September 22, 2017
Welcome to the Speculative Chic Book Club! Each month, we invite you to join us in reading a book that will sometimes be picked beforehand and sometimes be voted on by you, our readers. We’re still working on the format, so following the review of the book and some starter questions, we invite you all to discuss your thoughts in…
July 27, 2017
The Boy on the Bridge (2017) Written by: M.R. Carey Genre: Post Apocalyptic Fiction Pages: 390 (Hardback) Publisher: Orbit Why I Chose It: Although M.R. Carey’s best-selling book The Girl With All the Gifts came out in 2014, I didn’t read it until this year. I thought it was a brilliant novel that combined genre and literary fiction into a…
June 7, 2017
This year, I resolved to see twelve new-to-me spec fic movies in a no-doubt vain attempt at catching up with popular culture. One movie per month, the results of watching said movie discussed at the beginning of the next month. So I made myself some rules: It must be spec-fic. For review here on Spec-Chic and for myself. I just…
March 24, 2017
The Mercy Journals (2016) Written by: Claudia Casper Genre: Post-apocalyptic fiction Pages: 231 (Paperback) Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press Why I Chose It: I had not heard of The Mercy Journals until Speculative Chic asked the contributors if we were willing to review the books nominated for the 2017 Philip K. Dick Award. I was so interested in the premise of…
September 27, 2016
We have a little less than one month until October 23 and the premiere of The Walking Dead’s seventh season! I enjoyed the Alexandria arc, but the last few episodes of the sixth season felt like Rick, Michonne and the rest of the gang were being moved around like chess pieces. I wasn’t fond of the horrible cliffhanger, either. But…
August 23, 2016
Welcome to Chain Reaction! Introducing a monthly column that will showcase three titles that have a common thread, theme, or plot device. I’ll take one known quantity and introduce two more along the same lines — something that made me think of another title, and then another. They might be recent; they might have been around for awhile; they might…
August 18, 2016
The Aeronaut’s Windlass (2015) Written by: Jim Butcher Genre: Steampunk Pages: 768 (Kindle) Series: Book One of The Cinder Spires Publisher: Roc Why I Chose It: As part of a Speculative Chic dare to review this year’s Hugo Nominees. And because my editor told me there were talking cats in this book. TALKING CATS! Premise: Since time immemorial, the Spires…