Readers considering whether they should read Neal Stephenson’s breakthrough novel, Snow Crash, would do well to read the novel’s opening chapters about the Deliverator. Rarely has a sales pitch been so blatantly — and so masterfully — launched at the start of a novel. Even James Bond must envy such a rich opening gambit.
For some readers, the remainder of Snow Crash will not live up to the pacing of the opening sequence.
May 2nd, 2012. Ryan Skardal, Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Neal Stephenson | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
In his “Note to the Reader” at the start of Anathem, Neal Stephenson writes “if you are accustomed to reading works of speculative fiction and enjoy puzzling things out on your own, skip this Note.” My advice is this: Don’t skip the Note. In spite of years of speculative fiction reading, I found myself constantly referring to the novel’s chronology and glossary, not to mention online summaries and Stephenson’s acknowledgements page.
Here’s why. Our narrator, Fraa Erasmus,
December 22nd, 2011. Ryan Skardal and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 0.1, 4.5 | Neal Stephenson | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 15 comments |
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr
It’s the Dark Ages again. A 20th century nuclear war spawned a “Flame Deluge” which destroyed human civilization’s infrastructure and technology, killed most of the people, and created genetic mutations in many of the rest. Then there was a backlash against the educated people of the world who were seen as the creators of both the ideas that started the war, and the weapons that were used to fight it. They were persecuted and killed and all knowledge was burned up. After this “Simplification,” people took pride in being illiterate and the only institution that seemed to come through intact was the Roman Catholic Church,
December 17th, 2011. Kat Hooper, Jason Golomb and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Walter M. Miller | Audio, Hugo Award | SFF Reviews | 19 comments |
Swords Against Wizardry by Fritz Leiber
The time has come for sorcery and swords.
After a somewhat disappointing third volume in the Lankhmar series, Fritz Leiber is back to form in Swords Against Wizardry. This book contains four stories about Fafhrd the big red-headed barbarian, and The Gray Mouser, the small wily magician-thief. Three of the stories come from the pulp magazine Fantastic and the first story was created for this volume as an introduction. The stories fit so well together that they almost feel like a novel.
October 16th, 2011. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Fritz Leiber | Audio | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Paul Atreides is just fifteen years old, and small for his age besides, but he’s not to be dismissed. Paul is bright, well trained, and the heir of House Atreides. Paul’s father, Duke Leto, is an exceptional leader who commands the loyalty of his subjects with ease, thus earning him the respect of his noble peers. Consequently, the Emperor has assigned Leto a new task: control of Arrakis, or “Dune,” a desert planet that is home to the “spice,” a substance that allows for many things, including interstellar travel.
July 11th, 2011. Ryan Skardal, Kat Hooper, Jason Golomb and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson | Audio, Film / TV, Hugo Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 26 comments |
Galápagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Kilgore Trout, who appears in many of Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, is a science fiction writer whose ideas and stories are interesting even though his plots and characters are dreadful. My favorite Kilgore Trout story is summarized in Breakfast of Champions. Here, Trout writes about extra-terrestrials that come to earth to prevent nuclear holocaust. Unfortunately, they rely on tap dancing and farts to communicate, so the confused humans immediately kill their furiously farting and tap dancing visitors. This depressing depiction of humanity is common in both Trout and Vonnegut’s writing.
June 24th, 2011. Ryan Skardal, Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Kurt Vonnegut | Edge, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
In The Diamond Age, anything, no matter how trivial, could be made from diamonds drawn from molecular feeds. This will be the era in which humanity masters nanotechnology. On the one hand, this is a time of plenty and technological progress, but it is also a time of great illiteracy as well. With the rise of universal access to the molecular feed, the governments and nations that we know today will lose their purpose and become supplanted by culture-based societies that have territory around the world.
January 21st, 2011. Ryan Skardal, Stuart Starosta and Tadiana Jones´s rating: 3, 4 | Neal Stephenson | Audio, Hugo Award, Locus Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg is the painfully intimate portrait of David Selig, a man who has been blessed (or cursed, as he might say) with the gift of telepathy. He has learned to live with the ability, but now finds that his amazing power is slowly disappearing, leaving him ordinary again. Throughout the novel, Selig is literate, insightful and self-deprecating as he mercilessly dissects his own life. I found him less than likable, but completely fascinating. He leads an almost meaningless life,
November 7th, 2010. Stefan Raets, Sandy Ferber and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Robert Silverberg | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
The Earth has been mostly depopulated as humans have discovered more sophisticated and comfortable cultures elsewhere in the universe. Much of its infrastructure was destroyed during “The Three Days,” and most of the mainland areas are still “hot.” Genetic mutations have caused the birth of creatures previously thought to be only myth. Now Earth is a strange and dangerous place, fit only as a tourist attraction and a vacation spot for the Vegans.
But some people still love Earth, including long-lived Conrad Nomikos, Commissioner for the Arts.
October 8th, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Roger Zelazny | Audio, Hugo Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe
The Citadel of the Autarch is a satisfying conclusion to Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun. (A fifth book, The Urth of the New Sun, is a coda to the original four books.) We’ve known all along that Severian the torturer would be the autarch by the end of his story, but his fascinating journey to the throne is what this saga is all about… on the surface,
October 3rd, 2010. Kat Hooper and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Gene Wolfe | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Oh...and the men used the name "The Great Northern Expedition" to throw people off as to their actual destination, even…
Oh, it IS, Marion! It is!
Sorry if I mislead you in this detail, Paul...the voyage by ship was only the first leg of the quintet's…
The geography is confusing me--how does one get to a village in Tibet by ship? And even the northernmost part…
Oh, this sounds interesting!