Science Fiction
The Heritage of Hastur
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Mar 2008
Sharra's Exile
Marion Zimmer
Bradley
Mar 2008
To Save a World
Marion Zimmer
Bradley
Dec 2008
The Firebrand
Marion Zimmer
Bradley
Dec 2008
The Alton Gift
Marion Zimmer Bradley &
Deborah J Ross Mar 2008
The Fall of Neskaya
Marion Zimmer Bradley &
Deborah J Ross Dec 2008
The Curse of Chalion
Lois McMaster
Bujold
June 2009
Paladin of Souls
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
The Hallowed Hunt
Lois McMaster Bujold
Aug 2009
Cordelia's Honor
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
Beguilement
Lois McMaster
Bujold
June 2009
Legacy
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
Passage
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
Horizon
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
Empire
Orson Scott
Card
Nov 2007
Reap the Wild Wind
Juile E.
Czerneda
June 2007
A Thousand Words for Stranger Juile E.
Czerneda
June 2009
Ties of Power
Juile E.
Czerneda
June 2009
To Trade the Stars Juile E.
Czerneda
June 2009
Antagonist
Gordon
R Dickson & David W Wixon May 2008
House of Chains
Steven Erikson
Dec 2006
The Colony and the
Cavemen Dewey M. Erlwein
Sept 2007
Sliding Scales
Alan Dean
Foster
Mar 200
Variable Star
Robert
A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson Dec 2006
Mystic Empire
Tracy &
Laura Hickman
July 2006
Sun
in Glory
Mercedes Lackey ed.
The Wizard of London
Mercedes Lackey
July 2006
Reserved for the Cat
Mercedes
Lackey
Jan 2008
Foundation
Mercedes
Lackey
Oct 2008
The Phoenix Transformed
Mercedes Lackey & James Mallory
Feb 2010
Learning the World
Ken
MacLeod
July 2006
Wicked
Gregory Maguire
Son of a Witch
Gregory Maguire
A Lion Among Men
Gregory Maguire
Dec 2008
Acorna's Quest
Anne McCaffrey
and Margaret Ball Aug 2006
Acorna's People
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann
Scarborough Sept 2006
Acorna's World
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann
Scarborough
Acorna's Search
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann
Scarborough
Acorna's Rebels
Anne McCaffrey
and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Sept 2006
Acorna's Triumph
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Catalyst
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Feb 2010
Dragon's Kin
Anne McCaffrey and Todd
McCaffrey Mar 2008
Od Magic
Patricia A. McKillip
July
2006
The Devil's Eye
Jack McDevitt
Dec 2008
Victory Conditions
Elizabeth Moon
Apr 2008
Building
Harlequin’s Moon
Larry Niven and Brenda
Cooper
Fleet of Worlds
Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
Dec 2008
Juggler of Worlds
Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner Dec 2008
Three Hands
for Scorpio
Andre Norton
Temeraire
Naomi Novik
Dec 2006
Empire of Ivory
Naomi Novik
Dec 2007
Victory of Eagles
Naomi Novik
Oct 2008
Eldest
Christopher Paolini
Sept 2006
The_Infinite_Instant
Danielle L. Parker
Feb 2010
Into the Looking Glass
John Ringo
July 2008
Vorpal Blade
John Ringo &
Travis S. Taylor June 2008
Manxome Foe John Ringo &
Travis S. Taylor July 2008
Claws That Catch John Ringo &
Travis S. Taylor Mar 2009
The Last Colony
John Scalzi
June 2007
Star
Wars: Jedi Trial
Davis
Sherman & Dan Cragg
Coyote Frontier
Allen Steele
More Than
Human
Theodore
Sturgeon
Some of your
Blood
Theodore
Sturgeon
Slan
A E van
Vogt
Heinlein: Off the Main Sequence
Ed. Andrew Wheeler
July 2006
A Hole in
Texas
Herman Wouk
The Heritage of Hastur
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Mar 2008
Regis Hastur is 15. As he is returning to Thendara after 3 years
he again meets Lew Alton, 5 years his senior. They had been
friends before he was sent to school. The book alternates between
Regis and Lew. Regis joins the City Guard and meets Danilo
Syrtis. Lew is sent to Castle Aldaran and meets Marjorie Scott.
He also meets Beltran Alderan, Thyra, and Kadarin. Kadarin
describes the derivation and founding of Darkover. Kadarin
obtains the Sword of Sharra.
Danilo is captured by Beltran's men and taken to Castle Aldaran.
Regis asks his sister for help, names one of her children to be
his heir, takes provisions and leaves for Aldaran. Lew forms a
small circle at Aldaran and begins training them and they begin
experimenting with the Sharra matrix. Lew meets Danilo at Aldaran
and befriends him. Regis has been traveling over the Heller's and
he finally makes it to Aldaran, meeting the old lord and is reunited
with Danilo.
The old Lord Aldaran dies and Beltran takes his place. After Lord
Aldaran's funeral they all meet. Lew, Danilo, and Marjorie refuse
to help with the Sharra matrix and they are all captured by Beltran and
Kadarin. They take Lew's personal matrix and beat him.
Several days later Marjorie gets the matrix back, drugs the
guards, they find Danilo and Regis and all four escape. Regis has
a threshold attack on the road and Danilo helps him overcome it.
In the process they both learn more of their powers.
Marjorie and Lew are trapped in a Sharra caused snowstorm and are
recaptured by Beltran.
Danilo and Regis finally run into Kennard Alton on the road searching
for them. Kennard is Lew's Father. Lew is drugged and is
somehow forced to assist in using Sharra, the city of Caer Donn is
burned. Lew and Marjorie try to kill themselves but they can't,
they can not let Sharra be free so they make plans to destroy it.
They join the circle once more but Lew and Marjorie with
Kennard's help break free and teleport themselves to the Arilinn tower
with the Sword of Sharra. In the process Lew's arm where he held
the sword is ruined and Marjorie dies. The book ends with Danilo
being sworn in as the heir to Ardais and Kennard Alton taking his son,
Lew to Earth for treatment of his ruined arm.
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Sharra's Exile
Marion
Zimmer Bradley
Mar 2008
Lew and Kennard Alton are on Earth trying to heal Lew's arm which was
damaged by Sharra's fires. It is proving to be a failure.
Again this book switches between Lew Alton and Regis Hastur.
We switch to Regis 3 years after Sharra and the destruction of
Caer Domm. Regis and Dani have finished the Guard training and
are learning their responsibilities to the Domains. Regis meets,
many for the first time, the people who will play a large part of this
novel.
Lew: In the fifth year of his exile he meets Dio Ridenow. They
fall in love, are married, and have a horribly disfigured son who dies.
Kennard Alton dies. Dio land Lew separate and both
separately travel back to Darkover. Lew gets to Thendara just in
time to join the list of claimants to his father's position.
There are other issues, who marries whom, do the Hasturs retain
the regency, etc.
Lew meets Regis and while walking to the Alton building in the city the
home is attacked by Kadarin, he steals the sword Sharra, and Lew's
brother Marius is killed. Later in Council, to avoid a fight,
Regis produces an image of the original Sharra - within the wards, and
Council is closed for the year. Lew discovers that he has a
daughter by Thyra and is given custody of her.
Lew goes to the Midsummer Festival Ball and meets Dio. Kadarin
and Thyra are there with the Sharra sword. Sharra claims Linnell
and Derik's lives. Lew rides to Hali and with help claims the
Sword of Aldones. He is attacked by Katardin and Thyra, they are
arrested and brought back to the Terran base, Regis claims the Sword of
Aldones and cures Lew of a serious knife wound. The swords fight
it out, Kadarin and Thyra vanish, and the swords are destroyed.
Regis is declared King and Lew accepts the post as Senator for
Darkover in the Terran Senate.
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To Save a World
Marion Zimmer
Bradley
Dec 2008
Contains 2
novels and one short story: The World Wreckers, The Planet Savers, The
Waterfall
The Planet Savers: Jay
(Jason) Allison, a Terran was riding with his father when their
airplane crashed. He was saved and raised by the Trailmen.
They bring him back to humans when he was older and since then he
has been raised in Thendara and trained as a doctor. It seems
that the 48-year fever is beginning again and he is recruited to act as
an emissary to the Trailmen in hopes of convincing some of them to come
back to Trade City to act as sample donors in hopes of combating the
fever.
He agrees, they climb the difficult trail to the Trailmen's homeland,
convince a number to come back with them, and find a cure.
