At Dragon Con this year, I caught up with YA author (and personal fave) Rebecca Moesta, best known for her collaborative novels with her husband Kevin J. Anderson. Together they also own publishing house WordFire Press, which prints their older work, out of print work from classic genre authors such as Frank Herbert, and more….
Earth-Based Science Fiction: The Winnowing by Vikki VanSickle
It’s 1989. The Berlin Wall comes down, Game Boy makes it debut, and Marivic Stone has the first set of nightmares that signal she’s going ACEs and needs to go in for the Winnowing. Okay, maybe that last one didn’t happen in our version of 1989. But The Winnowing by Vikki VanSickle takes place in an alternate…
Book Beat: Bisexual Visibility and Awards Season
Hi book lovers! Ashley here! I’ve been so stressed lately with the start of a new school semester and my new job placement, so I took a few weeks off from Book Beat. You can understand, right? I’m going to try to keep up with my normal reading and writing schedule, but it seems like…
Dreaming of Electric Sheep: Diverse Science Fiction for Fall 2017
A hearty hello to all our fellow readers! 2017 continues its steady march straight to hell, so we’d like to provide some literary escapes from all the chaos. Last time we recommended several upcoming diverse fantasy novels for your reading pleasure, so this time we’ll bring you the best diverse science fiction that the year…
Soaring Magic and Shaky Groundwork: Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller
Mask of Shadows Linsey Miller Sourcebooks Fire August 29, 2017
Book Beat: They Can’t Kill Us All
Hello all, Stephanie here again! I was excited to find that there’s been a lot going on in the book and publishing industry this past week surrounding female authors, writers, and characters, particularly black women. Let’s get into it! In YA book news, the second book in Daniel Jose Older’s Shadowshaper Cypher series, Shadowhouse Fall, came…
The Book of Joan
The Book of Joan Lidia Yuknavitch HarperCollins April 18, 2017 A review copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Better, more eloquent people than me have reviewed Lidia Yuknavitch’s latest novel, The Book of Joan. It’s been covered by Publishers Weekly, NPR, and the New York Times. For just about…
Book Beat: 19 Years Later and Other New Beginnings
Hello all! Hope you’re all doing well. I’m currently battling a cold that I got from a con (as teased here), so what better thing for me to do than read while I’m resting up? Other than sleep, I mean. This week’s book news seems pretty dispiriting, but at times like these I notice that life…
2017 Dragon Awards Are No Longer Puppy Awards
This weekend saw the second iteration of the Dragon Awards, a cross-media celebration of science fiction and fantasy held by Dragon Con in Atlanta. Decided through a free online poll, the awards purport to represent the tastes of SF/F fandom as a whole. Despite their recent vintage, the Dragon Awards already have a rocky history. Last year, the…
The Gunslinger Misses the Mark
Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Stephen King Donald M. Grant, Publisher June 10, 1982 Despite spending most of my life reading almost everything I could get my hands on I had never read a Stephen King novel… until The Gunslinger. When I initially heard there was going to be a film adaptation I was mildly intrigued…
Book Beat – Female-Led Lord of the Flies and CSI: YA
Hi book lovers! Ashley here! Does anyone know how we somehow arrived at the end of summer? I am remorsefully thinking about all the activities I never checked off my summer to-do list, but I am looking forward to the fall. Books just feel better when read with a cup of cocoa and a cozy…
Breaking New Ground On the Grand Tour: An Interview with Mackenzi Lee
There is something about Mackenzi Lee’s work that feels familiar to me. Not in the sense that it’s hackneyed or stereotypical, as if part of a giant metaphorical snake eating its own tail of rehashed literary ideas. Rather, her work feels like the type of novels sprung to life from my wildest dreams. In the…