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a. reid johnson Posts

Alien Anthropologist

My story is out in the world! Thank you to OnSpec for publishing it. And, thank you to R. Graeme Cameron at Amazing Stories for reviewing it! My review is about 1/3 of the way down, but the gist of it is this: “this fictional example is vivid and … cynically amusing. Old-fashioned science fiction, perhpas, but a classic of its kind. Memorable. … I’m very fond of it.” That makes my week, everybody. 🙂

This is how You Lose the Time War–El-Mohtar and Gladstone

I don’t remember when I first heard about this book but I remember hearing very good things about it and I was not disappointed. Two time agents are at war. Red and Blue, a technical future and a natural future, incomparable with each other. They are the best at what they do, but when Red finds a letter on a bloody battlefield that read “Burn before reading,” we learn that there is more going on…

Lords of Uncreation–Adrian Tchaikovsky

I have struggled to find time to read with my busy real life but I made time over the last few days to finish the last half of this book and it is a fantastic end to this large galaxy spanning (literally) space opera. Tchaikovsky has created a world and universe that is so real and so complete and so fantastic that even though I knew I was getting to the climax, and I was…

My first sale!

My short story entitled “Alien Anthropologist” will appear in the next issue of On Spec, which is going to the printers soon! This was my first sale but is the second to appear. Still waiting (with 5 currently out on sub!) for the third sale…

Crooked Kingdom — Leigh Bardugo

This 2nd book completes the “Six of Crows” series where we follow the adventures of Kaz, Inej, Nina, Matthais, Jesper and Wylan as they attempt to undo the wrong they received at the hands of a crooked “merch” at the end of the last book. I’ve been struggling to find time to read, but I finally had some time and read the last quarter of it last night. It got to the point I love…

Six of Crows — Leigh Bardugo

My novel has multiple POV characters. More than a year ago, one of the people in my writing group suggested I read this book because it tells its story through multiple POV characters as well, and she thought it would be good for me to see an example. Now, most of the SF I have read recently is also told through multiple POV characters, so this isn’t new for me, but I figured I would…

The Last Emperox—John Scalzi

In the afterword to this book, Scalzi says that this is the first intentional trilogy he has written. That was an interesting fact to learn. This book follows the thread, picking up right where book two ended. There were a few surprises, not the least of which (SPOILER ALERT) was the death of the (seriously spoiler alert. I will pause and put it in the next paragraph… it will be safe to read after the…

On a Pale Horse–Piers Anthony

I received this book as a gift from a friend. He said it was one of his favorite series. I had heard of Piers Anthony; one of my good friends in High School read him but somehow I just never managed to. I found myself laughing out loud and reading pithy sections to my wife as I read. I haven’t read much Terry Pratchett but this book was nailing the odd British humor that he…

The Consuming Fire—John Scalzi

As promised, I read this next. The book continues to follow the adventures of the Emperox, a scientist, and the head of the business side of a Royal House as they work separately, together, to try to deal with the end of the world. The throughways that allow for travel between the stars are closing, and since humanity mostly lives in habitats that aren’t self sufficient, this could be the end of the line. I…

The Collapsing Empire—John Scalzi

I was in the mood for a faster read after some of the heavier fiction I’ve read recently, and I have had the first two books of this trilogy on my TBR shelf for quite some time. Feeling like I knew what I was in for, I started this book about a week ago. I didn’t read every day, so this was a quick read for me, and I got what I was expecting (to…