By Fran Wilde Once upon a time (cough, August 6, 2013, actually), Tor.com published “I Hate Boats,” by Carl Engle-Laird. Carl’s gone on to brilliant things, but I still want to argue with him about the post, and especially this sentence in particular: “Whenever my beloved protagonists get on a boat, I groan, put the […]
Read More It’s All in the Rigging: 9 of the Best Boats in FantasyThe Giver by Lois Lowry My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read for the Women of Genre Fiction Challenge and the Need to Re-Read Challenge. I think I read this years ago, but I didn’t remember the details so I wanted to read it again. It’s an interesting and fast-paced dystopian story that examines whether […]
Read More Book Review: The Giver by Lois LowryA Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read for the 12 Awards in 12 Months and the Science Fiction Masterworks Challenge. This book won the 1978 British Science Fiction Association Award. This is my third PKD book, and I have to say at this point, I think he’s a […]
Read More Book Review: A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. DickBy Sam Reader The term “space opera” conjures grand vistas, massive spaceships, multi-threaded plots of romance and intrigue, dashing protagonists, and dastardly villains, evoking all the grandiosity of an opera and the hallmarks of the best imaginative science fiction. But while all this is true, operas rarely come in a single flavor. There are gothic horror operas, romantic […]
Read More 6 Space Operas That Explore the Comedic Side of the CosmosEmphyrio by Jack Vance My rating: 3 of 5 stars Read for the SF Masterworks Reading Challenge and the Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club. I had a really hard time getting into this book. At first I was ready to dismiss this whole thing as a bunch of right wing propaganda claptrap. Ghyl, our protagonist, […]
Read More Book Review: Emphyrio by Jack VanceRed Holocaust by James Axler My rating: 2 of 5 stars Read for the Apocalypse Now! Reading Challenge. Method of the world’s destruction: global thermonuclear and biochemical warfare. This book was pretty much exactly what I expected. The Deadlands series takes place about a hundred years after a major thermonuclear and biochemical war plunged the […]
Read More Book Review: Red Holocaust by James Axler (Deathlands #2)A handful of megacorporations acquire a complete lockdown on every major market in the world, including the media, access to books, our food, our water, and the air we breathe. Corruption at the highest levels of government, general apathy, and a determined propaganda campaign prevents humanity from doing anything to stop it. Frederik Pohl & […]
Read More 6 Dystopian Sci-Fi Plotlines I’ve Seen in the News RecentlyThe Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read for the Big Fun In A Little Package Novella Challenge, the I Just Have To Read More Of That Author Challenge, and the Read the Sequel 2017 Challenge. This interesting and slightly-odd novella connects to Patrick Rothfuss‘ outstanding Kingkiller […]
Read More Book Review: The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick RothfussMirrors by Rebekah Dodson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have just recently gotten to know Rebekah Dodson online, and I offered to review this one because the third book in her series, Magic, has just come out, and I wanted to support her. But this turned out to be an excellent decision! I […]
Read More Book Review: Mirrors (The Curse of Lanval 1) by Rebekah DodsonThe Martian by Andy Weir My rating: 5 of 5 stars Read for the 2017 Second Best Reading Challenge and the Hard Core Sci-Fi Reading Challenge. Before I read this book, I not only saw the movie (excellent,) I had the good fortune to see a video on YouTube that was a panel made up […]
Read More Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir
