Tag: #scifi

Avatars Inc — Anthology

By 5t4n5

Avatars Inc -- anthologyAll copyright 2020 except stated.

Standalones

In the Lands of the Spill — Aliette de Bodard
Thirty-Three — Tade Thompson
Porcelain Claws in Cinnamon Earth — Madeline Ashby
Life in Achar — Anya Ow
What I Want Us to Remember Before We Leave — Bryce Banks
Honeysuckle — Rhianna Jones
A Mountain to Climb — Julie Novakova
Bounty — Charles Yu
Harmony — Dr. Harry Kloor
Overburden — K. Chess
The Ulgrieb Case — Jeffrey Ford
Behold the Deep Never Seen — Merc Fenn Wolfmoor
The Search for [Flight X] — JY Yang
The Final Performance of the Amazing Ralphie — Pat Cadigan
Neuro-Dancer — Tom Sweterlitsch
Uma — Ken Liu
Banding — Julianna Baggott
Robot and Girl with Flowers — Paul McAuley
Waiting for Amelia — Robert Reed
Incarnate — Indrapramit Das
A Bird Does Not Sing Because It Has an Answer — Johanna Sinisalo
Oannes, From the Flood — Adrian Tchaikovsky
At the End of a Most Perfect Day — Nino Cipri
Two Watersheds — Kelly Robson
Elsewhere — James S. A. Corey
La Mer Donne — Sarah Pinsker
Add Oil — S. L. Huang

#scifi #aliettedebodard #patcadigan #kenliu #paulmcauley #jamessacorey

Machine Vendetta — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Machine Vendetta -- Alastair ReynoldsAnother Prefect Dreyfus story from the glitter band, which we’ve been waiting a while for, but it was worth the wait.

For me, one of the best bits of the whole Revelation Space series are the stories within Yellowstone and the Glitter Band, and this story didn’t disappoint.

Alastair at his very best.

And lets all hope that there’ll be a few more Yellowstone and the Glitter Band stories to come still.

Next up in the Revelation Space series it’s Diamond Dogs.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #revelationspace #alastairreynolds

The Vital Abyss — James S. A. Corey

By 5t4n5

The Vital Abyss -- James S. A. CoreyAnother side story, this time concerning the prisoners that the Belters captured from the original Protogen project in Leviathon Wakes.

All the prisoners have been put into one large room and are continuously watched over from above by the Belters who guard them.   For them, after their crimes, there is no future, nothing at all, beyond the walls of this room.

And then, one day, or night, the man from Mars turns up and begins to offer hope, if only to one of them, but which one will it be?

A really good novella, that can be read as soon as the Belters have taken them prisoner, or anytime thereafter.

Next up in the series is Cibola Burn.

James’ Page

#theexpanse #scifi #jamessacorey

Abaddon’s Gate — James S. A. Corey

By 5t4n5

Abaddon’s Gate -- James S. A. CoreyI didn’t find this book as good as the previous ones, which i put down to a character thing.

Too much christian waffle: i live in hope that by the time Hominids are travelling the whole solar system we’ll have gotten over this all the organised religion thing and seen it for what it truly is.   I found it beyond tragic that people were still clinging to this twaddle.

And i also found Clarissa just tedious and annoying: like a lot of spoiled rich brats that i’ve known in my life.   I really don’t like reading about them and having to endure their thinking.

Still, it has it’s good parts, which do balance the few crap characters and religiosity out and offer some redemption (pun intended) for those expecting something better.

I’ve now dived straight into The Vital Abyss, which is much better and more like what i expect from this series.

James’ Page

#theexpanse #scifi #jamessacorey

Caliban’s War — James S. A. Corey

By 5t4n5

Caliban's War -- James S. A. CoreyThe second full length novel in “The Expanse” series.   And what a novel it is.

The protomolecule has now taken over Venus and while it is now the most watched and analysed thing in the solar system, no one has any idea what is going on beneath Venus’ clouds.

Meanwhile, on Ganymede, a space monster attacks a whole load of UN and Martian marines, and leaves only one alive.   Then all hell breaks loose between Earth and Mars and Ganymede gets laid to waste.

And while all this is going on someone is kidnapping children with a rare immune disorder.

And so the stage is set for a super long read.

All our favourite characters from the first series are back, and a few more really good new characters are thrown into the mix.

Super good, great writing, all round awesome sci-fi.

Next up is Gods of Risk.

James’ Page

#theexpanse #scifi #jamessacorey

Omni Best Science Fiction Two — Anthology

By 5t4n5

Omni Best Science Fiction Two -- Anthology

Standalones

All the Perfumes of Araby – 1992 — Lucius Shepard
The Robot and the One You Love – 1988 — Tom Maddox
Chimera Dreams – 1986 — Gregg Keizer
The Pear-Shaped Man – 1987 — George R. R. Martin
Kingdom Come – 1987 — Bruce McAllister
Mother’s Milt – 1992 — Pat Cadigan
Black Velvet – 1992 — Maggie Flinn
One Small Step for Max – 1992 — Dan Simmons
The Cave Painting – 1992 — Garry Kilworth
In the Month of Athyr [Winterlong] – 1992 — Elizabeth Hand

#scifi #luciusshepard #georgerrmartin #patcadigan #dansimmons

Leviathan Wakes — James S. A. Corey

By 5t4n5

Leviathan Wakes -- James S. A. CoreyAfter a few little novellas it’s been a joy to get into some real long distance reading: it’s a rather large book!

Great characters, superbly well written, non stop action, excellent dialogue (both internal and external); i really can’t fault this book.

Do remember to have a little break during this to read The Last Flight of the Cassandra.

And now i have the second huge tome, Caliban’s War, to dive straight into.

James’ Page

#theexpanse #scifi #jamessacorey

The Last Flight of the Cassandra — James S. A. Corey

By 5t4n5

The Last Flight of the Cassandra -- James S. A. CoreyThis story occurs immediately after Holden makes his announcement that the ice hauler was destroyed and a piece of tech with a Mars stamp on it was discovered.

The Cassandra is flying hand to mouth already and they realise that with the coming price fluctuations they won’t be able to continue flying.   So they go off to an asteroid in a last attempt at turning a profit: finding something that could change everything for them.

A good little story that i would suggest reading as soon as the Holden announcement goes out, or, you could wait until the end of Leviathon Wakes and read it then.

James’ Page

#theexpanse #scifi #jamessacorey

The Butcher of Anderson Station — James S. A. Corey

By 5t4n5

The Butcher of Anderson Station -- James S. A. CoreyAnother back story for one of the series main characters.   This time it’s Fred Johnson’s turn as we look back at the events of Anderson Station and how they shape his future self.

Next book in the series is Leviathon Wakes, and it’s a big, big long one: it might be a while before my next review.

James’ Page

#theexpanse #scifi #jamessacorey

Edge of Infinity — Anthology

By 5t4n5

Edge of Infinity -- AnthologyAll stories copyright 2012.

Standalones

The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi — Pat Cadigan
The Deeps of the Sky — Elizabeth Bear
Drive — James S. A. Corey
The Road to NPS — Sandra McDonald and Stephen D. Covey
Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh — John Barnes
Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione, Ring Racing, Fiddler’s Green, the Potter’s Garden — Paul McAuley
Safety Tests — Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Bricks, Sticks, Straw — Gwyneth Jones
Tyche and the Ants — Hannu Rajaniemi
Obelisk — Stephen Baxter
Vainglory — Alastair Reynolds
Water Rights — An Owomoyela
The Peak of Eternal Light — Bruce Sterling

 

#theexpanse #scifi #patcadigan #jamessacorey #paulmcauley #gwynethjoneswriter #hannurajaniemi #stephenbaxter #alastairreynolds #brucesterling

Signal to Noise — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Signal to Noise -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in the collection, Zima Blue and Other Stories.

Alastair wrote a love story: awwwwwww.

And . . . . . . it’s rather good.

Although . . . . . . i’m not really a fan of all this parallel universe nonsense, because it is nonsense, just like flat earth nonsense.

But . . . . . . done right, like Alastair can, you can find some good stories in a parallel universe as long as you ignore all the nonsense bits.

All that aside . . . . . . next up in Alastair’s bibliographic timeline is The Six Directions of Space, which i’ll be eagerly devouring in the next week or so.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Cardiff Afterlife — Alastair Reynolds

By 5t4n5

Cardiff Afterlife -- Alastair ReynoldsAvailable in the collection, Zima Blue and Other Stories.

Oh dear, just when i thought it was safe to read Alastair again he had to go and start writing parallel universe nonsense stories once more.

Oh please someone assure me that this is the last of Alastair’s delusions that parallel universe stories are any good, or that the theory holds any water at all. Seriously, it’s just utter twaddle.

Anyway, next up in Alastair’s publishings will be Terminal World, let’s hope that isn’t more parallel stuff twaddle nonsense.

Alastair’s Page

#scifi #alastairreynolds

Before We Say Goodbye — Toshikazu Kawaguchi

By 5t4n5

Before We Say Goodbye -- Toshikazu KawaguchiThe fourth book from this rather enjoyable series: at least it had been rather enjoyable up to this book.   But i’m beginning to feel that Toshikazu is beginning to get a bit repetitive and the cafe is beginning to become a little stale.

I think that Toshikazu is simply rushing out books and not really making any effort to create something new and interesting, which is a shame.   I really feel that what this series needs is for Toshikazu to just put it down for a while and not come back to it until he has something new and interesting to bring to the cafe.

That’s my thoughts on the matter, it really doesn’t need to be ruined to meet a deadline, either with the publisher or with Toshikazu’s bank account.

Bye for now.

Toshikazu’s Page

#scifi #japan #toshikazukawaguchi

A Fire Born of Exile — Aliette de Bodard

By 5t4n5

A Fire Born of Exile -- Aliette de BodardAnother super good story from Aliette’s Xuya universe.   I’m thinking this is probably the longest one so far: it’ll certainly keep you occupied for a good while.

Our protagonist, and her mindship friend, have both come back from the dead (that’s the exile bit) hell set on revenge against those who executed them.   But revenge isn’t quite as straight forward as they would like it to be.

If you haven’t read any Xuya stories yet then get yourself over to Aliette’s “all things Xuya page” and find out where to start and what it’s all about.   Basically, it’s just really good sci-fi, from a really good writer, with a wonderful Asian flavour to it all.

Aliette’s Page

#scifi #aliettedebodard