The Red Scholar’s Wake — Aliette de Bodard

The Red Scholar's Wake -- Aliette de BodardIt had certainly been a while since i read any Xuya stories when i finally got this in my Kindle’s memory bank, but i soon fell back into the universe like i’d never been away.

‘The Red Scholar is dead.’   So begins the story.   And left behind in her wake is her wife, the mindship Rice Fish.

The Red Scholar was the head of the Red Banner of the pirates and Rice Fish wants to stake her claim as banner head, but to do so she needs to find out who arranged the death of her wife.   In order to do so she enlists the help of a captured scavenger, Xich Si.   And so begins a story of intrigue, deception, betrayals, love, and all kinds of crazy pirates’ political machinations.

Super good stuff, as are all the Xuya Stories i’ve read.

Next in the Xuya universe is A Fire Born of Exile.

Bye for now.

Aliette’s Page

#5t4n5 #fantasy #scifi #aliettedebodard

The Art of Possible — Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

The Art of Possible -- Yudhanjaya WijeratneAvailable in the anthology Kalicalypse

An interesting little story about the coming apocalypse and how the world is mired in policy and nothing is more important than following the policy.

At least that what i got from it.

Like all of Yudhanjaya’s stories, it’s interesting and enjoyable.

Bye for now.

Yudhanjaya’s Page

#scifi #yudhanjayawijeratne

Detonation Boulevard — Alastair Reynolds

Detonation Boulevard -- Alastair ReynoldsAlastair is back with one of his great little stories.

This time Alastair has conjured up a racing league where the races circumnavigate small moons and such within the solar system.   This is about one race, the race around Io, one of Jupiter’s moons.   Super geologically active, you’d have to be insane to be racing around this.   It kind of reminds me of all the old stories of early motor racing, before actual race tracks and before the FIA came along and sanitized everything.

So if you like a good motor racing story, or like Alastair’s short fiction, you’ll enjoy this one.

Now i go back to eagerly awaiting Alastair’s next book.

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Quantum Shift — Joseph R. Lallo

Quantum Shift -- Joseph R. LalloFairly good, but this series is getting rather repetitive.   I really think Joseph needs to go off on a different tangent with this story line.   Lex really doesn’t need to be saving every universe in existence in every story, surely there’s something else he’d rather be doing?

I like the crazy Karter stuff with lots of Ma, just not saving the universes every time Lex gets in a space ship.

Bye for now.

Joseph’s Page

#scifi #josephrlallo

Home Again, Home Again — Cory Doctorow

Home Again, Home Again -- Cory DoctorowAvailable in the collection, A Place So Foreign and Eight More.

A fun little story about coming home.

A human councillor on an alien world goes home to watch his childhood home be demolished.   Along the way he reminisces about his childhood there.

It’s different and i quite enjoyed this: you might also enjoy it.

Next up will be Visit the Sins.

Bye for now.

Cory’s Page

#scifi #corydoctorow

Eversion — Alastair Reynolds

Eversion -- Alastair ReynoldsHave you ever fell asleep in a dream and in that sleep you start dreaming, only to fall asleep in that dream and start dreaming again.   But then you wake up from that final dream and a new day begins, but it’s just soooo fucked up you can’t understand what’s going wrong with the world: because you thought you’d actually woken up because you forgot you fell asleep within a dream within a dream and you haven’t actually woke up, woke up, you just woke up within the next dream level up, you’re still dreaming.   And it takes a while to realise what the fuck is going on.   If that’s never happened to you then you’re really missing out a wonderful mind fuck.

It’s just like what happens in the film Inception, they go to sleep and dream, then go to sleep and dream and then go to sleep and dream, in order to get so far down the rabbit hole in order to get the thing they want.

And yes, you can fall asleep in dreams and then dream in that sleep and so on.   It’s freaky!

Why am i telling you this?   Because Silas Coade, our protagonist within Eversion, appears to be doing the same thing.   So if you liked that idea in Inception you might just really like this one as well, because this is just as good but in a much different way.   I can’t tell you why it’s different because it would totally ruin the story, you just have to believe me that it’s really good and read it for yourself.

This is currently Alastair’s last published novel and i’ve read everything else he’s written apart from the young adult, nonsensical, Revenger trilogy, which i just couldn’t cope with.   So now i sit eagerly awaiting the next great story from this master of science fiction: let’s hope it’s not too long in appearing.

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Plague Music — Alastair Reynolds

Plague Music -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in Belladonna Nights and Other Stories.

And here’s me thinking that i’d read all the Revelation Space stories, and then i find this one.   Admittedly, it was published after i had read most of the Revelation Space series, so i’ll forgive myself for not reading it in the chronological order of Revelation Space.

But, anyway, it’s always nice to get another Revelation Space story thrown into ones life now and again.

This one takes us back to Chasm City, after the plague has mangled it, following a clean up crew on the lower levels.   I really enjoyed it.   Once again, as most things by Alastair, extremely well written and brilliant sci-fi.

Now all i have to do is wait for the next Revelation Space story, which i hope won’t be too long in coming.   I love this series.

If you haven’t read Revelation Space then i suggest you follow it in chronological order and read everything — it’s really, really good.

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Permafrost — Alastair Reynolds

Permafrost -- Alastair ReynoldsA super good time travel novel without all the annoying paradoxes within which some writers seem to get themselves messily tie up in knots.

I can’t really say much more without ruining the story.   So i’ll just say, even if you don’t usually enjoy the temporal sci-fi stuff, read this, it’s good.

Next up in Alastair’s literary journey is Polished Performance.

Bye for now.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds