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Science Fiction & Fantasy

Review

Review by bookpagedev

When L.

E. Modesitt’s The Magic of Recluce hit the bookstores in 1991, Gordon R. Dickson praised it as “Fascinating! A big, exciting novel of the battle between good and evil, and the path between.” Now, seven years and seven novels later, I’m tempted to say that Dickson woefully understated the case. Modesitt’s Recluce series set in a parallel earth-like world where magic and technology conspire and conflict in a constant struggle between chaos and order is more than a story about the battle between good and evil. The saga of Recluce is as rich and complex a creation as Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. If you are just tuning in on Modesitt’s work, The White Order (eighth volume in the series, with at least one more, Colors of Chaos, upcoming) may pose a bit of a puzzle to you. Its major storyline seems painfully simple: Young Cerryl, orphaned when white mages from Fairhaven killed his amateur-magician father, discovers that he has inherited his father’s talent. But the powerful White Order of magicians keeps a close watch on those who experiment with the white magic of chaos, and when Cerryl attempts to find out more about his powers, he is apprehended and brought before Sterol, High Wizard of the Guild. Sterol decides that Cerryl deserves training rather than death although as Cerryl learns during the course of his studies, training in white magic may result in death, if the student mage is not careful. Underneath this story of initiation, however, the novel resonates with echoes of an elusive past and foreshadowings of an uncertain future. Cerryl’s education both in magic and in the art of survival offers the first-time visitor a tantalizing, but incomplete, glimpse into a world where much more is happening than appears on the surface.

However, if you are already familiar with Modesitt’s Recluce saga, then The White Order is one more fascinating piece to the jigsaw-time puzzle which Modesitt is painstakingly assembling. Indeed, as those who have read at least as far as The Magic Engineer (volume three) have already encountered, in that flashforward episode in the series, an older, more adept Cerryl is one of the council of White Magicians seeking to destroy Recluce. Up to now, both in flashbacks and flashforwards, the conflict in this parallel world has seemed to be between “good” order and “evil” chaos.

With the present novel’s focus on Cerryl’s training in White Magic, Modesitt changes this emphasis. In doing so, a brilliant new facet appears, best expressed in this passage: “All life composes itself of chaos and order. Yet too many forget that without chaos there is no life. . . . The very light of the sun is white chaos. . . . Within the very sunlight are all the colors of white, the pure chaos from which springs all life. . . . To claim that order is the staff of life. . . is not only false but folly, for the sole perfect order in life is death.” I suspect that the saga of Recluce has many more puzzles to solve not least of which is whether, in Modesitt’s parallel world, chaos and order will survive in a delicate balance or annihilate each other in one final, agonizing confrontation. Reviewed by Robert C. Jones.

When L.

E. Modesitt's The Magic of Recluce hit the bookstores in 1991, Gordon R. Dickson praised it as "Fascinating! A big, exciting novel of the battle between good and evil, and the path between." Now, seven years and seven novels later,…

Science Fiction & FantasyFantasy

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Rome in the Dark Ages: squalid, vulgar, ragged, former glory long gone. It’s a wonderful setting, rich in irony. As one raised in the seaport of Genova, in the shadow of medieval structures city gates, castle walls, ruined watchtowers I was fascinated by the tarnished splendor of a once-great empire and the intrigue within.

Alice Borchardt, Devoted, Beguiled, masterfully places the reader squarely amidst a Rome devastated by invasion, inflation, poverty, decadence, and religio-political squabbling. In this drab, open-sewer city, crass Gundabald and his stupid son Hugo have come to wine and wench away the last of their money. Amidst their decadence, they are to arrange a marriage for Regeane Gundabald’s niece, left in his “care” since the death of her mother. They hope to score big, since Regeane is distantly related to King Charlemagne.

