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, […]
Read more "“Where in Hard-Boiled City is Carmella Sanfrancisco?” by CB Archer"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 […]
Read more "“Afghan Tales” by Oleg Yermakov"“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 […]
Read more "“The New Voices of Fantasy”"When teaching a survey class of Russian literature, one of the more vexing questions is which text to pick. You want to give students an idea of the breadth and richness of Russian literature, but not overwhelm them with impossible page counts. Of course they SHOULD read “And Quiet Flows the Don,” “Life and Fate,” […]
Read more "“50 Writers: An Anthology of 20th-Century Russian Short Stories”"***Okay, I need to start out with a disclaimer! As a representative of higher education, my official position is that I do NOT approve of any of the action in this book! End of disclaimer*** Ian Walker is a black gay science and math nerd who has two problems sullying his undergraduate idyll: He and […]
Read more "“Slime Pop! Saga” by CB Archer"Iceland is one of those romantic destinations that you hear a lot about, but how often do you actually get to experience Icelandic culture? For all its popularity as a tourist spot, there’s very little Icelandic literature available to the average reader; so little, in fact, that I went into this collection, my first foray […]
Read more "“Out of the Blue: New Short Fiction from Iceland”"Meeting with My Brother (Weatherhead Books on Asia) Korea is divided and families are torn apart. What would it really be like to finally find the family you’ve never met? Would there be any common ground, or are the divisions between the two countries two great even for blood to overcome? Such are the questions […]
Read more "“Meeting with My Brother” by Yi Mun-Yol"Elite Fighter II – Quickie: Qui-Mu’s Tale (Tales of Gentalia Book 8) Oh goodness! It’s hard to pick a favorite amongst the zany Tales of Gentalia, but “Elite Fighter II” is awfully good. It relies in part on in-jokes and cameos from the other Tales and the Annals, so if you haven’t read those, you […]
Read more "“Elite Fighter II–Quickie: Qui-Mu’s Tale” by CB Archer"I Am a Chechen! In “I am a Chechen!” German Sadulaev pulls together a set of stories, based heavily on his own biographical experiences, about the Chechen conflicts. Fragmentary, lyrical, in turns desperate and magical, and often non-linear, this collection follows in the tradition of Russian writers such as Lermontov and Babel, taking bare biography […]
Read more "“I Am a Chechen!” by German Sadulaev"Lilyth – Book 1 (The Shadow Spirits Paradox) Lilyth has lost her mother and is being raised by her grandparents, but she is haunted by dreams of the flood that took her mother away. Her village is now dwindling, and the men that are left are being drafted to fight a shadow that is menacing […]
Read more "“Lilyth” by Tiyana Angel"
E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman 