Book Reviews

I have a simple and straightforward approach to book reviews on this site — I try to write about a book that I recommend in as insightful and entertaining a way as I can. No ratings, no shenanigans, no attempt at academic or topical criticism. Spoilers are kept to a bare minimum, and major plot points or twists are left undisclosed.

My selections, like my tastes, are eclectic, but I will try for a good mix of new and old fiction primarily from the broad genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Much of what I review here is work that is new to me and reflects my current reading habits, but I will not review a book merely because it’s current and hot — it has to be the sort of thing I can recommend with enthusiasm.

SCIENCE FICTION

• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
• Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
• City by Clifford D. Simak
• Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein
• Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
• Feersum Endjinn by Iain M. Banks
• The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
• The Martian General’s Daughter by Theodore Judson
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• On Basilisk Station by David Weber
• Startide Rising by David Brin
• We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

FANTASY

• Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
• The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
• Bran Mak Morn: The Last King by Robert E. Howard
  
• Dossouye by Charles R. Saunders
• Dusk by Tim Lebbon
• The Empire of Ice Cream by Jeffrey Ford
• The Etched City by K. J. Bishop
• Flesh and Fire by Laura Anne Gilman
• Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Gunslinger by Stephen King
• Imaro: The Trail of Bohu by Charles R. Saunders
• Imaro & Imaro 2: The Quest for Cush by Charles R. Saunders
• Jhegaala by Steven Brust
• Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
• The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
• Master of Devils by Dave Gross
• Midwinter by Matthew Sturges
• Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Sorcerer’s Plague by David B. Coe
• Thieves’ World by Robert Asprin, ed.
• Voices by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
• Whitechapel Gods by S. M. Peters

HORROR & CRIME

• 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
• A Fine Dark Line by Joe R. Lansdale
• A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
• Bone Song by John Meaney
• Dead in the West by Joe R. Lansdale
• Devil Red by Joe R. Lansdale
• From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
• Hellboy: The Bones of Giants by Christopher Golden
• The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
• The October Country by Ray Bradbury
• Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
• Vanilla Ride by Joe R. Lansdale

HISTORICAL AND ALTERNATE HISTORY

• Drood by Dan Simmons
• Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
• Pax Dakota by Ken Rand
• Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe
• The Prow Beast by Robert Low
• Swords From the West and Swords From the Desert by Harold Lamb
• The Tears of Ishtar by Michael Ehart
• The Whale Road by Robert Low
• The White Raven by Robert Low
• The Wolf Sea by Robert Low

ON WRITING

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

GRAPHIC NOVELS

• Planet Hulk by Greg Pak, et al.