Literary Fiction
Literary Fiction is a sub genre that attempts to define serious fiction, work which has claims to literary merit and focuses on style, psychological depth, and character over plot or narrative.
Books Reviewed
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![The Cottingley CuckooA J Elwood]()
HorrorFairies are not real. If they were we would have more evidence of them than a suspect looking photo taken by a couple of Victorian School Girls. However, Fairies are just brighter than you think. Why would they risk being seen by humans who have in recent years proven to have a poor track...
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![Spells for ForgettingAdrienne Young]()
FantasyHaving grown up in a village, life there had its pros and its cons. There is a real sense of community, and everyone knows each other. Great, but also not so great. Any small incident can become gossip, no matter how benign, so I can only imagine what would happen should a fire break out and a body...
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![The Midnight TimetableBora Chung]()
HorrorI have been lucky to work in some normal places in my life, but even I have been placed in spooky situations. Working late, I would walk home through the woods known as The Wilderness. Could there be a ghoul or a monster waiting for me behind a tree? I am too cynical to think so, but I could imagine...
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![One Eye Opened In That Other PlaceChristi Nogle]()
Not all authors write short fiction and those that do, do not always have enough to fill a complete collection, never mind several. Christi Nogle is a talented short story writer as their previous collections have already shown. One Eye Opened in That Other Place is one of the trickier collections t...
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![Expect Me TomorrowChristopher Priest]()
Science FictionI am at an age where I genuinely believe that Science Fiction is the best genre there is and I have read enough books of all types to have developed this opinion. I love it because it can be so many different things. Space opera to speculative fiction. A Sci Fi book can also be a riddle wrapped in a...
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![The Invention of SoundChuck Palahniuk]()
HorrorSound can be powerful, get the tone right or the volume loud enough and you can cause real damage. There are skyscrapers that have been buil t that hum when the wind perfectly hits the building t o make it vibrate . The worse thing that happens here is an annoying sound when the wind blows in t...
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![SpoonbendersDaryl Gregory]()
FantasySpoonbenders by Daryl Gregory hasn't even been released at the time of writing and it's already been picked up by Paramount TV. It's the authors first foray into literary speculative fiction and follows the Amazing Telemachus Family. Back in the 1970's they acheived widespread fame for their magic a...
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![Oh God, the Sun GoesDavid Connor]()
General FictionGrowing up in Britain it can seem during certain times of the year that the sun has disappeared, but we all know it is still there, just behind many rain clouds in the few daylight hours of the winter. It would be a hugely different thing if the sun did disappear, for one, life on the planet would s...
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![All My ColorsDavid Quantick]()
HorrorThere is no such thing as déjà vu, it is just your mind failing to process things properly. Even so, one day I was reading a book and was struck with a fearful sense of déjà vu. I could almost see what was going to happen next, it was unsettling. Was this a supernatural event? Had I gained super pow...
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![GuillotineDelilah S. Dawson]()
HorrorThere are enough stories escaping from Private Islands that makes me think that the rich do not think there are consequences for their actions. What happens on the island stays on the island. With luck, it may just be a celebrity marriage, but on the other hand it could be some of the darkest moment...
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![A Strange and Brilliant LightEli Lee]()
Science FictionArtificial intelligence is an exciting field that could help enrich the lives of most people on the planet from simple things like shopping to making life more inclusive for those with disabilities. AI will also come with a human cost. Many of the jobs that we do today could be redundant in twenty y...
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![The Death I Gave HimEm X. Liu]()
Science FictionShakespeare plays have been around for a long time, and you do not need to do a straight adaptation. Many of the terms used in the plays have entered the common vernacular and the storylines can be traced throughout modern film and television. I don’t recall Romeo or Juliet breaking out into song, b...
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![Shark HeartEmily Habeck]()
Science FictionIf I have said it once, I have it said a thousand times, science fiction is the best genre as it is so wide reaching. Stories can be grandiose, epic Space Operas with multiple characters on several planets. Or, stories can be personal affairs, titbits of speculative fiction that tweaks our own reali...
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![The Glass BoxJ Michael Straczynski]()
General FictionSome of the best speculative fiction starts with an idea that is not far removed from the normal, a simple nudge to reality can lead to many places. In the case of J. Michael Straczynski’s The Glass Box , this place is a psychiatric hospital. The reason for being sent there? New government legislati...
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![The PassengersJohn Marrs]()
Science FictionCall me old fashioned, I am a little scared of the future. This is a sentiment that will hit many of us eventually. What is wrong with the way technology works right now? Do I really need to talk to my speakers or plug myself into the Matrix just to order a pizza? The idea of getting behind the whee...
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![Birds in the Black WaterKodie Van Dusen]()
HorrorThe mind is a powerful tool. It can make a person do spectacular things but can also be their undoing. A trauma earlier in life can impact your day to day living. Perhaps talking to someone would help, be it a friend or a professional? Neviah is a counsellor who has a unique way of unpicking people’...
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![AwakenedLaura Elliott]()
Science FictionScience has taken humans to amazing places, prolonged our lives, made living better, but it has also created great harm. Have some diseases been developed in a lab then released, on purpose or by accident? Perhaps legitimate research led to tragic mistakes. In the world of Laura Elliott’s Awakened ,...
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![The Fan Who Knew Too MuchNev Fountain]()
General FictionCozy crime comes in all sizes, but it still has an odd name. The characters may be eccentric, the setting twee, but when it comes down to it, there is still a dead person lying on the carpet. Marple had her village with its higher crime rate than Gotham, Poirot had various summer vacation spots, Jes...
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![Folk HorrorPaul Kane]()
HorrorThere is an art to the short story, and I can say from experience that Flame Tree Press have gotten it down. They have produced many excellent short story collections, and their new venture is the Beyond & Within series. In many ways these books are the same as their larger collections, handpicked,...
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![Beyond the Burn LinePaul McAuley]()
Science FictionScience fiction is a brilliant tool for pondering what happens after the inevitable fall of humans. There is only so long that the Earth can sustain us, but that does not mean that other civilisations may not develop after. Beyond the Burn Line by Paul McAuley is a Sci Fi mystery told from the persp...
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![The Lonely LandsRamsey Campbell]()
HorrorAs long as someone remembers a loved one, they are never truly gone. This could be done by visiting their final resting place or a special location that you used to go to together. It could even be a keepsake that reminds you of them. Looking at the object you can almost see their smile or hear thei...
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![Love BitesRy Herman]()
HorrorThe best thing about genre fiction is that it provides such a wide array of ideas. Take the concept of a vampire novel. You may immediately think of gothic buildings and lace, but you could easily read a modern vampire novel that is violent and full of action. Love Bites by Ry Herman goes in a...
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![We Are SatellitesSarah Pinsker]()
Science FictionOf the many things that the pandemic has taught us, it is that we can work well online. I have completed projects online with never meeting my team or the stakeholders in person. What it has also taught me us is about Digital Poverty. Although I may have been happy to work in the kitchen, what about...
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![The BewitchingSilvia Moreno-Garcia]()
HorrorI enjoy reading about the occult in contrasting times in history. If someone came up to a modern person and said there was a witch in the woods stealing children, they would raise an eyebrow and swiftly walk in the opposite direction. A couple of hundred years earlier around the same woods the react...
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![Coup de GraceSofia Ajram]()
Science FictionPeople read for all sorts of reasons. I read to escape and have fun, my preference is for high action and laughs, but I understand that some people like to be challenged by their reading. This could be a complex Space Opera, or a piece of literature that tackles the life of a downtrodden mother in 1...
Book of the month
