He Who Shapes by Roger Zelazny
In the mid to late ‘60s, the sci-fi world was Roger Zelazny’s oyster. Possessing an abundance of fresh ideas delivered with a deft hand, the author took the genre by storm — This Immortal, Lord of Light, and Creatures of Light and Darkness gained notable attention and won awards. Published amidst these unique novels was, however, a book of an entirely different range and frequency. More personal and cerebral than mythic or heroic,
October 31st, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4 | Roger Zelazny | Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett
Citizen Kane is considered by many connoisseurs to be the greatest film of all time. Channeling the idea of empire through the life of a mysterious magnate, it is a drama telling the bittersweet story of the glory days of wealth, the inevitable fall, and how its biggest dreams are left unfulfilled. Half a century later, with numerous new forms of media having been adopted into mainstream culture, comes Terry Pratchett. Practically creating a new form of media of his own, he decided to overlay Hollywood onto the template of Citizen Kane.
October 23rd, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4 | Terry Pratchett | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story by Stephen Donaldson
Though better known for his ongoing epic fantasy series, THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT, THE UNBELIEVER, Stephen Donaldson has also taken a foray into science fiction. The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story is the first in THE GAP CYCLE and a very difficult read if it is not understood that the book is mere stage setting for the four books which follow. Essentially the exploits of a sadistic psychopath and his victim,
October 16th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3 | Stephen R. Donaldson | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Like Excession, Use of Weapons, and The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks’ 1998 Inversions continues to prove that the reader should expect the unexpected because, with Inversions, Banks explicitly aimed to write “a CULTURE novel that wasn’t a CULTURE novel.” It is likely to be categorized as fantasy by someone who knows nothing of the Culture — there is a medieval feel to the royalty,
October 14th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4 | Iain M. Banks | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks
The State of the Art is a collection of short fiction written by Iain Banks between 1984 and 1987. Surprisingly, it is the only such collection the author has published. Given Banks’ fifteen mainstream novels and twelve science fiction novels, one would expect a much larger output of short stories and novellas. The following is a brief summary of the eight stories (most of which are science fiction stories, three which are CULTURE related).
“Road of Skulls” — Not a story in any conventional sense,
October 7th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 2 | Iain M. Banks | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
It’s easy to be skeptical when you crack open a book by Philip K. Dick; his output is hit or miss. The psychotic craziness of Dick’s personal life so often leaked into his writing that on more than one occasion his work features plots and themes derailed by a chaos seemingly external to the text. In the moments Dick was able to focus his drug and paranoia-fueled energies into a synergistic story, the sci-fi world benefited. Martian Time-Slip, just falling shy in quality to The Man in the High Castle or A Scanner Darkly,
September 19th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Dr. Bloodmoney: Or How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick
Based on the overwhelming success of The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick set about writing another alternate history/future. Choosing the Cold War as its crux, he imagined a US wherein the post-WWII threat of nuclear catastrophe manifests itself. Dr. Bloodmoney: Or How We Got Along After the Bomb is the (conveniently sub-titled) result.
With only a few main elements in common with that first big success,
September 10th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3 | Philip K. Dick | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson’s MARS trilogy is a landmark of science fiction. The books visualize the terraforming of the red planet from a desert wasteland to a verdant living space while Robinson examines humanity from economic, psychological, political, sociological, and ecological viewpoints, culminating in the most in-depth look at colonizing Mars as has yet been written. The quantity of material was so great in fact, that Robinson published the story collection The Martians three years after Blue Mars.
August 21st, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Crystal Express by Bruce Sterling
Crystal Express is a 1989 collection of short stories by Bruce Sterling, originally published between 1982 and 1987. Five of the stories are set in his Shaper/Mechanist universe made popular in Schismatrix, three are general science fiction, and four lean toward the fantasy genre. The stories are grouped along these thematic lines, and the following is a brief summary of each story.
Shaper/Mechanist:
August 13th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3 | Bruce Sterling | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
After establishing himself as a writer of short fiction, Jack Vance began to shift toward novels in the 1960s. Given more space (ha!) to create, his unique voice rounded into form and imagination, and the decade can be marked as the upswing of his career — particularly given the exclamation point the TSCHAI: PLANET OF ADVENTURE series places on the end. Tucked neatly in the middle of the publishing of these four novels, however, is a stand-alone novel: Emphyrio. Interestingly, the title is not taken from the name of a locale or culture,
August 7th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 3.5 | Jack Vance | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…
this sounds like a fun one