Guest Post: “Only the Lonely: Isolation in Horror” by Dan Coxon

CoxonD-IsolationAnthology“I’d left her out here all alone, with nothing but the snow and the night that closes in too soon. How could anyone live so remotely without it creeping into them – the cold, endless blue dark?”

That’s taken from ‘The Snow Child’, Alison Littlewood’s story which opens my latest anthology, Isolation: The Horror Anthology. There’s good reason why I placed it first in the book. When I originally came up with the idea of isolation as a unifying theme for an anthology, this was the kind of story I was expecting. Frozen wastes, distant towns, the cold, and the dark, the effects that has upon the mind… That was the horror of Isolation. Continue reading

New Books: December-January (2019-20)

NewBooks-20200109

After a quieter end to 2019, the start of 2020 was met with a blizzard of new ARCs and DRCs. Some of these aren’t out for some time (May, June, and even August!), but I wanted to get a mention of the books up on the site ASAP, so people have an idea of what’s on the way — and many of these look fantastic!

Featuring: Megan Angelo, Andy Clark, Bill Clegg, Karen Dietrich, Doug Engstrom, Lee Goldberg, Ilze Hugo, Gregg Hurwitz, Alex Irvine, Hao Jingfang, Stephen Graham Jones, Erica Katz, Nick Kyme, Mark Lawrence, Eddie Robson, Lewis Shiner, JC Stearns, Paul Tremblay, Emma Jane Unsworth, Nghi Vo, David Heska Wanbli Weiden

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Guest Review: THE THREE BODY PROBLEM by Cixin Liu (Tor Books)

Liu-ThreeBodyProblemA satisfying start to a Hugo Award-winning Sci-Fi trilogy

With the scope of Dune and the commercial action of Independence Day, Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple-award-winning phenomenon from China’s most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

Reviewed by Ryan Frye

It is hard to believe that The Three-Body Problem won the 2015 Hugo award for best novel. Not because it isn’t deserving of the accolade — it is — but because, when I read it, I felt like I was reading a classic work of Science Fiction. The Three-Body Problem tackles the classic genre idea of whether or not there is other intelligent life in the universe. While the book is rooted in a question that could be traced back to the earliest beginnings of the genre, this book takes a markedly different and unique approach from the very first page. Continue reading

New Books (March-April)

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Featuring: Guy Adams, Jack Campbell, Becky Chambers, Nick Cole, Delilah S. Dawson, Robert Glinski, Sally Green, Dave Guymer, Samantha Harvey, Roger Hobbs, Lucy Hounsom, Stephen Lloyd Jones, Ken Liu, Thomas Mallon, K.T. Medina, Nnedi Okorafor, Bryony Pearce, Andrew Pyper, Josh Reynolds, Ross Ritchell, Lilith Saintcrow, J.P. Smythe, Liesel Schwarz, Sara Taylor, Steve Toltz, Daniel Torday, David Wellington, Chuck Wendig, Paul Witcover Continue reading