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Showing posts from 2025

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Strange Horizons review of Leanne Su’s Peri Peri Paprika

Posted by Eric Hendel June 06, 2025

Absurdism Humor Science Fiction Space Opera + Updates

Absurdism Humor Science Fiction Space Opera Updates

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Strange Horizons review of Chris and Jen Sugden's High Vaultage

Posted by Eric Hendel February 22, 2025

Absurdism Alternate History Humor Steampunk + Updates

Absurdism Alternate History Humor Steampunk Updates

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Eric Hendel

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Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang (Review)

(Cover Designer: Kelli McAdams ) Jumpnauts is exactly the opposite of the sort of novel which I expected Hao Jingfang to write, initially in a bad way, but also ultimately in a good one. Hao's debut novel, Vagabonds , was an extraordinarily subtle work of science fiction. Taking the form of a slow-paced and contemplative narrative, that earlier book detailed the deceptively complex story of how two seemingly analogous characters from human settlements on Earth and Mars voyaged to one another's worlds, only to come away from the experience with wildly contradictory views not of the planets they have just visited, but instead their respective homes. Vagabonds represented a novel whose dense and intricate plot wove together the lives of multiple generations of individuals, all of whom struggled to navigate an enduring political and social conflict requiring they confront the weighty question of how utopian societies should define themselves. By contrast, Jumpnauts ...

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Review)

(Cover Designer: Tyler Comrie ) Yoko Ogawa's 1994 novel The Memory Police is unusual in part for how subtle the book's premise is. First translated into English in 2019 by Stephen Snyder, The Memory Police is ostensibly the story of a woman living under the rule of a totalitarian police state. There is a focus in this novel not only on the dehumanizing consequences of living in a dictatorship, but also on the quiet acts of rebellion that can be far more significant than they may outwardly seem. However, what makes Ogawa's approach to this material most unique is that, despite certainly being a book about characters who struggle to survive under the rule of an Orwellian government, it's never entirely clear to the reader how the oppressive force in this novel operates. For that matter, even in spite of the very real dangers that Ogawa's characters face over the course of this text, it's never clear to the reader whether or not this oppressive force which drive...

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (Review)

(Cover Artist: Ernst Haas) There's a way that Ursula Le Guin's 1971 novel The Lathe of Heaven is often described, and I want to start this review by talking about why this is a summary of this book which I disagree with. Generally, the way I've seen The Lathe of Heaven characterized is that it is the story of a man named George Orr, who believes that everything he dreams becomes real. Terrified of this power, George is ultimately assigned therapy with a psychiatrist named William Haber, who sets out to cure George of these (supposedly) delusional beliefs in his brain's ability to change the world. In time however Haber reveals himself to actually be a mad scientist with a god complex--a man obsessed with finding a way to manipulate the reality-bending power of George's dreams so as to remake the world in his own image. Soon, George realizes that he must do whatever he can to keep the power of his dreams from Haber's control, and in so doing protect the univ...

Archive

2025 2
- June 2025 1
  - Strange Horizons review of Leanne Su’s Peri Peri P...
- February 2025 1
  - Strange Horizons review of Chris and Jen Sugden's ...

2024 8
2023 7
2022 3
2021 4
2020 10
2019 8

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Labels

Science Fiction18
Dystopias17
Absurdism11
Literary Works10
Multiverse Stories10
Speculative Fiction10
Space Opera8
Fantasy7
Feminist Works7
Humor6

Climate Fiction5
Novellas5
Translations5
Young Adult5
Cyberpunk4
Magic Realism4
Horror3
Mysteries3
Short Fiction Anthologies3

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