February 4, 2020
Fun fact: This will actually be my second time reading this book. Why? Because the final book, Exile’s Throne, is on my 2020 Reading List and I need a refresher course. A lot happens in this book, but I couldn’t remember all the details or the character’s names. So I started fresh with The Empress Game; now we are here,…
January 16, 2020
Like a lot of us here at Speculative Chic, I went to Seton Hill University for their Creative Writing program, as did Rhonda Mason. When I heard she’d gotten one of her books published, I picked it up since I like to support my fellow graduates — plus it sounded pretty awesome. And let me tell you, Ms. Mason does…
January 10, 2020
After reading the first of John Scalzi’s Interdependency series, how could I not press on with the second book? I mean, literally everything connecting numerous human words is collapsing, which will leave them all stranded billions of light years from each other (aka just about everyone is going to die). So I kind of want to know what happens. Even…
January 2, 2020
The Collapsing Empire (2017) Written by: John Scalzi Genre: Science Fiction Pages: 336 (Kindle) Series: The Interdependency Publisher: Tor Books Why I Chose It: I received this book for free through Tor.com’s eBook of the Month Club and it’s been sitting in my digital library ever since. But I finally got to it, and I enjoy John Scalzi’s work, so I…
December 30, 2019
Every year, we invite our contributors to challenge themselves with the Resolution Project — a special event where our writers sift through all things speculative and settle on something worthy of personal conquest. The sky’s the limit when it comes to choices, whether it’s knocking through a back catalog, revisiting a popular franchise, or embarking on something totally new; whether…
December 27, 2019
There are lots of exciting things slated for 2020 release: the new Wonder Woman movie; the next Ghostbusters film; the long-awaited Black Widow stand-alone; the debut of new series Locke and Key… lots of major premieres and new seasons of returning favorites. But may we also suggest for you some other goodies that might be flying under your radar? Here are…
December 26, 2019
We got pumped; we ramped up; we were ready to go, and… well… then… Stuff happened. Or did not happen. Or did not happen how we wished them to. That’s the thing about disappointment — it’s our primary emotional response to expectations unmet — and boy, does it sting. What were we looking forward to that failed to deliver on its…
December 5, 2019
Pet (2019) Written by: Akwaeke Emezi Genre: Fantasy/Young Adult Pages: 204 (Paperback) Publisher: Random House Why I Chose It: We get a lot of Advance Reader Copies at the bookstore — this happened to be one of them. But if you dangle a book featuring a blood-summoned monster from a painting in front of me, I’m going to read it…
November 29, 2019
To Kill a Kingdom (2018) Written by: Alexandra Christo Genre: Fantasy Pages: 352 (Paperback) Publisher: Square Fish Why I Chose It: At this point almost everything I find to read I discover at work (the bookstore) first. Same goes for this one. Unfortunately at the time this one was due to be sent back to the publisher, but the tentacles…
November 28, 2019
‘Tis the season where holiday music invades your ear like a Ceti eel, heralding the annual shopping season for holiday gift-giving! While this time of year very much promotes giving for the sake of giving, we can’t overlook the fact that requesting is very much a part of it, too. For well over a hundred years, we’ve been encouraged to…