Science Fiction
Blew up my house. Took my wife. 3.5 out of 5
Martian race, Sarek. 3 out of 5 http://www.livingdigitally.net/books/farmer_one/farmer_one.html
Slightly loopy science fiction thriller about what happens when a group of numbered people finally interact – them being clones of a sort of some famous people from history. Edison, Einstein, Robert E. Lee (yeah, cloners really biased to USA). Joan of Arc for some variety. Plus, Vlad the Impaler, Attilla the Hun, Jack the [...]
A science fiction collection with a largely shared setting. Again, of consistent and equivalent quality to Flowers at 3.32. First : The Way of All Flesh – Scott Nicholson First : Floating Cathedral Song – Scott Nicholson First : Penance – Scott Nicholson First : Reckless Osmosis – Scott Nicholson First : Narrow is the [...]
Spirit Spy destroy. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Shifting Sands of Memory – Scott Nicholson
Go-Boy viz, Keats. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about A Socketful of Blather – Scott Nicholson
Story out of finish. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Zero Meets Rainbow In Heavy Gravity – Scott Nicholson
Twin claws of guilt. 3.5 out of 5
Plug burn. 3 out of 5
A baby almost dies at birth until a slight sign of life leads some medics to decide to try and save it, sickly and weak life thought it may have. The boy grows up and gets along in an overpopulated and ruined world, eventually becoming involved with movers and shakers – and theri desire to [...]
Continue reading about Brother To Dragons – Charles Sheffield
Human Legacy Project and Democracy Device protection. 3.5 out of 5 http://www.livingdigitally.net/books/venom/venom.html
Carrie-Anne dust. 3 out of 5
Hellequin’s Flying one. Here’s your blighted world with baroque oddballs coming together under the Big Top. More than one monster would happily take a bit out of this motley crew of, both human and otherwise as the past catches up with more than one denizen in a strange reality. 3.5 out of 5
Farm boy with not so good childhood gets out of there and becomes a dodgy bloke named Ferret. A conflict with an even worse nogoodnik ends up in some deaths, and he moves on to be trained as a martial arts trained warrior priest and leader of the birth of a rebellion about the interstellar [...]
Aliens come to earth – small ones – and they proceed to take over people in nasty biological fashion. Their aim is larger, to build a gate to bring a much bigger crew from. One of their targets manages to resist them to some degree and we follow his horrible exploits to the conflict that [...]
“”You’ve got some sort of wild man!” Lycon blurted with first glance. “Nonsense!” Vonones snorted. “Look at the tiny scales, those talons! There may be a race somewhere with blue skin, but this thing’s no more human than a mandrill is. The Numidians called it a lizard-ape in their tongue—a sauropithecus.” After that first startled [...]
Continue reading about Killer 1-7 – David Drake and Karl Edward Wagner
Sauralopithecus! A Roman hunter discovers a lizard-ape monster. An Emperor thinks this would be rather good entertertainment. Yeah, he is nuts. He sets off with a partner, who happens to be working for aliens that are rather worried about the beastie. Enough to kill everyone on the planet to get rid of it if it [...]
Continue reading about Killer – David Drake and Karl Edward Wagner
Spiders, millions of them – and hybrid experiments to escape. Maybe. 3.5 out of 5 http://www.livingdigitally.net/books/anansi/anansi_island.html
An encounter with a strange alien form of life leaves a group of early Saturn explorers very changed. Later, post Solar System War their existence they feel is threatened by some whose memories are being recovered by a specialist – that they thought they had killed. Problem for them in this second of the Cold [...]
