Between 1955 and 1995 Poul Anderson published a series of short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels, about the Time Patrol, a secret group of people from all over the world whose job is to protect the world history we know. They jump up and down the timeline, making sure that terrorists and other disruptors don’t use time travel to remake history to suit their own malign purposes. Or any purposes, actually. Their goal is to keep history the same, even with all its evils,
June 22nd, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Poul Anderson | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Jade War (2019) is the second book in Fonda Lee’s GREEN BONE SAGA series and a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel. It follows Jade City, which won the World Fantasy Award, and which you’ll need to read first (this review will contain some mild spoilers for that novel).
Jade War picks up a year after the dramatic events of Jade City.
June 19th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Fonda Lee | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
SHORTS: Our column exploring free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. This week’s post reviews two more Locus Award nominees, along with other recent short fiction works that we’ve enjoyed.
Late Returns by Joe Hill (2019, included in the Full Throttle collection). Locus award finalist (novelette)
Joe Hill, who like his famous father typically writes in the horror genre, switches it up in Late Returns, a novelette that was originally published in his Full Throttle (2019) collection of short fiction.
June 18th, 2020. Tadiana Jones, Skye Walker and Kat Hooper | Joe Hill, Suzanne Palmer, Tobias Buckell | Audio, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Fleet of Knives by Gareth L. Powell
Fleet of Knives (2019) is the second book in Gareth L. Powell’s EMBERS OF WAR series and a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Its predecessor, Embers of War, was also a Locus finalist and won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel of 2018. When I reviewed it last year, I reported that Embers of War was “pleasant but forgettable” and,
June 18th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Gareth L. Powell | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds
Alastair Reynolds’ Permafrost (2019), a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Novella, is billed as “a time-traveling climate fiction adventure.” It takes place in two timelines.
In 2080, humanity seems to be coming to an end, mostly due to a lack of food. Valentina Lidova, an elderly Russian math teacher, attempts to continue teaching her malnourished students, knowing all the while that it’s futile.
Then she’s visited by someone from an institution called Permafrost who offers a crazy-sounding solution.
June 18th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Alastair Reynolds | Audio, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Iron Dragon’s Mother by Michael Swanwick
It’s been eleven years since I read Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, a novel that, while recognizing Swanwick’s brilliance, I did not enjoy. Some phrases from my review include “random, chaotic, and senseless,” “weird, disjointed, obtuse, inaccessibly bizarre,” and “chaotic nihilism.” But mostly I despised the protagonist, Jane, who was “a remorseless foul-mouthed thief, drug-user, slut, and murderer.”
So, at first I expected not to enjoy The Iron Dragon’s Mother (2019),
June 17th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Michael Swanwick | Audio | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Shadow Captain by Alastair Reynolds
Shadow Captain (2019) is the second novel in Alastair Reynolds’ REVENGER series for young adults. You’ll need to read Revenger first, and this review will have some spoilers for that first book.
It’s been three months since Revenger ended, and Adrana and Fura Ness are back together after Adrana was kidnapped by the evil pirate Bosa Sennen and rescued by Fura. Now the Ness sisters have Bosa’s infamous ship and Fura,
June 17th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2 | Alastair Reynolds | Audio, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan
“It’s time for a reboot…. see you on the other side.”
Inspired by whistleblowers, leakers, hacktivists, computer viruses, Big Data, fake news, and civil movements such as Black Lives Matter, journalist Tim Maughan paints a frightening vision of the future in his first novel, Infinite Detail.
The plot is set in two timelines labelled simply “Before” and “After.” In “Before” we meet Rushdi (“Rush”) Mannan, a software engineer who lives in the Croft, a two-mile section of Bristol,
June 16th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Tim Maughan | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
Haimey Dz grew up in an all-female community that she thinks of as a cult. After a bad experience involving a girlfriend, Haimey leaves her home, joins the Synarche, finds a business partner, has her body adjusted a bit (has her feet turned into another pair of hands), and starts a rescue and salvaging business.
Now Haimey and her partner, along with Singer, the sentient AI that drives the ship, travel through space, finding distressed or wrecked spaceships and either saving them or, if it’s too late,
June 16th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Elizabeth Bear | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“If the Ness sisters had a brain cell between them, they’d be back in Mazarile, taking needlecraft lessons from a robot.”
Sisters Adrana and Fura Ness have run away from home, joining the crew of a spaceship captained by a man named Rackamore. Their job on the ship is to use a skull to listen in on chatter that gives them clues about things going on in the universe, such as the location of other ships, gossip, and information about “baubles” that are about to open.
June 15th, 2020. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Alastair Reynolds | Audio, Locus Award, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.