Beautiful but coarse, given her barbarian background, Regeane is naive yet incredibly intuitive. She bears the burden of a supernatural gift that is more often a curse. Like her murdered father, Regeane is a shapeshifter woman by day and wolf by night and therefore also able to benefit from the wolf’s senses and instincts. Afraid of her lupine form, the louts Gundabald and Hugo keep Regeane collared in a cell, beating her into submission over and over. While the wolf can miraculously heal her physical injuries, her psyche is bruised and battered, and she believes herself the freak Gundabald accuses her of being.

On the few, brief occasions Regeane is able to escape the clutches of her hung-over relatives, she finds her freedom on the wooded hills of Campagna, learning about herself under the light of a sympathetic moon. It is during one such excursion that she becomes embroiled in the politics of Rome. Regeane’s subsequent betrothal to Maeniel, a barbarian lord who commands a key mountain pass, is caught up in the heart of the conflict between Pope Hadrian and the Lombards. Pope Hadrian himself sponsors the marriage, while the Lombards want Regeane dead. After a murder attempt made by a Lombard hireling, Regeane is rescued and sheltered and educated in love and sex by Lucilla, Rome’s foremost madam and procurer (whose mysterious connection to the pope becomes important to his enemies). Borchardt only falters when the narrative sags somewhat in the middle and by choosing to present several key scenes offstage. Otherwise, her tale of lycanthropy, papal politics, and romantic encounters blends as well as any of her lovingly cataloged Roman menus. High melodrama indeed, and heady reading. Reviewed by Bill Gagliani.

Rome in the Dark Ages: squalid, vulgar, ragged, former glory long gone. It's a wonderful setting, rich in irony. As one raised in the seaport of Genova, in the shadow of medieval structures city gates, castle walls, ruined watchtowers I was fascinated by the tarnished…

Science Fiction & FantasyScience Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

A distinctly different alternative kind of future is depicted in The Innamorati by Midori Snyder. This fantasy novel establishes an alternative Renaissance movement centered in a fictitious Italian city called Labirinto. Four companions, the innamorati, band together in this land alive with magic and seek the great labyrinth which is at the heart of Labirinto. Their adventures are replete with mystery, comedy, and imagination as they follow their heart’s desire through the Maze. Reviewed by Larry D. Woods.

A distinctly different alternative kind of future is depicted in The Innamorati by Midori Snyder. This fantasy novel establishes an alternative Renaissance movement centered in a fictitious Italian city called Labirinto. Four companions, the innamorati, band together in this land alive with magic and seek…

Science Fiction & FantasyScience Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

A fantasy world is artfully described in Otherland by Tad Williams. This is a near future thriller in virtual reality. Otherland is a multi-dimensional universe built over decades by the most agile and creative cyberspace minds of the 21st century. It is the key to a universe of possibilities for the human race, but it is controlled by The Grail Brotherhood inhibiting a group of outsiders who intervened and now seek to return. To do so, much like Philip Jose Farmer’s World of Tiers novels, they must encounter and survive a series of strange worlds inhabited by exotic creations, alien powers, and carnivorous monsters.

Reviewed by Larry D. Woods.

A fantasy world is artfully described in Otherland by Tad Williams. This is a near future thriller in virtual reality. Otherland is a multi-dimensional universe built over decades by the most agile and creative cyberspace minds of the 21st century. It is the key to…

Science Fiction & FantasyScience Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Melissa Scott’s The Shape of Their Hearts presents readers with an all too easily imagined future in which the desire for information has become the driving force at all levels of society. Power rests with those who have the ability to access and harness data, regardless of their motivations.

In a world where religious cults abound, it should be no great stretch to imagine an artificial intelligence (AI) as a deity. It is easy to envision an army of believers who accept their deity’s command to convert others to their beliefs by whatever means necessary including violence. In The Shape of Their Hearts, the will of the Deity is interpreted by its priests, and commandments are handed down to the faithful. The Deity and its followers have made the planet Idun (also called Eden) a risky place to leave unguarded, and the Territorial authority responds with a complete blockade to the planet. To complicate matters, there is a programming bug in the Deity that threatens to destroy all computer systems on Eden and anywhere else it can spread. Someone or something must purge the virus from the huge network, and only Anton Tso, blackmarketeer and software genius, has the expertise to repair the damage a task that threatens both Tso and the Deity.

