At last! The first of my triptych reviews! Triptych theme: Protagonists = (potentially) romantic couple engaging in near-constant witty repartee. AKA “The Nick & Norah Triptych” Books in this triptych: 1. The Secret Adversary, by Agatha Christie (1922) 2. The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett (1934) 3. Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn & David … More Witty Repartee Triptych
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (co-author of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist) is not a work of speculative fiction. Or so I thought until I turned the first page. Nothing in Boy Meets Boy defies the laws of physics. The novel doesn’t feature any technological advances beyond cell phones and instant messaging. It’s not … More Why It’s Fantasy When Boy Meets Boy
Just finished reading From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust. The novel is a hilarious send-up of the superhero genre, told in the form of a self-help book for superheroes: “When Being A Superhero Can’t Save You from Yourself – Self-Help for Today’s Hyper-Hominids.” The novel is narrated by Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman, who … More Superhero Self-Help
That’s a paraphrase of the opening line of M.T. Andersen’s Feed, a young adult novel about an eerily familiar future in which everyone is connected to a neural feed, which transmits information, messages, and lots of advertising directly into your brain 24-7. The story mainly follows a group of teenagers as they hang out, date, and consume. … More Went to the Moon for Spring Break but the Moon Turned Out to Completely Suck
Polyphony is a wonderful anthology series that’s published some of the best speculative fiction out there in recent years – with a specialization in the weird and interstitial. Volume 7 is now available for pre-order at Wheatland Press, and it features a great line-up of writers like Howard Waldrop, Mikal Trimm, and Bruce Holland Rogers. … More Pre-Order Polyphony 7
Finishing up my series of posts on recommended speculative fiction from 2009, these are the books published in 2009 that stood out for me. Technically, these span across several categories for both the Nebula and Hugo awards, but I’m covering them all in one foul swoop – so this list includes novels, young adult books, … More Recommended Books from 2009
The Tangled Bank: Love, Wonder, & Evolution is out now! This anthology of tales of evolution celebrates Darwin’s 200th birthday and includes my story, “On the Entropy of Species,” not to mention great fiction and poetry from Carlos Hernandez, Christopher Green, Brian Stableford, Patricia Russo, Anil Menon, and a slew of other writers from around the globe. … More The Tangled Bank is Out Now!
For Christmas, my fab sister gave me Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. (Okay, she gave it to Hassan, but she knew I’d read it too.) Bechdel is the author/artist behind the successful and hilarious comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, and Fun Home is her autobiography in graphic form. The main thrust of … More Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home is More than Fun
OK, so I just finished reading Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and it made me oh-so-angry. (In case either of the two other people who still haven’t read this 100-million-copy-selling book happen to be reading, I’ll try to leave this spoiler free.) Simply put, no writer should be allowed to get away with writing a … More Agatha Christie Oh How You Make Me Angry
I recently got the news that my short story, “On the Entropy of Species,” will be appearing in The Tangled Bank, an e-anthology of stories on Charles Darwin and evolution coming out in just a few weeks. The anthology commemorates Darwin’s 200th birthday as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin … More Story Coming Soon in The Tangled Bank
Bread & Magic 