Monday 29 April 2024
Boy Kills World | review by Stephen Theaker
Friday 26 April 2024
The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg (Tachyon Publications) | review by Stephen Theaker
This review originally appeared in Interzone #288, September–October 2020).
Uiziya e Lali and the nameless man known as nen-sasaïr live in a world where magic is real and one can change one’s sex. A cloth of transformation, woven from the wind, summons sand-birds of bright fire. They cocoon the summoner, who burns without burning before emerging as the desired sex. They attribute this ability to the goddess Bird – who gives the series of stories of which this novella is a part its overall name, the Birdverse – but from what we see in this book it might well be a symbiotic biological process that has evolved on this world.
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.