In The Night Wood
Hardcover | Kindle
By Dale Bailey
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Release Date: October 9, 2018

With his marriage falling apart due to a series of tragic events, Charles Hayden – a literary scholar – and his wife Erin take a trip to Yorkshire, England to stay at the family estate of the 19th century children’s author, Caedmon Hollow. Hollow’s only book, In The Night Wood, is the subject of Charles’ research and a way to hopefully turn his recent misfortunes around; however, as secrets regarding Hollow’s past begin to reveal themselves, and small-town life threatens to place Charles in a vicious, repetition of the past, the veil between reality and fantasy becomes unclear in the most haunting of ways.

Wow! That was the exact exclamation I used out loud when finishing In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey, and the feeling remains the same 24 hours later while writing this review.

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017
The Best American Series
Paperback | Kindle
Edited By Charles Yu and John Joseph Adams
Publisher: Mariner Books
Release Date: October 3, 2017

If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times: I love anthologies for the sheer fact that I get to preview a plethora of authors, some new and some not so much. Where else but in a compilation like this will you find so much talent in one spot without literally hanging out in a bookstore all day (I’m looking at you old Waldenbooks customers, folks)? That is precisely what The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 will give you. So anyway, I’m going to drop a few names, talk about a few stories, and make you want to run out and grab a copy of this. All in one little review. Are you ready? Okay, here we go!

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016
Paperback | Kindle
Edited by Karen Joy Fowler
Series Edited by John Joseph Adams
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
Release Date: October 4, 2016

Short story compilations are by and large a collection of genre-focused tales that are meant to sell books. In may cases there are a handful of well known authors that are there to create enthusiasm for the book and increase sales. In the case of The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016, it’s a bit different. Chances are that you have not heard of many of these writers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Many of these voices are fresh and they are what we might call the up and coming writers of tomorrow, though some are obviously known, such as Salman Rushdie and Ted Chiang. But any time you get a chance to see someone rise through the ranks to success, it’s a beautiful thing.