fiction
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Review of The Green Child by Herbert Read
This bizarre novel was broken into three disparate parts, and by ‘broken,’ I mean ruined. For part one, he might merit 5/5 stars, for part 2, 2/5, and part 3, 4/5. The longest middle section is a droll account of the main character’s life story, his toppling of a dictator,…
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Review of To Hold Up the Sky by Liu Cixin
The short stories in this volume cover many topics, including concerns and ideas that also appear in The Three-Body Trilogy, but they are used in different settings. Super-string computers, hollow earth, the value of poetry, total perfect vision of time and space achieved by simulating the original Big Bang and…
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Review of The Sleep of the Righteous by Wolfgang Hilbig
My third Hilbig novel in quick succession. Whereas his others were solid blocks of interior narration, this one perfectly captures an elegiac wonderment characteristic of childhood’s hurtle through strata of growth, confusion, and sadness.The author summons reality with abundance through the distorted mirror of his character’s psyche. He is a…
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Review of Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls by Alissa Nutting
The most creative short story collection I have ever read. While technically belonging to the bizarro genre, this collection passes itself off as literary fiction. The author has, by now, established herself as a literary figure. It always bothers me how a slight literary polish makes all the difference between…
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Review of Tampa by Alissa Nutting
Are you a brave reader? If you read Lolita unfazed, made it through American Psycho, and graduated to Story of the Eye, maybe you’re ready for this one. But ask yourself, what do you want to get out of literature. A thrill? Shock value? There’s a multi-part series on Youtube…
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Review of Sunny, Vol. 5 (Sunny, #5) by Taiyo Matsumoto
A relaxing and contemplative series from a creator I now look forward to reading. The abandoned kids home, or orphanage, if you prefer that designation, which comprises the setting, provides a dense interplay of childish communications. The way the characters talk over one another reminds me of Robert Altman’s films.…
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Review of The Golden Ass by Apuleius
Whenever someone says Don Quixote was the first novel ever written, one-up them with this one. Same if they claim Tale of Genji was first. Other novels, poems, and fragments might claim to be the first, but none are so convincing a contender as The Golden Ass. Supposedly, other Roman…
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Review of Necromancy Cottage, Or, The Black Art of Gnawing on Bones by Rebecca Maye Holiday
Right in time for Halloween, Necromancy Cottage is a very readable and unconventional bildungsroman. The tone and atmosphere inspire a cozy kind of fright, as you might glean from the title. How many times, as a kid, did I conjure in my imagination a secluded second life on a desert…
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Review of MONKEY: New Writing From Japan (Volume 1) by Motoyuki Shibata
I have been a hug fan of this publication, having completing the original run of Monkey Business, so I was delighted to find this resurrected imprint. Nearly every issue contains writing or interviews available nowhere else featuring Haruki Murakami, Hiromi Kawakami, Mieko Kawakami, and Hideo Furukawa. If that isn’t enough…
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Review of Into the Violet Gardens by Isaac Nasri
In this very near-future s-f novel, cyborgs and cartels battle it out amid a powder keg political imbalance. The author provides prose rich with details of setting and character that easily communicates the suffering common to human experience, which constitutes the novel’s beating heart. Making use of tried-and-true thriller trappings,…
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Review of Gunnerkrigg Court, Volume 4: Materia (Gunnerkrigg Court #4) by Thomas Siddell
A continually surprising series. Meshing classical myth with original ideas, this kid-friendly series of light adventures and comical mishaps often stumbles into darker territory, heady themes, and far-reaching consequences. While I long for more maturity, it is nice to see rich character development throughout each volume. The players change subtly,…
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Review of The Poems of Catullus by Catullus
Words and expressions the translator should have thought twice about using: “Treadmill,” “French poodle,” “syphilitic.” Catullus is the OG badass Roman poet. His polyamorous adventures and vicious satirical portraits amply flex his majorly ripped wit, status, and (professed) sexual prowess. Listen to him mic drop other statesmen and rapturously serenade…
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Review of U-Day (Memory Full, #1) by Rapha Ram
