With all that’s been said about Harper Lee’s new (second? First? Found? First draft?) book, Go Set a Watchman, it’s been hard to form a fully realized opinion. Even before I had opened my copy, social media exploded with denunciations. Still, with that depressing prelude–who wants to read something that is the subject of a […]
Archives for 2015
2015 Hugo Nominee: The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
2015-08-04 · by ·
China’s Cultural Revolution is in full swing. Intellectuals and scientists are denounced by their students for teachings contrary to the communist orthodoxy. The country is in turmoil. No one can be trusted as friends turn on each other, children on their parents, mentors on their students… Against this backdrop, Ye Wenjie, a young refugee from […]
2015 Hugo Nominee: Championship B’tok by Edward M. Lerner
2015-07-30 · by ·
It’s an intriguing and dangerous universe Edward M. Lerner’s Championship B’tok attempts to create. The Hugo nominated novelette opens on a universe that is shrunken and more interconnected than ours, complete with hostile alien races and interstellar computing networks connecting the disparate planets and races. The Snakes are a race that has been conquered after […]
2015 Hugo Nominee: The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
2015-07-22 · by ·
When the Emperor and all of his sons die in a tragic accident, Maia becomes the unexpected heir to the throne Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor. The son of a political marriage, Maia is half goblin, half elf, but more his mother’s son than fathers, and so is more goblin than elf. After years living […]
2015 Campbell Award Nominee | Flight of the Kikayon by Kary English
2015-07-06 · by ·
I enjoyed Kary English’s short story Totaled, but Flight of the Kikayon is a tale that knocks it out of the park. English has been nominated for the Campbell for best new author, and I’m inclined to think she should get serious consideration for it. Flight of the Kikayon was a finalist for Writers of […]
2015 Campbell Nominee | Murder World: Kaiju Dawn by Jason Cordova and Eric S. Brown
2015-07-05 · by ·
I hope Murder World: Kaiju Dawn is the worst that Jason Cordova and Eric S. Brown write, because if this is their best, and Cordova is up for the Campbell Award for best new writer, science fiction is seriously hurting for good new authors. Honestly. I read it because Cordova was nominated for the Campbell Award, but […]
Book Review | Mormon Rivals: The Romneys, the Huntsmans and the Pursuit of Power by Matt Canham and Thomas Burr
2015-07-05 · by ·
Mormon Rivals: The Romneys, the Huntsmans and the Pursuit of Power is an engrossing political drama, an in-depth look at the lives, families, history of and connections between two of the biggest names in politics to come out of Mormon ranks in a generation. Authors Matt Canham and Thomas Burr are masters of their subject, […]
Breathing new life into the stories of Ray Bradbury
2015-06-12 · by ·
While many consider Ray Bradbury a pioneer in science fiction writing, the author considered himself an observer of life. “All my life,” he said in an interview, “I’ve been running through the fields and picking up bright objects. I turn it over and say, ‘Hey, there’s a story.’” It’s this ability to present very real […]
Book Review: Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #3, Witches #1)
2015-06-11 · by ·
What more can be possibly said about the late and great Terry Pratchett? I’ve yet to open a book bearing his name that I do not like, that does not amuse and delight, and does not leave me thoughtful and wiser. Well, wiser at least in my own estimation. I’m sure Pratchett would have something […]
2015 Hugo Nominee: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
2015-06-10 · by ·
Ancillary Sword is the second in Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch series and the sequel to Ancillary Justice (my review here). Picking up chronologically almost immediately after the events of that book, it follows Breq, the once ship, but now the last remaining ancillary of her ship, as she is given command of a ship and […]