Scott has created an alien world with characters that readers will recognize, and a society that is almost too familiar. The true terror comes with realizing what little separates our world from a world such as Eden. The Shape of Their Hearts is entertaining and chilling. Scott has the talent to bring her imaginings to life with insights into human nature that will surely cause her audience to examine their own lives more closely.

Reviewed by Lisa DuMond.

Melissa Scott's The Shape of Their Hearts presents readers with an all too easily imagined future in which the desire for information has become the driving force at all levels of society. Power rests with those who have the ability to access and harness data,…

Science Fiction & FantasyScience Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

The science fiction genre has long been noted for themes such as exotic exploration and alternative futures. Some of the best writing in the field extrapolates today’s social, economic, and political trends into the near-term future, and examines their impact on the quality of human and alien life. Joe Haldeman in Worlds; Robert Heinlein in The Sixth Column; Arthur C. Clarke in 2001, and certainly Kim Stanley Robinson in his Gold Coast series and Mars trilogy, mastered this school of futuristic fiction. Robinson continues his recent near domination of this sub-genre in Antarctica. In Robinson’s panoramic saga, a radical environmentalist political group plots an “ecotage” their form of sabotage used to protest the corporate pillage of Antarctica as they cut off communications for explorers, scientists, and commercial interests in Antarctica, and as they destroy oil exploration encampments who are attempting to engineer the drilling and export of 50 million barrels of untapped oil. As you might anticipate, these eco-saboteurs have the best of intentions, but in this harsh environment, even organized plans may not be realized and small mistakes produce large and terminal disasters. Their illicit purposes are much like the continent that Robinson writes so eloquently about: “First you fall in love with Antarctica, and then it breaks your heart.” Robinson depicts Antarctica itself so well that it seems almost like an alien world. Intrigued by the fact that Antarctica is the part of earth most like his beloved Mars, Robinson took literary research to new heights in this book with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation, which afforded him a six weeks adventure in Antarctica.

Reviewed by Larry D. Woods.

The science fiction genre has long been noted for themes such as exotic exploration and alternative futures. Some of the best writing in the field extrapolates today's social, economic, and political trends into the near-term future, and examines their impact on the quality of human…

Science Fiction & FantasyFantasy

Review

Review by bookpagedev

With The Great War: American Front, Harry Turtledove continues to fascinate readers with his stories of “alternate history.” From his Worldwar tetralogy (aliens invade the earth during World War II) to The Guns of the South (time travelers equip Robert E. Lee with AK-47s), the “what ifs” of war are played out on the printed page. In his newest series, Turtledove returns to a world where the South won the great conflict, but the result, while enthralling, is not very cheery.

What is “alternate history?” Simply put, it is taking a pivotal point in history and changing the outcome to see what develops. What if Joseph Kennedy, Jr., had not been shot down in WWII? For that matter, what if Glenn Miller had not been shot down? How would that have affected Jack Kennedy? Would he have become president? Or would he have joined Miller’s band? You get the idea. In the case of The Great War: American Front, the world as we know it hinges on a lost set of battle plans wrapped around some cigars during the Civil War. In Turtledove’s world, the plans weren’t lost, and the South won the War Between the States.

In How Few Remain, the first book of this series, a second, bitter war is fought in the 1880s, ending in a standoff, but the real story is how the lives and philosophies of the two countries are forever altered. In The Great War, the uneasy truce comes to a violent end with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914; the first World War begins, but this time it is fought on American soil.

