Trying to get this posted earlier than usual, since I'm leaving for
vacation on Saturday (and won't have internet access).
Highlight this month was the Verne (though it's not really sf) and the
Stirling, though nothing really stood head and shoulders above
everything else.
Slight spoilers, as usual.
Various
Star Trek: Year Four
Comic collection of stories set in the fourth year of the Enterprise's
mission. Nothing really stood out for me, though some of the stories
had an ok feel to them. I think the attempts at humor fell short, but
that's a hard thing to do.
Stirling, S. M.
In The Courts of the Crimson Kings
Stirling's follow up to "The Sky People", set on a Mars that aliens
terraformed 200 million years ago, seeding them with life from Earth.
After landing probes on Venus and Mars, the great powers of Earth
compete for influence and power. In AD 2000, Jeremy Wainman travels to
Mars as an archeologist, in order to explore the dead cities of the
Deep Beyond. Teyud za-Zhalt is the Martian mercenary the Terrans hire
as guide. What is not known is the Teyud has a secret that links her
to the Ancients and to the Court of the Crimson Kings. I liked this a
bit better than "The Sky People". I thought that the Martian
civilization, with their reliance on biology as technology, with a
nice touch. It also has a nice "John Carter of Mars" feel in a couple
of places. A good read.
Hamilton, Peter F.
The Dreaming Void
Another doorstop from Hamilton, this is the beginning of a trilogy set
1500 years after the dulogy concerning the Commonwealth's battle
against the alien Prime. There's now a threat to the existence of the
galaxy; the Void, a self contained micro universe at the center of the
galaxy. The oldest of the galaxy's sentient races do not understand
it, and are unable to stop the slow growth. Inigo, an astrophysicist
studying the void, dreams of humans within in what is almost a
paradise. The giafield, a neural entanglement that is wired into most
humans, allow others to see his dreams and a religion is formed.
Inigo disappears, but dreams from a new, unknown, Second Dreamer serve
as inspiration for a Pilgrimage into the Void. Will entering it
trigger a massive expansion? The book ends with the Second Dreamer's
identity becoming clear. This book is mainly a setup, yet it's still
very readable, and I'm ready to find out what comes next.
Verne, Jules
Around the World in Eighty Days
Another of Verne's "travel" novels. I had never read this, so was
interested in seeing what Verne did with the idea of a man racing
around the world on a bet. Phileas Fogg is not really a character,
since he is not given any internal dialogue, but the race is exciting
in it's way. Better than "The Meteor Hunt", but I think it falls
short of Mysterious Island, which is what I think of as his best work
(that I've read so far).
Shepherd, Joel
Killswitch
Final volume in Shepherd's Cassandra Kresnov trilogy. This book
begins two years after the second book, with the world of Callay under
siege by conservative fractions of the Fleet. Opposing the Fleet, the
Callayan Defense Force, with their combat-android, Cassandra.
Cassandra finds out about a killswitch, which would enable her enemies
to kill her at a distance, and also about another version of her...one
without her understanding of what freedom and humanity means. This
was an excellent conclusion to the series, ending with a shootout
aboard the station in orbit around Callay. It will be interesting to
see what Shepherd comes up with next.
Pelecanos, George
Hell to Pay
Strong and Quinn are hired to find a 14 year old runaway, now working
as a prostitute for a violent pimp. During the case, a violent act
against one of the young boys playing football for the neighborhood
team that Strange coaches leads them into confrontations with the DC
drug trade. An excellent addition to the world that Pelecanos
continues to build, exploring what the inner city of our nation's
capital has become.
Steele, Allen
Galaxy Blues
Latest book in Steele's Coyote universe. The book concerns Jules
Truffaut, expelled from the Union Astronautica space fleet, stows away
on board a Coyote ship to start his life over. He makes it to Coyote,
but is caught quickly and then given a choice; sign up as a shuttle
pilot aboard the freighter Pride of Cucamonga on a trading mission
with the alien hjadd (introduced in the novel Spindrift) or be sent
back to Earth. There's conflict aboard the ship (crewmembers that
don't trust him, a telepath) and with the hjadd on their homeworld,
given that the human crew doesn't understand the customs and the
political infighting that is going on. After several mistakes,
Truffaut is given a final chance to redeem himself on a science
mission that the hjadd forces the human ship to undertake. This is a
good novel, better I think than the Coyote trilogy, and as good as
Spindrift I think.
Edginton, Ian & D'israeli
The War of the Worlds
Comic adaption of Wells' novel, this serves as the prequel to their
Scarlet Traces series. It's a nice abridgement, with interesting
art. After reading this along with the various Verne works, I think
it may be time to reread some of Wells' fiction
Sheffield, Charles
The Compete McAndrew
Another eBook that I read (from Baen). I read the original McAndrew
collection in mmpk ages ago, but had not seen this collection, which
added some stories. McAndrew is a "super genius", another Einstein,
etc., though with a bit more practical bent. All the stories revolve
around some odd happening, which is tied to some cool science idea. I
like these type of stories, though to be fair they don't actually
stick with me long term. Several of these I suspect were in the
original collection, though I don't remember them (I did remember
several, though). A nice "hard" sf read
Pelecanos, George
Drama City
Novel set in modern day DC. Not part of his Derek Strong series,
though Strong makes a cameo. Novel concerns Lorenzo Brown, a ex con
now working for the Humane Society, cruising the streets of DC looking
for dogs that are being mistreated. Rachel Lopez, his parole officer,
spends her nights losing herself in alcohol and sex. A confrontation
between low level players in two drug gangs results in violence, which
affects both the protagonists. It's a good read, with some true
tension in seeing whether Brown, trying to stay on the straight path,
will be able to resist the pull of the streets when people he cares
for are hurt.
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