Continue reading about The Ganymede Club – Charles Sheffield
artificial intelligence pathways. 3.5 out of 5 http://kriswrites.com/2012/01/23/free-fiction-monday-the-questing-mind/
Continue reading about The Questing Mind – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
London Bridge River killings, Ripper relative. 3.5 out of 5
Decapods and dwarf dolphins. 3.5 out of 5
I still love you, even if you destroyed your fleet and made a whole planet commit suicide. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Wayfarer’s Advice – Melinda M. Snodgrass
Killing Rags. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Sun Never Rises In the Big City – Jeremy Shipp
Asterator deuteron control. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Gold of Galileo – Christopher Anvil
Dangerous alien contact. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about A Taste of Poison – Christopher Anvil
Quite a bit faster, sea or land. 3.5 out of 5
Extended young. 3 out of 5
That Roswell business again. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about Harry Truman vs The Aliens – Victor Gischler
A robot gets independent. 3.5 out of 5
Simple kid’s book as the author explains in an intro for this republication. A spaceship’s overdrive fails, much damage to craft, so bailing out to a planet is necessary, where three disparate characters have to try and survive the environment and aliens. An intuitive synthesist, a logician and a strong guy. 2.5 out of 5
Ranks of Bronze finds a Roman Legion shanghaied and put to work for a group of interstellar traders. These rapacious types have agreements to solve conflicts by conflict – but only at the technology level of the locals. So if you have primitive barbarians with swords and shields – you send in your slave legion [...]
Have to eat people or the dog to get out of this alien mind thing. 3.5 out of 5
“So it was the blowpipe, then, as if there had been any doubt. Nothing else had the power to shake the ground like that. A hundred or more kilometres to the west, at this very moment, a payload was racing through the bowels of the Earth, slamming along a rifle-straight vacuum tunnel that would eventually [...]
Continue reading about Blue Remembered Earth 1 – Alastair Reynolds
“So it was the blowpipe, then, as if there had been any doubt. Nothing else had the power to shake the ground like that. A hundred or more kilometres to the west, at this very moment, a payload was racing through the bowels of the Earth, slamming along a rifle-straight vacuum tunnel that would eventually [...]
Continue reading about Blue Remembered Earth 1 – Alastair Reynolds
Umayma boy drop. 3.5 out of 5 http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/85599
Continue reading about The Seams Between the Stars – Kameron Hurley
Dead space program war. 3.5 out of 5 http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/85603
These stories are from 1962 to 1969, his second SF period. As he points out, trying to give a little more weight to them than stuff he was knocking out with Randall Garrett over beers to support the lifestyle. From the just about 3.50 average he was highly successfull. To the Dark Star : To [...]
Skagg Machines. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about We Know Who We Are – Robert Silverberg
Contingency C cube. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Pleasure of Their Company – Robert Silverberg
Bodies and mind over time. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Ringing the Changes – Robert Silverberg
Alien mate. 2.5 out of 5
Fix cancer, Work in the Fold = painful. 3.5 out of 5
These stories are from 1953 to 1958 and all include fun intros from the author. To Be Continued : Gorgon Planet – Robert Silverberg To Be Continued : The Road to Nightfall – Robert Silverberg To Be Continued : The Silent Colony – Robert Silverberg To Be Continued : Absolutely Inflexible – Robert Silverberg To [...]
Mars-Ganymede cabin trip. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Delivery Guaranteed – Robert Silverberg
Extra personality. 3 out of 5
Found a very interesting archaeological robot. 3.5 out of 5
Artificial wombs. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about There Was An Old Woman – Robert Silverberg
Exploration Corps plant monsters. 3.5 out of 5
Shaula ship whammy. 2.5 out of 5
Hot for suicide. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about Sunrise On Mercury – Robert Silverberg
Native attraction and Ship mum. 3 out of 5
Voltruscan archaeology. 3 out of 5
Continue reading about The Artifact Business – Robert Silverberg
Dandrin, Dugan, Kennon. 2.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Songs of Summer – Robert Silverberg
Operation Medusa on Bellatrix, extra monsters. 3 out of 5
Hawksbill Station – Robert SilverbergThe authorities have come up with an unconventional but effective way of controlling dissidents. Send them back a billion or so years into the past. A bit hard to escape from there, really. When a new prisoner is sent back, the current top dog, an aging main with a recent serious [...]
Continue reading about Hawksbill Station – Robert Silverberg
“Only a Sakhran would be polite enough to describe it as a Command Post. It was a collection of three sheds (two plus an outside toilet) to which Madsen and two others had travelled by tracked groundcar. It was the only collection of buildings anywhere near the area where they had calculated, from the lifeboat’s [...]
“Memphis paused for breath. It must have been hard, carrying Sunday and also having to keep his own balance. ‘The artilect sensed the presence of Sunday’s machines, the ones inside her head. It worked out how to talk to them, how to make Sunday think there was someone calling.’ The idea of a machine tricking [...]
