Category Archives: Speculative Fiction

Klara and the Sun

Posted on July 20, 2021 by Teresa

Klara, the narrator of Kazuo Ishiguro’s newest novel, is a solar-powered artificial robot friend who, as the novel begins, spends her days in a store for AFs, waiting for some child to come along and choose her. Each model of … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 11 Comments

The Ministry for the Future

Posted on June 20, 2021 by Teresa

To be clear, concluding in brief: there is enough for all. So there should be no more people living in poverty. And there should be no more billionaires. Enough should be a human right, a floor below which no one … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 4 Comments

If It Bleeds

Posted on June 13, 2021 by Teresa

Stephen King’s newest book, If It Bleeds, is a collection of three stories and one novella. Two of the stories are dark wish-fulfillment fantasies, in the vein of “The Monkey’s Paw.” The first, “Mr Harrigan’s Phone,” is set in the early … Continue reading →

Posted in Short Stories/Essays, Speculative Fiction | 7 Comments

Tender is the Flesh

Posted on January 23, 2021 by Teresa

This novel by Argentine author Agustina Bazterrica and translated by Sarah Moses is set in a future where all non-human animals have been infected with a virus that infects anyone exposed to them (or so they’ve been told). So to … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 11 Comments

The Down Days

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Teresa

I didn’t really intend to read a pandemic book during the pandemic, but this novel by Ilze Hugo is on the TOB shortlist, and the more TOB books I read, the more fun the event is to follow. So here … Continue reading →

Posted in Speculative Fiction | 2 Comments

The Ballad of Black Tom

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Teresa

Victor LaValle is a pretty terrific horror writer whose books take the real-life horrors of racism and add monsters. The 2016 novella The Ballad of Black Tom is the third of his books that I’ve read, and they’ve all been enjoyably intense … Continue reading →

Posted in Speculative Fiction | 8 Comments

Piranesi

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Teresa

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is one of my favorite books, and I’ve been longing for another novel from Clarke ever since I first read that masterpiece. (I haven’t read her  story collection, fearing that short stories won’t have the … Continue reading →

Posted in Speculative Fiction, Uncategorized | 11 Comments

September Reading in Review

Posted on October 3, 2020 by Teresa

Do you ever feel guilty for not loving a book? I sometimes do, especially when I have several middling reading experiences in a row with books that don’t have obvious problems because that’s when I have good reason to suspect … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Contemporary, Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 10 Comments

The Changeling

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Jenny

I’ve been interested in stories about changelings for a long time. I can’t quite trace the source of the interest — perhaps part of my more general interest in stories about interactions between fairies and humans, and that goes back … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Seed to Harvest: The Patternist Series

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Teresa

Octavia Butler’s Patternist series is a series of Octavia Butler’s earliest novels (although she wrote Kindred as a standalone during the time these books were published). Four of the novels that make up the series were published in a single edition … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Speculative Fiction | 5 Comments