A desperate CEO gives the reader a taste of the morbid underbelly of the near-future society featured in this book in the prologue. In this multi-faceted work, the lens through which we perceive the world is Livvy Blunt, a girl with a modern mind, trying to squeeze the meditative regimen…
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Review of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1) by L. Frank Baum
As whimsical and intriguing as the film. As timeless and humorous and charming. As off-kilter and unique. But can it sustain the delicate balance of childish wonder, nostalgia, and creepy subtext, the Alice and Wonderland dreaminess, for a dozen books? This splendid series has spawned a recognizable aesthetic, probably due…
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Review of The Marvelous Land of Oz (Oz, #2) by L. Frank Baum
The darkly amusing saga continues in this slightly less consistent sequel to the classic children’s tale of Oz. We are back in the magical land, but without Dorothy and the frame story. Noticing quite a few differences between this and Return to Oz, the film, I can tell that they…
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Review of Tales From the Liminal by S.K. Kruse
Tales from the Liminal showcases a hearty handful of hilarious and poignant tales for every occasion, tales full of personality and pizzazz, modernistic flair and quirky humor, clever situations described with aplomb and enough literary extravagance to enlighten the most jaded reader. Equipped with charming illustrations, each easily digested episode…
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Review of Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Very much in line with the film, Return to Oz, a personal favorite of mine. Rife with weird objets d’art and dramatic situations void of any real danger. The underground fortress and faint-hearted exploration were reminiscent of Narnia, which is to say I was entertained and sometimes absorbed. It boils…
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The Arden Finalist in Indi Book Awards 2022 Awards
We are pleased to announce our Book, the Arden was a finalist in the Indie Book Awards 2022 in the science fiction genre.
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Review of The Wayfarer by Zachary Kekac
The Wayfarer begins the way all of my favorite fantasy novels tend to: with a compelling world map that draws me into the world. While there is a learning curve for most world-building accomplishments like this one, I think Wayfarer’s is relatively enjoyable to climb.Perhaps the most intriguing aspect it…
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Review of Dancing With Disorder by Andrew Lawes
When I picked up this book, I knew it would map out the plight of the mentally ill in some form or another, but I did not expect the intimate perspective, which delves deep into psychology and the emotions incumbent in major life changes, without losing the focus on character…
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Review of Tekkon Kinkreet: Black and White by Taiyo Matsumoto
One of the few masterpieces of ‘realistic’ manga. By which I mean it contains whimsical touches, flights of fancy, imagination, heart, and friendship without succumbing to any of the cheap thrills so often associated with this medium like giant robots. ghost hunters, or revealing costumes. A genuinely admirable and affecting…
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Review of Life Ceremony: Stories by Sayaka Murata
Murata portrays a skewed world, often in the form of a soft, mild-mannered dystopia, where one key component of life is unquestionably different from our own. This creates a massive paradigm shift, accompanied by harrowing cognitive dissonance. This brand of edgy speculative fiction is simply another form of wry satire,…
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Review of The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
A shortish novel from one of the top three most bleeding edge writers of fantasy in this day and age. I lump this author above most modern fantasy authors because of the range of her ideas and her psychological distaste for clichés. With a vast body of work already beneath…
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Review of Small Town Problems by Chris Ritchey
Small Town Problems, from the title, might elicit expectations of a sitcom drama. In a sense, you would not be entirely wrong. But at its heart, it is a fun, popcorn novel about people running into and responding to trouble, where their innate curiosity plays as big a part as…
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Review of Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman
Wow. A stunning book. An immaculately, intricately, eccentrically written, idiosyncratic soft-s-f, near-future, light-dystopian, quirky pseudo-mystery novel describing the ennui, outrage, absurdity, and maturity of an old-before-her-time child star, with all the camp of kid detective sitcoms and an oceanic undercurrent of eco-unrest. Elegant simplicity. Word-by-word delight. Sentence-by-sentence wonder, awe, and…
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Review of Hettie and the Ghost by Becca De La Rosa
