[UPDATE 9.2.2014] A winner has been selected and will be getting an email shortly. Thanks to all who participated! One of the best opportunities to catch up with our favorite authors is Salt Lake Comic Con. This year, Attack of the Books! is an official blog, and you’ll see a post or two from […]
Meet Dave Butler, Steam Punk/Science Fiction/Fantasy Author Extraordinaire
2014-08-24 · by ·
Dave Butler, the author of steam punk novel City of the Saints, is one of the most interesting authors I’ve had the opportunity to meet in the recent past. And, probably, the less than recent past, as well. I first ran into Dave Butler when he sat on a panel about J.R.R. Tolkien at Salt Lake […]
Science Fiction as the Best Social Fiction of Our Time: The Chaplain’s War by Brad Torgersen
2014-08-20 · by ·
Author Doris Lessing once noted that “That function of a writer is to raise questions not find answers.” A Nobel Prize winner, Lessing famously responded to a critic of her Canopus in Argos series–a work of science fiction, in contrast to what critics considered her more serious literature–by saying: “What they didn’t realize was that […]
What Good Science Fiction Looks Like: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
2014-08-13 · by ·
Vernor Vinge is brilliant and his A Fire Upon The Deep has got everything that really good science fiction should have. In his Zones of Thought universe, Vinge has divided the Milky Way galaxy into zones in which technology, thought, and intelligence increases the further you move from the galactic core. These zones–the “Unthinking Depths,” […]
Book Review | Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac
2014-08-04 · by ·
I have no idea where I found Killer of Enemies. Something about the title caught my attention, I think, but by the time I had picked it up (from the library) I had already forgotten why. Somehow, though, I decided to read it, anyway. Despite a title that probably should have died in marketing (as […]
Hugo Nominee: The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal
2014-07-30 · by ·
One of the podcasts I listen to in my spare time (or rather, while I’m mowing the lawn or doing laundry or in the car, because really: who has spare time?) is Writing Excuses, which includes Mary Robinette Kowal. She is the author of the Glamourist Histories, which I hear is something like Pride and […]
Andy Weir’s The Martian Should Get a Hugo Nomination
2014-07-14 · by ·
If Andy Weir isn’t up for the Hugo next year, then scifi fandom doesn’t deserve good fiction anymore, because The Martian is pure awesome sauce. Left behind on Mars after a freak dust storm puts a hole in his suit and buries him, Mark Watney–astronaut, biologist, engineer–knows that the odds are against him returning back to Earth […]
A Two Minute Review: Nation by Terry Pratchett
2014-07-08 · by ·
I’ve never made a secret about my love of Terry Pratchett‘s writing. In the lottery of picking a good novel, choosing one with Pratchett’s name on the cover dramatically increases the odds of winning. Nation is no exception. Title: Nation Author: Terry Pratchett Genre: Young Adult – Fantasy Publisher: HarperCollins Release Date: October 6, 2009 Format: Audio Pages: 396 […]
David Farland Nails It: Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing
2014-07-07 · by ·
Writing about a book on writing is perhaps an odd challenge. On the one hand, I read the book because I wanted to become a better writer. On the other hand, I’m reviewing the book, telling where the author (of a book on writing, if you recall) has succeeded or failed at their attempt. Fortunately, […]
Book Review | Guy Stuff in the Scriptures by Mike Winder
2014-07-06 · by ·
And now, something completely different from my typical reviews… Mike Winder is a friend, so when he asked if I would take a look at his newest book (he’s written several, including Presidents & Prophets. The Story of America’s Presidents and the LDS Church and When the White House Comes to Zion), I was more […]
