Book Review: Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories by Naomi Kritzer This is the first collection of speculative fiction stories by Naomi Kritzer, headlined by the title piece, which won a Hugo Award in 2016. There’s seventeen stories in all. “Cat Pictures Please” is a sweet story about an artificial intelligence accidentally created from a… Continue reading Book Review: Cat Pictures Please and Other Stories
Tag: plague
Manga Review: Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
Manga Review: Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe adapted by Stacy King When I was young, a half century or so ago, there was a line of educational comics called Classics Illustrated. These presented classic public domain works of literature in a comic book format. The art tended to be static and pedestrian, difficult… Continue reading Manga Review: Manga Classics: The Stories of Edgar Allan Poe
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
Comic Book Review: Oni Press Starter Pack 2016
Comic Book Review: Oni Press Starter Pack 2016 by various While I spend many of my comics-related posts on this blog talking about the Big Two’s superhero comic books, there are a number of worthy small press comics companies that put out interesting material every year. Oni Press has put out an affordable collection of… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Oni Press Starter Pack 2016
Book Review: Twice Told Tales
Book Review: Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is one of the great American writers; his The Scarlet Letter is studied in many schools across this land. But it took him quite a while to reach that status. After crushingly disappointing sales for his first novel, Fanshawe, Hawthorne spent a dozen years in poverty,… Continue reading Book Review: Twice Told Tales
Book Review: Classic American Short Stories
Book Review: Classic American Short Stories compiled by Michael Kelahan This book is more or less exactly what it says in the title, a compilation of short(ish) stories written by American authors, most of which are acknowledged as classics by American Lit professors. The stories are arranged by author in roughly chronological order from the… Continue reading Book Review: Classic American Short Stories
Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Rip Hunter…Time Master
Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Rip Hunter…Time Master written by Jack Miller After the success of Jack Kirby creations The Challengers of the Unknown in 1959, DC Comics took a chance on two other quartets of non-powered adventurers in the pages of Showcase, their try-out comic. The more successful of these was Rip Hunter’s team of time… Continue reading Comic Book Review: Showcase Presents: Rip Hunter…Time Master
Comic Book Review: The Best of Judge Dredd
Comic Book Review: The Best of Judge Dredd edited by Tharg It is the dark future of the 22nd Century. Nuclear war and environmental devastation have made large portions of Earth’s surface barely inhabitable, and the majority of the remaining population is crowded into sprawling urban areas called Mega-Cities. Overpopulation, high unemployment, and a general… Continue reading Comic Book Review: The Best of Judge Dredd
Book Review: The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories
Book Review: The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories edited by Otto Penzler I have a fondness for Sherlock Holmes, as I am sure the majority of my readers do. Unsurprisingly, there has been a ton of Holmes fanfiction over the years. Pastiches that try to capture the feel of Arthur Conan Doyle’s prose, parodies… Continue reading Book Review: The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories
Book Review: Fresh Fear
Book Review: Fresh Fear edited by William Cook Horror anthologies are like a box of chocolates. One story might be crunchy frog, another spring surprise, while a more disappointing one is just maple cream. (Seriously, maple cream?) This is because horror tends to be a balancing act between what the writer finds scary and what… Continue reading Book Review: Fresh Fear