Category Archives: Book Reviews

Review of Against All Gods by Miles Cameron

Posted on September 30, 2022 by H.P.

Miles Cameron’s epic fantasy is an auto-buy for me at this point (I am still working my way around to his historical fiction and science fiction).  His Traitor Son Cycle and Masters & Mages series are two of my favorite … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Daughter of Redwinter is Too Generic to Get Over the Hump from Good to Great

Posted on June 30, 2022 by H.P.

Another week, another new series from one of my favorite new writers of the last decade.  Last week it was Brian McClellan with In the Shadow of Lightning, this week it is Ed McDonald with Daughter of Redwinter.  McDonald’s Raven’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Brian McClellan has done it again with In the Shadow of Lightning

Posted on June 21, 2022 by H.P.

Brian McClellan’s opening salvo in his latest series, In the Shadow of Lightning, didn’t immediately grab me.  The opening scenes, which take place some nine years before the events in the bulk of the novel and setup Demir’s character arc, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

SF: The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Posted on May 12, 2022 by H.P.

Originally posted on Hillbilly Highways:
I’ve been saying for a while that we need more stories that fall into the overlap between country noir and speculative fiction.  The hollers and dark dirt roads that host country noir yarns have their…

Posted in Book Reviews | 1 Comment

Throwback SF Thursday: Firestarter by Stephen King

Posted on April 14, 2022 by H.P.

Firestarter is the story of Andy McGee, possessing mild powers of mind domination, and his young daughter, Charlie McGee, possessing very un-mild powers of pyrokinesis.  The story begins with Andy and Charlie on the run from agents of a mysterious … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Horror, Throwback SF | Tagged | 5 Comments

Throwback SF Thursday: The Black Company by Glen Cook

Posted on February 24, 2022 by H.P.

Glen Cook’s The Black Company was a milestone work that had an outsized influence on the fantasy genre.  Which is probably why Tor decided to reissue it (as a handsome trade paperback with a bland cover) for their “Tor Essentials” … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Vintage Science Fiction Month: Fire Time by Poul Anderson

Posted on February 3, 2022 by H.P.

It’s not exactly Vintage Science Fiction Month anymore, but just because I let this one slip last week doesn’t mean I’m not going to post a review of Poul Anderson’s Fire Time.  As I remember it, I picked up Fire … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Science Fiction, Throwback SF | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Vintage Science Fiction Month: Conan the Valorous by John Maddox Roberts

Posted on January 20, 2022 by H.P.

I’ve said before that John Maddox Roberts is neck-and-neck with Robert Jordan for best writer of Conan pastiches, but that he gets Conan better than any other writer of pastiches I have read.  Conan the Valorous helps firm up my … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy, Throwback SF | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Vintage SF Month: A Fighting Man of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Posted on January 13, 2022 by H.P.

Goodreads used to give you nifty little pie charts divvying up your books read in a year by genre or however you categorized your books in shelving them.  Google (as Google does) discontinued the tool they used to generate the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Fantasy, Throwback SF | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Audiobook Review: The Voyage of the Iron Dragon by Robert Kroese, narrated by J.D. Ledford

Posted on December 7, 2021 by H.P.

I couldn’t resist the premise of the Iron Dragon trilogy—using advanced knowledge to build a space program from scratch in Viking Europe.  I very much enjoyed book one and book two.  But those books tended to be heavier on human-human … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternate History, Book Reviews, Science Fiction | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments