Having read East Coast Rising and most recently Demo (with Brian Wood), I went in search of more work by Becky Cloonan. This arresting book collects three of her self-published stories in a splendid hardback volume. In Wolves, a knight is sent out into the forest after unnamed prey at the behest of his king. As he searches, his thoughts go back to his woman, so beautiful and fragile. She had begged him not to go out on this mission and their parting haunts him. […]
I don’t even know how to describe this in one sentence!
You can always tell when you come across something and know you’ve never quite read anything like it before, because afterwards, your brain won’t know quite how to file it away. It has to create new paradigms to fit stuff into. I was in that stage for quite a while after reading this weird, sensual, dark, joyful book. Our main character Yeine lives in a world where belief in the gods is not an option. The gods walk among them. It’s a world where one […]
A Dragon Term Paper
Dragons, An Introduction to the Modern Infestation by Pamela Wharton Blanpied (1981, 194 pages including bibliography and appendix) – This is a nice piece of fluff. Basically, it’s a pocket-sized dissertation of the science of dragons as if they really existed. It does not deal with the historical tales of dragons but of recent arrivals, possibly from outer space, that are reducing cattle herds and leaving scorch marks. Countries around the world find themselves unable to destroy the creatures. They are too well-armored, too quick […]
Things need not have happened to be true
Yeah, I think it was a mistake to try and binge read these books. After the heady experience of The Doll’s House, I should have just taken a break. But I wanted more! Desire would know what I’m talking about. The stories in this book were just okay for me. Calliope and The Dream of a Thousand Cats had some zip and Kelley Jones (The Hammer!!!) does some nice work, especially in The Dream of a Thousand Cats. The Calliope story had a haunting quality […]