Picture this from Maryland to Utah, Quebec to Oklahoma, Kentucky to Hawaii, Americans are fighting Americans, on the ground, in the air, under the sea, in trenches, in tanks, with aerial bombardments, poison gas, prison camps and firing squads. Needless to say, while deeply engrossing, The Great War is not a pleasant book. Despite a plethora of interesting characters, it’s really hard to root for either side. These good men and women are doing awful things and reducing their country to cinders. That is also the strength and power of this book. Whereas in How Few Remain the main characters are Abe Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Armstrong Custer, and Teddy Roosevelt, famous Americans of history play only a peripheral role in this book.

Ultimately, the true backbone of The Great War are those that look with horror at the war. They are the poor and downtrodden, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free African-Americans, manumitted in both nations, second-class citizens in both and the poor white working class in both the north and south. They are communists.

That’s right, communists. They read works by Marx and Lenin and Lincoln(!). And, as astonishing as it might seem, the “reds” offer the only hope the two countries have the terrible hope of the fire that burns all so that life can begin anew. Whether it will remains to be seen, as Turtledove leaves us hanging at the end of The Great War. I’m sure his next book will be worth the wait.

Reviewed by Jim Webb.

With The Great War: American Front, Harry Turtledove continues to fascinate readers with his stories of "alternate history." From his Worldwar tetralogy (aliens invade the earth during World War II) to The Guns of the South (time travelers equip Robert E. Lee with AK-47s), the…

Science Fiction & FantasyShort Stories

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Nebula Awards 32, edited by Jack Dann, contain stories that are almost as good as Tolkien’s tales. No surprise since this volume honors the short stories, novellas, and novelettes that were voted by the professional members of the Science Fiction Writers Association as the best science fiction and fantasy of the year for 1996.

These millennium-ending stories feature Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine, a vampire story in a nursing home, an alternative American Civil War, time travel, and Mayan archaeology. My only disagreement is that I would have voted for Ursula LeGuin or Allen Steele in the novella category over Jack Dann, but that’s a small quibble about an outstanding array of the best modern science fiction has to offer.

Reviewed by Larry Woods.

Nebula Awards 32, edited by Jack Dann, contain stories that are almost as good as Tolkien's tales. No surprise since this volume honors the short stories, novellas, and novelettes that were voted by the professional members of the Science Fiction Writers Association as the best…

Science Fiction & FantasyFantasy

Review

Review by bookpagedev

With The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, J.

R.

R. Tolkien secured for himself a special place in fantasy literature. Many of those tales of Middle-earth were originally written or spoken as family stories and letters to Tolkien’s children, and his newly released fantasy tale Roverandom evolved in the same fashion.

In 1925 Professor Tolkien, his wife Edith, and their children John, age eight, Michael, age five, and Christopher, age one went on holiday to the Yorkshire coast. While playing on the beach Michael lost his favorite toy a miniature lead dog painted black and white. This loss caused heartbreak for five-year-old Michael, and to compensate Tolkien invented a story in which a real dog named Rover is turned into a toy by a wizard and then lost by a boy on the beach. There he encounters adventures on the moon and under the sea.

Tolkien’s canine hero, who comes to be known as Roverandom, meets a wonderful cast of characters including a “sand-sorcerer,” the Man-in-the-Moon, a wise old whale, and a dangerous dragon who causes lunar eclipses with his smoky “red and green flames.” This delightful fantasy story will charm every reader and is accompanied by Professor Tolkien’s own illustrations.

Reviewed by Larry Woods.

With The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, J.

R.

