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The Ecolitan Enigma by L.E. Modesitt Jr
The Ecolitan Enigma (1997) closes out L.E. Modesitt Jr’s four-book ECOLITAN MATTER series. It’s a direct sequel to The Ecologic Envoy which was published in 1986, so you need to read that book first. The other two books in the series, The Ecolitan Operation (1989) and The Ecologic Secession (1990), take place 400 years earlier with different (but related) characters,
July 9th, 2024. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Elizabeth Bear’s Grail (2011) concludes her JACOB’S LADDER trilogy. You’ll first want to read Dust and Chill which describe the generational ship called Jacob’s Ladder and introduce us to the ship’s strange denizens which include the ruling Conn family, various genetically engineered post-human species, and the ship’s fractured god-like AI.
Jacob’s Ladder has finally reached its destination, the planet they call Grail,
June 28th, 2024. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Elizabeth Bear | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
I chose Blake Crouch’s 2022 novel Upgrade out of curiosity because I’d never read anything of his. He is a popular author whose books are everywhere, and he writes thrillers, usually with a speculative-fiction flavor. I’d heard of him years ago when Fox TV made a show based on his WAYWARD trilogy, and the one or two episodes I saw (Season 1) had a nifty, paranoid, who-can-you-trust vibe. Upgrade shares that vibe.
My plot synopsis may contain mild spoilers.
June 18th, 2024. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Blake Crouch | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo
The Brides of High Hill (2024) is the fifth installment in Nghi Vo’s SINGING HILLS series of novellas. I found it a solid enough of a story if a bit slight, though it’s possible that if, unlike me, you’ve read the others you might have a more positive response.
Cleric Chih is accompanying a young bride, Nhung, and her parents to the estate of Lord Guo, where Nhung is to be wed to her wealthy but far older husband-to-be.
June 10th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Nghi Vo | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Chill (2010) is the second installment in Elizabeth Bear’s JACOB’S LADDER trilogy. It begins immediately after the events of the first book, Dust, which you’ll want to read first.
The story takes place on a dilapidated generation ship called Jacob’s Ladder which has been drifting through space, basically becalmed, for hundreds of years. During that time, due to the effects of nanotechnology, the ship’s denizens have evolved into inharmonious groups of post-human species and society has regressed to a type of feudalism with the Conn family as lords.
June 4th, 2024. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | Elizabeth Bear | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Ghost Station, by S.A. Barnes (2024), is a mix of haunted-house and The-killer-is-among- us horror, with a generous ladling of body horror to round it out. The standout of this space-horror novel is the setting, a deserted habitat on a dead and snowy planet, where psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray is supposed to be observing the Reclamation and Exploration Team who had a team member die mysteriously on an earlier assignment. Bray’s specialty is Eckhart-Reisner Syndrome (ERS),
May 14th, 2024. Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | S.A. Barnes | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Reposting to include Bill’s new review.
The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older
On Jupiter, known as Giant, Mossa, an Investigator, and Pleiti, scholar and instructor, are on a new case, involving the disappearance of a student. As Mossa explores, she finds not one, but seventeen university students, faculty and staff have gone missing. What the two sleuths will uncover in 2024’s The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, by Malka Older, will destabilize Pleiti’s already-shaky faith in the university system,
March 14th, 2024. Marion Deeds and Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5, 5 | Malka Older | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Have you ever read a book in which the plot and characterization are best described as “fun but not special” only to completely fall in love with the world in which they’re set? In this case, there’s nothing wrong with the story of Hedgewitch (even if it hews a little too closely to the HARRY POTTER formula for its first few chapters: a magically-gifted child escapes a terrible environment with the help of a flying broomstick and a talking cat) but the construction and ambiance of the setting is just intoxicating.
March 8th, 2024. Rebecca Fisher´s rating: 3.5 | Skye McKenna | Children | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Sentinels From Space by Eric Frank Russell
In the science fiction novel of 1953, mutants and their various abilities – especially telepathic – were apparently all the rage. Alfred Bester’s The Demolished Man, the first novel to win the Hugo Award, showed us how difficult a proposition murder could be in a society of mind readers. In Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore’s Mutant, the “Baldies” referred to in the title had to learn how to live among a society that feared and despised them.
February 23rd, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Eric Frank Russell | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi
Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi is a collection of sixteen science fiction stories by the author of Shigidi and the Brass Head of Obalufon (one of my most pleasurable reads lately). As with any story collection, Convergence Problems varies in impact of each individual piece, but if I wasn’t blown away by any of the tales save one, the collection as a whole is nicely consistent along the 3-4 scale,
February 15th, 2024. Bill Capossere´s rating: 3.5 | Wole Talabi | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Don't know how to answer that, Andrew; I've only read the long. But when it comes to REH, more is…
Would you recommend the long or the short version of Three Bladed Doom?
"A Gent From Bear Creek," originally a collection of short stories later cobbled together to make a novel, and "Three-Bladed…
What were the 4 novels we wrote? Two were Almuric and Hour of the Dragon, what's the other 2?
He has a new one just out (or being released soon) called DRILL. I'm interested, but I may need to…