Reader's Link

---

Browsing all posts tagged 'science fiction'

Do you know why french fries are dangerous to werewolves?

Title: Mongrels
By: Stephen Graham Jones

This is a doozy of a werewolf tale. It’s not a fantasy; it could have been written about any other kid from a troubled background, treated like a second class citizen. At a critical juncture, someone says to the unnamed 8-year-old protagonist, "being a werewolf isn’t just teeth and claws, ... [Read more]

Posted on Oct. 3, 2016
Tags: science fiction

Noir-edged

Title: Dark Jenny
By: Alex Bledsoe

This is a smooth-talking, Arthurianesque, noir-edged mystery featuring a hard-knuckled sword jockey P.I. Audie Award-winning narrator Stefan Rudnicki presents the story in a pleasingly low and gravelly voice with excellent rhythm. [Read more]

Posted on July 24, 2016
Tags: science fiction

Strange geometries

Title: Version control
By: Dexter Palmer

"Their minds were merely elsewhere, absconded to new and shining places with strange geometries." A wryly humorous, futuristic tale that is almost upon us. This chewy, richly detailed story follows a couple closely, eavesdropping on their work lives and marital issues. Philip works in a physics lab, inventing a “causality ... [Read more]

Posted on July 6, 2016
Tags: science fiction

What if?

Title: Dies the fire
By: Richard Sterling

The first book in S.M. Stirling’s Embervers series, Dies the Fire, was one of the first postapocalyptic/speculative fiction books I read that wasn't about zombies or nuclear war ravaging the world. Instead, this book addresses the question of what would happen if you took away modern convenience and weapons from ... [Read more]

Posted on June 20, 2016
Tags: science fiction

Clone with a soul?

Title: The House of the Scorpion
By: Nancy Farmer

Over a hundred years in the future, Matt Alacran lives in the Land of Opium, where he is the clone of the Lord of Opium, El Patron. The 100+ year-old ruler was once a powerful crime/drug lord who took much of the southern United States and northern Mexico and formed ... [Read more]

Posted on April 11, 2016
Tags: science fiction, teen fiction

A penchant for apocalyptic fiction

Title: The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
By: Meg Elison

My penchant for apocalyptic fiction came to a head while reading this book. Frankly, I don't know if I'll ever find anything like it again. A strain of deadly influenza that primarily affects women and children strikes the United States, and a nurse in the birthing unit of a San ... [Read more]

Posted on Feb. 2, 2015
Tags: science fiction

Magic and loss, loneliness and escape

Title: The ocean at the end of the lane
By: Neil Gaiman

On impulse, I downloaded the new Neil Gaiman book from OneClick Digital onto my iPhone (ah, technology, you great multifaceted beast!). I was delighted to learn that the author was also the narrator, and this audiobook would not proffer any misrepresentations of tone or misinterpretations of characters. If anyone could ... [Read more]

Posted on March 22, 2014
Tags: fiction, science fiction, audiobook

You can('t?) go home again

Title: Redliners
By: David Drake

Reading the first few pages of Redliners, I thought, "Blech. War times in space." Not my favorite; but, stubborn as I am, I persevered. After the initial bout of guns, battlements, encroaching baddie aliens and godlike war heroes, we enter a completely different story, one about redemption and humanity. To ... [Read more]

Posted on Nov. 24, 2013
Tags: fiction, science fiction

Burnt into Memory

Title: Voice of the Fire
By: Alan Moore

Alan Moore is best known for his graphic novels that have been butchered by Hollywood (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, etc.). He is less known for being a practicing occultist and for his single “conventional” novel, Voice of the Fire. To be clear, I'm using “conventional” with regard to the medium ... [Read more]

Posted on Oct. 19, 2013
Tags: fiction, science fiction

Read the book (then see the movie)

Title: Ender's Game
By: Orson Scott Card

It seems these days the credo we live by is that every good book must become a movie. Ender's Game is not just a good book, it's a great one, and herein lies my reasoning of why you should read the book in lieu of seeing a summer blockbuster: 1. ... [Read more]

Posted on June 3, 2013
Tags: science fiction

Discworld, world and mirror of worlds- Night Watch

Title: Guards! Guards!
By: Terry Pratchett

"Ankh-Morpork! Brawling city of a hundred thousand souls! And, as the patrician privately observed, ten times that number of actual people." A dragon is ravaging the largest city on the Disc and it's up to Captain Vimes and the dregs of the Night Watch to save the city. But is ... [Read more]

Posted on Dec. 21, 2009
Tags: science fiction, fantasy