In this richly descriptive and atmospheric novel, I was pleased to find intricate sentence structure and mature characters. Many of its descriptions have an old-fashioned elegance. It is a nuanced ghost story with an intriguing premise, tackling central concepts of spiritualism, the afterlife, and growth. The language is always surprising…
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Review of Michaelmas – Alex (Oxford girls, #1) by P.D. Kuch
Oxford Girls is so far: a strange blend of genres and tones, and quick-paced action-packed plot-boiler with a quirky protagonist and an unusual premise. With its unpredictable chapter-by-chapter revelations, it straddles B-movie and sophisticated stylization, king of like Kill Bill.The author utilizes a close first person perspective with a distinctive…
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Review of Shadebringer by Grayson W. Hooper
Shadebringer begins with an inscrutable world map and intriguing chapter quotes. The title led me to believe it would be a traditional fantasy work in the vein of Brandon Sanderson. That is not the case. Brent Weeks and other authors have a tendency to use titles like this to ease…
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Review of Intimations: Stories by Alexandra Kleeman
In this modest first collection, the author is often incredibly specific in her descriptions, stretching them to absurd lengths, and melding the boundaries of literary and speculative fiction. Not all of the stories are brilliant in my opinion, but they are all different and eerie. 1. Fairy Tale 2/52. Lobster…
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Review of The Nomad: Book One by Debra J. Tillar
I am a fan of space-journey science fiction. Also a fan of strong female protagonists and wry humor. This novel checks all the boxes. 1 time-travel narratives explore the mystery surrounding a large event, while fewer of them explore the mystery of characters’ pasts. In this novel, the hardships of slavery…
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Review of The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop
An enchanting and disturbing novella. Not as haunting as Story of the Eye but nearly as daring. The title says it all. We are afforded the detailed and poetic perspective of a dastardly protagonist with a taboo kink. What elevates this unique premise are the rich and profound meditations on death, mingling…
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Review of The Exiles (Rift Walkers Book 1) by Rae Lewis
In Exiles, the first in a series, the reader is introduced to an orphan protagonist who might remind us in some ways of Ender Wiggins, or any really capable kid in fiction or film. In her futuristic, but still relatable setting, the author incorporates rich world-building, but in the background, opening…
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Review of Vox by Nicholson Baker
A single conversation, about 170 pages long. Baker’s exceptionally readable style renders the most mundane moments vivid. While the subject matter is titillating in some respects, the implicit aura of companionship, intimacy, and aesthetic appreciation shines light on humanity’s capacity to intricately fantasize. This platonic grokking between two in-synch individuals…
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Review of The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Ramblings of a college student. Talk of books we’ve all read. Mostly harmless opinions. Prickling sensations seeming to indicate a love so ill-defined yet ever-present. Swimming, drinking, taking classes, taxi rides. Typical privileged college-age money mismanagement. A narrator who claims to be a writer but rarely, if ever, writes anything.…
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Review of Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant
The first Maupassant novel I’ve read. Having enjoyed his stories immensely, I was not surprised I enjoyed this longer work. The easiest comparison is Chekhov. But this tale is a romantic one, about the amassing of wealth, the ambitions of a greedy set of upper-crust mustache-grooming gentlemen and perfume-spritzing ladies.…
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Review of The Complete Multiple Warheads by Brandon Graham
It’s a shame that such magnificent artwork is undermined by amateurish writing. The layouts and designs are reminiscent of Moebius, while the dialogue and plot are barely readable pulp, pun-infested nonsense. Plenty of good ideas, creatures, gadgets, and character potential beneath the immaturity, but it’s well-lathered with cringe-worthy speech bubbles.…
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Review of Awakening (The Commune’s Curse Book 1) by Lucy A. McLaren
In this new debut fantasy novel, promising a series to follow, adaptable child protagonists deal with past hardships in a refreshing way. The conflict stems from a menacing society within the context of an intriguing fantasy world. Children play a key role in the world building of this novel at the center…
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Review of Njal’s Saga by Unknown
