I guess if an author plots out two or three books in advance, he or she can take the two or three stories and splice them together to make an epic space opera. The splicing in Reality Dysfunction (Part 1) gave me whiplash. First we’re introduced to Adamists, non-genetically-augmented humans who are trying to maintain their equality by smuggling highly illegal – and unstable – anti-matter. It doesn’t end well when the protectors of the galaxy – the Edenists, genetically-augmented humans – show up and […]
Not Grokking this One
This book is part of my effort to read a few books in the science fiction genre, and while I loved Ursula LeGuin’s The Left Side of Darkness, Stranger in a Strange Land left me bored and disappointed. Yes, this book is over fifty years old and the imagined future is not the present, yet it seems so incredibly dated. It felt very black and white, bouffant hair-dos, white lab coats intermingled with flying taxis and space travel. The story begins with a human mission […]
Lumpers and Splitters
In my archaeology classes, we talked a bit about lumpers and splitters, how people tend to split up species, tool styles, etc – lump them together, or split according some generally subtle difference. I myself tend to waver a bit, but lean towards lumping. This book, which probably has already been read and reviewed by many, premises that a community will split itself up based on differences in personality, detectable and defined by a mysterious drug induced scenario test. But what happens if people can’t […]
The Life and Times of a Sassy Space Captain
Sassinak by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon (1990) Two writers for the price of one! Or, since it’s three novellas, six for the price of one? This is an interesting read, mostly because of the first book (it’s split into three books). Sassy, or Sass, is a young colonial girl on a distant world who sees her family killed by slavers and is kidnapped, along with the other children. “Conditioned” to obey and kept under the worst conditions, the children are sold as slaves based on […]
The space opera I never knew I needed
Cordelia’s honor is sci-fi with a strong female character. And not strong in that she kicks physical butt, but she is intelligent, brave and caring. She invests in the relationships of those around her and she is both a strong leader and a brilliant second in command. (Please take a second to watch this brilliant youtube video about the importance of the first follower as illustrated through drunken dance). And then Captain Cordelia Naismith finds herself stranded in an ambush on an unknown planet. She […]
And another one…
Arthur Leander, ageing movie-star, dies of a heart attack on stage at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto. On stage is eight-year-old Kristen Raymonde, witnessing the death of a man who had been nothing but kind to her. Jeevan Chaudhary, former paparazzo photographer and entertainment journalist, now an EMT in training, jumps up on stage tries to save Arthur’s life with CPR. Later that evening, travelling home in the snow, he receives a phone call from a friend, working in the ER. There is a flu […]
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