The World Wreckers: A group
has found a method of making money. It involves damaging a
recently discovered planet so that the inhabitants call for assistance
of merchants who make huge amounts of money exploiting the resources of
the planet. They have taken a new project - this time it is the
planet Darkover. The paid saboteurs are on the job, many
seemingly unrelated problems are occurring when a Chieri comes to the
Hastur's and offers his/her services. After numerous trials and
tribulations some of the mysteries of the Chieri are solved and there
is a new child born of mixed Chieri and Human parents. The Comyn
Council decides to work more closely with the Empire.
The Waterfall: A young
woman is attacked by a guard in her favorite area, a beautiful garden
overlooking a steep canyon with a river flowing over a cliff to form a
waterfall. He, with her pushing, rapes her. Then when she
hears other guards approaching she runs to them and tells them what
happened and tells them to throw her attacker over the ledge into the
waterfall. As they do it she feels tremendous sexual pleasure.
She now knows what her power is and how to feed it in the future.
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The Firebrand
Marion Zimmer
Bradley
Dec 2008
The story of Kassandra, Princess of Troy, daughter of Priam and Hecuba,
sister of Paris, priestess of Apollo, and niece of Penthesilea, the
Queen of the Amazons. This is not the story as told by Homer.
Kassandra and Paris are born as twins. The conservative view is
that they both should be exposed. If not both then the boy at
least as he is more likely to bring evil upon the kingdom. As a
compromise, Paris was fostered to the keeper of the King's herds while
Kassandra was brought up as a Princess. Kassandra was aware of
her twin through her mental gifts. As a young girl she
accompanied her mother, Hecuba, to the temple of Apollo and spoke with
the God. She promised that she would become His Priestess when
she was older. At perhaps sixteen she was fostered to her aunt
Penthesilea for a year. There she lived the life of an Amazon and
traveled to Colchis where her other aunt was queen. Colchis was a
country on the eastern border of the Black Sea, just north of the
eastern part of modern day Turkey. There she was initiated into
the mysteries of the Serpent Mother and snake handling. On the
way back she brings back her cousin, Andromache, who marries Hector,
her eldest brother.
On returning to Troy she discovers that her brother, Paris, has stolen
Helen, the wife of King Menelaus and that the visions of many ships in
Troy's harbor and Troy on fire are starting to come true. The
book covers the entire Trojan war and is fairly close to the story by
Homer. It is just told from mostly the Trojan point of view.
In Bradley's version the Greek soldiers do not hide in the
"Trojan Horse" but the horse was built by the Greeks and the walls of
Troy were destroyed by an earthquake opening a way for the Greeks to
conquer the city.
Kassandra is taken captive by the Greeks and Agamemnon claims her.
They set sail for his home but winds blow them to Egypt and they
spend the winter there. This takes quite a while as she has
Agamemnon's child in Egypt. They then sail to Agamemnon's home in
Nauplia (which may be the modern city of Nafplion). There
Agamemnon is led up to the palace and Kassandra and her child are taken
in a cart. There they are met by Queen Klytemnestra. Then
Agamemnon was led into the temple to perform a sacrifice and
Klytemnestra questions Kassandra about her feelings toward Agamemnon.
Just as she answers the king bursts through the temple doors but
is cut down by the sacrificial ax. Seeing that Kassandra did not
support Agamemnon, Klytemnestrea offers her a place in the Temple.
Kassandra refuses, asking leave to travel to her aunt's palace in
Colchis. Permission was granted and Kassandra and a companion
traveled to Colchis.
When they arrived her companion (whom she figured out very quickly was
a man) cast off his disguise and requested permission to travel west
and found a city and he asked Kassandra to travel with him, this time
as his wife. She agrees.
In a postscript Bradley tells how Kassandra was treated in ancient
literature. She is either killed by Klytemnestra, she is insane,
or she leads the women of Troy in a mass suicide. Then she quotes
from Tablet #803 in the Archaeological Museum in Athens:
Zeus of Dodona, give heed to this gift
I send you from me and my family--
Agathon son of Ekhephylos,
The Zakynthian family,
consuls of the Molossians and their allies,
descended for 30 generations
from KIassandra of Troy
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The Alton Gift Marion Zimmer Bradley & Deborah J Ross Mar 2008
It is four years since Regis Hastur's death. Regis's sister has
just died and her grandson Domenick has brought her body to be buried
in Hali. Following the funeral, Domenic and Alanna realize they
love each other.
Council sessions are beginning and the older Ridenow is seated as an
observer, bringing with him his youngest daughter, Sibelle. His
purpose: marriage to Domenic. At the ball, Domenic is with Alanna
and she is struck with threshold sickness. He pulls her through
and is in turn helped by his mother. Then there is a disturbance
at the gate. A rock strikes his father and his mother almost over
reacts. Alanna appears to have had something done to her in
Arlinn. The people who caused the disturbance are interviewed to
determine their grievances. Lew Alton decides to go to the
monastery at Nevarsin.
We meet Jeram (Jeremia Reed) as he has his first attack of threshold
sickness. He is taken to Nevarsin. Lew Alton is called on
to assist him, Jeram and Lew become friends. Jeram and Lew travel
to Nevarsin for the winter. There, they with Domenic and his
newfound love Illona, discover the first case of Trailmens Fever.
Domenic falls deeply in love with Illona.
Jeram travels to Thendara. The first hints of serious trouble
surface in Thendara and Jeram is captured by Francisco Ridenow.
Lew has a second heart mild attack. Ridenow brings Jeram to
the Council, Francisco challenges Mikhail. Francisco dies and
Mikhail is poisoned. Domenic temporarily takes his fathers place
presiding over council.
Trailmens Fever begins its second phase. Jeram agrees to help
find a cure and Alanna helps in the camp. Jeram and Marguerita
discover how to create a vaccine and they create a large amount but
Marguerita is completely drained and falls unconscious. Domenick
helps both his parents and they both survive.
Just as the Trailmens Fever outbreak is ending Alanna is stricken.
She has been upset over the obvious love between Domenick and
Illona and is determine to refuse treatment until Domenick makes it
clear that he will observe his earlier pledge to marry her. She
realizes that she has been childish and refuses his offer in Council.
Marguerita is found guilty of abusing her Alton laran.
Jeram brings his common-law wife to Thendara and he begins work
to combine Darkover and Terran science. (and they all live happily
everafter)
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The Fall of Neskaya
Marion Zimmer Bradley &
Deborah J Ross Dec 2008
During the time of the Hundred Kingdoms but before the compact.
Coryn, the son of a minor king, and Liane, the daughter of
another rival minor king are brought together as
students at Tramontana. At first they detest each other because
of family rivalries but the learn to become good friends. Then
word comes that Damian, the king of a somewhat larger area has taken
over both of their family castles.
Somewhat later, Coryn is being sent to Neskaya to continue his studies
as under Keeper. On the trail a storm comes up and he takes
refuge in a wayfarers cabin. While there a young woman arrives.
She is almost dead of exposure but he cares for her until they
can travel again. She is Taniquel Hastur-Acosta, the niece of
King Rafael Hastur and the young wife of Padrik Acosta, the local king.
She is escaping from King Damian who has just conquered her
husbands kingdom and murdered him. When she recovers enough to
travel they he goes on to Neskaya and she to Thendara.
After much time and convincing King Rafael agrees to defend her right
to her, and her newborn son's, right to rule the Acosta lands.
Coryn goes along with the war party as a Laranzu.
The army defeats the army of Damian and the lands of Coryn,
Liane, and Taniquel are returned to their proper owners.
However the Towers of Neskaya and Tramontana are destroyed, many laranzu are killed, and Coryn is rescued by Taniquel.
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The Curse of Chalion
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
Paladin of Souls
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
The Hallowed Hunt
Lois McMaster Bujold
Aug
2009
Three books of the Chalion series. In the first, Cazaril (Caz) is
returning from the wars. He was sold into slavery but was
rescued. He comes home hoping for a menial job in the kitchens
but instead is hired as secretary-tutor to the princess. When it
becomes obvious that she is going to be forced to marry one of the
villains so that he will become king after her brother is killed, Caz
kills him using Death Magic. However Caz does not die but a demon
settles in his belly.
The princess decides that she must marry the son of a neighboring king,
Caz helps set this up, the marriage takes place. The other
villain decides to kill her new husband and take her as his wife.
He attacks, he runs Caz through with his sword, the demon is
Caz's belly escapes, the Gods kill the villain, and Caz miraculously
recovers. Caz is appointed Lord Chancellor, he marries the
princess's Lady in Waiting, and everyone begins to live happily ever
after.