This took me way too long to read. The Goodreads police put a warrant out for me for the number of in-progress books on my Currently Reading shelf. I flew through the beginning and hit an oil slick somewhere in the middle and slid into the rough. This book is…
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Review of Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
A stirring first-hand account by one of the most daring authors out there. I often suffer from Ballard fatigue, which is a syndrome wherein I suddenly hate Ballard after reading two or three of his books in a row. This illness has recurred at least four times. But this fictionalized…
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Review of Puttering About in a Small Land by Philip K. Dick
Puttering About is minor PKD. One of his sidelined realist novels. A quiet, marital struggle in a normal American suburb. It oozes nostalgia for a lost time and place, like an old sitcom, where ‘traffic jam’ refers to fifteen cars on the expressway and people still do things like get…
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Review of Innocents Aboard: New Fantasy Stories by Gene Wolfe
Innocents Aboard is the first short story collection by Wolfe I’ve read. It is a diverse helping of mind-altering tales. Ranging from Melville satire to Egyptian myth and Chinese folktale, a plethora of ghost stories and atypical Arthurian fantasy, with a few Biblical allegories thrown in. Story after story, I…
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The Pyramid by Ismail Kadare
The Pyramid Dreams. Kadare takes some liberties with history, of course, often speculating wildly for dramatic and symbolic effect, but there is enough verisimilitude here to cast the pall of history over the pages. It has a very similar aura to the writings of Kafka, borrowing much of the atmosphere…
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Review of House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
A dense mosaic of mesmerizing notions injected with a jumbo-sized hypo of s-f crack, rich with subtle corollaries of theory and conjecture. Huge, labyrinthine, wild. My first Reynolds. Now I have that combination of elation and despair, knowing that I’m in it for the long haul. I have to read…
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Review of The Acephalic Imperial by Damian Murphy
Let there be no doubt that D. M. is the master of occult, shadowy fiction, draped in velvet, drenched in smoky moonlight, whose refulgent landscapes are colonized by sinister, eldritch characters, each enacting esoteric motives in a sibilant daze. He is paramour of ravished beauties, languorous mansions, and impending nightmares.…
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Review of Kramberger with Monkey by Rick Harsch
A rollicking satirical, experimental novel about assassination, serialized in the online publication The Collidescope, featuring taboo-trouncing, grimly ravenous characters, a melange of lyrical and journalistic styles. Superbly literary, lasciviously hilarious, Rabelaisian, and a gravitas-inducing addition to Rick Harsch’s vastly underappreciated body of work. Read all of his novels. Voice and…
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Review of The Eyelid by S.D. Chrostowska
While slow-paced, this book offers much food for thought. In its dream-centric pseudo dystopian world, a hazy view of political and philosophical implications can be gleaned around the jewel-like edges. Yet, I hoped for more startling imagery. There are a few striking moments, but not enough intense focus on the…
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Review of North Station by Bae Suah
Bae Suah in experimental mode. The 7 stories in North Station display many aspects of this author’s formidable powers. Unlike the novels of hers I’ve read, this collection depicts similar characters in a greater variety of situations, while not relying on dramatic plotting. They are very slow, and will not…
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Review of The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
“The Jungle book” is a fun collection of timeless stories worthy of their fame. The movie brethren of this tale resemble the source material in only superficial ways. Mowgli only features in less than half of the book’s stories for one thing. However every story is interesting and connected in…
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Review of I Wonder What Human Flesh Tastes Like by Justin Isis, Quentin S. Crisp
The struggle of young people to understand their place in the world, within society’s context, or outside of its proscribed categories, considered from a multitude of perspectives, at differing stages of fatalistic contempt, solipsism, wanderlust, and obsession. The Japanese setting, conjured with sublime authenticity, was absolutely convincing. Equal parts startling…
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Review of Aberration of Starlight by Gilbert Sorrentino
Flashes of brilliance. A highly unpleasant reading experience, but nonetheless rewarding. My first step into Sorrentino’s version of the world. It interested me enough that I know I will have to read his other novels. Aside from Mulligan Stew, they are relatively short, therefore his ceaseless experimentation is digestible. The…
L. S. Popovich 