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Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

Month: September 2014

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Predict future SFF classics

Back a couple of years ago, Smithsonian Magazine reminded its readers of a 1936 poll that asked which contemporary authors would endure the slings and arrows of critics, such that their works would be considered “classics” in the year 2000 (the poll was conducted by The Colophon — a magazine for book collectors that sadly did not itself “endure”). These are the authors their readers came up with:

  1. Sinclair Lewis
  2. Willa Cather
  3. Eugene O’Neill
  4. Edna St. Vincent Millay
  5. Robert Frost
  6. Theodore Dreiser
  7. James Truslow Adams
  8. George Santayana
  9. Stephen Vincent Benet
  10. James Branch Cabell

Well,


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September 25th, 2014. | Thoughtful Thursday | 10 comments |

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Garrett for Hire: Collects three Garrett, P.I. adventures

Garrett for Hire by Glen Cook

Garrett for Hire is an omnibus edition of three books in Glen Cook’s popular GARRETT, P.I. series. These books are Deadly Quicksilver Lies, Petty Pewter Gods and Faded Steel Heat, books seven, eight and nine in the series, respectively. However, because each book fairly stands alone, I never felt that I was missing out on any important details by joining the series at the halfway point.


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September 25th, 2014. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

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WWWednesday: September 24, 2014

On this day in 1852, the first airship powered by (a steam) engine, created by Henri Giffard, traveled 17 miles from Paris to Trappes. And, on this day in 1990, astronomers noticed the Great White Spot (or Great White Oval), a giant storm on Saturn that is observable every 28.5 years.

Writing, Editing, and Publishing:

Apex Magazine has recently announced staff changes. Jason Sizemore, the publisher of Apex, will be taking over as editor-in-chief as Sigrid Ellis steps down; the new poetry editor will be Bianca Spriggs.

I recently ran across a new blog to follow,


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September 24th, 2014. | World Wide Wednesday | no comments |

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Storms of Victory: So much left to do in this unfinished series

Storms of Victory by Jerry Pournelle

Storms of Victory, the third book in Jerry Pournelle’s JANISSARIES series, begins with a wedding and a war council, two events that epitomize Rick Galloway’s interactions on the planet Tran so far — making allies and subduing enemies. Even as he solidifies one alliance with a marriage, the mood of the festive occasion is dampened by rumors of impending political and religious conflict. Besides his known allies and enemies, Rick is soon dealing with traitors, assassins, kidnappers, and teenage ninjas.


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September 24th, 2014. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

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The Wisdom of the Shire: Remembering Hobbit wisdom in the 21st century

The Wisdom of the Shire by Noble Smith

Hobbits constantly surprise Elf kings, dragons, and Dark Lords with their courage and valiant spirit, but we rarely associate them with wisdom. Thankfully, Noble Smith’s The Wisdom of the Shire: A Short Guide to a Long and Happy Life exists to correct our mistake. Wisdom of the Shire is one part self-help book and one part homage to Hobbit wisdom.

Smith divides his work into a series of essays,


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September 24th, 2014. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

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Darwin’s Radio: Cool idea that doesn’t connect

Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear

Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear follows several characters — a molecular biologist, an archaeologist, and a public policy maker — through a cataclysmic pandemic sweeping through the human race. This disease is an HERV, a human endogenous retrovirus, which is a piece of dormant genetic code that, when activated, only affects sexually-active women. It causes them to get pregnant with a horribly-mutated fetus that self-aborts, only to follow up with another pregnancy of a new species of human, homo novus.

I found Bear’s description of homo novus a fascinating suggestion of ways in which our species might evolve.


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September 23rd, 2014. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

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The Stonehenge Gate: Jack Williamson’s final novel

The Stonehenge Gate by Jack Williamson

What do you plan to do when you’re 97 years old? Me? If I’m fortunate enough to attain to that ripe old age, I suppose I will be eating pureed Gerber peaches and watching Emma Peel reruns on my TV set in the nursing home … IF I’m lucky. For sci-fi Grand Master Jack Williamson, the age of 97 meant another novel, his 50th or so, in a writing career that stretched back 77 years (!), to his first published story, “The Metal Man,”


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September 23rd, 2014. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |

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Star Well: A light SF comedy of manners

Star Well by Alexei Panshin

Star Well, by Alexei Panshin, is an entertaining comedy of manners in the SF mode with a hint of the demimonde thrown in for flavour. Our protagonist is Anthony Villiers, Viscount Charteris, an aristocrat and fop whose life seems to be a perpetual Grand Tour of the Nashuite Empire, chasing the stipend afforded him by his father from port to port and resorting to what might, in impolite circles, be considered illicit means to gain funds when he is unable to catch up with it.


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September 23rd, 2014. ´s rating: | | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |

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Broken Monsters: A study of a collapsing city and its inhabitants

Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes

South African writer Lauren Beukes had a hit with last year’s The Shining Girls, the story of a serial killer who could travel through time. Readers of both time travel novels and serial killer thrillers loved the way Beukes melded the two genres. Beukes has again given us a genre-bender with Broken Monsters. Both a horror novel and a police procedural, Broken Monsters is even better than The Shining Girls.

Broken Monsters is set in Detroit — today’s Detroit,


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September 22nd, 2014. and ´s rating: | | , | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |

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Clan and Crown: Historical military SF

Clan and Crown by Jerry Pournelle

In this second installment of Jerry Pournelle’s JANISSARIES series, the modern American military unit that was abducted by aliens and deposited on the planet Tran to oversee the harvest of psychedelic drugs for alien drug dealers is still trying to get the planet under control so they can focus on their horticultural task. Though they accomplished a lot in the first book, Janissaries, things have gotten even more complicated (politically) and they make very little progress (at least that we see) with their main goal in Clan and Crown.


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September 22nd, 2014. ´s rating: | | | SFF Reviews | no comments |

Next SFF Author: Ben Aaronovitch

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