Category: Reviews

Locus Review #1

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Books, Reviews, The Silverberg BusinessLeave a comment
Photo of my publisher‘s copy of the issue.

Gary K. Wolf’s review of The Silverberg Business from the August issue of Locus magazine is now online.

Locus is a combination trade journal and fanzine for the fantasy/horror/science fiction community. It presents publishing industry news, personal items, convention reports, book and magazine reviews, lengthy interviews, etc.

I renewed my subscription a couple of years ago, after letting it lapse for many years. Even without a subscription, I was able to read reviews online. Book reviews run in the monthly print (or e-book) edition and later are added to their website, for free.

At first, I subscribed to the print edition but switched to e-book. Print is more convenient, for me, a non-smart phone non-e-reading device person, but I would rather not have all the paper piles.

I hadn’t realized until recently that the magazine is having difficulties. The editor, Liza Groen Trombi, explains the situation in more detail than I can here, in her editorials from July and August.

If you go to the Locus website, to read the occasional review or obituary, consider making the occasional contribution to help keep the place going.

Below are quotes from one of Trombi‘s editorials, with more information on how to help.

If you have the means, please consider making a charitable contribution to Locus this year, whether a one-time or monthly contribution, we really want to keep making the magazine, and we are under the gun right now. We also have a Locus Legacy Society for people who would like to name Locus Science Fiction Foundation in their will, you can find out more information about that on our donate page.

Subscribe, or renew your subscription, today.

Please consider donating to the Locus Science Fiction Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Donations support Locus magazine as well as a variety of related SFnal projects. For more information, and to make donations through Paypal, please visit our website.

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First Undiscovered Territories Review

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Books, Reviews, Undiscovered Territories2 Comments

Publisher’s Weekly has some things to say, some good, some not, which is what I would expect from a collection that has a lot of stylistic variety. Collections can’t please everyone. For example: “Weaker pieces rely on repetitive motifs and uncanny concepts stretched too-thin” but “The strongest entries allow Wexler’s accomplished prose ample elbow room.” I don’t agree with the part about weaker pieces, yet, obviously the reviewer is correct on the praising bits. Full review here.

Chicago Center for Literature and Photography List

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn Reviews, The Painting and the City4 Comments

I’m pleased to find out that The Painting and the City is on the list Best Experimental Novels for 2009 at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography web site. And also pleased that The Babylonian Trilogy is on the list too.

I don’t think of my novel as experimental, but I’m glad to see someone notice it. He says: “One of my favorite genre authors out there right now, and it’s a shame that he’s not as well-known yet as many of his peers.”

I’m unfamiliar with most of the other authors but will have to look for them.

Springdale Review

On By Robert Freeman WexlerIn In Springdale Town, ReviewsLeave a comment

And in the googling oneself department…a new-to-me review of In Springdale Town from 2004, in Issue #269 of the  journal of the SFRA (Science Fiction Research Association), available as a pdf.

From Michael Levy’s wrap-up of some small press publications:

“Robert Freeman Wexler’s quietly effective In Springdale Town from PS Publishing, concerns a peaceful New England village with a dark secret. The tale is beautifully written and reminded me a bit of the work of Elizabeth Hand. It received a rather odd mixed review in The NY Review of SF earlier this year which it didn’t really deserve, largely, I think, because the reviewer was offended by Lucius Shepard’s somewhat strange introduction.”