SF | Los Angeles Review of Books

SF

"The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it." — Frank Herbert

We’re All Dürt Würkers: Grady Hendrix’s Heavy Metal Horror
Grady Hendrix’s “We Sold Our Souls” pokes subtle fun at heavy metal and its self-seriousness, but also embraces that seriousness as a platform for critique.
Sean GuynesJan 9, 2019
- SF
Hard Time: On Joyce Carol Oates’s “Hazards of Time Travel”
Alexander C. Kafka ventures through Joyce Carol Oates's latest novel.
Alexander C. KafkaDec 17, 2018
- Fiction
- SF
Little Book with Big Ambitions: Rita Indiana’s “Tentacle”
Rita Indiana's "Tentacle" takes on environmental disaster, queer politics, race relations, and the legacy of empire in a brief 160 pages.
Ellen JonesDec 13, 2018
Horror in Revision: On the Contemporary Gothic
Adam Fales on Ahmed Saadawi’s “Frankenstein in Baghdad,” Sarah Perry’s “Melmoth,” and Chase Berggrun’s “R E D” — emissaries of the “contemporary Gothic.”
Adam FalesDec 1, 2018
The Craft Is All the Same: A Conversation with Victor LaValle
Ayize Jama-Everett interviews Victor LaValle about horror and diversity.
Ayize Jama-EverettNov 22, 2018
- Fiction
- SF
“We Are Looking in a Mirror”: Ramsey Campbell Curates the History of Horror
Surveying the history of horror fiction.
Rob LathamNov 4, 2018
- SF
Blood Suckers
On “A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising” by Raymond A. Villareal.
Désirée ZamoranoOct 31, 2018
- Noir
- SF
Tade Thompson’s “Rosewater” — An Alien Invasion That “Grows On You”
Tade Thompson’s “Rosewater” is a hard-boiled alien invasion novel that investigates the perils and opportunities of inescapable networked connection.
Jessica FitzPatrickOct 27, 2018
- Around the World
- SF
Revising Lovecraft: The Mutant Mythos
The mutant legacy of H. P. Lovecraft, as the Cthulhu mythos spawns ever more exotic, challenging revisions.
Paul StJohn MackintoshOct 17, 2018
- SF
Tales of Monstrous Women: “The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter” and “European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman” by Theodora Goss
While delivering two rollicking tales of adventure, Theodora Goss also has something important to say about women and monsters.
Ilana TeitelbaumOct 13, 2018
- SF
Escaping from Shadow: Monte Cook’s “Invisible Sun”
Surrealism versus escapism in a new roleplaying game.
David M. HigginsSep 22, 2018
- SF
Catalonia in Peril: On Manuel de Pedrolo’s “Typescript of the Second Origin”
Manuel de Pedrolo's "Typescript of the Second Origin" is a novel both born from and about politics: in particular, the politics of identity.
Dale KnickerbockerSep 15, 2018