In the second, Paladin of Souls, the mother of the princess, now queen mother, is feeling penned
up. She needs to get out and travel. She escapes her
keepers and leaves with a small party. She is captured by raiders
from a neighboring kingdom and is in turn rescued by the master of a
border outpost. However it seems that the raiders are only the
first group of a major invasion. She is trapped in the border
outpost and learns that the rulers of the neighboring kingdom have
discovered a way to control demons. She learns from the Gods that
she can break the control over the demons and send them back to their
normal home. She does so and in the process kills the evil
leaders of the neighboring kingdom and frees the rest. She
discovers that her task for the next few years is to travel all over
the neighboring kingdoms releasing the demons that have been captured.
She finds true love again.
The third, The Hallowed Hunt,
is set in the same universe as the other two but it is completely
unrelated to them. An evil prince is attempting to rape and use
magically a young woman, Ijada, but she kills him and unknowingly
changes the spell. Lord Ingrey is sent to bring both Ijada and
the princely remains back to the castle, one to be executed and the
other to be buried. Ingrey brings them both back but he tries to
kill her several times and they fall in love. It would seem that
powerful magic is at work here.
It would seem that both Ingrey and Ijada are both related spiritually
and by direct descent to participants in a fateful battle several
hundred years earlier. The Gods want them to travel to the site
of the battle and correct the imbalances left over from the battle.
They do so and it seems likely that they will profoundly change
the kingdom.
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Cordelia's Honor
Lois McMaster
Bujold
June 2009
Two books, Shards of Honor and Barrayar
In Shards of Honor, Cordelia
Naismith is commanding a small survey ship when it is attacked by a
Barrayaran military patrol. She, a very seriously wounded
comrade, and the commander of the Barrayaran patrol are abandoned to
try to find a military supply dump. She and Vorkosigan are
attracted to each other but she is able to escape from his ship.
Later she is leading a minor military mission when she is
captured again. The Captain of the Barrayaran vessel begins to
torture her but is killed. The second in command is Vorkosigan.
This time they do fall in love but she is traded back to her
people when the war ends. She is treated very poorly at home and
escapes to Barrayar where she and Vorkosigan are married. He is
then appointed Regent to the young Emperor to be.
In Barrayar, the old Emperor
dies, Vorkosigan takes over a Regent with full powers but then there is
an attempt on their lives. Cordelia and Vorkosigan are almost
killed, their son, who is still unborn, is damaged by poisonous gas,
and is placed in a replicator. Then there is an attempted coup,
the young Emperor to be escapes and is hid in the mountains by
Cordelia, and his mother is captured. The opposition to the coup
is formed around Vorkosigan. When Cordelia rejoins him she with
several helpers makes an attempt to recover the child Emperor's mother
and recover the replicator. In the successful attempt the leader
is killed at the order of Cordelia, the young Emperor's mother is
killed, and the coup fails. The replicator is undamaged and
shortly afterwards the young Miles is removed from it. He
requires many medical procedures but he survives very well.
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Beguilement
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
Legacy
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
Passage
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
Horizon
Lois McMaster Bujold
June 2009
The Sharing Knife Series
In Beguilement, Fawn Bluefield
is tired of her family ignoring here, and pregnant via a foolish act;
sets out to find work. She runs across a group of Lakewalkers but
hides. Shortly thereafter they attack a group of bandits and
worse but two escapees grab Fawn. Dag, a senior Lakewalker,
rescues her but then he
leaves her in a safe place to hunt the malice. Two mudmen come
back and capture her. Dag is ready to attack the malice when they
carry Fawn into the cave. Dag tosses his knives to Fawn and she
kills the malice. They escape but her unborn
daughter miscarries. It seems that the special knife that
Lakewalkers use to kill malices have to be primed by a human death,
Fawn has killed the malice and her unborn daughter has primed the
second knife that Dag carries. This has never happened before and
Dag feels that Fawn must come with him to confer with someone more
knowledgeable.
After the malice is killed they stay in an abandoned farmhouse for
several days while Fawn recovers partially. As soon as they can they
travel to the nearest town where they both rest and recover. By
this time they are seriously in love. They then set off north
towards the Lake, stopping for a time at Fawn's parents farm.
There they are married using ceremonial features of both his and
her cultures. We last see them on the road headed north after the
wedding.
In Legacy, the two arrive back
at Hickory Lake where the reunion with Dag's mother and brother doesn't
go well but they are accepted by many others. After they had been
back for a short amount of time word comes that a malice has been
found. Dag is asked to be the Captain for the hunt. They
find the malice and in the struggle to kill it, a portion of the malice
partially takes over Dag's mind but Dag recovers. They find that
a trap the malice left is even more dangerous than they first believed.
Dag finds a way to destroy the trap but before he can he too is
trapped.
News of the death of the malice reaches Hickory Lake but Fawn knows
that something has happened to Dag. A small party including the
Healer starts off, Fawn is forbidden but she goes also. The trap
catches the healer but Fawn saves them all. They all return
safely but Dag is still very ill. Before he completely recovers
his mother and brother call a council meeting to get their marriage
annulled. The question is not settled but Dag announces that he
and Fawn will be leaving tomorrow morning. We last see them on
their horses headed south.
In Passage, Fawn and Dag
arrive at Fawn's parents farm. They stay for a few weeks to help
with harvest before they leave taking Fawn's brother Whit with them.
After a few days travel they join a freight wagon and Dag repairs
a broken bone of one of the workers. When they arrive at the
river port Fawn gets them working passage on a flatboat down the river.
Every good deed receives its just reward and the young man that
Dag helped wants to go with them and he is also offered passage on the
boat. Then representatives of the local Lakewalkers come
complaining that Dag has cured a farmer. Shortly after a young
woman arrives with an inflamed appendix accompanied by her husband and
a lot of angry drunks. Dag cures her and mollifies the crowd.
Just before the river water comes up a young Lakewalker joins
them on the flatboat.
Several days after they depart another young Lakewalker joins them in a
canoe. After a few difficulties they begin to come together as a
crew. They rescue the crew of a sunken flatboat and shortly
thereafter another canoe paddles out to offer then guides past a tricky
spot. It turns out to be the bait for a pirate group. They
capture the two "guides", wait most of a day stopping other boats
coming down the river looking for additional people to help with the
pirates, and then clear out the pirates in a surprise attack.
After waiting a few days for recovery they travel down the rest
of the river to the Ocean.
In Horizon, the boat crew
splits up to make their separate ways back north. Dag apprentices
to a local master ground maker and stays with him for a month or so
before Dag saves the life of a young farmer boy. The local
Lakewalker Captain banishes Dag so he and Fawn get ready to leave
heading north but then the master ground maker arrives and says that
Dag needs more training and he is going with them to insure that Dag is
trained properly. The join a small group heading north which
keeps growing and growing. When they get close to their
destination the run into a malice. They kill it with only minor
injuries to their caravan. Then they run into another one that
must have originated in a bat cave because it and its mudmen were all
giant bats. This one is much more dangerous. Dag, Fawn, and
many more are injured and several are killed but then Fawn's brother
Whit is able to kill the malice using Dag's Sharing Knife. After
several days of rest and recovery they continue on to their destination
where each family goes its separate way. We pick up the story
almost a year later, Fawn has her baby girl, Dag and his teacher have
set up a clinic and many Lakewalker medicine men and women have been
coming to inquire how they perform some of their treatments and several
of the Lakewalker groups are starting to be much more receptive to
Dag's ideas.
Empire
Orson
Scott Card
Nov 2007
I struggled as to where to put this. I finally classified it
as Science Fiction because Card is known as a SF author. The
book contains a few "science fiction" gadgets but it is intended (or at
least it seems that way to me) as a cautionary tale explaining why
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others of the far right religious political
spectrum are correct and why anyone who might possibly believe in civil
rights, individual freedom, religious liberty, and any other
traditional American values should be stopped by means of physical
violence before they do the same to all of us God Fearing Right
Americans. Has he been taking writing and political lessons
from Michael Crichton (State of Fear)?
A brilliant military hero discovers a plot to take over the United
States. He and his assistant single handedly foil the part of
the plot to destroy the Government of the US but the President and Vice
President are killed. Why? Then strange war
machines (straight out of War of the Worlds by way of Star Wars)
start
taking over major cities and political movements start taking over
several states including Washington State. Our brilliant military
hero gets killed but his valiant assistant continues on. Using
brilliant logic he traces the evil to a (volcanic?) crater in
Washington State. He must dislike Governor Chris Gregoire more
than the governor of Oregon. It is financed by an evil left wing
industrialist (Soros?) who kills himself while escaping. Card's
geography is not too bad except for his misplacement of Crater
Lake and a guard watching trucks coming down the Lewiston, Idaho hill
(no way!). It gets a little vague in the approaches to "Crater
Lake" in the Washington Cascades but that is reasonable.
