Page 8 of posts by: angelablackwell

The Exploding Spaceship Recommends Some Good UK Books for US Holiday-goers

Posted on 2014-08-16 at 21:21 by angelablackwell

This column features some good reads for all ages which are not currently available in the US.  Many US fans are traveling to the UK for conventions and holidays during the summer months so Your Humble Reviewers thought to provide some suggestions for book souvenirs and gifts.

For the middle grades, we highly recommend The Book of Beasts (paperback from Head of Zeus) by John and Carole Barrowman which is the third volume in their Hollow Earth trilogy. The first two books are available in the US, but volume

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship, Uncategorized

The Exploding Spaceship Release Day Edition: Review of A Plunder of Souls by D.B. Jackson

Posted on 2014-07-08 at 22:56 by angelablackwell

Review of A Plunder of Souls by D.B. Jackson (Tor hardcover, July 8, 2014)

This is the third novel in the Thieftaker Chronicles. We are back in Boston of 1769 where a minor smallpox epidemic has hit; enough people are sick that there are houses in every neighborhood with illness, but not so many as to overflow the hospital.

Ethan is called upon by the local minister to investigate a case of grave desecration, but it soon becomes clear that more is going on because shades of the dead are hanging around

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged david b coe, db jackson, thieftaker

The Exploding Spaceship New Release Edition: Reviews of Deadly Curiosities and The Blasted Lands

Posted on 2014-06-30 at 02:42 by angelablackwell

Review of Deadly Curiosities by Gail Z Martin (Solaris Books, June 24, 2014, mass market)

This is a new urban fantasy series set in Charleston, South Carolina. The center of the adventures is an antique shop called Trifles and Folly, which is currently owned by Cassidy Kincaide and her vampire silent partner Sorren. She has a former history graduate student/martial artist named Teag Logan who helps run the place. His boyfriend Anthony is a lawyer from an old Charleston family, who is occasionally

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged blasted lands, deadly curiosities, gail z. martin, james a moore

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Enoch the Traveler, Cauldron of Ghosts, Morningside Fall, Treasure Planet, Sea Without a Shore, A Case of Spontaneous Combustion and Peacemaker

Posted on 2014-06-23 at 06:05 by angelablackwell

Review of Enoch the Traveler: Tempestas Viator by Lady Soliloque (World Castle Publishing, January 9, 2014)

This novel is the story of Enoch, a character who is mentioned in the Bible, but we are told nothing about him. Lady’s Soliloque uses the ideas of parallel universes, locations outside of time and space, and great beings to explain the Christian idea of God and angels. Like some other fantasy and science fiction which uses ancient religious ideas with a new twist like Marvel’s versions of Odin or

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

The Exploding Spaceship's Geeky Travel Special Edition!

Posted on 2014-06-21 at 22:44 by angelablackwell

In this column Your Humble Reviewers take a look at a couple of recent conventions, and a look forward to some coming up, focusing our attention on writing tracks and family activities near the convention site, which can be used to turn a weekend getaway into a longer vacation. Featured are some of the smaller conventions in the Southeast from Virginia to Louisiana which are family-friendly and offer tracks for aspiring writers.

Timegate: Centered mainly on the Doctor Who and Stargate television shows

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

A Teenage Girl Goes on a Science Fiction Adventure - The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Recent YA Science Fiction: Glaze, Salvage, These Broken Stars and Earth Star

Posted on 2014-06-07 at 19:54 by angelablackwell

Female SF authors write teenage girls having science fiction adventures - a type of read I wanted as a teen but wasn't available!

The last few months have seen several great new teen science fiction adventures come into our review pile, all featuring a female lead character (although one really has a male as co-lead) and all written by female authors. Given the rarity of female focused science fiction adventure and female science fiction writers work being reviewed, I thought it was proper to give them a

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews The Moon King, Reign of Ash and Broken Homes

Posted on 2014-05-16 at 03:14 by angelablackwell

Review of The Moon King by Neil Williamson (hardcover and trade, NewCon Press April 22, 2014)

This is Neil Williamson’s first novel, and after starting and not finishing several other first fantasy novels this year, Neil must be congratulated that I not only finished his novel but read it in two days. I didn’t find any of the usual first novel writing craft issues which can jar me out of the story.

As a reviewer I get presented with many fantasy novels to review, but I never get past the first chapter

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged ben aaronovitch, broken homes, gail z. martin, neil williamson, reign of ash, the moon king

The Exploding Spaceship Spring Event Reviews for Authors

Posted on 2014-05-16 at 02:24 by angelablackwell

Review of the Doris Betts Spring Writers Festival at Mitchell Community College in Statesville, NC

Your Humble Reviewers were surprised to learn there was an annual writers’ event in our town, since we had not heard of it prior to about one week before the event. When we looked it up, we discovered that not only were three local writers attending, but that fantasy author N.K. Jemisin was also coming in from New York for the event. A chance to be in a writing workshop with her was too good to miss

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged doris betts spring writers festival, eastercon, nora jemisin, outlantacon, ravencon

The Exloding Spaceship Reviews Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi and The Eidolon by Libby McGugan

Posted on 2014-03-16 at 19:39 by angelablackwell

SF that didn't peg the engineer's baloney meter!

Just a quick note of explanation, both of these novels use alternate reality as a way to get around some glaring scientific issues with their universes (one deals with FTL and the other with the Large Hadron Collider). I like my hard science fiction, but these days you can't really write some types of stories using hard science unless you make up some new science. The trick is to add new science into the story in a way which doesn't trip the baloney meter

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Some Recent Good Urban Fantasy Reads: The Cormorant, Black Arts and Ghost Train to New Orleans

Posted on 2014-03-16 at 03:31 by angelablackwell

The Cormorant by Chuck Wendig (Angry Robot, January 2014)

This urban fantasy/hard-boiled thriller stars Miriam Black, a woman with the paranormal talent of precisely predicting the date, time, and circumstances of anyone's death. She does some illegal things to survive, usually conning or stealing from the unfortunate who wants to know about his or her demise.

Miriam and the people she encounters all get gleefully skewered, folded, spindled, stapled, and mutilated by Wendig; there is kidnapping, torture

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged chuck wendig, faith hunter, mur lafferty