Author Archive: PaulineMorgan
A Strange And Brilliant Light by Eli Lee (book review).
The concept of a country that doesn’t actually exist is not new in literature. Anthony Hope’s 1894 novel ‘The Prisoner Of Zenda’ takes place in the imaginary country of Ruritania, identified as somewhere in Europe. Jim Crace’s first book, ‘Continent’, consists of seven stories set in a country that has similarities to South America. Thus, […]
Eternal Vigilance book 1: From Deep Within The Earth by Gabrielle S. Faust (book review)
The idea of having medical conditions, physical or mental, on some kind of spectrum is an increasing phenomenon. It seems that vampirism could be considered as such. On one end of the spectrum is Nosferatu, as depicted in the 1922 film, evil, ugly and whose motives are to kill, especially young women. At the other […]
Eyes Like Leaves by Charles de Lint (book review).
Once, when the word ‘fantasy’ was mentioned, the automatic thought was something Tolkienesque, a plot involving magic, wizards and possibly god-like beings, with lots of conflict and a quest. The settings were invented worlds. Often the sides of conflict were very much black and white. Later, fantasy became broader to include contemporary or historical settings […]
Monday Luck by Neil Robinson (book review).
The word ‘novel’ means new. Originally, a tale of over 60,000 words would have been a novel idea and the word became attached to longer fiction but with novel-length books being so common, the word needs to be attached to the content. What is new could refer to the plot, the characters, the setting or […]
Alpha Night (Psy-Changeling Trinity 4 or book 19) by Nalini Singh (book review)
While a segment of the readership of a series will be willing to follow a series that they enjoy just because it is the next in the series, it is often the little touches that add to the saga. There is satisfaction in feeling that the story being told is part of a wider universe […]
Wolf Rain (A Psy-Changeling Trinity Novel #18) by Nalini Singh (book review).
There are readers who like the comfort of knowing, roughly, what will happen in a book. This is why the Mills & Boon romances have been so popular. The situation and the characters may be different but, along the way, the two main characters will overcome all obstacles and end up together. Other readers like […]
The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/Jun 2021, Volume 140 #755 (magazine review).
The first thing you notice about this issue of MF&SF is the distinctive cover by David A Hardy. Atypically, it doesn’t quite illustrate any of the stories in this volume. The lead story, a novella, ‘Refugees’ by Robert Grossbach, is a tongue-in-cheek invasion story. Eeps are small, doughnut-shaped sentient aliens from the planet Narsuto. Qui-Phess […]
Mythanimus by Storm Constantine (book review).
An issue that many writers of short stories have is that their output is likely to appear in many disparate publications such as anthologies and magazines, including, these days, on-line magazines with no print version. No reader can reasonably follow all the sources if they wish to read the entire output of a favourite author. […]
Forsaken by Kelley Armstrong (book review)
There is always a problem when an author switches publishers, especially if that author has a loyal following. There are many reasons why this might happen and a change between major mass market publishers may make very little difference in the perception of the readers. When Storm Constantine started Immanion Press as an outlet to […]
Loved (House Of Night Otherworld trilogy book 1 of 3) by P.C. & Kristin Cast (book review).
With series of books, particularly urban fantasy, being longer than the traditional three-book set, it is possible to wonder whether the authors conceived the story arc that many of them have or if it grew out of the initial work. Finding that the characters have much more to do to resolve their particular set of […]