Continue reading about Blue Remembered Earth Prologue – Alastair Reynolds
“Memphis paused for breath. It must have been hard, carrying Sunday and also having to keep his own balance. ‘The artilect sensed the presence of Sunday’s machines, the ones inside her head. It worked out how to talk to them, how to make Sunday think there was someone calling.’ The idea of a machine tricking [...]
Continue reading about Blue Remembered Earth Prologue – Alastair Reynolds
Just an ordinary issue, but a little better than the last one. No stories of note, other than the Jenny Sparks ending for Powell’s. Interzone 235 : Insha’allah – Matthew Cook Interzone 235 : For Love’s Delirium Haunts The Fractured Mind – Mercurio D. Rivera Interzone 235 : The Walrus And The Icebreaker – Jon [...]
Music find. 2.5 out of 5 http://ttapress.com/downloads/of-dawn.pdf
Alternate Mars losers. 3 out of 5
Military style, with plank walking and explosions. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Walrus and the Icebreaker – Jon Wallace
Explorata hate. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about For Love’s Delirium Haunts The Fractured Mind – Mercurio D. Rivera
Hab pilot no healing. 3 out of 5
An anthology of Kuttner and Moore both together and apart, with the two very good bookends, Vintage Season and Two-Handed Engine. No Boundaries : Vintage Season – C. L. Moore No Boundaries : The Devil We Know – Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore No Boundaries : Home There’s No Returning No Boundaries : Exit [...]
Continue reading about No Boundaries – Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
Wormer artifact berkelium emission. 3.5 out of 5
Rather good collection at 3.45, particularly the later stories. The origin of each is given in a short intro by the author. Includes one new. Engine of Recall : Hopscotch – Karl Schroeder Engine of Recall : Halo – Karl Schroeder Engine of Recall : The Dragon of Pripyat – Karl Schroeder Engine of Recall [...]
Continue reading about The Engine of Recall – Karl Schroeder
Ramjet radioactive fuel try. 3.5 out of 5
Wave Rider scared on Jupiter. 3 out of 5
No recognition. 3 out of 5
Alien search. 3.5 out of 5
Ghost pilot neutron strongbox. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Engine of Recall – Karl Schroeder
Dead brain project. 3.5 out of 5
Titan help, Bear. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Cold Convergence – Karl Schroeder
Raining fish. Possible light UFOs. 3 out of 5
Stellar catastrophe dooms Earth and the solar system – and seedships are sent out to enable the human race to survive. On a settled planet the last of such ships arrives, needing assistance with their ice shield to enable them to make it to their final destination. A planet that has some tectonic issues. Sort [...]
Continue reading about The Songs of Distant Earth – Arthur C. Clarke
Just 3.13 here and pretty dull, except for the Resnick. Plus a sword article. Subterranean Online 20 : Subterranean Online 20 – William Schafer Subterranean Online 20 : White Lines on a Green Field – Catherynne M. Valente Subterranean Online 20 : SHAKA II – Mike Resnick Subterranean Online 20 : Antiquities and Tangibles – [...]
Continue reading about Subterranean Online 20 – William Schafer
Tchaka fleet empire fall. 3.5 out of 5 http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/fiction-shaka-ii-by-mike-resnick/
“It is necessary to speak of beginnings. Understand one thing, though, above all else. Whatever brought us to this moment, this declaration, could never have had a single cause. If we have learned anything, it’s that life is never that simple, never that schematic. You might say it was the moment when our grandmother set [...]
Continue reading about Blue Remembered Earth Prologue – Alastair Reynolds
The usual 3.13ish bunch of oddballness, with some nifty photos. Flurb 11 : Big Store Baoding – Kek-W Flurb 11 : My Big Night Out With Thing – Leslie What Flurb 11 : Hotels – Alberto Chimal Flurb 11 : Medusa – Chris N. Brown Flurb 11 : The Ghosts of Carnivores – Minister Faust [...]
