Previous SFF Author: Jay Posey
What would you give in exchange for immortality? Greg Egan‘s unabashed answer to that question in Permutation City is simple: Your humanity. Its sounds cliché, but Permutation City is a book that is able to do what only the best science fiction books can: make you think of questions you never knew you had, and imagine futures that seem ever more possible as time passes.
Around the mid-21st century, mind-uploading technology has been perfected,
May 13th, 2016. João Eira and Stuart Starosta | Greg Egan | Audio | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Eifelheim is one of those transcendent science fiction stories where an author is able to treat very human and Earth-bound issues with a well-reasoned and fascinating gloss of aliens and science. Author Michael Flynn‘s alien mythos and capabilities are believable and seamlessly integrated into the very real history of plague-era Germany.
I picked up Eifelheim because I love a good story of first contact. I find myself continually drawn to the classics in this science fiction genre,
April 21st, 2016. Jason Golomb´s rating: 4.5 | Michael Flynn | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
When the First Hundred arrive on Mars, they find a beautiful red planet that’s all but untouched by humanity. What should they paint on this amazing canvas?
The question turns out to be very political, and the discussion of politics in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars perhaps begins with ecology. The relationship between people and their environment is introduced when the Martian settlers consider whether they should change the red planet to suit human needs.
March 24th, 2016. Ryan Skardal and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Audio, BSFA Award, Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
In Ancillary Justice, Leckie’s award-sweeping 2013 novel, we met Breq. Breq was a soldier, but before she was a soldier, she had been a ship, the Justice of Toren. Specifically, Breq was an ancillary, a human body whose personality has been erased, so that she could be a node of awareness for the ship’s AI. Justice of Toren comprised the ship itself and 2,000 human ancillaries in a distributed network. When Justice of Toren was destroyed in an act of treachery,
February 24th, 2016. Marion Deeds and Stuart Starosta | Ann Leckie | BSFA Award | SFF Reviews | 8 comments |
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
I’m not sure what’s been in the air lately, but it seems I’ve been reading a lot of books this past year dealing with reincarnation/being reborn. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is yet another of those, and while it isn’t my favorite of the ones I’ve read with similar ideas (that would be either Life After Life by Kate Atkinson or The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell),
February 22nd, 2016. Bill Capossere, Tadiana Jones, Ray McKenzie and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Claire North | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Gold Coast by Kim Stanley Robinson
Jim McPherson is unsatisfied with the future. Unable to find steady, well-paid work, Jim mostly spends his time partying and casually hooking up with random women. Jim’s family is of small comfort to him since he spends most family dinners enduring his father’s many complaints about how Jim does nothing useful. Jim does not know it, but his father, a defense contractor, is also deeply frustrated in his career, even if it does provide what appears to be a successful lifestyle to outsiders. Jim only begins to feel as though he is doing something of value when he starts protesting against militarism.
February 10th, 2016. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 3 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Audio | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Jokers Wild edited by George R.R. Martin
Jokers Wild (1987) is the third in George R.R. Martin’s WILD CARDS series. The WILD CARDS books are anthologies and mosaic novels set in a shared world and containing a large cast of regular characters. Authors contributing to Jokers Wild are Edward Bryant, Leanne C. Harper, George R.R. Martin, John J. Miller, Lewis Shiner, Walter Simons, and Melinda M. Snodgrass. Each author handles the perspective of a particular character and,
February 9th, 2016. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5 | George R.R. Martin, Melinda Snodgrass | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Rhesus Chart by Charles Stross
The Rhesus Chart is the fifth and most recent novel in Charles Stross’ LAUNDRY FILES. Bob Howard has been moving up the ranks in the Laundry — not due to any particular motivation or ambition on his part, but just because he has managed, so far, to stay alive as he and his fellow agents battle the eldritch horrors who are trying to find their way into our universe so they can eat us.
While doing some data mining in his office one day,
February 5th, 2016. Kat Hooper and Marion Deeds´s rating: 3.5 | Charles Stross | Audio | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth is a marvelous re-telling of Rapunzel, woven together with historical fiction that gives the reader a glimpse into the life of Charlotte Rose de Caumont de La Force, the French noblewoman who first published the fairy tale. Forsyth, pursuing her doctorate in fairy-tale retellings in Sydney, originally published in this novel in her native Australia. It has just been released in the US.
Bitter Greens begins with the story of Charlotte,
February 3rd, 2016. Kate Lechler and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | Kate Forsyth | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
What if superheroes were real? I mean really “real”: what if they grew old and got fat, had spouses and families, carried emotional baggage (sometimes a serious psychosis), and just generally had to deal with everyday life? These super-heroes aren’t inherently all good, either. Just like public servants — police, politicians, doctors, etc. — many begin with the best intentions, but some become jaded and others are only motivated by self-interest from the start. In other words, if superheroes were real, they would be just like us,
January 23rd, 2016. Greg Hersom and Stuart Starosta´s rating: 5 | Alan Moore | Comics, Hugo Award | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Jay Posey
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.
COMMENT Was I hinting that? I wasn't aware of it. But now that you mention it.... 🤔
So it sounds like you're hinting Fox may have had three or so different incomplete stories that he stitched together,…