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Blog | Eric Hendel

Personal blog devoted to long-form book reviews and criticism.

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Strange Horizons Review of Adam Oyebanji’s Braking Day

Posted by Eric Hendel August 20, 2022

Dystopias Science Fiction Space Opera Updates Young Adult

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Strange Horizons Review of David Bowles’s The Blue-Spangled Blue

Posted by Eric Hendel March 16, 2022

Dystopias Science Fiction Space Opera Speculative Fiction Updates

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Strange Horizons Review of Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland

Posted by Eric Hendel February 09, 2022

Feminist Works Horror Literary Works Speculative Fiction Updates

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Strange Horizons Review of Yudhanjaya Wijeratne’s The Salvage Crew

Posted by Eric Hendel December 31, 2021

Dystopias First Contact Stories Science Fiction Space Opera Updates

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Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel September 30, 2021

Feminist Works Literary Works Novellas Reviews Young Adult

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Strange Horizons Review of Tim Pratt’s Doors of Sleep

Posted by Eric Hendel August 17, 2021

Absurdism Multiverse Stories New Adult Speculative Fiction Updates

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Vagabonds by Hao Jingfang (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel May 31, 2021

Dystopias Feminist Works Reviews Science Fiction Translations

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This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel December 31, 2020

Literary Works Multiverse Stories Novellas Reviews Speculative Fiction

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A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel November 15, 2020

Absurdism First Contact Stories New Adult Reviews Science Fiction

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Strange Horizons Review of N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became

Posted by Eric Hendel September 15, 2020

Absurdism Contemporary Fantasy Magic Realism Multiverse Stories Updates

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An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel August 20, 2020

Absurdism First Contact Stories New Adult Reviews Science Fiction

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The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel May 30, 2020

Feminist Works Literary Works Magic Realism Reviews Translations

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Redshirts by John Scalzi (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel April 30, 2020

Humor Multiverse Stories Reviews Science Fiction Space Opera

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The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel March 27, 2020

Absurdism Alternate History Horror Humor Reviews

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Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel March 16, 2020

Feminist Works Literary Works Novellas Reviews Translations

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The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel February 18, 2020

Epic Fantasy Multiverse Stories Reviews Steampunk Young Adult

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Lock In by John Scalzi (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel January 21, 2020

Cyberpunk Dystopias Mysteries Reviews Science Fiction

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Arrival by Ted Chiang (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel December 31, 2019

First Contact Stories Literary Works Reviews Short Fiction Anthologies Speculative Fiction

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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel November 18, 2019

Climate Fiction Cyberpunk Dystopias Reviews Steampunk

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Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel October 31, 2019

Epic Fantasy Fantasy Feminist Works Literary Works Reviews

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Myst: The Book of Atrus by Rand and Robyn Miller with David Wingrove (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel September 25, 2019

Epic Fantasy Fantasy Multiverse Stories Reviews Speculative Fiction

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Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel August 30, 2019

Absurdism Contemporary Fantasy Fantasy Humor Reviews

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Word Puppets by Mary Robinette Kowal (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel August 15, 2019

Contemporary Fantasy Fantasy Reviews Science Fiction Short Fiction Anthologies

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Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel July 31, 2019

Climate Fiction Cyberpunk Dystopias Reviews Translations

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Alice Isn't Dead by Joseph Fink (Review)

Posted by Eric Hendel July 19, 2019

Absurdism Dystopias Horror Mysteries Reviews

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Eric Hendel

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Popular Posts

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...

Strange Horizons Review of Nikhil Singh’s Dakini Atoll

(Cover Artist: Elena Romenkova ) A review I wrote of Nikhil Singh's novel Dakini Atoll is currently up in the most recent edition of Strange Horizons . This book was a very complex and fascinating story that skips between several different interconnected narratives, all of which are ultimately woven together into a work exploring themes of mass media and the nature of human awareness. The main storyline follows an actress named Delilah Lex, who as the novel opens realizes she has become trapped within the simulated reality of the television program she currently stars in (a virtual TV show called " Good Morning Delilah! "). However, this surreal narrative is also interspersed with the experiences of Anita--a corporate agent working for a quasi-religious organization called "Angelinc." There is also a storyline following a friend of Delilah's--a movie director named Fortunato who unexpectedly becomes drawn into an investigation of a mysterious global plague,...

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 ...

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