Flandry of Terra by Poul Anderson (1965, 291 pages) – I enjoyed this although I couldn’t quite decide if Mr. Anderson was being tongue-in-cheeky or creating a real space hero. The three separate novellas about the same character (each with its own conflict and resolution) describe a colorful hero. He’s an officer in the Terran Space Navy who’s a little full of himself. Since he single-handedly stops revolutions and conquers bad guys, perhaps he deserves his reputation. He knows the Terran Navy forces are too […]
Even Though You Have No Logical Reason to Be in This Meeting, Madam, Please Stay and Hear the Plot Unfold
Embassytown by China Mieville (2011, 345 pages, hardcover) – After finishing the “Book That Never Ends,” I needed something with a little meat and readability so I chose someone dependable (I really enjoyed Mieville’s earlier Scar). Embassytown, unlike Scar, is pure science fiction. It’s not enough – for me – for a writer to have an interesting concept. There also has to be someone I can relate to going through the adventure and experiencing it with me. China is very good at merging the concept beautifully […]
The Book That Never Ends
Debatable Space by Philip Palmer (2008, 533 pages) – Interesting. I won’t go so far as to say it actually succeeds, but this is an interesting concept. It’s really two stories – a pirate crew kidnaps the immortal (and still foxy) mother of the Supreme Dictator of the Universe and the story of how she went from a freckle-faced cherub to the mother of the Supreme Dictator of the Universe. Sounds pretty readable, right? It might be too much of a good thing because it […]
Fifties Pulp Science Fiction by the Masters
Isaac Asimov’s Wonderful World of Science Fiction – Intergalactic Empires, Edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenburg, and Charles G. Waugh (1983) “We have nine stories by nine authors illustrating nine different versions of Galactic Imperial history…” Isaac Asimov Although this anthology was published in the eighties, it contains stories from the science fiction masters of the fifties. Some of them are dated, but most of them are simply well-written, exciting tales of man against the universe. Chalice of Death by Robert Silverberg – Earth […]
Frogs, Ducks, Turtles, Rabbits, and How Things Got the Way They Are
Spark – A Creative Anthology, Edited by Brian Lewis (2015) – I usually make it a rule not to critique an anthology that contains a story I’ve written, but this collection of short stories is so good, I couldn’t resist. I won’t mention the story I wrote (except perhaps to say how much I appreciate being included with these tales) or the poetry (which is a foreign language to me). I will, however, list the stories and tell you a little about them. The Frog […]
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Berkley Showcase – New Writings in Science Fiction and Fantasy (1980) – What do you do with an anthology where you liked some of the stories and didn’t care for the others? I guess I’ll just go down the table of contents and give you my opinion of each one. This anthology had no specific theme and contains both fantasy and science fiction stories. Soldier of an Empire Unacquainted with Defeat by Glen Cook – This may be the entire key to the unevenness of […]
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