If you believe that America's problems are caused by a vast left-wing
conspiracy this book is wonderful. If that doesn't meet your
political beliefs - you will probably wish that Card had gone back to
Ender and wrote a good science fiction novel. As politics it is
just plain stupid. It won't take many books or articles like this
to convince me to write Card off my reading list. It's too bad,
he can be a good and inventive author.
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Reap the Wild Wind
Juile E.
Czerneda
June 2007
Book 1 of the Stratification Series
Coming of age on Cersi, a young girl, Aryl, is close to becoming an
adult when daydreams of a potential lover cause her to fail to save her
brother. That is just the beginning of a disaster that will
destroy her clan, her potential lover is lost to her, she helps save a
number of "outcasts" from her clan and from the fly-leaf explanatory
text will propel her into the future where she will discover the powers
that will change her world.
Being of "hard" SF bent I have a couple of minor quibbles. Her
"trees" seem to be more like grasses, growing from the ground instead
of the tip. I realize that cane does this but I question the
ability of a "cane" to hold a tree city. Maybe yes, but I would
like to see more of the biological details. Like I said, minor
quibble. She is a great author, I will have to go back and read
more of her earlier works.
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A Thousand Words for Stranger Juile E.
Czerneda
June 2009
Ties of Power
Juile E.
Czerneda
June 2009
To Trade the Stars
Juile E.
Czerneda
June 2009
The books of
the Trade Pact Series, it follows the Stratification Series
In A Thousand Words for Stranger
we meet Sira, a direct descendant of Aryl of the Stratification
Series. She finds herself abandoned and with no memory of who she
is but a compulsion to find a Captain Morgan. We follow her and
Morgan as she explores her memory.
In Ties of Power Sira and
Morgan explore their life together but then Sira is (?kidnapped?) by a
race called the Drapsk. They are seeking a Witch of power to help
their race find something that they have lost. At the same time
many within the Clan are seeking her as she is believed to be the
salvation of the Clan. All the action begins when Morgan is away
on a trading trip. The rest of the book is concerned with the
journey taken by Sira as she attempts to escape from the Drapsk, and
when this fails to determine just what they want with her, Morgan's
attempts to find her, and the Clan, headed by her father, attempt to
capture her and turn her into their salvation over perhaps her dead or
at least un-sentient body.
In To Trade the Stars Sira and
Morgan think that their problems are mostly over - Wrong! It
seems that the Drapsk have additional plans for Sira which she cannot
escape without serious help and there are renegade Clan and Humans who
have their own plans for her. Again Sira and Morgan prevail.
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Antagonist
Gordon R Dickson
& David W Wixon May 2008
The final (I hope) book of the Childe Cycle. Gordon R Dickson was
a prolific science fiction author with many great books. The
Childe Cycle of at least 12 books is a classic of the future of
humanity type of novels. His final novel was unfinished at the
time of his death in 2001 and his assistant finished it. Either
his previous novels weren't as good as I remember them or he had lost
his touch - or perhaps his assistant shouldn't have bothered.
The book is primarily about two brothers - super heroes - but
unfortunately there is a lot of kryptonite laying around. There
is way too much amateur philosophizing and not enough action. Our
main hero, Bleys, is on a long slide into the Dark Side.
Unfortunately it has been a long time since the previous book,
which I didn't read, and there is no linkage to give any clues as to
what is going on. I was hoping to bring back the old novels, this
book didn't. It was a serious disappointment.
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House
of Chains
Steven Erikson
Dec 2006
I made a bad mistake when I got this book, Science Fiction Book Club, I
didn't return my order card so they sent me the club selection.
I
decided not to send it back, I should have. Perhaps some
people
like this type of book, I don't. Perhaps if you had read the
first three books in the series you might understand it, I haven't and
I did not. Lots of big nasty warriors, thought is considered
weak, killing is considered good. It wasn't until around page
700
(out of 850 or so) that we finally found a woman who was useful for
something other than raping. I often wonder about fiction
universes that don't seem to have families - where do the warriors come
from? Also those who don't have farmers - where does their
food
come from? Not that they have to go into all of the details,
but
they should at least drop a few hints. Again, if you like
this
OK, if you don't, and I didn't, don't bother.
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The Colony and the Cavemen
Dewey M. Erlwein
Sept 2007
The local librarian said that this was a bad book, she was right.
It is 200,000 years ago on Venus. A few scientists
are
warning of global warming but they are generally ignored. A
private industrialist decides to send a small group of astronauts to
Earth to trade with the Neanderthals. They make the first
interplanetary voyage but shortly after landing their return vehicle
becomes damaged. They realize they will be staying, they
settle
in, befriend the Neanderthals, have a few adventures, and discover that
they are mutually fertile.
The dialog is juvenile, the sex is childish, emotion is non-existent,
and the science is so poor it is not even humorous. The cover
and
illustrations look they were drawn by a twelve-year old boy.
I am
repeating myself, the book is bad.
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Sliding Scales
Alan Dean
Foster
Mar 2008
A Pip and Flinx juvenile. Flinx (Philip Lynx) has been under a lot of stress, his ship, Teacher,
suggests that he take a vacation in some totally out of the way place.
Flinx agrees and so off they go to Jast, a very out of the way
planet not a part of the Commonwealth or the AAnn empire. The
dominant race is called the Vssey. Unfortunately the available
records did not contain information on the large number of AAnn who
were on the planet attempting to force it into the AAnn empire.
When he arrives he is greeted by the Vssey and an AAnn is procured to
show him around. This nasty, bad tempered, paranoid although
perfectly normal AAnn finds an excuse to kill Flinx and is mostly
successful. However he is rescued by a somewhat renegade colony
of AAnn artists however he looses his memory.
Back in the main city of Jast there is an insurrection in progress.
Given the lack of physical prowess, the Vssey are slow and
deliberative, but one individual has a new idea.
In the artists colony Flinx is recovering and is accepted as a valued
member, other than the fact that he is non-reptilian. Word gets
back to the AAnn who tried to kill him that a human has been found.
In an effort to find Flinx, and assure that he has another
"accident", everything goes wrong and the AAnn discovers too late that
he is the carrier of a bomb (in his medical gurney) that is being
placed deep within an AAnn installation.
Flinx retains his ship and they begin the journey back to Commonwealth space.
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Trouble Magnet
Alan Dean Foster
June 2009
A Pip and Flinx juvenile. There is some nastyness out there that
has plans on eradicating the entire human race along with any one else
who may be available. Flinx has finally found his true love but
she is injured. While friends help her mend, Pip and Flinx are
out looking for a sentient Tar-Aiym weapons system. It's enough
to drive a lesser man to depression, and Flinx is getting pretty
depressed about the whole thing. The thought crosses his mind,
"Are humans worth saving?" To help answer this question he stops
by Visaria - generally a planet well worth avoiding - to see if he can
find someone who can convince him to answer the question in the
affirmative. After numerous questionable and dangerous
relationships he finally finds a young couple. Of course they are
in desperate straights and Pip and Flinx get drawn in. After a
rather miraculous rescue all is well and his search resumes. An
OK book but very juvenile.
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Variable
Star
Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson
Dec 2006
When was the last time that you read a brand new book by your favorite
author - who died in 1988. The book was originally partially
written in 1955 but then put aside for more pressing tasks.
Then
it was discovered in 2003 and Spider Robinson was offered the job of
pulling the notes together and finishing the book. Two years
later it was completed.
A young man from the asteroid belt is in love and wants to get married,
his intended agrees and they fly up to meet her family. It
all
goes well until he discovers that her family is the richest on Earth
and her grandfather has his life all programmed out for him.
The
young man panics, flees the scene and emigrates to an earth colony.
We have an appropriate number of adventures, and he is
finally
reunited with his love but by then she is married to a physics whiz who
has invented a new faster than light drive for a spaceship but the
little sister is available and interested. Not everyone lives
happier ever-after but some give it a good try.
A classic Heinlein juvenile updated with some current events.
Heinlein buffs will read it sooner or later.
