Monday 22 April 2024
Stitches, by Hirokatsu Kihara and Junji Ito (VIZ Media) | review by Stephen Theaker
Friday 19 April 2024
Under the Skin | review by Jacob Edwards
This review originally appeared in TQF65 (December 2019).
Out from under but still only skin-deep.
Under the Skin features Scarlett Johansson as a vulnerable yet predatory alien whose dark incomprehension of the world sets up a contrast by which director (and co-writer) Jonathan Glazer sets out to capture something of the human condition. Whether Glazer achieves this is debatable. Assuredly his film encapsulates the best and worst of the arthouse experience.
Tuesday 16 April 2024
47 by Walter Mosley (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) | review by Douglas J. Ogurek
An alien among the alienated: young adult novel puts sci-fi twist on slave story to comment on freedom and equality.
In Walter Mosley’s young adult novel 47, a slave story collides (or intertwines) with colourful little people, ghouls, lasers shot out of eyes, and magic devices.
The tale begins with 170-year-old first-person narrator 47 revealing that he’s going to reflect on his experiences as a slave in 1832. This framing device strengthens the author/reader connection, reinforces the authenticity of the tale, and lends the novel a genuine “Let me tell you a story” feel.
Monday 15 April 2024
Geethanjali Malli Vachindi | review by Stephen Theaker
Sunday 14 April 2024
Civil War | review by Stephen Theaker
Friday 12 April 2024
Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Solaris) | review by Stephen Theaker
This review originally appeared in Interzone #288, September–October 2020).
Another short book exploring the effects of global warming. In this possible future, the equatorial region of Africa might be the centre of a ever-expanding desert, but it was still the most convenient place to build Ankara Achouka, an anchor for the space elevator to the Grand Celeste, a colony ship up in orbit.
Monday 8 April 2024
Twisted Metal, Series 1 | reviewed by Stephen Theaker
Friday 5 April 2024
Every Day, by Jesse Andrews (Orion Pictures et al.) | review by Stephen Theaker
This review originally appeared in TQF65 (December 2019).
“A” is a being of unknown origin who wakes up in a different human body every day, one that’s about the same age as A. When asked if he or she is a boy or a girl, later in the film, A says, “Yes.” I suppose it doesn’t make sense to talk about being male or female if you don’t have a body. Or, to put it another way, in a male body A is male, and in a female body A is female, rather like Doctor Who.
Monday 1 April 2024
Femlandia, by Christina Dalcher (HQ) | review by Stephen Theaker
In the very near future, the American economy collapses and society follows suit. Trying to keep her 16-year-old daughter Emma safe from marauding men, Miranda, a formerly well-off woman, heads for Femlandia, the all-female radfem colony co-founded by her mother, Jennifer Jones. That might sound like the set-up for a feminist book, and it certainly has feminist elements (and a feminist author), but ironically I think anti-feminists might enjoy it more.
Friday 29 March 2024
Earwig by B. Catling (Coronet) | review by Stephen Theaker
This review originally appeared in Interzone #284, November–December 2019).
The cover of this short novel has traps for the unwary reader. Despite the artwork, the book does not feature a cat-faced girl, nor does the girl listen at walls with a glass. And do not read the cover flap, which provides a synopsis of the entire novel.
Monday 25 March 2024
Immaculate | review by Stephen Theaker
Friday 22 March 2024
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Season 1 | review by Stephen Theaker
Wednesday 20 March 2024
Positive: A Novel by David Wellington (Harper Voyager) | review by Douglas J. Ogurek
More than a mark: lesson on compassionate leadership disguised as zombie story.
During his westward journey, exile Finnegan (aka Finn) encounters a large sign that says, “The world takes.” It’s a fitting summary for the post-apocalyptic world he traverses, a world full of zombies and even more dangerous predators of the human variety.
Monday 18 March 2024
Hell to Pay by Matthew Hughes (Angry Robot) | review by Stephen Theaker
Friday 15 March 2024
Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes | review by Stephen Theaker
This review originally appeared in Interzone #284 (November–December 2019).
Eye-catching cover art by Julie Dillon gives a good idea of what’s inside: goofball space opera with a more serious protagonist. She is Captain Eva-Benita Caridad Alvarez y Coipel de Innocente, who hasn’t spoken to her family in years, since the awful incident at Garilia. She owns a slightly old-fashioned spaceship, La Sirena Negra, a keep-your-mouth-shut present from her estranged spaceship-dealer father, and we meet her just as she and her crew run into even more trouble than usual.
Saturday 9 March 2024
The Parades | review by Stephen Theaker
Friday 8 March 2024
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (Tordotcom) | review by Stephen Theaker
This review previously appeared in Interzone #290-291 (March-June 2021).
The rogue SecUnit (an android "made of cloned human tissue, augments, anxiety, depression, and unfocused rage") returns for Fugitive Telemetry, its sixth adventure, though to its own slight discomfort it is somewhat less of a rogue than before. Now it has friends, and its friends have expectations. So when a murder is apparently committed on Preservation Station, a place where such events are extremely rare, SecUnit is expected to help. There is some discomfort on the station about having a former murderbot on board, but its new friend Mensah has enough sway to override objections.
Wednesday 6 March 2024
Cackle by Rachel Harrison (Berkley) | review by Douglas J. Ogurek
Aimless woman desperate for a man finds mysterious woman desperate for a friend in dully taught lesson on female autonomy.
Cackle is a call for women to stop kowtowing to men and to develop their own voices. Unfortunately, excepting a charming spider and some unruly teens, the story isn’t all that interesting.
Monday 4 March 2024
Lisa Frankenstein | review by Stephen Theaker
Friday 1 March 2024
Black Adam | review by Stephen Theaker