Herbert W. Franke at SF Ruminations
Here’s my joint SFT review with Joachim Boaz over at Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations, this time on Herbert W. Franke’s “Slum” (1970, tr. 1973). Check it out here!
Category Archives: review
Review: Lame Fate/Ugly Swans by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
translated by Maya Vinokour original publication (in Russian): 1989 (LF), 1972 (US) first English edition: 2020, Chicago Review Press grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library After reading the remarkable nested novel Lame Fate/Ugly Swans, I decided to make a list of the other Strugatsky works that I’ve read so
Review: Vampiric: Tales of Blood and Roses from Japan
Contents: “Introduction” by Raechel Dumas “A Cultural Dynasty of Beautiful Vampires: Japan’s acceptance, Modifications, and Adaptations of Vampires” by Shimokusu Masaya “Blue Lady” by Inoue Masahiko, tr. Neil Webb “Kingdom” by Asukabe Katsunori, tr. Laura Wolly Dominguez “The Stone Castle” by Kikuchi Hideyuki, tr. Jonathan Bunt “The One-Legged Woman” by Okamoto Kido, tr. Neil Webb
Izumi Suzuki at SF Ruminations
Here’s my joint-SFT review with Joachim Boaz over at Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations, this time on Izumi Suzuki’s “Terminal Boredom” (1984, trans. 2021). Check it out here!
Review: Artificial Truth by J. M. Lee
translated by Sean Lin Halbert original publication (in Korean): 2024 first English edition: 2025, Amazon Crossing 220 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library “On March 13, 2016, at 5:44 p.m., at the Four Seasons Hotel, Seoul, history happened.” This statement opens the “Author’s Note” at the end of
Review: The Thousand Year Beach by Tobi Hirotaka
translated by Matt Treyvaud original publication (in Japanese): 2002 first English edition: 2018, Haikasoru 352 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library **spoilers** “What does it mean to remember? What is a memory?” (79). Thus opens Chapter 3 of Tobi Hirotaka’s sf-horror novel The Thousand Year Beach (skillfully translated
Review: Crystal Silence by Fujisaki Shingo
translated by Kathleen Taji original publication (in Japanese): 1999 first English edition: 2012, Kurodahan Press 344 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library Crystal Silence is one of the many excellent works of Japanese sf in translation published by the now-sadly-shuttered Kurodahan Press. Sprawling, technically detailed, and ambitious, Fujisaki
Review: Kallocain by Karin Boye
translated by Gustav Lannestock original publication (in Swedish): 1940 first English edition: 1966, the University of Wisconsin Press 220 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library Kallocain is often grouped with Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (1920, tr. 1924), Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), and George Orwell’s 1984 (1949) because
Review: Diving Board by Tomás Downey
translated from the Spanish by Sarah Moses first English edition: 2025, Invisible Publishing 192 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library Some of the nineteen stories in Tomás Downey’s collection Diving Board are difficult to read–violence happens without warning and is described with a deadpan tone that’s downright disturbing.
Review: Blood for the Undying Throne by Sung-il Kim
(The Bleeding Empire #2) translated by Anton Hur original publication (in Korean): ? first English edition: 2025, Tor 384 pages grab a copy here or through your local independent bookstore or library Blood for the Undying Throne, the second in Sung-il Kim’s Bleeding Empire series, continues the story of provincial struggle against imperial domination. As
