The prolific Robert J. Sawyer’s 2013 offering puts a hardboiled detective on Mars.
Category Archives: Books
Novel Review: Cloud Atlas
Some months ago, we reviewed the genre-spanning movie adaptation of Cloud Atlas. The film features some excellent moments, strong performances, and brilliant editing but, like many, I found it flawed—especially the two SF segments.
To use that oft-delivered phrase, the book is better.
Book Review: Hawkmoon – The Jewel in the Skull
This week I’m starting reviews of one of Michael Moorcock’s tales of the Eternal Champion, with part one of the Hawkmoon series – The Jewel in the Skull. Continue reading →
Book Review: Cities In Flight Part 2 – A Life For The Stars
This time I’m doing a written review of the sequel to a book that I did a video review of earlier – the second part of the Cities In Flight series, A Life For The Stars – now with actual flying cities! For those who are missing the video reviews, I’m embedding my video review at the bottom of the text review. Continue reading →
Novel Review: VN
Madeline Ashby has been kicking around SF all of her life, and she has published a number of stories. Her first novel, VN, concerns self-replicating androids in a near-future world.
Most SF fans know Asimov’s Laws of Robotics. Ashby wonders if such laws would be properly regarded as a form of slavery. Wait, what’s the origin of the term “robot?”
Novel Review: Ghost Story
Come and see the toys I left for you (448).
An exhausted man drives south. He has on board a reluctant passenger, a little girl. He ties her to himself when they sleep. He asks her questions she may or may not understand, questions about people who died, questions about the town he is fleeing.
He believes she is not what she appears to be.
We retreat into the past, into the ghost stories, where the answers to the mysteries raised by the introduction may be found.
NaNoWriMo 2012
Who wants in?
For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is short for “National Novel Writing Month.” The goal is to get people writing. Always wanted to write a book? November is your chance to do it. Here’s the kicker: It’s 50,000 in 30 days. 1667 words per day. No mean feat.
Summer Reading: The Shrine of the Siren Stone
We’ve reviewed recent and classic novels, noted graphic stories and Hugo-nominated prose fiction. For our final Summer Review, we look at Derwin Mak’s 2011 novel, which holds particular appeal for fans of anime and manga.
Summer Reading: “Leviathan Wakes”
The first book of the forthcoming Expanse series blends old-school Space Opera, current SF trends, and Summer Blockbuster characters and plotting. In short, it may be best thought of as SF Summer Reading.
Summer Reading: 2312
Kim Stanley Robinson has won nearly every coveted SF writing award, and remains best-known for his extraordinary Mars Trilogy. He claims his most recent book takes place in its own universe, but that universe looks a great deal like the Mars Trilogy’s, one hundred years after Blue Mars, three hundred after our time.