Category Archives: Small Press Book Reviews

Scylla and Charybdis by Lindsey Duncan (Kristell Ink) Four generations ago a genetically-engineered disease that is only transmitted by human males,  Y-poisoning, caused widespread death and anarchy, and destroyed Earth. To escape that, a group of women set up a … Continue reading →

The Amiestrin Gambit (The King’s Daughter, Book 1) by J. Kathleen Cheney (Dream Palace Press)   The book opens with a ranking officer who is also a seer playing chess with the young man Llelas, who came to find out … Continue reading →

Walls and Wonders by S. R. Algernon (ReAnimus Press) ReAnimus Press is a small press publisher that brings back great books whose rights have reverted to authors. S.R. Algernon’s short story collection is divided into four parts: Calling Out, Breaking … Continue reading →

Guardians of Evion: Destiny by  Evelinn Enoksen (Kristell Ink) The author of this book is not merely a writer but also an artist and it shows: I very much appreciated the unshaded, gothic-gray illustration; it was quaint, precisely-detailed and lovely. … Continue reading →

Born to the Blade (series) by Marie Brennan, Cassandra Khaw,  Michael Underwood, and Malka Older  (Serial Box) This 11-episode series (season 1) is set in an interesting world of floating islands in the sky where noble classes rule. Below these … Continue reading →

Markswoman by Rati Mehrotra (Harper Voyager) Abyss & Apex only reviews small press publishers, and this book was from a major publisher. But Rati Mehrotha is an A&A author (“Hatyasin”) and I read this. So please follow this link to … Continue reading →

The Experience Arcade and other stories by James Van Pelt (Fairwood Press) Jim Van Pelt is both a storyteller and a teacher, so it’s fitting that each story in this entire collection has a short preface, and a short afterword … Continue reading →

Original (The Horn, Book 2) by J. Kathleen Cheney This worthy sequel to Oathbreaker (A&A’s review here), starts where Dalyan the outsider and Amal  left off: with Dalyan recovering from being shocked to death, and then re-shocked to life. Amal … Continue reading →

Overseer (The Horn, Book 3) J. Kathleen Cheney (EOP Press) In this worth sequel to Oathbreaker and Original, Dalyan and Amal deal with more infiltrators from Cince. Foremost of those is Aulis an older man who is a version of the same original … Continue reading →

CYPULCHRE by Joseph MacKinnon (Guy Faux Books) I was not the target audience for this book. The main character of CYPLUCHRE, Dr. Paul Sheffield, is the quintessential mad scientist. Never mind that his madness has perfectly good reasons. He’s living in … Continue reading →