The original plan was to review the first of the Hugo-nominated novels this week. However, I’ve been enjoying the book so much that I want to take another few days to read it (check back later week for a review of that). Therefore I’m changing course and reviewing three of the Hugo-nominated novelettes instead. This
If there are two words that can describe this year’s nominees for Best Short Story, it would be “triumphant” and “bleak”. Every one of them features someone overcoming a trial, whether it’s living life on their own terms, or making the hard decision to sacrifice their life for others. These are all lyrical and fierce,
Not all heroes are human. Togo is the story about two key figures in the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska, in which dog-sled teams relayed to transport diphtheria antitoxin serum through harsh conditions over nearly 828 miles to save the Alaskan town of Nome from an epidemic. The two key figures are Leonhard Seppal,
Stephen’s god died a little after noon on the longest day of the year. Paladin’s Grace has a hell of a first line. I finished reading it last month, kept procrastinating about writing a review, and then decided it’d been so long I needed to reread it in order to write a decent review. If
The Hugo Award finalists for 2020 have been announced! The convention (July 29 – August 2) will be online only, for obvious reasons. So there’s less than three months before the award ceremony, and between this year and the retro 1945 awards there are 186 separate finalists and I’ve read…two of the novellas, and a
Why don’t you swallow broken glass. Late at night in the Hotel Caiette, someone writes a vicious and weirdly specific message on the lobby’s glass wall. The strangest part of the whole incident is that it happens so late at night that hardly anyone sees it. The grafitti disturbs the night manager, upsets an insomniac
Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, The Platform is a Spanish sci-fi horror/thriller film that takes place in a dystopian future, in a facility where the residents, who are periodically switched at random between floors, are fed by means of a platform filled with food that gradually descends through the levels of the tower. The inmates at
More comfort reading time! This week I’m only going back to 2012 (or forward to the 2400’s) with John Scalzi’s Redshirts. (Courtesy of a free ebook from Tor Books this month. Thanks guys!) It’s Ensign Andrew Dahl’s first posting, and as luck would have it a position just opened on the Intrepid, flagship of the
“I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR ANY TABOOS I’VE VIOLATED!” I fell behind on my reviews last week because, uh, time has no meaning? I know, excuses excuses. After the announcements by Diamond Comics and IDW, this may be the last Transformers book we get for a little while. Luckily for us it’s the final issue of