I like to think that the overly-long title captures the essence of what's been transpiring over the past week or so on a relatively new spec fic blog, The Speculative Scotsman.  Although the subject matter (negative reviews and the possible impact they could have, as well as writers who value/discount such reviews, among other things) is rather well-trod, I found the wit and humor contained i...

Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. Lunar Braceros 2125-2148. San Diego: Calaca Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9843359-0-9 Michael Sedano Just as U.S. imaginative culture begins shifting its focus from the undead world of blood-sucking vampires to yet-to-be-born sci-fi worlds, along comes Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita’s Lunar Braceros.Standing at the forefront of this shifting lite...

McCaughrean, Geraldine. The Death-Defying Pepper Roux. Harper, 2010. When he was born, Pepper Roux's aunt had a visitation from Saint Constance, who said Pepper wouldn't live past 14 years of age. For some reason, everyone decided to take this pronouncement as the gospel truth, and as a result Pepper has lived his first 14 years with death hanging over him, ready to pounce at every moment. Small w...

- The San Francisco book fair is this weekend: Ian's offering dispatches from the floor, and you can also follow along with him on Twitter. - 2009 was a good year for odd book titles, apparently. The Bookseller's "Oddest Book Title of the Year" has drawn a record number of nominations, the Independent reports. The shortlist will be announced on 19 February. - The deadline for feedback on...

The end of last month brought us promo images from Legend of the Seeker’s “Torn”, featuring a lot of Bridget Regan goodness in the episode that should air around mid-February in the U.S. In that previous post I noted 2 synopsis for the episode: TV Guide – A crisis looms in Kahlan’s homeland—just when Kahlan has lost her powers—and Richard soon realizes tha...

This week’s book review is The Conqueror’s Shadow by Ari Marmell. Marmell cut his teeth on some tie-in / gaming novels and this is his first non-shared world/original fantasy novel. He’s got another one coming out from Pyr in the near future, but this one from Bantam Spectra is promising: Part of what Marmell seems to be doing in The Conqueror’s Shadow with Rebaine is ask t...

Adam Chromy, literary manager at Artists and Artisans, has cleverly created a new hilarious user-generated content literary property called PleaseFireMe.com. More than just a way to post your gripes about your job for the enjoyment of others, this site was created as a promotional tool for his author client David Ellis Dickerson's memoir House of Cards – Love, Faith and Other Social Exp...

Title: Horns Author: Joe Hill Pages: 448 Genre: Horror/Supernatural Standalone/Series: Standalone Release: 16 March in Hardback Publisher: Victor Gollancz Synopsis Ignatius Perrish spent the night drunk and doing terrible things. He woke up the next morning with one hell of a hangover, a raging headache . . . and a pair of horns growing from his temples. Once, Ig lived the life of the

Katy is a Mennonite girl of the Old Order who gets a special opportunity to go to a high school in the neighboring town. She's anxious to learn and expand her world. Her life is a bit different from most girls in her community, her thirst to learn on top of the fact that her mother abandoned her community has always made her feel a bit like an outsider. Unfortunately, she isn't warmly we...

Golds, Cassandra. The Museum of Mary Child. Kane Miller, 2009. Heloise lives with her beautiful but stern and cold godmother and a dour housekeeper. She knows has no memories of any other life but this - reading a censored version of the bible, doing chores, lessons, and needlework, and taking a short daily walk. Heloise has no friends, talks to no one besides her godmother and housekeeper, and kn...