Skip to main content 

Owing to the screen size of your device, you may obtain a better viewing experience by rotating your device a quarter-turn (to get the so-called “panorama” screen view).


Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works

  Science-fiction & fantasy literature: a critical list with discussions.

(click for menu)
You are here:  Home  »  Authors  »  Individual  »  Rick DeMarinis ( = this page)
(Click on any image above to see it at full size.)
You are here:  Home  »  Authors  »  Individual  »  Rick DeMarinis ( = this page)

You can get a site directory by clicking on the “hamburger” icon () in the upper right of this page.
Or you can search this site with Google (standard Google-search rules apply).
(Be aware that “sponsored” links to other sites will appear atop the actual results.)

Search term(s):


Welcome to the Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works web site!

You have apparently come to this page from a link on a search engine or another site. If this is your first visit here, I much recommend that you take a few minutes to look over the introductory material accessible via the red “Introductory” zone of the Site Menu available from the “hamburger” icon in the upper right of this (and every) page. An understanding of the purposes and principles of organization of this site will, I hope and believe, much augment your experience here, for this page and in general. You can simply click this link to get at the site front page, which, unsurprisingly, is the best place to start. Thank you for visiting.

Rick DeMarinis


Quick page jumps:



Standard Disclaimer:

This is a brief discussion of Rick DeMarinis and, of course, of some speculative-fiction books by DeMarinis.

This discussion and list does not necessarily include every book by DeMarinis: it includes only those books that I both know and like. Just as with the author list itself, omission of a particular item may mean I didn’t think highly enough of the omitted item, or it may simply mean that I have not yet sufficient familiarity with it. (In a very few cases, I have listed some books merely on the strength of my opinion of the author: all such books are clearly marked below, as throughout these lists, with a hash mark (#) before the title so you know what’s what.)

I don’t pretend that this discussion is a deep analysis. My intent is no more than to give you a rough idea of what kinds of tales DeMarinis tells, how those tales are usually told, and what makes them and DeMarinis worthy; in sum, to help you rank Rick DeMarinis (and the works by DeMarinis listed here) on your personal literary “to do” list.


A Few Words About Rick DeMarinis

Regrettably, I have not yet had an opportunity to write an essay on this author, but the “Other Resources” section below will lead you to some information about the “Notable Books” listed farther down this page.

Return to the page top. ↑


Other Rick DeMarinis Resources

Rick DeMarinis Resources on the Web

For an establishment-respected author, DeMarinis has relatively scant general (not book-specific) resources on the web. Of material not specific to particular books, first and foremost is the DeMarinis, Rick entry at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Also interesting is the Rick DeMarinis obituary in the Missoulian, a good short biography.

Beyond those are Rick DeMarinis, a short biographical page [archived copy], and Paul Ingram’s very brief but utile appreciation. Speaking of which, another brief but utile testimonial comes from Steve Almond at Field-Tested Books; perhaps DeMarinis inspires succinctness.

Decidedly not brief is the review essay “Divine Light” by Tom Grimes [archived copy], reviewing Borrowed Hearts; it gives some extended critical analysis. So does “We’re All Shockproof These Days”, Russell Banks’ review of The Coming Triumph of the Free World in The New York Times. The Times likes DeMarinis: other reviews from them include “Bottomless Pits” (of Borrowed Hearts), “I Can’t Tell You How Sad Life Is” (of The Year of the Zinc Penny), and “On a Scale From the Fantastical to the Mundane” (of The Voice of America).

Other one-book reviews available include: Sky Full of Sand from Rick Kleffel at The Agony Column, and another from the same hand of A Clod of Wayward Marl; and The Mortician’s Apprentice at Entertainment Weekly [archived copy]. From those, one must extract more general ideas of DeMarinis and his work.

(Incidentally, there is an annual Rick DeMarinis Short Story Award—of $1,200—given out by Cutthroat magazine.)

Return to the page top. ↑

Rick DeMarinis Resources in Print

A non-fiction book by, not about, DeMarinis is The Art & Craft of the Short Story. Its existence is in itself a sort of testimonial to the man’s, well, art and craft.

Return to the page top. ↑


Notable Science-Fiction and Fantasy Books by Rick DeMarinis **

Return to the page top. ↑




Disclaimers  |  Privacy Policy

owl logo This site is one of The Owlcroft Company family of web sites. Please click on the link (or the owl) to see a menu of our other diverse user-friendly, helpful sites.
owl logo Like all our sites, this one is hosted at the highly regarded Pair Networks, whom we strongly recommend—click the link to learn more. (To get 20% off on hosting fees if you move to Pair, use code pairref-FyXypEEk)

(Note: All Owlcroft systems run on Ubuntu Linux and we heartily recommend it to everyone—click on the link for more information).


All content copyright © 2024 The Owlcroft Company
(excepting quoted material, which is believed to be Fair Use).

This web page is strictly compliant with the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) HyperText Markup Language (HTML5) Protocol versionless “Living Standard” and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Cascading Style Sheets (CSS3) Protocol v3  — because we care about interoperability. Click on the logos below to test us!




This page was last modified on Sunday, 4 February 2024, at 5:32 pm Pacific Time.