John Scalzi concludes the trilogy, started in Old Man’s War and continued in The Ghost Brigades, with this novel, which has been nominated for a 2008 Hugo.
Category Archives: Books
Novel Review: The Ghost Brigades
John Scalzi’s first sequel to Old Man’s War expands his universe and bests the first novel.
Thomas Michael Disch, 1940-2008
The author and poet, nominated several times for Hugo and Nebula awards, died on Friday, July 4.
Hugo Awards: Short Fiction
Votes for this year’s Hugo Awards must be received by next Monday. A lot of attention goes to the novels and dramatic presentations: here are some mini-reviews of the nominated short stories, and links to online postings of the stories themselves.
Novel Review: Old Man’s War
When asked by Ben Bova to explain the difference between a “critic” and a “reviewer,” Spider Robinson replied, “A book critic tells you whether or not it’s Art. A book reviewer tells you whether it’s any damn good.” I don’t know that I consider Old Man’s War art. For fans of military SF, however, it amounts in the balance to a good read. It garnered a Hugo nomination, established Scalzi’s name, and its most recent sequel has been nominated for this year’s Hugo.
Locus Award Winners
Winners have been announced for this year’s Locus Awards, which are presented to the top vote-getters of Locus magazine’s annual readers’ poll. A complete list of winners follows.
StarShipSofa Podcast becomes an SF Audio Magazine
scbickle writes, The StarShipSofa podcast has changed its show format to to become a weekly science fiction audio magazine. An additional show every Wednesday offers SF short stories from leading authors, articles, poetry and flash fiction.
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“Invincible” Hot Summer Read
rickyjames writes, My lunchtime USA Today has led me to Austin Grossman and his brilliant first novel called Soon I Will Be Invincible. Fly, do not run, to get your hands on this novel. It’s a fun read-it-at-the-beach superhero tale with surprising psychological depth, tailor-made for the Bureau 42 crowd… The paperback hits shelves today.
Robert Asprin 1946-2008
Robert Asprin, most famous for the “Myth” series of humorous fantasy novels, has passed away, according to his Web site.
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union
Wonder Boys became a movie; The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay took the Pulitzer Prize. Michael Chabon has followed these with an alternate-history mystery set in the noir world of the Alaskan shetls.
A few critics have expressed surprise that their darling would write a book that could be considered both SF and mystery, but the rest of us understand that Real WritersTM can and do write genre. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union has been nominated for and Edgar Award and the 2008 Hugo. A film by the Coen Brothers is in pre-production.