“Flying By the Seat of My Knickers” by Eliza Watson

Flying By the Seat of My Knickers Eliza Watson “Flying By the Seat of my Knickers” is part of the burgeoning genre of…I don’t know exactly what to call it…stories about hapless young women who have to turn their lives around by having adventures and finding love. It’s chick lit of a very specific sort. […]

“Where in Hard-Boiled City is Carmella Sanfrancisco?” by CB Archer

Where in Hard-Boiled City is Carmella Sanfrancisco? CB Archer Ahahahaha! I bet you thought this book would be hard-core x-rated, didn’t you? Well, you’d be wrong! In an unexpected plot twist, this latest installment of the Tales of Gentalia is completely sex-free! Followers of the series have come to expect a certain something from it, […]

“When Time is a River” by Susan Clayton-Goldner

When Time is a River Susan Clayton-Goldner In “When Time Is A River,” teenager Brandy wants to be an actress more than anything. But her dream may have been dashed before it was even formed: she has a noticeable scar on her cheek from a childhood accident. Now she’s going through plastic surgeries and trying […]

“Capsoul” by Alex Krasnov

Capsoul Alex Krasnov If you like numerology, this is the book for you. A mixture of science, science fiction, fantasy, and mysticism based on numerology, “Capsoul” is the story of a group of emigres from the former USSR to the US and Canada who design a project to create a kind of “immortality machine” that […]

“Afghan Tales” by Oleg Yermakov

In this collection of tales, in turns lyrical and brutal, Oleg Ermakov, probably Russia’s foremost writer on the Soviet war in Afghanistan, depicts the war from multiple points of view: a boy on a date a couple of days before he heads off to basic training, a raw recruit forced to commit an act he […]

“City Folk and Country Folk” by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya

In “City Folk and Country Folk,” not-particularly-rich minor gentry Erast Sergeyevich Ovcharov has returned to his home village to take a rest cure and drink whey. His own estate is not inhabitable, so he ends up renting a bathhouse from his neighbor, Nastasya Ivanovna Chulkova. This draws the both of them into a summer of […]

“Ave, Caesarion” by Deborah Davitt

What if, instead of dying, Julius Caesar and Cleopatra had gotten married and produced magical children? That is the premise of “Ave, Caesarion,” a prequel to the Edda-Earth saga, in which we find out how, instead of falling, Rome continued to rule for another two thousand years. If you enjoyed the Edda-Earth books, then “Ave, […]

“Betrayal at Iga” by Susan Spann

Hiro Hattori has a problem: he needs to find the murderer of an important guest ASAP. But the suspects are all people he doesn’t want to give up. Like his mother. Or his ex-lover. As time runs out, what is he going to do? “Betrayal at Iga” is set in 16th-century Japan, and is full […]

“Lives Collide” by Kristina Beck

A tragic car accident changes Lisa’s life forever. Just not in the way she thinks. She believes it has left her scarred, infertile, and doomed to be childless and alone. But she keeps crossing paths with the green-eyed boy who pulled her from the wreck. Is it fate? Meanwhile, James’s dream of being a surgeon […]

“The New Voices of Fantasy”

“The New Voices of Fantasy” is an eclectic mixture of diverse fantasy authors, featuring a multitude of subgenres in stories set around the globe. Although the short story format means that the worlds and cultures the authors have created appear only in snippet form, which is not normally my favorite way to experience fantasy, this […]

E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman

Fiction