science fiction author
I read this book about 3 weeks ago while backpacking in the Eastern Sierra. I enjoyed it. It was the tale of “The Lost Colony” from Zoe’s perspective, and after reading the afterward, I felt like I understood the difficulty of writing such a piece. Scalzi says there that writing a story that fit between the cracks of another story was way more difficult than he thought it was going to be. I can see…
It’s been more than a month since my last post. I’ve done a little writing but work has gotten in the way. I’ve spent as much time as I could reading this book, which is now up to a series of 7 more the same length. It is a long read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I watched part of The Expanse on a streaming service a few years ago and never got back to…
Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson. This book was a trip. I really enjoyed it. 3 teenagers, one October evening, sneak outside during a grown up party. And the stars and moon disappear. The Earth has been encased in a permeable membrane that slows time, so that for every minute, 3 years go by outside. This novel is broadly sweeping, discussing the technological, social, political, and religious fervor that grow up as millions of years go…
This novella is by Nnedi Okorafor, known for Africanfuturism. This is a term she coined because she did not agree with how her work was being portrayed in reviews. She states on her website that “Africanfuturism is a sub-category of science fiction. Africanjujuism is a subcategory of fantasy that respectfully acknowledges the seamless blend of true existing African spiritualities and cosmologies with the imaginative.” This was probably the first book I have ever read where…
I first read Old Man’s War about 8 years ago and it was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. I am only 2 years younger than him, and I feel like the SF that motivated him in his debut novel was similar to what I read. I read Starship Troopers multiple times, enjoyed Friday for its strong female lead (I know that Heinlein is problematic in some ways but to have a…
This is the 2nd half of the 2000 page epic space opera by Peter F. Hamilton. I’ll start out by saying that I read the first half, Pandora’s Star, more than 8 years ago. I did enjoy the universe and the story but I never got around to starting (and committing myself to finishing) the continuation. I’m glad I did, because I think it resolved ok, but overall I think that this was a relatively…
This book is the first of a trilogy by Card and Johnston that predates Ender’s Game by about 100 years. I am going to assume that you have read Ender’s game, but like all my reviews, there will be no spoilers. This was a good book. Not as good as the original but it sets up the Formic wars. Very early in the book, an object is seen /decelerating/ towards the Earth from outside of…
I haven’t been able to put this book down all week. I have been reading it in every spare moment. And I figured out the third book that this series crosses with besides Ender’s Game and The Hunger Games… it is Dune. The houses, the families, the Greek mythology, coupled with epic space battles, and the rise to power where there can be only one survivor. I had read some reviews of this book and…
We watched “Jupiter Ascending” the other day. I hadn’t heard of it but it came up on a list of visually stunning movies that you may have missed, or something like that. We agreed that it was mostly vapid. The fight scenes were basically the same fight scene over and over again. I didn’t really care about any of the characters. The main characters mumbled their words and I could hardly understand what they were…
Red Rising, by Pierce Brown I needed something to do on a cross-country flight and a friend suggested this book once she confirmed I liked both Ender’s game and the Hunger Games. I listened to the first 33 chapters over the last month and just sat down and finished the book in an about 2 hour push. If you like Ender’s game or the Hunger Games, I think this book will suit your tastes as…
