This is Steve’s first Dean Koontz book review in several years, because it’s the first new Dean Koontz book he’s read in that stretch of time. He thinks it was worth it, with a few caveats. What are they? Read the column and find out.
With my last column written in 2025, I wanted to highlight some works of excellent speculative fiction that might normally get overlooked. If I were going to list the best pure best of science fiction […]
All work and no play makes author Juliet Brooks write a Big Idea about how the US should have better worker’s rights and conditions. In her newest novel, A Fae In Finance, her main character […]
The motto for the Olympics translates to “Faster, Higher, Stronger” — but in Gold Dust, author Catherine Asaro takes athletic competition to heights even the greatest of Olympians might not have ever dreamed of. Source: […]
Ten years ago, Steve did a general column about Leslie Charteris’ action hero Simon Templar. Rather than redoing that column, Steve wants to focus on the Saint’s genre-type stories, whether SF or F, since TV & movies haven’t really touched on them.
Review: Lies and Weddings, by Kevin Kwan by Rich Horton Kevin Kwan is likely best known for his first novel, Crazy Rich Asians (2013), which became a successful film in 2018. I haven’t read that […]
Old Bestseller Review: The Love of Monsieur, by George Gibbs by Rich Horton My original focus on this blog was popular fiction of the first half of the 20th Century — at best, obscure popular […]
Human characters have never been essential to tell a good story. Author Caspar Geon breaks the mold of featuring boring ol’ humans in his newest novel The Immeasurable Heaven. Come along as he takes you […]
Two Classic Movies: My Man Godfrey and The River by Rich Horton Here’s an informal look at two movies I watched recently, both classics. These are My Man Godfrey, from 1936, and The River, from […]
El escritor boliviano Rodrigo Jhamil Guardia Yáñez publicó este año su primera novela juvenil “Días de Fantasía en Cochabamba”. Esta novela se centraliza en dos personajes, Sebastián (Seba) y Santiago (Santi), oriundos de Cochabamba. Santi […]
Antología de relatos 2025 de “Sitio de Ciencia Ficción” Como es tradición de fin de año, el Sitio de Ciencia-ficción presenta su antología de relatos recopilando los publicados a lo largo del año. Este 2025 […]
Some stories go beyond the page, presenting themselves as “living stories,” as author Charles H. Melcher calls them. Read all about these living stories in the Big Idea for his newest book, The Future of […]
In 2022 I had a Curiosities feature in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction on Ford Madox Ford’s time travel novel Ladies Whose Bright Eyes. Curiosities is a long running feature of the magazine […]
Sometimes, we all need a friend. And sometimes, that friend is a robot that accompanies you to social events so you don’t have to go alone. Follow along in author Allee Mead’s Big Idea as […]
Here’s another review of John Brunner, who is really one of my favorite SF writers of his era, but oddly more due to his less well-known works. These books, typically fairly short, clearly written somewhat […]
A great idea often comes with the added bonus of a million questions, and it’s up to the writer to have answers for all these questions. In author Marie Lu’s case, this path of answers […]
Royalty is by blood. So what if a princess wakes up in a body that isn’t hers? And what if that body was previously a corpse? Author Chuck Rothman has the answers and is here […]
OBIR: Occasional Biased and Ignorant Reviews reflecting this reader’s opinion. Ghost to Ghost to Ghost: An Anthology of Haunting Tales from Canada – edited by M.M. MacLeod Publisher: Frost Zone Press, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, 2025. […]
Information is the name of the game, and today’s Big Idea has a lot of it! From quantum mechanics to Diet Coke, author Stewart Hotston takes you on a ride through how the galaxy works, […]
As if solving crimes wasn’t a hard enough job, you throw mystic and magical mayhem into the mix and you’ve got a whole new world of trouble. Enter the Supernatural Crimes Unit: NYPD, author Keith […]
Did you like Groundhog Day? Do you like action movies? Well, this is the same idea reimagined as an action movie starring that unknown and unrecognized action star Frank Grillo, who’s been in a whole lot of stuff. Still don’t remember him? Read on…
Old Bestseller Review: The Feathered Serpent, by Edgar Wallace by Rich Horton Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born in 1875 in London. He was illegitimate, and grew up in poverty. He left school at age […]
If everyone had less than an hour to live, would your actions in those moments matter more or not at all? Author Holly Seddon explores this question in the Big Idea for her newest novel […]
When writing a novel, a lot of people think of the process as sort of rigid. You have a specific story to tell and it needs to be an unchanging vision all the way through. […]
BOOK REVIEW by Arlene F. Marks TITLE: TIARIS: When the Oceans Kissed AUTHOR: D.M. Buehler GENRE: YA Eco-Historical Fantasy, Timeslip PUBLISHED: January 2025 by Ridgecrest Books AVAILABLE: on Amazon or from the publisher https://ridgecrestbooks.com/?product=tiaris-when-the-oceans-kissed […]
While some ideas get shelved entirely, some ideas are merely on the back burner for a while before becoming fully realized ideas and narratives. Such was the case for author J. R. Blanes, who kept […]
Great minds think alike. For authors Jes Honard and Marie Parks, their great minds had to do just that to co-author the second novel of their Grigori Cycle series. Come along in their Big Idea […]
What goes better together than dragons, revolution, and being queer? Not much, and author Vanessa Ricci-Thode is here to show that with her newest novel, The Dragon Next Door. Dive in to her Big Idea […]
This week Steve retro reviews what he considers to be a fun and very good Broadway musical on film. Do you like musicals? He does, and he gives us the whole story (yes, with spoilers). Read on…
Move over, Shakespeare in the Park, today we’ve got poet Gary Jackson and the Big Idea for his newest collection of poetry. Follow along to see how small lives speaks to the reader in an […]
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