosophical discussion between the characters about the meaning of life and what happens after someone dies. While the blurb did give away hints about where the narrators were going with all of this, I wasn’t expecting to see so much of the plot devoted to explaining why the universe is set up the way it is. There was a reason for everything that occurred from the moment it was created until the moment it stopped existing. I was fascinated by how this process worked and why the average human’s understanding of it today might not match how it will actually be.

All three of the characters in this tale had almost identical speaking patterns. While I understood why gods like He and She would talk the same way, the origins of One were so wildly different from the individuals who called this being into existence once again that I was surprised by how few differences I could find between the way they spoke. It would have been helpful to have a more detailed explanation of why this was so, especially none of them seemed all that interested in being described by personalized names or their physical appearances. Telling them all apart was difficult at times due to this.

When I wasn’t having these issues remembering who was who, the dialogue made me think a lot about what it means to be an individual and how the line between an individual and the group they belong to can be blurred over a long period of time. The line between where He began and She ended was never clear-cut. They shared their thoughts and feelings so seamlessly between one another that I almost thought of them as two halves of the same character. Similar things began to happen with One as well once I figured out who that individual was and how they were connected to He and She.

I’d recommend The Final Now to anyone who enjoys hard science fiction.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica

May 11, 2018 By Leave a Comment


The Cage by A.M. Dellamonica
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The eerie thing about Paige Adolpha wasn’t how she turned up right when I was reading about her in the paper. It wasn’t her fame as the star witness in the local werewolf trial. What brought on the gooseflesh, first time I saw her, was she’s the spitting image of her murdered identical twin.

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It’s not very often that I read about a murder in the fantasy genre. This isn’t a topic that seems to be widely explored there, so I was curious to see how the author was planning to show how a trial could unfold after a mystery has already been solved and the killer identified. Since there weren’t any clues to piece together, I was able to sit back, relax, and wait to find out more details about why Paige’s sister was killed and how she was adjusting to her life without her twin.

The plot was easy to predict ahead of time. While I was very interested in the premise in the beginning, being able to guess what was going to happen next so regularly made it hard for me to remain interested in the storyline. I like to be challenged or surprised a little when I read, and there weren’t opportunities for me to do that here.

Romance was the last thing I was expecting to find in this tale, but it suited the characters nicely. They were both in a place in their lives when falling in love was something they might be interested in. Only time would tell if one or both of them would end up taking that leap by the final scene, but I enjoyed seeing their reactions as they decided what they wanted to do with their growing attractions to each other.

I’d recommend The Cage to anyone who likes to mix romance into an urban fantasy setting.

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Bumpy Night on the Walk of Fame by Loretta Bolger Wish

May 10, 2018 By 4 Comments


Bumpy Night on the Walk of Fame by Loretta Bolger Wish
Publisher: Uncial Press
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Inspirational, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Full Length (180 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Orchid

Voted BoM by LASR Readers 2013 copy

After Bette Davis posthumously founds a museum-theater complex at her hometown college, the Producer on high fulfills her longtime dream of playing Scarlett O’Hara. But Bette has no idea how much she’ll shake up her career and her love life by starring in Gone with the Wind.

And that’s only the beginning. Her cosmic do-over also manages to scramble eighty years of world history.

Ronald Reagan will win two Oscars and never become President while John Kennedy marries Grace Kelly and serves two terms. Marilyn Monroe will turn into a sitcom legend, Jacqueline Bouvier will run a style empire and Martha Stewart will become a celebrity chef.

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Racing against time, the movie-loving academic and the high-strung diva form an uneasy alliance to unravel the mystery before the next day’s induction ceremony.
While they spend a stressful but enlightening day trying to restore order, the Producer takes Bette on a bumpy multi-media ride of her own. As she sees favorite film roles elude her and her onetime husband marry another, she mourns all she has sacrificed by starring in Gone with the Wind and fears her derailed history can’t be fixed.

Seeing that Patrice and Dana’s investigation is stalled, Bette gets permission to make a cameo appearance on earth and lend them a hand. In the process, the trio learns new lessons about film, fate and roads not taken.

It’s well known that Bette Davis wanted to play Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With the Wind, this book delves into what would ​have ​happen​ed​ if Bette had gotten the part and how it would affect the here and now.

I enjoyed this book. The main characters ​(​three women) were at times happy, woeful and funny. Bette is looking down from the afterlife while Dana is the drive behind the new museum gifted by Bette to her home town in Massachusetts. The celebrity to open this museum is Patrice Clarke, a ​star who is pumped up by her own ​self importan​ce​.

The fun comes from Bette being given the part by the Producer in the afterlife and it affects ​history ​more than just the film. Everything changes to the point where even Bette decides enough is enough.

Well written and I have to compliment the author on the research into the stars and history of film. It must have taken her months to get all the information together. Well done!

This doesn’t mean the book is a catalogue of what happened in the past against what happens now, the story flows perfectly and the finale is not a bald statement of fact, more a gentle ​finish to a well written book.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction by Jo Walton

May 10, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction by Jo Walton
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (18 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It’s 1960, and the Axis powers dominate the world. Life goes on, because, as we see in “Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction,” history is driven both by big events and by small temptations…

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Including newspaper headlines from this alternate universe was a clever way to show how their world was different from ours in all sorts of ways. I wished I could read all of those imaginary articles in full after I spotted their headlines. They gave tantalizing hints about just how devastating World War II was for the United States, among other nations.

There were so many characters in this story that I struggled to keep track of who all they were and how they were connected to each other. As fascinated as I originally was by the premise, it was frustrating to meet a character only to have the narrator switch focus to someone else a page or two later. Eighteen pages simply wasn’t enough space to give all of them enough time to show the audience who they really were.

The ending was well written. Writing it as a cliffhanger made a lot of sense given how unstable the lives of the characters had been for many years. Surviving the war and the long period of deprivation that came after it was no guarantee that anything would ever change for them. They lived from one day to the next with little hope for a better future, and I liked the fact that this was reflected in how things ended for them.

I’d recommend Escape to Other Worlds with Science Fiction to anyone who has ever wondered how history might have been different if the Allied powers had lost World War II.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,
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