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Mystic
Empire Tracy
& Laura Hickman
July 2006
Book Three of the Bronze Canticles Trilogy. If you really
want to
read this book, get Mystic Warrior and Mystic Quest, the first two
books and read them before this one. There are three separate
cultures, Human, Faery, and Goblin. Each contains numerous
species. Each lives on a parallel world with a small but
increasing leakage between them. The first two books develop
the
history of each of the parallel worlds with very little interaction
between them. For the first two books, I "got" the individual
cultures but the relationships between the worlds was very vague and
confusing. For this last book, the interactions between the
cultures become the important considerations but you need to know the
history of the individual cultures to make much sense of the story.
It is really one long novel broken somewhat arbitrarily into
3
parts by publishing considerations. I found the lengthy gaps
between the individual books exacerbated the already confusing plot
lines. You have to be really into fantasy to really
appreciate
this trilogy. I am not that much of a fantasy fan, I probably
should have passed.
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Sun
in Glory
Mercedes Lackey ed.
If you are a fan of Valdemar you will get this book, if you are not
into sword and sorcery – don’t bother. A
series of short stories written by both amateurs and professional
writers, all approved by Lackey. It includes one story by
Mercedes. Most of the stories are obviously not the work of
Mercedes but they are quite entertaining.
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The
Wizard of London
Mercedes Lackey
July 2006
Book Four of her Elemental Masters Series. The series is
based on
the practitioners of magic who live in what is presumably Victorian
England. In this book Isabelle and Fredrick Harton, who run
the
Harton School for Boys and Girls in London, have just received a new
student from darkest Africa. The school is fairly small and
specializes in children of British expatriates who must live where they
believe it would be dangerous to raise their children. They
also,
quietly, offer assistance to children who have magical powers that are
different from those of the Elemental Masters. After several
misadventures they discover that the young girl, who has a guardian
parrot, is a true medium: she can communicate with the dead.
On a
school outing they come in contact with several of the more important
Elemental Masters, including The Wizard of London, whom Isabelle had
been in love with many years before. With the help of their
young
students, several employees, and the God Pan, the Hartons
save
The Wizard of London from an evil Master in league with an evil Ice
Lord.
This new series of hers is very different from her Valdemar series.
Equally enjoyable but very different.
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Reserved for the Cat
Mercedes
Lackey
Jan 2008
A continuation of her Elemental Masters Series. A young woman is a
dancer in the Paris Opera. She is quite good but not a star.
Then the star of the performance is injured and she is asked to
dance the staring role. She does very well and gets a very good
review in Le Figaro.
Unfortunately this is not good, the star does not like anyone
showing her up and she is fired the next afternoon. Despondently
she heads home to her small flat. She has only 3 days left before
the rent is due and she has no money and now no job.
In tears she contemplates her bleak future. Then she hears a voice? Ninette, please do not cry!
But there is nobody there but a scrawny tomcat who always seems
to be around. So now she is hearing things. But no, You are not hearing things. You are hearing me.
It turns out that the cat, whose name is Thomas, is speaking
directly to her mind. To do a quick fast forward, it turns out
that Thomas is her "guardian" and she must travel with him to London.
By a fair amount of hook and crook she is "rescued" by several
young gentlemen and they set up a review starring her. To do this
she impersonates a recently deceased Russian dancer. However the
shape of the Russian dancer has been taken over by a malevolent spirit
who does not like the competition. Several adventures entail and
the book has a very nice ending.
A good writer, a nice uncomplicated story, sufficient bad guys and good
guys and a really nice little book. Even if you don't
particularly like fantasy this is a really nice book.
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Foundation
Mercedes
Lackey
Oct 2008
Volume 1 of the Collegium Chronicles. Our to be hero, Mags is a
young boy working in the mines. The mine owner treats his serfs
very badly but Mags is one of the best workers so he is treated better
than some others. Then one day a man riding a white horse, with
another white horse, comes to the mine and asks for Mags. After
sufficient arguing and threats Mags goes with the man. After
several days to gain strength Mags and his new Companion (that's the
white horse) set off for far away Haven to join the newly established
Collegium as a Herald in training.
Some books never grab you, some take a while, Lackey's books grab you
by the time you are half finished with the first page.
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The Phoenix Transformed
Mercedes
Lackey & James Mallory
Oct 2008
Volume 3 of the Enduring Flame. I partially take back what I said about the previous book. Tiercel and Harrier are sort of stranded in the desert with some tribesman. It would seem that the main idea is to kill off as many tribesman as possible but there are still more. For the first two-thirds of the long book their main job is to complain about their circumstances. Only at the very end do they do anything and they seem to be amazed that anything happens. Correct, I am not fond of this book.
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Learning
the World
Ken MacLeod
July 2006
When the book begins the year is 14,364 A.D. the date is 5/12 at 17:24.
The starship is named But
the Sky, My Lady! The Sky!
and it has been en-route for 4,000 years. The ship is about 500
light years from earth and it is nearing a star system. It would
be a generation ship but human lifetimes have been extended so that
they are almost unlimited. In their exploration and colonization
of stars there has never been a sentient species discovered. This
is about to change, the inhabitants of the second planet from this star
have just spotted a new comet with a very strange orbit. The book
chronicles the life aboard the ship and on the planet from shortly
before they become aware of each other through the through their mutual
discoveries of each other over a 12 year time span. At the end of
this some of the humans continue on their way, some remain, primarily
in the asteroid belt, and both humans and the inhabitants of the planet
consider the other lights in the sky that are not stars, they seem to
be products of intelligence. A very strange book. My first
thought was "Huh?" but then it grew on me and became quite fascinating.
I will look for more books by MacLeod.
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Wicked
Gregory Maguire
The book chronicles the life and times of Elphaba of the House of
Thropp, who would become known as the Wicked Witch of the West,
her sister Nessarose who would become the Eminence of the East,
more commonly called the Wicked Witch of the East, and Glinda who was
for a time Elphaba's roommate at Shiz University just outside of the
Emerald City. Glinda would later go on to rule Oz for a time
but that happens later.
Elphaba was born in the outer reaches of Munchkinland to a fairly
ineffectual minister and the daughter of the leader of the Munchkins.
It was a strange birth, she was green, had very sharp teeth, and
was seemingly allergic or at least suffered great distress from coming
in contact with water.
Other than these minor differences she had a relatively normal
childhood. She later had a brother and a sister although there
was some concern about paternity. She went to the major
university, she was an adequate student, quite interested in biological
studies, moderately proficient in magic even though it was not
appropriate in religious circles. She later became a somewhat
ineffective political agitator and was forced to leave the Emerald City
when her lover was killed by the police. She then made her way to
the Cloister of Saint Glinda where she stayed for some years and gave
birth to her son. She then traveled to the castle of her lover
and lived there, trying to learn more magic, until Dorothy came.
The rest you probably know.
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Son
of a Witch Gregory Maguire
The sequel to Wicked. My
outlook on the world of Oz has been forever changed by these two books.
L. Frank Baum evidently had a much more interesting setting than
we ever knew. It's too bad that he never new about the "real"
story of Oz.
Liir, the son of the Witch, is found mostly dead. The book covers
Liir's life from the death of the Witch, to his "accident" and recovery
until he regains consciousness. The story switches back and forth
from before accident to after accident. Then the two plot lines
converge and we continue on until the birth of his daughter. If
you thought that The Wizard of Oz
was a children's story, you were right. These books look at Oz
from the viewpoint of the politics surrounding this period in the life
of Oz. These books are for advanced children. I
enjoyed them very much.
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A Lion Among Men
Gregory
Maguire
Dec 2008
Volume Three in the series (Wicked Years). The story of the
(sometimes) Cowardly Lion. His name is Brrr. The book
describes his early life (he was an experimental Animal in Shiz but
Elphaba rescues him. He travels all over Oz, we all know of his
meeting with Dorothy, but we discover that the Wizard didn't really
give him much courage, he just gave him a job as a spy. He ends
up at the Cloister of Saint Glinda (where Liir was born) and everything
pretty much comes together while he is there. Unfortunately as it
ends two new story lines are created. The further adventures of
Brrr and the continuing search for Liir (and/or his daughter) by his
(half?) sister. I hope he writes the next book soon because I
don't want to wait that long. Wicked came out in 1995 and Son of a Witch came out in 2005. Thats a long time between books.
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Acorna's
Quest
Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball Aug
2006
A juvenile by a very good author and a collaborator. Mix the
unicorn legend in with science fiction and see what happens.
