Author: Kristen
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu The Leaning Pile of Books

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week–old or new, bought or received for review consideration (usually unsolicited). Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included. Last week brought two books […]

The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter March Patreon Book

Toward the end of last year, I launched the Fantasy Café Patreon account, which has a reward tier that allows voting on blog content for a post during the next month. In January, I reviewed Patricia A. McKillip’s beautifully written stand alone The Changeling Sea, and last month I reviewed Nalo Hopkinson’s unique, memorable short story collection Falling in Love with Hominids. The March book theme is a fairly recent science fiction or fantasy debut novel, and the book to be reviewed later […]

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin Mini Review: The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

Book Description from Goodreads: This is the way the world ends. Again. Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze — the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization’s bedrock for a thousand years — collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman’s vengeance. And worst […]

The Second Death by T. Frohock The Leaning Pile of Books

The Leaning Pile of Books is a feature where I talk about books I got over the last week–old or new, bought or received for review consideration (usually unsolicited). Since I hope you will find new books you’re interested in reading in these posts, I try to be as informative as possible. If I can find them, links to excerpts, author’s websites, and places where you can find more information on the book are included. This week I added a […]

Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson Review of Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson

Falling in Love with Hominids contains eighteen short stories by acclaimed author Nalo Hopkinson, whose accolades include a World Fantasy Award, a John W. Campbell Award for Best First Novel, a Locus Award for Best First Novel, a Philip K. Dick Award nomination, a New York Times Notable Book, two Sunburst Awards, a Gaylactic Spectrum Award, and a Prix Aurora Award. This collection also contains a foreword explaining the title’s origins and a brief introduction for each story, also written by the […]