The Stacks
All book reviews
623 honest reviews across fiction, non-fiction, mystery, sci-fi, romance, and more.
Showing 265-288 of 623
Summer at the Lake
by Andrew M. Greeley
An Andrew M. Greeley nostalgia novel. Late-50s Chicago Catholic summer-vacation romance reconstructed across decades. Late Greeley at his most autobiographical.
Undercurrents
by Frances Fyfield
A Frances Fyfield 1999 standalone. A young woman returns to the English coastal town of her summer-camp childhood. An old murder is back.
Let's Dance
by Frances Fyfield
A Frances Fyfield standalone. A young woman returning to her dementia-affected mother's seaside house and the secrets neither of them can quite name.
Tree Girl
by T. A. Barron
T. A. Barron's YA fantasy about a girl raised in a forest and the mystery of her origin. Slight, beautifully written, deeply Barron.
Cyberskin
by Paul Collins
A Paul Collins SF anthology. Australian-edited cyberpunk and near-future fiction. Less-canonical than Centaurus but worth tracking.
Mirage
by Matthew J. Costello
A Matthew J. Costello horror-thriller. Las Vegas hotel, a paranormal incident, and the kind of fast-moving 90s horror the form was producing in volume.
Area 51: The Grail
by Robert Doherty
A late Robert Doherty Area 51 sequel. Bob Mayer (writing as Doherty) running his ancient-mystery thriller machine.
Black Ice
by Colin Dunne
A Colin Dunne thriller set in Iceland. Quiet Irish-author intelligence work with the kind of cold-weather atmosphere the form rarely commits to.
Body Scissors
by Jerome Doolittle
The first Tim Lyon novel. Jerome Doolittle writing 1990 Washington crime fiction with a former-newspaperman protagonist. Sharp regional detail.
Atlantis
by Greg Donegan
The first Atlantis novel from Greg Donegan (Bob Mayer pseudonym). Special-forces-meets-alien-mystery thriller. Pulpy, propulsive, exactly what its readers want.
Spartan Gold
by Grant Blackwood
Grant Blackwood's first Fargo Adventures novel co-written with Clive Cussler. Treasure-hunting husband-and-wife protagonist team. Reliable Cussler-brand action.
Dark Futures
by Russell Blackford
Russell Blackford's first Terminator continuation novel. Australian SF philosopher writing media-tie-in with more seriousness than the form requires.
A World Called Solitude
by Stephen Goldin
Stephen Goldin's 1981 SF novel. A man alone on an abandoned colony world and the AI that has been his only companion. Quiet, moving, ahead of its time.
Murder Stalks The Wakely Family
by August Derleth
An August Derleth Judge Peck mystery. Quiet Sac Prairie Saga in detective form. Reliable regional crime.
Bone and Jewel Creatures
by Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear's 2010 fantasy novella. An aging Wizard, a feral child, and one of the most evocative North African-inspired settings in recent SFF.
Behind Closed Doors
by Elizabeth Haynes
Elizabeth Haynes's fourth novel. A Detective Lou Smith procedural about a years-old missing-person case opening back up. Slower than Human Remains, just as careful.
The Fame Thief
by Timothy Hallinan
The Fame Thief by Timothy Hallinan review. The 3rd Junior Bender LA comic-crime novel. A 1950s Hollywood blacklist mystery, an ensemble of nonagenarian Mafia, the series at its absolute peak.
The Cat's Pajamas
by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury's 2004 short story collection. Late Bradbury at his most elegiac and his most accessible. A small good book.
Bite
by Charlaine Harris
A Charlaine Harris paranormal romance anthology with Laurell K. Hamilton, MaryJanice Davidson, Angela Knight. Anchor authors for the subgenre at full strength.
Staring at the Light
by Frances Fyfield
A Frances Fyfield Helen West novel. A dental practice, a contested inheritance, and Fyfield writing the kind of carefully observed institutional novel the procedural form rarely allows.
White Smoke
by Andrew M. Greeley
Andrew M. Greeley writing a Vatican thriller about a Conclave. Greeley's priest-sociologist register applied to papal politics.
The Ancient One
by T. A. Barron
T. A. Barron's YA fantasy about an Oregon old-growth forest and a girl who travels back in time to defend it. Eco-fantasy that takes its environmental stakes seriously.
Karen Memory
by Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear's 2015 steampunk Western. A Pacific Northwest brothel, a young woman protagonist with the strongest first-person voice in recent SF, and one of the most enjoyable SF novels of its decade.
Sunborn
by Jeffrey A. Carver
The fourth Chaos Chronicles novel from Jeffrey A. Carver. SF that takes its actual science seriously while keeping its emotional center intact.