In a post-apocalyptic future, most people live in the icy wastes of what used to be Siberia. While on paper, trade should be regulated fairly, in reality there is a monopoly controlled by one ruthless man, Duncan Bane, and he wants Raina Bowen tortured and dead, eventually. Raina needs to deliver a shipment of grain to one of the major settlements, but needs forged documentation to drive on the ice road. Wizard, the man who was supposed to meet her with said documentation, instead gets […]
Scully Can Write!
I liked this book, a lot. I got the audio version from the library read by Scully herself. She’s very very good, which surprises none of us. This book takes place in the world, with involvement in Haiti and Tehran and Antarctica. The characters are diverse and Anderson carries their accents with skill and subtlety. They are believable, families worried about each other, teenagers who sound and behave like (brilliant) teenagers, world leaders who are also human beings, mysterious baddies who are not caricatures. The […]
A Finishing School of Covert *itchcraft and Social Wizardry
I had a harder time getting into this book as I have with other series buy the same author. I did eventually start to like the characters once they got to the school and some of the events leading up to the arrival were better explained. The encounter with flywaymen made little sense at first given that I had no idea what they were and the other characters hadn’t been especially well detailed at this early point. The explanation provided during the attack just didn’t […]
Keep Your Traitorous Tendrils Off My Impeccable Cravat
Flandry of Terra by Poul Anderson (1965, 291 pages) – I enjoyed this although I couldn’t quite decide if Mr. Anderson was being tongue-in-cheeky or creating a real space hero. The three separate novellas about the same character (each with its own conflict and resolution) describe a colorful hero. He’s an officer in the Terran Space Navy who’s a little full of himself. Since he single-handedly stops revolutions and conquers bad guys, perhaps he deserves his reputation. He knows the Terran Navy forces are too […]
Even Though You Have No Logical Reason to Be in This Meeting, Madam, Please Stay and Hear the Plot Unfold
Embassytown by China Mieville (2011, 345 pages, hardcover) – After finishing the “Book That Never Ends,” I needed something with a little meat and readability so I chose someone dependable (I really enjoyed Mieville’s earlier Scar). Embassytown, unlike Scar, is pure science fiction. It’s not enough – for me – for a writer to have an interesting concept. There also has to be someone I can relate to going through the adventure and experiencing it with me. China is very good at merging the concept beautifully […]
The Book That Never Ends
Debatable Space by Philip Palmer (2008, 533 pages) – Interesting. I won’t go so far as to say it actually succeeds, but this is an interesting concept. It’s really two stories – a pirate crew kidnaps the immortal (and still foxy) mother of the Supreme Dictator of the Universe and the story of how she went from a freckle-faced cherub to the mother of the Supreme Dictator of the Universe. Sounds pretty readable, right? It might be too much of a good thing because it […]
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