Blog Archives

How to defeat a Demon King? Who is the Cahena? How do you rebuild a civilization in a magical world, or in a post-nuclear wasteland? The answers lay in this week’s new releases. Cahena: A Dream of the Past – Manly Wade Wellman The brave and beautiful warrior queen known as the Cahena was believed […]

The Cirsova Fall 2020 Special has arrived, just in time for Halloween, with a new bundle of strange yet thrilling adventures, daring suspense, and even a horror story or two. To editor P. Alexander’s immense credit, each one of the fifteen tales is worthy of a week’s discussion covering both the stylistic and thematic choices. More […]

Combat mecha, relic hunting assassins, and mysterious thieves lead this week’s new releases. Cold Hearted (Yancy Lazarus #2) – James Hunter A deadly Russian necromancer has just escaped his prison. His first day out could be Yancy Lazarus’s last. Yancy Lazarus just wants to be left alone. He wants to play his blues music, smoke […]

As the air chills and the leaves turn, and the lengthening shadows of Halloween creep across the fields, it is time again for the newest issue of Cirsova. Leading off the 2020 Fall Special is Mark Mellon’s “Melkart the Castaway”, a tale of wine-dark seas and of the men whom legend would turn into gods. […]

Vengeful mummies, computerized magi, and nightmare men kick off this week’s new releases. Awaken Online: Inferno (Awaken Online: Tarot #3) – Travis Bagwell A crippling wound. A war looming on the horizon. A demon king to kill. Finn and his companions barely escaped their encounter with Bilel. But not without a cost – including the […]

Can you say, “Refuge in Audacity”? Not that I expected anything less from J. Manfred Weichsel, especially when he’s expanding “Alter-Ego” from his short story collection, Going Native. And in some ways, that makes reviewing this difficult. See, I’m so far away from the audience for this that it’s not that I don’t appreciate the schlocky Skinnemax […]

Magical schools, interstellar feuds, paranormal fixers, and superheroine team-ups shine in this week’s new releases. Badger Company (The Torashad Wars #1) – Eric T. Knight and Dylan Knight Only the insane or the truly desperate sign up to fight in the Torashad War… For Badger Company, a motley group of misfit mercenaries, there simply aren’t […]

The tumult of recent events have fostered a desire to read more classic American historical fiction. To remember the stories we once told about ourselves instead of those others tell us we must be, at a time when all sides tell us to be anything other than what we are. To learn once more of […]

Space truckers, murderhobos, Hell invaders, and the Dragon Spooker fill this week’s new releases.. The Godblade – J. Christopher Tarpley The warrior-smith Rænon, after witnessing the return of Brakur the Insane God, has returned to his homeland in Aelbrond. Now he must seek the tomb of the dead god Farick for the remains he needs […]

The new releases chosen for this week’s review both underperformed enough that an honest review would be uncomfortably close to a roast. Since I am still halfway through the classic Revolutionary War novel Rabble in Arms, which I intend to review next week, here are a couple reviews of older SFF books from the Castalia […]