Oh yeah folks, it’s time for some more politically tinged science fiction. Wait, what am I saying, the genre is inherently political. I had yet to purchase a ticket to the Richard Swan show, but when I heard his latest, The Infinite State, is about trying to jumpstart a democracy while living in an authoritarian…
Reading and then reviewing older science fiction always feels a bit weird. Rarely am I picking up something that is a hidden gem, a thing that someone has never read before. Often it feels like I am just adding to the choir of voices that already assures you “yes, this is good.” I know I…
The Iron Garden Sutra, by A.D. Sui, is the kind of book I relish. It’s an exploration of death amongst the stars through a semi-religious lens. I read it at a particularly weird time, an almost serendipitous one, had the circumstances not been so unfortunate. It popped up as ready from the library only a…
Tchaikovsky has a firehose of books headed down our way this year and we’ve had to split the stream. Since I’ve been having a blast with the Tyrant Philosophers despite my lean towards science fiction, I decided to take another dive into Tchaikovsky’s world of the god-killing, magic decanting, and faith improving Pallaseen Sway. Pretenders…
Continue reading ➞ Pretenders to the Throne of God – Gaze Into the Abyss
For Human Use, by Sarah G. Pierce, very nearly became a DNF for me. It had that perfect heady concoction of having an intriguing concept that is poorly introduced but examined through a lens that beckoned me like a fresh pie in an open window. Unfortunately, I should have stuck with my overall gut feeling…
Along with my more focused efforts on climate fiction, I’ve also wanted to dissect the role of science and engineering within the science fiction fantasy genre. Player Piano sort of spurred on my more recent fervor, but I feel that my general critique of science fiction plays with these ideas. Hence, when we were sent…
Kate Elliot has dazzled me in the past with her Alexander the Great-inspired space opera – The Sun Chronicles, and her fantasy novellas. I’ve always had too much on my plate to dive into her Crown of Stars series, but I may be changing my mind about that. The Witch Roads duology, by Kate Elliott,…
Adam Roberts is quickly becoming one of my favorite science fiction writers working today. I know I’ve only reviewed one of his novels, Purgatory Mount, but I’ve read two others, and as your about to find out, three of his novellas. I’m trying something a little different as I try to talk about three thematically…
Continue reading ➞ Adam Roberts – Stealing My Heart, One Novella at a Time
Recently, I have expressed a lot of frustration with some novels set in the midst of climate change, if not fully tackling the subject head-on. I am not surprised by these feelings, though it concerns me that at this late hour, it still feels like we are floundering on cohesive narratives that extend beyond “humans…
Continue reading ➞ The Forest On The Edge of Time – Mud Into Gods
I’ve been on a bit of a journey lately with my own reading schedule, trying to develop different reading projects to make sense of “the genre,” along with the world that the “genre” exists within. That’s a very vague way of saying “god I need something to read that I can talk about positively.” And…
Continue reading ➞ Sister Svangerd and The Not Quite Dead – Pray Like Hell