Acorna, the unicorn girl, has been found as an infant in a rescue
pod by three asteroid miners. She obviously comes from a
high-tech civilization but it is unknown to humans. They meet
with a number of humans who wish to use and abuse her. This book
starts with Acorna as a very fast maturing "teenager" who still has the
miners as her guardians and has also acquired two rich and powerful
protectors. Several members of Acorna's species have come to warn
humanity of a large army of vicious invaders on the way to human
occupied space. They set out to rescue her only to find that she is
attempting to rescue a group of humans in trouble. Acorna doesn't
seem to need all that much rescuing but she does wish to meet her
relatives. The bad guys discover that humans can be rather nasty
when defending their territory. Not a tremendously exciting book
but you can never tell when McCaffrey will come up with an interesting
idea.
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Acorna's
People
Anne McCaffrey
and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Sept 2006
Acorna has found her relatives and travels with her aunt to the current
home planet of her people. There she finds a stilted, tradition
based culture that she doesn't fit in with very well. Her
aunt is sent on a mission to learn why the signals from some bases have ceased.
Another story line starts with Becker, a space junk collector, runs
afoul of some of Acorna's enemies. Being enemies of the same
people, Becker and Acorna are destined to become friends. Sure
enough they join forces and with Hafiz (Acorna's foster parent) they
rescue Acorna's aunt and others of her race who have been captured by
the evil parties. They all travel back to narhii-Vhiliinyar
for a joyful homecoming. There it is pointed out to Acorna that
the home world is the residence of the more traditional, tradition
loving branch of her people, the more progressive are commonly found on
other worlds and in space. Acorna belongs with this second
group.
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Acorna's World
Anne McCaffrey and
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Acorna's Search
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Acorna's
Rebels
Anne McCaffrey
and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Sept 2006
Acorna is helping rebuild Vhiliinyar, the native planet of the
Linyaari. She is mourning her lifemate Aari who has disappeared
while on a quest to find information about the origins of the Linyaari.
As a sort of vacation she and her friends decide to see if they
can find Aari and solve the mystery of the Temple Cats, who
mysteriously disappeared just before Vhiliinyar was destroyed.
After numerous adventures they partially solve the Temple Cat
mystery, save the Temple Cats and the humans on their planet. They
still don't find Aari but they are finding more about why he vanished.
Still a juvenile series.
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Acorna's Triumph
Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
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Catalyst
Anne McCaffrey and
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough Mar 2010
A new series, "A Tale of the Barque Cats". It is not said in so many terms but it looks like an alien species came to visit ancient Egypt. They had space ships in the shape of pyramids and they took cats and perhaps some humans back with them and/or left their guests somewhere. The cats got smart and the humans are not important in this story.
In this story a sub-species of the domestic house cat has arisen and it is very useful in spotting problems in space ships. Two subplots, in the first a pregnant female cat is "catnapped" and one of her kittens is later recovered by the owner. But then the owner and kitten are captured by one of the "Egyptian" cats in space. The second subplot involves an evil politician who convinces the government to quarantine all animals being shipped. This doesn't work out well and the two subplots merge. Everything gets sorted out, many of the cats escape and go back to the "Egyptian" planet and our kitten and owner are making plans to go there.
Definitely a juvenile, both in planned audience and plot.
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Dragon's Kin
Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey Mar
2008
The book starts with a brief history of Pern to this point.
8 Turns From landfall to beginning of first pass (Turn - Pern for year)
50 Turns Length of first pass (Pass - period of time during which Thread falls)
200 Turns Length of first interval
50 Turns Length of second pass
200 Turns Length of second interval
This book begins 16 Turns before the beginning of the third pass.
Kindan is the youngest son of a miner, a miner who is in charge of a
watch-wher. His father is killed in a mine accident and the wher
dies in helping get several miners out. As his father was a
widower, his remaining siblings are fostered out and Kindan is
apprenticed to the local Harper, Master Zist. He and Kindan do
fairly well for several months.
The Kindan is sent to "impress" a watch-wher and bring the egg back to
the mine where it will be used in the mine. He is successful and
is responsible for its welfare. He is befriended by a blind girl,
Nuella, the daughter of the Chief Miner. She helps him with the
wher, especially with going into the mine as her blindness is much less
of a problem in the dark.
Nuella shows a remarkable ability to get along with and work with the
watch-wher. She is asked to travel (by dragon back) to various
holds to train wher-masters in a new technique that she discovered.
Just as she returns there is a cave-in at the mine. She and
Kindan's watch-wher rescue the trapped miners. The watch-wher and
Nuella bond and Kindan is accepted as a Harper. Both Nuella and
Kindan are pleased by this arrangement.
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Od Magic
Patricia
A. McKillip
July 2006
Od is an ancient magician who started a school of Magic several hundred
years ago. Od wanders a lot and in her journeys she comes across
a young untrained magician named Brenden Vetch. He is very good
with plants. Od has been thinking about her school for some time
and realizes that Brenden would be a perfect test for what may be going
wrong at the school. She sends him there as a gardener and at the
same time he arrives, Od arrives disguised as a young but talented
pupil. With the unwitting help of a number of people including a
young princess and others associated with the school and the palace the
problems are discovered and the school and the kingdom are set back on
a proper path. The book is a little slow in getting where it is
going but it is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.
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The Devil's Eye
Jack McDevitt
Dec 2008
An Alex Benedict Novel
Alex Benedict, interstellar antiquities dealer, and his assistant,
pilot, and overall girl Friday, Chase Kolpath are on vacation when they
receive a cryptic message from a celebrated horror writer who has asked
for help in some way and has transferred a very large sum of money to
Alex. They travel to the place the writer had been vacationing to
try to determine what is going on. There they travel around the
planet, get captured by the bad guys, escape, fly a taxi into orbit,
save the planet, prevent an interstellar war between humans and the
other known space going species in this part of the Galaxy, and get
hailed as heroes by both species. And in the process Alex finds,
keeps, and then sells a previously unknown volume of Churchill's
history. All in all a very profitable journey even if it did take
several months more than planned. A very nice book.
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Victory Conditions
Elizabeth
Moon
Apr 2008
The final episode(?) of the Vatta's War series. Kylara and Rafe
are pretty much on their own. Ky in command of her small but
effective space force, Rafe as the President of the communications
company following the injuries to his father. They are both
obviously too young to be in such command positions - it's just that no
one else is qualified.
Of course they prevail after suitable trials and tribulations. A
necessary and satisfying conclusion to the series but not as good as
the other books. Too much of a geo-political-economic analysis
and not as much of a story about real people interacting. The
earlier books were more satisfying as the focus was much more on the
main characters doing the things that made the difference. In
this book they set up the conditions and others did most of the
exciting stuff. And where this was not true, Rafe capturing the
spy, you wonder, why was he doing this himself? Shouldn't the
most valuable player send someone else in instead of risking his life?
I really enjoyed the series, this just happened to be the weakest book.
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Building
Harlequin's Moon Larry
Niven and Brenda
Cooper
The John Glenn, the first interstellar spaceship, as left Earth
intending on traveling to a planet suitable for
terraforming. Enroute they encountered difficulties and were
forced to stop at a star with very poor prospects. They were
forced to modify an existing moon to create the facilities needed to
manufacture the needed quantities of antimatter so that they can resume
their journey. This is the story of Rachel, one of the first
generation born on the newly terraformed moon. She, and all
those born with her and thereafter, were destined to become the workers
who would build the infrastructure on the moon and then build the
antimatter generator to supply fuel for the starship. One
might call them slave laborers. This is the story of the
conflict between the Earth Born and the Moon Born. It
recounts the origins of the conflict, the attempts at resolving the
conflict, the emergencies and the political unification of the two
groups. It is a Larry Niven book – its good.
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Fleet of Worlds
Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
Dec 2008
Juggler of Worlds
Larry
Niven and Edward M. Lerner Dec 2008
These are two different aspects of the same story. Each major
section of both books is defined by the date of occurrence. As
examples the dates of the sections in Fleet of Worlds are 2197, 2650,
2650, 2650, and 2652. The dates of the sections in Juggler of
Worlds are 2637, 2641, 2645, 2645, 2648, 2650, 2651, 2652-53, 2654-55,
2656-57, 2658, 2659, and 2660. In Fleet of Worlds we follow an
expedition from Earth, which first sights the Fleet of Worlds - the
home of the Puppeteers, is captured, and the crew and the frozen
fetuses are enslaved by the Puppeteers. Almost 500 years later
three descendants rebel, discover the original Earth ship, and
threatened the Puppeteers until they were allowed to take one
(NP4 or New Terra) of the six worlds and leave the Fleet so that
they might follow their own destiny.