Painful big smash. 3 out of 5 http://www.flurb.net/11/11bef_eng.htm
Continue reading about The Last Hours Of The Last Days – Bernando Fernandez
U-Men discovery expanding Tranquility. 3.5 out of 5 http://www.flurb.net/11/11faust.htm
Continue reading about The Ghosts of Carnivores – Minister Faust
Bio-entity aid pregnant. 3.5 out of 5 http://www.flurb.net/11/11brown.htm
A decent issue at 3.33 Clarkesworld 64 : Scattered Along The River Of Heaven – Aliette De Bodard Clarkesworld 64 : What Everyone Remembers – Rahul Kanakia Clarkesworld 64 : All The Painted Stars – Gwendolyn Clare Felicity, or elsewhere. 3.5 out of 5 Boat life. 3 out of 5 Not too Bright fight role. [...]
Not too Bright fight role. 3.5 out of 5 http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/clare_01_12/
Continue reading about All the Painted Stars – Gwendolyn Clare
Boat life. 3 out of 5 http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kanakia_01_12/
Continue reading about What Everyone Remembers – Raul Kanakia
Felicity, or elsewhere. 3.5 out of 5 http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/de_bodard_01_12/
Continue reading about Scattered Along The River Of Heaven – Aliette de Bodard
No good at 3.00. The Peek story is ok and the discussion with De Bodard is interesting. Clarkesworld 63 : Clarkesworld 63 – Neil Clarke Clarkesworld 63 : Sirius – Ben Peek Clarkesworld 63 : In Which Faster-Than-Light Travel Solves All Of Our Problems – Chris Stabback Clarkesworld 63 : Silently And Very Fast 3 [...]
Bad apple. 2 out of 5 http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/valente_12_11/
Continue reading about Silently And Very Fast 3 – Catherynne M. Valente
I’m an alien. 3 out of 5 http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/stabback_12_11/
Continue reading about In Which Faster-than-light Travel Solves All Of Our Problems – Chris Stabback
A big alien virus quarantine. 3.5 out of 5 http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/peek_12_11/
“The Ivoire dipped, then rose, then flipped and doubled back. Inside the bridge, the crew could feel no difference despite the rapid movements. The only way anyone could tell if something had changed was the flow of data coming through all the monitors. The six-person bridge crew had fallen into their various roles, speaking rarely. [...]
Continue reading about City of Ruins 1 – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Al-Buraq, a ship capable of instantaneous interstellar travel starts doing its thing with its crew. What they run into isn’t very nice. Something is devouring large swathes of interstellar real estate. And what do you do if this is actually something alive? A maker, destroyer or universal being and the means to communicate with. [...]
Continue reading about The Unreasoning Mask – Philip Jose Farmer
Here’s a fun space opera that takes a rather more Blake’s 7 take on the Federation as opposed to Star Trek. A woman, brought up by said Federation to be a highly trained agent – finds out she has a brother with a scientific inclination. Despite this being not supposed to happen then stick together. [...]
A reporter who suffered through an abusive childhood starts looking into some strange killings. Ones that do not make sense. This leads him into investigating ViGen corporation – who are working into advanced medical research. What they are really up to is a lot nastier – mind control via drug. all in the aims of [...]
Opened the second of this series first apparently, but no big deal. Space adventure with a guy and his robots. And strange boojum things and all of course being a long way from home. Shipworlds, meerkat-like aliens. And our protagonist is no emo whiner loser. Pretty much nothing fazes him, which is very entertaining. Although [...]
Continue reading about Strange Attractors – Jeffrey A. Carver
“We are at a tipping point in history. The Ghosts were driven back from Cthuga at the beginning of the war, and now they are reaching out towards Cthuga again. It is clear that they came to Fomalhaut because they wish to communicate with the Mind. We do not know if it wishes to communicate [...]
Continue reading about In the Mouth of the Whale 9 – Paul J. McAuley
An excellent original anthology of tightly put together stories in this shared world of deliberately reduced technology level. Which of course leads to lots of skullduggery. New Ceres Nights : Smuggler’s Moon – Lee Battersby New Ceres Nights : Murder in Laochan – Aliette de Bodard New Ceres Nights : Fair Trade – Stephen Dedman [...]
Longevity and datacrystal blackmail. 3.5 out of 5
Continue reading about The Piece Of Ice In Miss Windermere’s Heart – Angela Slatter