R. Tolkien secured for himself a special place in fantasy literature. Many of those tales of Middle-earth were originally written or spoken as family stories and letters to…

Science Fiction & FantasyScience FictionHistorical Fantasy

Sci-fi & Fantasy: February 2022

Feature by Chris Pickens

★ Dead Silence

A small, underequipped crew discovering a long-lost ship sounds like an interesting enough premise for a novel. But what if that long-lost ship holds a gruesome and unexplainable secret? Now you’ve got my attention. S.A. Barnes’ Dead Silence mixes horror, mystery and sci-fi into a thrill ride sure to shock you out of your reading rut. The crew of a small repair ship at the edge of space picks up an unexpected signal. It leads them to the hulking, dark shape of the Aurora, a luxury space cruiser lost 20 years ago. Team leader Claire Kovalik decides they should salvage the wreck and bring in the lost ship. Once aboard, however, the crew discovers that something went very, very wrong on the Aurora. What follows is a claustrophobic race against time as the ship’s horrors begin to affect the crew one by one. Dread slowly builds as small, frightening moments inside the Aurora multiply, showcasing Barnes’ patient plotting and steady pacing. This is one of those time-warp books—the ones where you look away from the clock, then look back and it’s suddenly way past your bedtime.

★ Redwood and Wildfire

Sometimes reading a book is like paddling a rushing river: You just have to jump in and see where it takes you. Such is the case with Andrea Hairston’s richly layered Redwood and Wildfire. In early 1900s America, magic is as old as the swamps, the woods and the bayous. Some people, descended from those who have lived for generations under canopies of cypress trees and Spanish moss, can harness that magic. In Peach Grove, Georgia, Redwood, a Black woman, and Aidan, a Seminole Irish man, both have this talent. The two kindred spirits set out on a grand adventure in search of a place of their own, with Chicago, the City of Lights, as their final destination. Hairston describes a country at the tipping point between an ancient past and an electrified, dazzling future. The reader will feel this tension within the prose, as well as these two misfits’ yearning to create a life in which they can be their fullest selves. It’s immediate, it’s unflinching and it’s wonderful.

Hunt the Stars

Jessie Mihalik’s thrilling first entry in her Starlight’s Shadow series, Hunt the Stars, is a perfect example of why bounty hunters are such classic sci-fi characters. It’s hard to find a more compelling conflict between getting paid and doing the right thing. War veteran-turned-ship’s captain Octavia “Tavi” Zarola gets a job offer that could make her and her crew rich for years. The problem is that the one paying is Torran Fletcher, a ruthless alien general that Tavi once fought against. Despite her misgivings, Tavi brings Torran and his crew of fellow telepathic Valoffs on board. During the job, Tavi and her crew discover a plot that threatens peace in the galaxy, forcing her to choose a side even as she grows closer to Torran. Amid all the action and adventure, Mihalik also shows how a group of people in close quarters can become a family. Those developing relationships form the emotional center of the story, especially the connection between Tavi and Torran, which evolves and deepens in unexpected ways. Fans of “The Mandalorian” or “Firefly” will love this sci-fi romance.

A terrifying thriller set on a spaceship and a wonderfully unique historical fantasy will shock you out of your reading rut.
Science Fiction & Fantasy

Review

Review by bookpagedev

ne of the major issues in fantasy literature is the desire, use, and abuse of power, which can take many forms. Two novels being released on the eve of the American presidential election examine different types of power and the different personalities who strive to attain it. The Sumerian legend of Gilgamesh, a powerful king who wanted to augment his power with immortality, has a tendency to appear in fantasy every few years. He’s frequently used in a straight retelling of the ancient epic, such as a Robert Silverberg’s Gilgamesh the King, but in other cases, Gilgamesh is brought into modern times, most recently in Brenda Clough’s How Like a God. Stephan Grundy’s third novel, Gilgamesh, is a glorious and straightforward retelling of the legend.

By today’s standards, Grundy’s Gilgamesh is anything but a hero. A young man when the novel opens, he is filled with arrogance, lust, and an unwillingness to consider that anyone else might have useful advice. Gilgamesh has bought into the idea that as part god, he has a divine right to rule the city-state of Erech.