Juggler of Worlds bounces around much more. It expands on a
number of much earlier short segments by Larry Niven and puts them
together in a common narrative. Some of the major characters that
appear are Sigmund Ausfaller (ARM agent), Julian Forward (Jinx
Physicist), Gregory Pelton (wealthy industrialist), Beowulf Schaeffer
(pilot), Carlos Wu (Earth Physicist), Nessus and Nike (both
Puppeteers). We follow the events surrounding the discovery of
the Galactic Core Explosion, the withdrawal of General Products from
Earth, more of the politics on Hearth (Puppeteers), Earth and several
of the other worlds in Known Space, and the journey of Ausfaller and
several people from NP4 to the Outsiders and the deal with the
Outsiders, Puppeteers, and humans.
I have never seen other books so intertwined as these two. I am
glad that I got both at the same time from the library. I was
very happy to see Niven creating more books in the Known Space
universe. This has been one of the best series in all of science
fiction and it is continuing.
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Three Hands
for Scorpio Andre Norton
There is trouble in the land. The Lord and Lady are summoned
to a meeting to discuss the matter. The triplet daughters are
left behind in the well defended castle. They are kidnapped
by evil magic while the rest o the castle sleeps in an unnatural
slumber. The captors, fearing pursuit and eventful capture
lower the three girls into the strange underworld called the Dismals to
die. After a suitable number of adventures and with the
assistance of a strange young man whom they don’t completely
trust, they escape the Dismals. They are united with their
parents and with the additional help of some unexpected friends they
solve the mystery of the Dismals and destroy the evil that has been
stalking their land. The book is suitable for rather dull,
unimaginative subteen girls. Nortons books have not been
extremely intellectual bur have usually been entertaining. I
was disappointed.
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Temeraire
Naomi Novik
Dec 2006
My previous book was House of Chairs, this is equally long and
equally improbable but much more fun to read. Ever since the Pern
series dragons have been the BIG thing
in fantasy-science fiction. This is a historical novel set
during the Napoleonic Wars. A young British naval Captain
captures a French ship that contains a large dragon egg. Several
days later the egg hatches and the Captain "impresses" the newly
hatched dragon. Since this is an "alternative history" dragons
are relatively common and are used in European countries as an Air
Force. This is a package of three reasonable length novels
packaged in one long book. We
follow Captain Laurence through his first few days with Temeraire, his
training to be an aviator and acquiring a flight crew, a surprise trip
to China to solve some diplomatic problems caused by the fact that
Temeraire was originally given to Napoleon Bonaparte as a gift from the
Chinese Emperor, and his flight back to Europe where he was forced into
joining the Prussian Air Force.
The problems that I had with the book were that she seemed to run out
of ideas during the Prussian campaign against Napoleon - it just seemed
to drag and and the problems with the size and the physics of dragons.
Contrary to the opinions of many science fiction and fantasy
authors size actually does matter. Novik is proposing dragons
that weigh up to 50 tons and carry as many as 300 combat troops.
The ability of such a creature to fly, breath, consume a
reasonable amount of food, etc. seriously strains my credulity. I
enjoyed the story but a suspension of belief was necessary.
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Empire of Ivory
Naomi Novik
Dec 2007
Book 4 of the Temeraire Series
Straight continuation of the above series. When we left book 3
Temeraire and a group of dragons had just left Europe for England and
when book 4 starts they are still flying to England. They make it
to England to discover that the dragons have been struck with a serious
illness (flu?). They fight valiantly for a while but they gain
intelligence that there might be a cure in Africa. A small group
of dragons sails (by ship) to the south of Africa, they find a cure but
discover another culture of dragons in the middle of Africa who are
hostile because of British slave trading. They escape with
sufficient cure (wouldn't want to give away plot elements) and the
technology to create more. After they return, the English dragons
are recovering nicely, but they discover that the English high command
has instituted a program of biological warfare against French dragons.
They take steps to rectify the situation. Not a good move
politically.
Again the plot moves very slowly, there are only a few major plot ideas
with no significant subplots. It just seems to plod and even the
exciting parts are way too drawn out. I will read the next book
but I hope it gets better. The publicist blurb in the back of the
book says that she has optioned rights to Peter Jackson - Lord of the
Rings movies - a movie would go much better.
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Victory of Eagles
Naomi Novik
Oct 2008
Book 5 of the Temeraire Series
Again, straight continuation of the above. I am getting
disappointed with the series. Way too much chatter and not enough
action. From now on if there are more books in the series I will
get them from the library before I spend money. A disappointment.
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Eldest
Christopher Paolini
Sept 2006
Second book of the Inheritance Series
Eragon and his dragon partner, Saphira, have survived and played a
major part in saving the dwarf stronghold from the forces of the evil
King Galbtorix. He and a small group travel to the land of the
elves where he is to complete his first training as a Dragon Rider.
Meanwhile his cousin, Roran, is being sought by minions of the
King back in their home in Carvahall. After the King's soldiers
attack but are driven back Roran assumes leadership of the townspeople
and leads them on a trek to Surda where they arrive just as the battle
starts between the King's armies and the humans and dwarfs. Roran
and Eragon meet on the battlefield where the forces of the King are
partially defeated. When the book ends the King's army is
retreating and the army of the Varden (humans, dwarfs, elves, and
Dragon Rider) is trying to pull itself together after the fight.
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The Infinite Instant
Danielle L. Parker
Feb 2010
Oh, Oh, I know the author! We have a novel set in the indefinite future. We have space travel to other star systems but this is very unimportant to the book. California just sank into the Pacific in "The Big One" and our heroine has a very powerful PSI power as well as a PhD in cyber sciences. She is working as a hi-priced private eye in a very mob dominated environment. Someone thinks that he needs her services but for some not too clear reason feels that he has to force her to work for him. This doesn't make a lot of sense but it does make for conflict. I was a little irritated when the book ends just when it appears that the heroine is about to take the trip of her life - or perhaps her last trip - but on the other hand that is how authors get you to buy the next book in the series. And I will read the next book.
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Into the Looking Glass John Ringo &
Travis S. Taylor July 2008
The University of Central Florida appears to have been bombed, with a
60 kiloton blast, however it doesn't seem to be either a fusion or a
fission bomb. What gives? When investigated there seems to
be something in the crater, and then strange "insects?" start appearing
in the crater. They find a survivor, Mimi and her "pet" Tuffy.
The "insects" turn out to be rather nasty and begin killing
people and they start showing up in lots of spots.
The "something" in the crater turns out to be a two way portal to
elsewhere - and elsewhere may be open space, a far off planet or even
elsewhere on earth. However there are Bad Guys in some of these
locations, Good Guys in some other and its all very confusing.
With the help of some of the Good Guys our heros find a way of
closing off the portals to the Bad Guys. Definitely Space Opera
stuff but fun reading.
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Vorpal Blade
John Ringo
June 2008
Bill Weaver, PhD and SEAL Chief Adams are back again. The
submarine Nebraska has been converted into a sea and space ship with
warp drive. The bad guys are out there so we need to search them
out. With the addition of the newly created Space Marines out
they go. The fly leaf compares this to Heinlein, maybe not, but
still a good book. I will read the rest of the series.
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Manxome Foe John Ringo &
Travis S. Taylor July 2008
Next book in the series. The Nebraska (renamed the Vorpal Blade)
is back from her first mission and has been refurbished. However
one of the portal planets seems to have been attacked. The Vorpal
Blade is sent out on its second mission to find out what has happened.
They get to the planet, rescue a survivor, and discover evidence
of a battle in space. They rescue 3 survivors and then come
across a large but disabled warship. After some tense moments
they decide that they are all "Good Guys" at just about the time that
the "Bad Guys" come looking for them.
A major battle occurs, the Vorpal Blade is very seriously damaged but
with the help of their new friends the humans are successful.
Their new friends repair the Vorpal Blade and they return to
Earth. Their friends decide to use one of the planets discovered
in the previous trip. However - it appears that the Bad Guys will
be arriving at Earth in about 18 to 20 years. A wonderful new
opportunity for the next book. We also learn that the author(s)
are frankophobes.
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Claws That Catch John Ringo &
Travis S. Taylor Mar 2009
The next installment of the series. The Vorpal Blade was damaged
much more than I realized from the previous book. It has been
almost completely rebuilt, redesigned, made much larger and more
convenient and is being completely refurbished as the Vorpal Blade II.
Our main hero of this book, Two Gun, has been sent to Officers
Candidate School, is a new Second Lieutenant, is struggling to learn
his new duties, gets married as the book starts. Almost the first
half of the book is devoted to problems of officers and crew who have
not served on the Vorpal Blade before this trip.
