Tag Archives: science fiction

Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace

“I am still learning how to write a novel,” Arkady Martine says in the Acknowledgements at the back of her second one – and second in the Teixcalaan Empire series – A Desolation Called Peace. Seeing as how her first, … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Comments Off on Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace

Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire

Mahit Dzmare has been chosen to represent her world as Ambassador to Teixcalaan, the galactic superpower. Her “world” is tiny Lsel, a space station housing some 30,000 souls, affiliated with no planet, which controls a small sector that’s rich in … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Comments Off on Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire

Roger Zelazny’s Eye of Cat and Isle of the Dead

The protagonist of the first short novel in this omnibus – which is in fact Eye of Cat – is William Blackhorse Singer, a Navaho born in the 20th century, and still alive and fit and healthy, almost two centuries later. … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on Roger Zelazny’s Eye of Cat and Isle of the Dead

Everina Maxwell’s Ocean’s Echo

Everina Maxwell’s Ocean’s Echo returns to the setting previously created for her Winter’s Orbit SF novel. While this book refers to the earlier one’s setting, overall it does not require an understanding of the previous piece. Tennel is the nephew … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on Everina Maxwell’s Ocean’s Echo

G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen

Alif is a young man, a “gray hat” hacker, selling his skills to provide cybersecurity to anyone who needs that protection from the government. He lives in an unnamed city-state in the Middle East, referred to throughout simply as the … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Comments Off on G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen

Emery Robin’s The Stars Undying

Emery Robin’s debut novel, The Stars Undying, attempts, with uneven success, to transplant the story of Cleopatra and Gaius Julius Ceasar to a space opera setting. Long ago, or perhaps long from now, in a galaxy that may or may … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Emery Robin’s The Stars Undying

William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive

Wes Unruh wrote this review. The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. — William Gibson, Neuromancer The future world of the Sprawl series is a world of crumbling governments supplanted by multinational … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive

Linda Nagata’s The Red: First Light

Having found some writers I enjoyed in Gardener Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-fifth Annual Collection from 2018, I’ve dutifully set about reading some long-form fiction by a few of them. First up is Linda Nagata, whose novel The … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on Linda Nagata’s The Red: First Light

C. L. Moore’s Judgment Night

Believe it or not, science fiction and fantasy used to be dominated by men. (They also used to be a lot more fluid than they are now – the genres, not the men.) Of the major writers in the area … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged , | Comments Off on C. L. Moore’s Judgment Night

Gardener Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-fifth Annual Collection

Short-form science fiction is pretty much my idea of perfect summer reading. I want something to dip into that will hold my interest at least briefly on a languid afternoon, so a big ol’ volume of great SF is just … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Tagged | Comments Off on Gardener Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirty-fifth Annual Collection