Grundy follows the epic of Gilgamesh closely, using the characters and situations to explore the traits that make a good leader. While Grundy has chosen to examine power by writing about a near mythic period, Laurel K. Hamilton brings magic, in the form of fairies, to the modern world. Hamilton, author of the popular series featuring vampire hunter Anita Blake, launches a new series with A Kiss of Shadows (Audio). Set in modern day Los Angeles, her latest novel is a steamy mixture of urban fantasy and detective noir. Fantasy fans will relish Hamilton’s in-depth examination of the fairies’ magical world. Merry Gentry, a runaway fairy princess, works for a detective agency in a world where the fairy folk are accepted, if not always understood. Her world is gritty, brought home by the early introduction of a case initiated by the abused wife and lover of Alistair Norton. While it might be easy to dismiss power in Hamilton’s book as the ability to do magic, in reality power appears in the form of freedom of choice. Merry attempts to give her clients the freedom to make of their lives whatever they want without fear. For Norton, power is the ability to steal his partners’ free will and force them to submit to his demands.

Steven Silver writes from Northbrook, Illinois.

ne of the major issues in fantasy literature is the desire, use, and abuse of power, which can take many forms. Two novels being released on the eve of the American presidential election examine different types of power and the different personalities who strive to…
Science Fiction & Fantasy

Review

Review by bookpagedev

ne of the major issues in fantasy literature is the desire, use, and abuse of power, which can take many forms. Two novels being released on the eve of the American presidential election examine different types of power and the different personalities who strive to attain it. The Sumerian legend of Gilgamesh, a powerful king who wanted to augment his power with immortality, has a tendency to appear in fantasy every few years. He’s frequently used in a straight retelling of the ancient epic, such as a Robert Silverberg’s Gilgamesh the King, but in other cases, Gilgamesh is brought into modern times, most recently in Brenda Clough’s How Like a God. Stephan Grundy’s third novel, Gilgamesh, is a glorious and straightforward retelling of the legend.

By today’s standards, Grundy’s Gilgamesh is anything but a hero. A young man when the novel opens, he is filled with arrogance, lust, and an unwillingness to consider that anyone else might have useful advice. Gilgamesh has bought into the idea that as part god, he has a divine right to rule the city-state of Erech.

Grundy follows the epic of Gilgamesh closely, using the characters and situations to explore the traits that make a good leader. While Grundy has chosen to examine power by writing about a near mythic period, Laurel K. Hamilton brings magic, in the form of fairies, to the modern world. Hamilton, author of the popular series featuring vampire hunter Anita Blake, launches a new series with A Kiss of Shadows (Audio). Set in modern day Los Angeles, her latest novel is a steamy mixture of urban fantasy and detective noir. Fantasy fans will relish Hamilton’s in-depth examination of the fairies’ magical world. Merry Gentry, a runaway fairy princess, works for a detective agency in a world where the fairy folk are accepted, if not always understood. Her world is gritty, brought home by the early introduction of a case initiated by the abused wife and lover of Alistair Norton. While it might be easy to dismiss power in Hamilton’s book as the ability to do magic, in reality power appears in the form of freedom of choice. Merry attempts to give her clients the freedom to make of their lives whatever they want without fear. For Norton, power is the ability to steal his partners’ free will and force them to submit to his demands.

Steven Silver writes from Northbrook, Illinois.

ne of the major issues in fantasy literature is the desire, use, and abuse of power, which can take many forms. Two novels being released on the eve of the American presidential election examine different types of power and the different personalities who strive to…
Science Fiction & FantasyNonfictionFiction

5 short reads for the shortest month of the year

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Spring is getting closer every day, and with all that excitement bubbling up, perhaps your attention span is short circuiting. No need to worry—the editors of BookPage have just the ticket in the form of five quick but stunning reads.

The Buddha in the Attic

Julie Otsuka is a master of the short novel, and her National Book Award finalist, The Buddha in the Attic, is an epic saga written with brevity. In just 144 pages, Otsuka captures the lives of a group of Japanese women who immigrate to America, meet their husbands (many of whom lied about their ages and occupations), find work as farmers and maids, navigate the racist and classist minefields set by their white employers, raise children and scratch out a living, only to disappear suddenly as the United States enters World War II. The story is relayed by a first-person plural narrator who encompasses dozens of experiences, and it unfolds in a series of snapshots that coalesce into an astonishing mosaic of Japanese American life at the beginning of the 20th century. You can sense the mountain of research that Otsuka distilled into each beautiful sentence. It’s innovative, surprising and deeply moving.

—Christy, Associate Editor

The Body in Question

A courtroom drama that spotlights the jurors’ sequestration instead of the case itself, Jill Ciment’s The Body in Question enraptured me from the start. The protagonist, a middle-aged photographer whose life is consumed by caring for her much older husband, views the jury’s three-week isolation as a respite from assisting him. Her liberation leads to an affair with another juror that, though initially secret, begins to bleed into their surroundings with far-reaching consequences. At 192 pages, The Body in Question keeps readers engaged with fast-paced developments and characters who are eccentric in their ordinariness. Ciment’s sparse writing enhances the mundanity of sequestration, even when a case is as monumental as this one. Though the subject matter is complex, the narrative progresses without judgment, in the same way a jury must consider only the facts laid before them before reaching a verdict.

—Jessie, Editorial Intern

In Waves

A comic book moves more quickly than other types of literature, so even though AJ Dungo’s graphic memoir is actually quite long, the total time readers spend with the book isn’t. In Waves is powerful, as Dungo blends moments from surfing history with memories of falling in love with and then losing his partner to cancer. The sections on their time together will absolutely wreck you, but as those dark waters ebb and flow, the story of surfing offers levity, revealing the sport’s legacy as a refuge for Hawaiians. An especially helpful dose of hope comes from the friendship between surf legends Duke Kahanamoku and Tom Blake: “Duke represented the blissful nature of surfing. Tom personified the idea that surfing could provide comfort to those who felt broken.” In Waves engages with both the depths of Dungo’s grief and the safe haven of surfing, offering a quick dip that will leave readers a bit battered by the waves.

—Cat, Deputy Editor

A Spindle Splintered

We are currently living through an absolute gold rush of sci-fi and fantasy novellas, and among all those tiny universes, Alix E. Harrow’s A Spindle Splintered contains a multiverse. It’s a Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and “Sleeping Beauty” mashup that’s just as fun as it sounds and way smarter than it needs to be. It follows Zinnia Gray, a young woman with a rare condition that will cause her to die before her 22nd birthday. During her “Sleeping Beauty”-themed 21st birthday party, Zinnia jokingly pricks her finger on a spindle and ends up in a fairy-tale world, complete with a princess on the verge of succumbing to her own curse. You can sense Harrow’s glee on every single page, especially when she drops references and jokes tailor-made for a specific type of Tumblr-using, fandom-­obsessed, very online reader. But this novella is as poignant as it is pop-culture obsessed, spinning a tale of sisterhood that defies the bleakness of every reality.

—Savanna, Associate Editor

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Have you ever gone on a walk with a friend in nature and ended up in a highly personal or philosophical conversation? That’s sort of what reading Becky Chambers’ novella is like. It’s a thoughtful fable that effortlessly incorporates profound questions—such as, why does human life need a purpose?—into what is essentially a road-trip story about a monk and a robot. The novella’s first half is so charming and soothing that by the second half, when Chambers’ protagonists are forging paths through the literal and metaphorical weeds, you’ll find yourself hanging on their every word. It all works because Chambers never loses the trees for the forest. In one moment, her characters will be discussing whether death is necessary to give life meaning, and in the next, they’ll be discussing the point of onions. Imaginative and comforting, A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a sheer delight.

—Stephanie, Associate Editor

Keep it short and sweet with these five succinct books.

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