The ship leaves earth and immediately has many problems with poor
command decisions and about as soon as most of these are solved they
discover a very strange system of planets around a star. They
find a very strange artifact in orbit around the star that seems to
resemble a huge Christmas Tree. In exploring it they discover a
way of controlling the sun which at first seems to be directed at
creating a light show using four large planets also in orbit around the
star. Then they discover that the Bad Guys have found the star
and have even gotten forces inside the Christmas Tree. In
fighting these forces they discover that the infestation of mouse- or
rat-like creatures that they have been struggling with in the Vorpal
Blade II are actually very effective biological weapons against the Bad
Guys. Shortly after the Bad Guys are cleaned out of the Christmas
Tree the main force of Bad Guys arrive in the star system. During
the early part of the fighting they discover that the "light show"
controllers can be used as an extremely effective weapons system.
Between the Marines weapons, the rodent weapons, the "light show"
weapon, and the fortuitous arrival of allies discovered in Manxome Foe they completely destroy the Bad Guy force.
Again, a pretty right-wing leaning book but enjoyable. It takes
additional writing skills to come up with left leaning heroes.
Most of our concept of Hero, going back to Homer, comes out of a
Strict Father tradition. This series may have a book or two left
in it but it feels like it is running out of steam.
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The
Last Colony
John Scalzi
June 2007
The third in a trilogy of Old
Man's War and The Ghost Brigades.
It is the continuing story of John Perry and his now wife Jane
Sagan and daughter Zoë. John and Jane have been mustered out
of the Special Forces and are living on a colony, he as a village
ombudsman and she as the village constable. Then an old commander
comes by to offer (insist) that they take leadership positions in a new
colony. They reluctantly agree. After the normal
difficulties of getting the supplies and colonists together they leave
and arrive at their new colony world - except that it's the wrong world!
Interstellar, inter-race, inter-ethnic, and inter-being conflicts hit
them from all sides and they find themselves in an inter-stellar war
that is pitting more than 400 different races of intelligent beings
against another large number with humans as a major partner. If
you look a little behind the story you can find interesting parallels
with the political situation in America in the early 21st
century. John is torn between siding with the government of the
human side of the conflict and with the "other" side which he thinks is
in the right. The book doesn't come to complete closure but John,
with the help of some unexpected allies, comes up with a novel solution
which allows him to retire with honor, stick a finger in the eye of the
government, and offer a possible solution whereby possibly 500 races of
intelligent beings can get along without fighting.
The author promises us that the trilogy (which started out to be a
single book) ends here and that he is moving on to "explore other
places and people." We will see. I certainly enjoyed all
three books - the first two before I started my Reports.
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Star
Wars: Jedi Trial (Clone
Wars) Davis Sherman & Dan Cragg
The Star Wars series started at a fairly low level and has declined
ever since. This book carries on the tradition.
Young Anakin Skywalker is sent out on an assignment. His
light saber performs admirably and the day is saved. Anakin
is awarded the rank of Jedi Knight. I was lucky, it was a
library book, I didn’t have to pay for it, I was able to
return it.
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Coyote
Frontier Allen Steel
The third book in the Coyote trilogy. Steel briefly refers to the
precursor events, the religious takeover of America, the takeover of
the first starship, the Alabama,
the landing on Coyote, the attempted takeover of the planet by other
starships from earth, and finally the consolidation of the settlements
and businesses. The current book really begins with the
sighting
of the exhaust plume of an arriving starship.
The starship was from the European Alliance and they want to start
trade negotiations. They also bring with them the equipment to
build a starbridge, a wormhole tunneling device for travel between star
systems. After considerable debate the settlers of Coyote send
the President travels back to Earth to discuss trade alliances.
In the over 200 years since the settlers had left Earth, the
climate has tanked because of pollution caused global warming.
The ice caps have melted, sea levels are up flooding many
populated areas, the Gulf Stream has reversed, Europe is cold, North
America is very hot and dry, and the population of Earth is down to
about 3 billion; in short a real mess. Arrangements are reached
but political difficulties force the visitors from Coyote to leave
ahead of schedule.
Trade and immigration go well for a while but problems arise.
Environmental degradation sharply increases and some political
attitudes from Earth begin to cause problems. A mini-revolution
takes place just as a second starship from the European Alliance shows
up and attempts to take over the starbridge. Through clever
political maneuvering and good luck both threats are nullified.
After most of the after effects from the attempted invasion and
revolution have worn off one final crisis occurs. A vessel comes
through the starbridge, but not from Earth. It identifies itself
as a shuttle from the first high speed starship to leave Earth which
had been reported missing many years before. When the shuttle
lands it contains 3 survivors from the starship plus an ambassador from
a non-human race.
Maybe Steele will expand his trilogy by adding an extra book or two?
He has just getting really well started with a new world and
new
opportunities for a brand new universe and he is done. I hope
not.
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More Than
Human
Theodore
Sturgeon Science Fiction Classic
The story of a family, sort of. Not your traditional family
with a Mommy, Daddy, and the little children, but a family
nevertheless. It started with the Idiot, almost a feral
human. He met Alicia and their interaction had a profound
effect on her, not him. A poor farm family took him in.
Janie, who is 5 meets twin girls who are 3. When Janie runs
away the twins go with her. Janie and the twins find
Alicia’s abandoned home and stay there until the food runs
out. The Idiot leave the farmer and builds himself a room in
a cave, he runs into the three girls and takes them in. The
Idiot goes back to the farm. The wife has died, the farmer is
not coping, and the baby needs care. The Idiot
“fixes” the farmer and takes the baby with
him. After a time the Idiot remembers that the farmers pickup
was stuck, Janie asks the baby and Baby tells the Idiot how to make a
machine to get the pickup out of mud. The Idiot brings home
Gerry, an 8 year old escapee from an orphanage. After the
Idiot dies they all go to Alicia’s town home. There
is a long session with a psychiatrist. After several years
Janie goes in to rescue Hip Barrows from jail. He is
seriously mentally ill and in poor physical condition. She
nurses him back to health. It turns out that Hip is/was a
seriously brilliant engineer. He found the anti-grav pickup
and Gerry drove him mad. Hip confronts Gerry and gives Gerry
an ethical basis for action. Gerry is reborn as an ethical
being.
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Some
of your Blood Theodore
Sturgeon Science Fiction Classic
A very strange book. The correspondence between a colonel and
a sergeant. It so happens that they are old friends and the
sergeant, through the normal Army goof-up procedures is a clinical
psychologist who didn’t get is officers rank. It is
about a soldier, probably in the Korean War, who presumably struck a
major and was sent back to the states for psychiatric help.
The soldier grew up in an abusive home in Appalachia and was effected
in rather strange ways. A fascinating if somewhat gruesome
book.
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Slan
A E van
Vogt Science Fiction Classic
Jommy Cross and his mother were walking down the street when she
realized that they were being followed. “Run, hide,
they are coming!”, he ran as she led them away.
Jommy is 9, a Slan (the next step up in the evolution of humanity) and
he is being hunted. He is
captured/rescued by an old woman who wants him for her own
purposes. He grows up in the underworld while his talents
mature. He recovers his fathers secret weapon, has many
adventures, an grows up to attack the evil government that has
attempted to kill his people. A good example of the early
Super Science science fiction.
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Heinlein:
Off the Main Sequence
Ed. Andrew Wheeler
July 2006
A collection of Robert Heinlein's short stories that are not a part of
his Future History series. They were published between 1940 and
1959 in many different magazines. Since these were stories that
were not a part of his Future History and he often used pseudonyms.
This was sort of like going back in time. My mother got me
into reading and Heinlein was what I read, not only Heinlein but his
novels were the high points. I had read some of these in earlier
collections but many were a first for me. It was like a time
machine back to when I was 10 to 12.
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A Hole in
Texas Herman Wouk (book on tape)
A mainstream book written by a mainstream author. The plot of
the book is a cross between a science fiction plot and a mainstream
plot. A good, modern science fiction author would not have
wasted so much time explaining the details of the science. As
a science fiction reader I found the assumption of scientific
illiteracy rather irritating. I also found that the emotional
level of the two major characters too childish. They are both
PhD's with children and they are acting like a pair of 9th graders on
their first date. The ending is a sort of “Physics
Uber Alles” which I find totally unreasonable and only
possible if you exhibit the “Physics Hubris”
mentioned in the Nathan
Spielberg & Byron D. Anderson book under
Science. Well worth reading (or listening to) but if
particle physics isn’t your life you will probably get a
little irritated.
Ps. It seems that Fermi Lab is really close to the Higgs, the
SSC and the dual linears of Stanford didn’t seem to be
necessary.
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