Author Archives : Lane Robins

Clowders and Charm: A Review of Catfishing on CatNet


Catfishing on CatNet (2019) Written by: Naomi Kritzer Genre: YA Science Fiction Pages: 294 (Hardcover) Publisher: Tor Teen Why I Chose It: I read and really enjoyed Kritzer’s award-winning short story “More Cat Pictures, Please” and heard she was expanding that world of a kind, cat-loving, self-improvement-urging AI into a novel. My first thought was, “Huh, how’s that going to…

Read More »

Growing Uncertainty: A Review of Growing Things by Paul Tremblay


Growing Things and Other Stories (2019) Written by: Paul Tremblay Genre: Horror Pages: 352 (Hardcover) Publisher: William Morrow Why I Chose It: I really enjoyed both Disappearance at Devil’s Rock and A Head Full of Ghosts.  I thought this short story collection was bound to be interesting/creepy/provocative.  And my library had it. Love my public library!!! The premise: A masterful…

Read More »

Not Perfect but Pretty Great: A Review of K.A. Doore’s The Perfect Assassin


The Perfect Assassin (2019) Series: Chronicles of Ghadid, Book 1 Written by: K.A. Doore Genre: Fantasy Pages: 350 (Trade Paperback) Publisher: Tor Why I Chose It: I have a love-hate relationship with assassin stories, because on one hand, murder is bad! Assassins are not admirable people, right? On the other hand, fictional assassins are often fun to read, super-skilled, and…

Read More »

Everything Plus the Kitchen Sink: A Review of Dan Stout’s Titanshade


Titanshade (2019) Written by: Dan Stout Genre: Urban Fantasy Pages: 407 (Hardcover) Publisher: DAW Why I Chose It: Because Carter’s a disgraced human cop; because Ajax is a new-to-town Mollenkampi rookie cop; together they fight crime! I am a total sucker for that premise, as I believe I’ve mentioned before. Less flippantly, I picked this one up because it looked…

Read More »

Gentrification and Ghosts: A Review of The Agony House


The Agony House (2018) Written by: Cherie Priest Illustrated by: Tara O’Connor Genre: YA Horror Pages: 256 (Hardcover) Publisher: Scholastic Why I Chose It: It was suggested to me, either by BookBub or by my Amazon Kindle Daily Deals email. I can’t recall which. I do know that when Cherie Priest’s books cross my line of sight, I always stop…

Read More »

Book Review: Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett


Vigilance (2019) Written by: Robert Jackson Bennett Genre: Science Fiction Pages: 190 (Paperback) Publisher: Tor.com Why I Chose it: C’mon. Robert Jackson Bennett is an autoread for me, and this particular book? As writers, a lot of us struggle with terrible public events, feeling like we should be able to put words on the page to expose the awful truth…

Read More »

Complicated Company – The Black Company Resolution


The Black Company (1984) Written by: Glen Cook Genre: Dark Fantasy Pages: 319 (Mass market paperback) Series: Book 1 of The Chronicles of the Black Company Publisher: Tor Why I Chose It: So my 2019 Resolution was to revisit Glen Cook’s series The Chronicles of the Black Company, beginning with… well, The Black Company. As mentioned, I remember these books…

Read More »

Complicated Company: Resolution 2019


So this year’s resolution has some background to it. Way back when, a friend and I had two significant things in common—disposable income and a competitive drive to read all the things. We were constantly buying books and racing through them before shoving them at each other, or taunting each other with “This is soooo good and you have to…

Read More »