Category Archives: sf/f

#TBRChallenge – Starting Over: A Paradigm of Earth by Candas Jane Dorsey

Posted on January 18, 2023 by Victoria Janssen

A Paradigm of Earth by Candas Jane Dorsey is a 2001 book which begins with several traumatic events told in a lowkey voice of depression. Morgan Shelby works with children who have severely disfiguring birth defects. Despite the first sentence … Continue reading →

Posted in glbtqia+, reading, sf/f | Tagged | 1 Comment

#TBRChallenge – Lies: The Conductors by Nicole Glover

Posted on November 16, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

I chose The Conductors by Nicole Glover for the “Lies” theme because it’s a murder mystery. However, it turned out to fit the theme in other ways as well: many of the suspects rewrote themselves and their lives to some … Continue reading →

Posted in philadelphia, sf/f | Tagged | 1 Comment

#TBRChallenge – Exile by Lisa Bradley

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Exile by Lisa Bradley is a post-apocalyptic, character-driven science fiction novel which I bought because I had met and liked the author. The apocalypse in this novel was local, affecting people living nearby with uncontrollable, violent rage. The federal government … Continue reading →

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Romancing the Beast – Embracing Monstrousness in Romantic SFF

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

I have a post up at the SFWA blog: Romancing the Beast – Embracing Monstrousness in Romantic SFF. Because the Romance genre is based on plot structure, it can easily be merged with a Speculative Fiction setting. Magical secondary worlds, … Continue reading →

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My August Reading Log

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction: Prisoner of Midnight by Barbara Hambly is eighth and most current of the James and Lydia Asher series about vampire hunters and their uneasy vampire ally, Don Simon Ysidro. I was excited to find it’s set in 1917, with … Continue reading →

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#TBRChallenge – Blue Collar: Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart is one of those books I pre-ordered and then kept on my TBR for years afterward. Stewart is one of my all-time favorite fantasy writers, but he has gotten away from writing novels in recent … Continue reading →

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My July Reading Log

Posted on August 12, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction: Abandoned in Death by J. D. Robb is the fifty-fourth in that series, wow, and there are currently two more scheduled to follow. These are comfortingly repetitive despite being about sometimes truly gruesome serial murders, because the killer is … Continue reading →

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#TBRChallenge – Vintage: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Posted on July 20, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

On one of the few occasions when I met the late Ursula K. LeGuin, I asked if she would recommend me a book to read. She suggested Lolly Willowes: Or the Loving Huntsman by Sylvia Townsend Warner, published in 1926. … Continue reading →

Posted in sf/f, women | Tagged | 1 Comment

#TBRChallenge – Tales of Old: Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Posted on May 18, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson is set in New York City before the United States has entered World War Two; it seems to be an alternate history in subtle ways. In this world, people of color with mystical/magical … Continue reading →

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My April Reading Log

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Victoria Janssen

Fiction: Can’t Find My Way Home by Gwynne Garfinkle is a ghost story that’s also a period piece. Vividly set in mid-1970s New York City, it features Joanna Bergman, a young actress in a soap opera who’s developing an intense … Continue reading →

Posted in contemporary, fanfiction, glbtqia+, historical fiction, romance novels, sf/f | Tagged | 2 Comments