Book Review: In Winter’s Kitchen

Book Review: In Winter’s Kitchen by Beth Dooley When Beth Dooley first moved to Minneapolis from New Jersey in 1979, she was dismayed by the poor selection of fresh food in the commercial supermarket.  She’d heard that Minnesota was a farm state, yet the wilted vegetables and sallow fruit seemed to come from somewhere else… Continue reading Book Review: In Winter’s Kitchen

Book Review: An Unkindness of Ghosts

Book Review: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon Something has gone drastically wrong aboard the generation ship Matilda .  Centuries after it left the uninhabitable Earth, the ship seems no closer to its destination, if there is in fact a destination at all.  Society has become stratified, with the darker-skinned humans confined to the lower… Continue reading Book Review: An Unkindness of Ghosts

Book Review: Season of Marvels: Viking Tales

Book Review: Season of Marvels: Viking Tales by Deb Houdek Rule This is a collection of four speculative fiction short stories on the general theme of “Vikings” from the small label press Variations On a Theme. “Viking -Trojan War” is an after-action report about 8th Century Viking raiders suddenly materializing on the USC campus due to… Continue reading Book Review: Season of Marvels: Viking Tales

Book Review: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2014

Book Review: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2014 edited by Paula Guran Even the fastest, most dedicated readers can’t read everything that’s published each year.  Not even in relatively limited genres like fantasy or horror.  That’s where “Year’s Best” collections come in handy.  Someone or several someones has gone through the enormous pile… Continue reading Book Review: The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2014

Book Review: You Can’t Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-Known Laws

Book Review: You Can’t Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-Known Laws by Barbara Seuling Laws have a purpose.  It is not always a good purpose, but track them to their passage and you will usually see the reasoning behind them.  With the passage of time, that purpose is obscured, and many laws passed to… Continue reading Book Review: You Can’t Eat Peanuts in Church and Other Little-Known Laws

Book Review: The Edge of Tomorrow

Book Review: The Edge of Tomorrow by Howard Fast There have been several books titled The Edge of Tomorrow, none of which have anything to do with the recent Tom Cruise movie, which borrowed most of its plot from the Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill.  (I think you can see why there was a… Continue reading Book Review: The Edge of Tomorrow

Book Review: Next Year in Havana

Book Review: Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton Disclaimer:  I received this Advance Reading Copy from a Read It Forward giveaway for the purpose of writing this review.  No other compensation was offered or requested.  The final product, due out 2/6/18, may have minor changes. In 1958, Elisa Perez is the daughter of one… Continue reading Book Review: Next Year in Havana

Book Review: The Mystery Men of Mars

Book Review: The Mystery Men of Mars by Carl H. Claudy Dr. Isaac Lutyens, Professor of Physics and Higher Mathematics, has created what amounts to a gravitic engine.  His first thought was to create a spaceship in his attic and orbit the moon.  This being successful, Dr. Lutyens decides that the next step is to… Continue reading Book Review: The Mystery Men of Mars

Book Review: Oliver Twist

Book Review: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens An anonymous woman stumbles into a village about seventy-five miles from London, heavily pregnant and with her shoes in tatters.  She collapses in the street, and is taken to the parochial workhouse.  There, she gives birth to a boy and then perishes, seemingly leaving no clue to who… Continue reading Book Review: Oliver Twist

Book Review: Seven Come Infinity

Book Review: Seven Come Infinity edited by Groff Conklin The title of this anthology refers to the phrase “seven come eleven” from craps, referring to the ways you can win.  In the preface, it’s mentioned that there are a finite number of possibilities for the outcome of rolling two dice.  But when you write a… Continue reading Book Review: Seven Come Infinity