Category Archives: SF&F

Guy Gavriel Kay’s tone poem of remembrance & loss in an alternate Renaissance.

Posted on May 22, 2019 by Douglas Barbour

Guy Gavriel Kay. A Brightness Long Ago. (Viking 2019). If, like me, you are a fan of Kay’s historical novels set in another world so like & unlike our own, & especially if you enjoyed the earlier Sarantine Mosaic & … Continue reading →

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Guy Gavriel Kay’s fantastic history: Children of Earth and Sky.

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Douglas Barbour

Guy Gavriel Kay. Children of Earth and Sky. (Viking 2016). Following his two novels set in an alternate Tang & Song dynasty China, in Children of Earth and Sky, Guy Gavriel Kay has returned to the world beneath two moons … Continue reading →

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Sarah Lang’s For Tamara: post-apocalyptic poetics

Posted on April 30, 2014 by Douglas Barbour

Sarah Lang. For Tamara. House of Anansi Press 2014. That For Tamara was published in the same month as the I.P.C.C. released its latest statement on the looming crisis of global warming seems only fitting. Whatever broke the narrator of … Continue reading →

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G. Willow WIlson: Islamic mythology in action, in Alif the Unseen

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Douglas Barbour

G. Willow Wilson. Alif the Unseen (Grove Press 2012). I discovered G. Willow Wilson completely by accident; was just looking through the Graphic Fiction section of the local library, & came across the first volume of Air, a delightful tale … Continue reading →

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Stross does great space opera

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Douglas Barbour

Charles Stross. Neptune’s Brood (Ace Books 2013). Stross’s new novel is set in the same future as Saturn’s Children, but now 5000 years hence, & with another naïve female metahuman, Krina Alizond-114, as our slowly-learning-just-what’s-going-on narrator. Krina is ‘a member … Continue reading →

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Dave Duncan’s new SF adventure

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Douglas Barbour

Dave Duncan. Wildcatter (EDGE 2012). Dave Duncan writes solid entertainments, usually fantasy, but recently he’s done some fine SF, & Wildcatter certainly fits that bill. It’s an adventure story, set in a future where explorers can, if very lucky, discover … Continue reading →

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William Gibson’s brilliant ending to his latest trilogy: Zero History

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Douglas Barbour

William Gibson. Zero History (G.P. Putnam’s Sons 2010). Of course I’ve taken too long to get around to reading Zero History, but I do have my excuses, such as the huge Sunburst reading list I spent most of the past … Continue reading →

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K.V. Johansen’s complex high fantasy: Blackdog.

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Douglas Barbour

K.V. Johansen. Blackdog (Pyr 2011). There’s a good reason the jury put Blackdog on the Sunburst shortlist: it’s a fine, complex high fantasy set in a fully realized secondary world with a deep implied history & a fascinating array of … Continue reading →

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Tanya Huff’s entertaining enchantments

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Douglas Barbour

Tanya Huff. The Enchantment Emporium (DAW Books 2009); The Wild Ways (DAW Books 2011). In The Enchantment Emporium & the books that will follow it, Tanya Huff has created an extended family of very powerful mages (witches, then, if we … Continue reading →

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P.C. Hodgell’s (l)on(g)-going epic fantasy

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Douglas Barbour

P.C. Hodgell. Godstalk (Atheneum 1982). P.C. Hodgell. Dark of the Moon (Atheneum 1985). P.C. Hodgell. Seeker’s Mask (Meisha Merlin 2000). P.C. Hodgell. To Ride a Rathorn (Meisha Merlin 2006). P.C. Hodgell. Bound in Blood (Baen Books 2010). I recently found … Continue reading →

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