The second Annual Science Fiction Achievement Awards actually took place two years after the first at The Clevention in Cleveland, though history doesn’t record why the committee of SFCon in 1954 chose not to include the awards on their program. The awards this year were once again chosen by ballot, and once again there was only a single round of voting so no shortlist, though this time around the vote wasn’t just limited to attendees but was open to anyone who could get their hands on a ballot, a practice which continued through until 1959.
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Book Review: The Swords of Silence
The Swords of Silence by Shaun Curry
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
DISCLAIMER: I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest and unbiased review. My thanks to Harper Inspire and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity.
In the early years of the Tokugawa Shogunate all Christians were expelled from Japan. Those who remained, did so at the risk of torture and death. Father Joaquim Martinez, a Portuguese Jesuit, is one of those who chose to stay behind, spreading the word of the Lord. However, he can’t hide for ever and soon he finds himself fighting not just for his own life, but for the lives of the Arima villagers he has sworn to protect.
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Book Review: The Goblets Immortal
The Goblets Immortal by Beth Overmeyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
DISCLAIMER: I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest and unbiased review. My thanks to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity.
In a world where magic is a thing to be feared, Aidan Ingledark is one of those rare individuals known as the Blest, with the power to summon or dispel objects at will. On the run from the authorities he inadvertently finds himself getting wrapped up in a quest to locate and retrieve the mystical Goblets Immortal for the mage Meraude, who in return has promised to help Aidan locate the family he believes he himself dispelled years before. Joining him on his quest is Slaine, a cursed slave girl who seems to have a few secrets of her own.
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Book Review: Firewatching
Firewatching by Russ Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
DISCLAIMER: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publishers in return for an unbiased review. My thanks to Simon & Schuster UK and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity.
A body is found bricked up in the cellar of a derelict house and the evidence seems to link the macabre find to a missing persons case from years before. For DS Adam Tyler this initially appears to be a chance to claw back some respect from his colleagues in the South Yorkshire Police and rebuild his stagnating career. When he finds out he’s more intimately connected to the case than he could have known he’s forced to make a choice – declare his conflict of interest to his superiors or stick with the case to the end. But there’s someone watching from the shadows, a sinister observer with an even more intimate link to the murder and a disturbing obsession with fire.
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Book Review: The Temple House Vanishing
The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
DISCLAIMER: I received an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest and unbiased review. My thanks to Atlantic Books and NetGalley for giving me this opportunity.
Twenty-five years ago a teacher and a student disappeared from an elite girls’ boarding-school. The fate of these two remains a mystery until years later a journalist uncovers the tragic truth behind the last days of the missing girl, Louisa, and her relationship with both the missing teacher and her closest friend at the school, Victoria.
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The Demolished Man: A Hugo Retrospective
In 1953, the attendees and members of the eleventh World Science Fiction Convention (aka The 11th WorldCon, or Philcon II) were asked to do something they’d never done before: to vote for the writers, editors, artists and fans they felt had distinguished themselves in the past year with awards to be given at the First Annual Science Fiction Achievement Awards. And thus was born the spectacle we now know as the Hugo Awards.
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