Previous SFF Author: Jay Posey
2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke
Please note that this review will include spoilers of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In 2001: A Space Odyssey, we learn that mysterious forces have guided humanity’s evolution. We don’t meet these forces, but we do see their monoliths. The first monolith appears before a group of struggling chimpanzees. When they touch the monolith, they are inspired to use tools. The novel shifts to the twenty-first century, when another monolith is found on the moon.
December 30th, 2015. Ryan Skardal and Jason Golomb | Arthur C. Clarke | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel
“Quiet” and “lovely” are not usually words one reaches for when describing a post-apocalyptic novel. Not with the reverted-back-to-savagery cannibals; the road-raging-mohawk-sporting highway warriors; the gleeful told-you-so rat-a-tat of survivalist gunfire, or the annoying mumblespeak “braiiinnnnss” from the shambling zombies. But quiet and lovely are exactly the words I’d use to describe Station Eleven, the post-apocalyptic novel from Emily St. John Mandel that is happily missing all the above and shows the modern world ending with neither a bang nor a whimper,
December 22nd, 2015. Bill Capossere, Ryan Skardal, Ray McKenzie, Marion Deeds, Tadiana Jones and Stuart Starosta | Emily St. John Mandel | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 10 comments |
The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson’s debut novel, The Wild Shore, was first published in 1984 but its story begins decades after nuclear bombs were set off in America’s cities. Now, in 2047, Californian survivors in San Onofre dedicate their days to gathering food and maintaining their shelters rather than filming movies and computer programming.
Hank Fletcher, our narrator, is angry at the world. Unlike some angst-ridden teenagers, Hank has good reason to resent the world as all the other countries of the United Nations have agreed to prevent the American survivors from rebuilding.
December 18th, 2015. Ryan Skardal´s rating: 4 | Kim Stanley Robinson | Audio | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Neal Stephenson doesn’t shy away from big concepts, long timelines, or larger than life events. His most recent novel, SevenEves, begins with the moon blowing up. Readers never find out what blew up the moon, because all too quickly humanity discovers that the Earth will soon be bombarded by a thousand-year rain of meteorites — the remnants of the moon as they collide with each other in space, becoming smaller and smaller — which will turn Earth into an uninhabitable wasteland. Humankind has a 2-year deadline to preserve its cultural legacy and a breeding population.
December 17th, 2015. Kate Lechler, Stuart Starosta, João Eira and Kat Hooper | Neal Stephenson | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 18 comments |
A Time of Changes by Robert Silverberg
After four years of successive losses, sci-fi great Robert Silverberg finally picked up his first Nebula Award in 1972. His 1967 novel Thorns had lost to Samuel R. Delany‘s The Einstein Intersection, his brilliant 1968 novel The Masks of Time had been bested by Alexei Panshin‘s equally brilliant Rite of Passage, 1969’s time travel tale Up the Line had succumbed to Ursula K.
October 23rd, 2015. Sandy Ferber, Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Robert Silverberg | Audio, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), part of THE HAINISH CYCLE, won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best SF Novel, and is well known as one of the first books in the genre to intelligently explore the nature of gender and identity. Ursula K. LeGuin is a highly respected writer known for her anthropological and humanistic approach to SF, and her presence has attracted many mainstream readers and forced literary critics to take the genre more seriously.
September 11th, 2015. Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 5 | Ursula K. Le-Guin | Audio, Hugo Award, Nebula Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner was arguably the most brilliant, though-provoking, and intelligent SF film ever made, with a uniquely dark vision of a deteriorated future Earth society and a morally ambiguous tale of a bounty hunter Rick Deckard hunting down and ‘retiring’ a series of very intelligent Nexus-6 type replicants (androids) that want very much to live. The movie changed the way moviegoers looked at SF films, and brought great credibility to its director and the genre for a much wider audience,
September 9th, 2015. Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | Film / TV, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 5 comments |
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch was the 10th and final PKD book I read last year after 40 years without reading any. I always felt as a teenager that I would get more from his books as an adult, and I think I was right. This one is a real mind-bending experience, deliciously strange and tantalizing with its ideas.
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965) is one of the earliest PKD novels that deals overtly with drug use,
September 1st, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
This is a strange and sinister book, even for Philip K. Dick. It’s a carefully-crafted alternate history about a world in which the Axis powers won WWII and now dominate the globe (other notable books in this vein include Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore and Pavane by Keith Roberts), but being PKD that is just the beginning. It prominently features the I Ching (Book of Changes),
August 19th, 2015. Stuart Starosta and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | Hugo Award, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
The Mapmaker’s War by Ronlyn Domingue
I really wanted to like The Mapmaker’s War, by Ronlyn Domingue. For so many reasons. First, it had “mapmaker” in the title. I love maps. I have books upon books of maps — old maps, strange maps, historical maps. And books upon books about maps, or mapmakers. So it had that going for it. And second person. I know lots of folks can’t stand it, but I like second person. I like reading it. And I like writing in it.
August 14th, 2015. Bill Capossere´s rating: 0.1 | Ronlyn Domingue | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Previous SFF Author: Jay Posey
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.