Category: Fiction Book Reviews

October 27, 2019

Cosmic Horror and Challenging Ableisms

Cosmic Horror and Challenging Ableisms  A review of Ada Hoffmann’s The Outside (Angry Robot, 2019). By Derek Newman-Stille   There aren’t enough narratives about autism by autistic people. This, and their powerful style of writing and brilliant science fiction, is why I keep coming back to the works of Ada Hoffmann with adoration. Hoffmann’sThe Outside, with its autistic, queer narrator, is...

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October 24, 2019

No More Magical Cures

No More Magical Cures A Review of Jamieson Wolf’s “The Descent” in Nothing Without Us edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson (Renaissance Press, 2019) By Derek Newman-Stille Jamieson Wolf’s “The Descent” explores a trope of disability that is often apparent in fantasy literature – the Magical Cure. Frequently, this trope is used because abled authors can’t imagine the...

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October 23, 2019

What About The Ageing Vampire?

What About The Ageing Vampire? A review of Carolyn Charron’s “Knit One, Purl Two” in Nothing Without Us edited by Cait Gordon and Talia C. Johnson (Renaissance, 2019). By Derek Newman-Stille There’s nothing that says ageing like a vampire, yet vampires are often a personification of eternal youth, so they present a conflicted image of age… and simultaneous youth. For...

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July 23, 2019

Secret Identities

Secret Identities A review of James Alan Gardner’s They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded (Tor, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille James Alan Gardner’s They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded, a sequel to All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault, continues his exploration of the superhero. Gardner focusses his narrative on the perspective of another of his superheroes, Jools, whose...

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July 5, 2019

Fever Dream

Fever Dream A review of Larissa Lai’s The Tiger Flu (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018) By Derek Newman-Stille Larissa Lai’s The Tiger Flu is a fever dream on paper, vivid and fantastical, and full of nightmares, which is perfect for a pandemic narrative. It is a surreal story, but it comments on issues of relevance to the real world. Set in...

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June 24, 2019

A Fantasy Trans Memoir

A Fantasy Trans Memoir A review of Kai Cheng Thom’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir (Metonymy Press, 2016). By Derek Newman-Stille Kai Cheng Thom decided to include the word “Memoir” in the title of her book Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir, yet she also cleverly weaves fantasy elements...

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June 8, 2019

The Teaching Rocks

The Teaching Rocks A review of Drew Hayden Taylor’s “Petropaths” in Take Us To Your Chief (Douglas &McIntyre, 2016) By Derek Newman-Stille Drew Hayden Taylor’s “Petropaths” is a tale of the ongoing nature of colonial violence, centred on the exploration of the way that this continued assault has created a generation of indigenous youth who are, as he suggests “stuck...

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June 5, 2019

Intertextual

Intertextual A review of Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer: Age of Doom Part 1 (Dark Horse, 2019) By Derek Newman-Stille Throughout the Black Hammer series, Jeff Lemire has been experimenting with intertextuality, playing with his knowledge of Golden Age comics while adding modern comic sensibilities and skepticism about the genre. In Black Hammer: Age of Doom, Lemire’s superheroes, who have been...

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May 28, 2019

Disrupting Some Tropes and Reinforcing Other Tropes

Disrupting Some Tropes and Reinforcing Other Tropes A review of Jeff Lemire’s The Sentry: Man of Two Worlds (Marvel Comics, 2018). By Derek Newman-Stille Superhero narratives tend to have clear boundaries between heroes and villains. They tend to play with the duality between civilian identity and hero identity, but tend to privilege the hero identity. Like most of his comics,...

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May 11, 2019

Flipped Worlds

Flipped Worlds A review of “Flip” (Markosia, Enterprises, 2018) edited by Jack Briglio and featuring work by Derek Kunsken, Wendy Muldon, Eleonora Dalla Rosa, Miguel Jorge, Hugh Rockwood, Alberto Massetti, Marcello Bondi, Francesco Della Santa, and Salvador’s Coppola. By Derek Newman-Stille The comic “Flip” offers a series of flashes through different worlds filled with different possibilities, inviting readers to turn...

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