Category: Aa

The Gemini Hustle — Kathleen McClure and L. Gene Brown

By 5t4n5

The Gemini Hustle -- Kathleen McClure and L. Gene BrownBefore i begin, i just want to let you know that Kathleen sent me a free copy of this book to read and review . . .

. . . which, having totally and absolutely enjoyed every other book of Kathleen’s that i’ve read (and i’ve read a few) i was soooo excited to do.

And also to mention that this is a review of the second edition, as the book was rewritten after The Libra Gambit was released.

And so, moving onto the review: having read all of Kathleen’s Fortune series, which are so seriously good books, the bar for this book was set quite high with my expectations and, free or not, it would still have to earn a good review on it’s own merits.   But, i’m very pleased to say that this book didn’t disappoint me in the least.

Once again with Kathleen, the reader is thrown straight into the action, mayhem and shenanigans of the main protagonists, and once again, it just doesn’t stop until the end of the book.   It’s just full on, turned up to 11, from beginning to end.

The characters were great, even the bad ones.   And that’s something that Kathleen gets so right.   For me, it’s a fine line to tread with baddies in books: if you make them so awful i just don’t want to read the book, and some writers really do make the baddies soooo cringeworthy i just delete the whole book.   But if the baddies aren’t awful enough then the whole thing just doesn’t work and you might as well delete the book and find something else to read that’s more exciting.   So yeah, Kathleen really gets her baddies at that perfect level of badness.

And the web of relationships between the characters that slowly gets revealed and built upon as the story goes on is seriously good also.

As a Trekky, one thing that i really, really enjoyed about this book was the Rasalkans.   They’re like the Betazoids in Star Trek but they come in factions called houses and they have Rasalkans with all kinds of psychic abilities within each house.   Which, giving us a deeper look into Betazoid society, is something that i think Star Trek seriously missed out on.   This book, i think, fills in a lot of those gaps as to what a highly psychic/empathic/telepathic society would possibly be like.   But similar to the Bene Tleilax in Dune where no one knows about the females, in this universe no one seems to know anything about the Rasalkan males.   Hard core matriarchal society, Yeah!!!

All in all, this is fast paced, character driven, sci-fi story telling at it’s best.   If you’ve enjoyed Kathleen’s Fortune books then you’ll certainly enjoy this, and if you haven’t read any of Kathleen’s books at all then i seriously suggest you giving one a go, you’ll have a great time.

Best of all, Kathleen also sent me the next book in the series, The Libra Gambit, to read and review, which, having enjoyed this book so much, i’m having no hesitation jumping straight into to see what our seriously enjoyable protagonists are going to get up to next.   And i’m also hoping we’ll see some of those wonderfully bad baddies that got away make an appearance at some perfectly inopportune moment.

Kathleen’s Page

#scifi #kathleenmcclure #lgenebrown

Sleepover — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Sleepover -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in the collection, Beyond the Aquila Rift.

Definitely not Alastair’s greatest literary moment.

It just all seems a bit cobbled together out of various random sci-fi tropes.   He even managed to shoe horn some dragons into this awful dystopia.

Ho hum, the greatest writers don’t always write great things.

Next up on Alastair’s list is Lune and the Red Empress.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Lune and the Red Empress — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Lune and the Red Empress -- Alastair ReynoldsThis is quite like Alastair’s previous story, Sleepover, in that it’s a collision of various genres tightly packed together into a novella: shaken, stirred, blended, and any other means necessary to squash them in.

Where it’s different to Sleepover, is that this novella actually works.   Maybe Liz Williams’ co-writing helped.

I liked it anyway.

Alastair’s next story in the timeline of publishing is At Budokan.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Scales — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Scales -- Alastair ReynoldsThis is in Lightspeed: Year One.
Another brilliant little short story from the master of sci-fi shorts.

So the Earth has been attacked by a reptilian enemy, and the young are marshalled to go and fight, but where does it take them and what is the true form of that enemy.

Next story in Alastair’s chronology is Cardiff Afterlife.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Ringworld — Larry Niven

By 5t4n5

Ringworld -- Larry NivenBeing one of the sci-fi classics with “SF Masterworks” status, this has been in my too-read pile for ages, and now i’ve finally got around to reading it.

It’s a little bizarre, giant cat people and three legged, two headed aliens as well.   It all seems like Larry felt that to make it more sci-fi-ish he had to make the strangest aliens he could imagine: very Seventies kitch stylee.   And the ending is woeful.   We go through all this adventure with our group of four with so much detail and depth and when we get to the ending and the leaving of the Ringworld we are left with nothing but vagueness.

But . . .

. . . other than the weird Seventies kitsch aliens and the woeful ending, it’s very good.   One can’t help but be blown away by the concept of the Ringworld and it’s size and complexity: is this what the future may hold for us?

One thing’s for certain, i’m diving straight into The Ringworld Engineers, which is the much needed sequel to this book.

Larry’s Page

#scifi #larryniven

House of Suns — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

House of Suns -- Alastair ReynoldsThis follows Thousandth Night and is before Belladonna Nights in the trilogy.

One word: genius.

This book is superb from beginning to end, and it also leaves it open for a good follow on at some time in the future if Alastair feels like continuing the series at some point. I certainly hope he does.

Not only does this book demonstrate Alastair’s knowledge as a physicist, but it also demonstrates his incredible imagination and writing skills.

If you want a taster of Alastair at his best and you don’t want to go through all of Revelation Space just yet, then i suggest reading the House of Suns trilogy, sci-fi fans won’t be disappointed.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds