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Review: Frameshift by Robert J. Sawyer
Published on 2012-06-04 23:55:43
Robert J. Sawyer is a writer I found recently and generally I have been impressed, but even the best writers are still hit and miss and for me Frameshift was a miss. That isn’t to say that this is a bad book or poorly written, I just didn’t care all that much about many of the things that happened and in the end much of the story felt as if it was stretching to make a point more than it was truly trying to tell a good story. Frameshift is generally about genetics, though finding a co [..]
Review: Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer
Published on 2012-05-26 20:24:21
In most cases there are two separate types of science fiction, those stories that focus on the science and those which focus on the fiction.
Why Write about Dystopian Futures
Published on 2012-05-24 11:43:14
I have heard a fair amount of discussion lately about science fiction writers using a lot of dystopian futures in their stories. Neil Stephenson even discussed the point lately suggesting that slower levels of true technological advancement may be in part because of this and want to write more optimistic stories. That is great. I for one love Star Trek in part because hope is important in science fiction, but in the discussion I think a lot of people miss the most basic reason that writers often [..]
Hunger Games by Suzanna Collins Book Review
Published on 2012-03-29 14:00:29
In an attempt to catch up on some of the more popular science fiction of the recent past I picked up The Hunger Games by Suzanna Collins.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Published on 2012-03-19 14:51:24
I don’t read a lot of Steven King because I don’t read a lot of horror. It isn’t that I don’t like a good horror book on occasion, just not very often. Since 11/22/63 by Steven King isn’t really a horror novel, and several sights suggested it as the best science fiction of 2011 it seemed like a great story to read, especially with so much of the recent science fiction being of the depressing apocalyptic variety. The story itself is, like many of the best Steven King [..]
Hugo Book Review: Foundation's Edge
Published on 2012-02-17 00:57:51
The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov is one of the most famous of all science fiction stories of all time, but while it is a series that really does feel as if it has a strong coherence it has a major break both in time and in tone. Having been encouraged by his fans to return to the series Isaac Asimov wrote Foundation’s Edge thirty years after the other Foundation’s book. In addition, Asimov began to connect other series into the books while writing in a very similar style which i [..]
Chuck Series Finale: Chuck Vs. The Goodbye
Published on 2012-02-09 17:16:23
I hate TV finales, but I also love them. As the saying goes all good things must come to an end. It is in fact those ends that often make the good shows into classics and is one of the biggest advantages that a popular TV show has over a good comic book or even a movie as they can build for years to a real conclusion. Today, I watched the last few episodes of Chuck, a show that I have enjoyed from the beginning, and the emotions as I finished Chuck Vs. The Goodbye were as mixed as they ever hav [..]
Skyrim
Published on 2011-11-22 01:46:20
I have been playing far too much Skyrim in the last week and a half and to actually review it at this point is a bit absurd. We can all agree that the game is great and move on. Still there are a few points in the game that I would like to address specifically. Dragon Claw Keys I can see the value in these. They are likely hard to replicate and even if you did you wouldn’t know the combination. The issue I have is that they put the combination on the bottom of the key. These doors are se [..]
Hugo Book Review: Downbelow Station by C. J. Cherryh
Published on 2011-07-21 13:47:44
Downbelow Station by C J Cherryh is the type of book that I began to read the Hugos to find. An epic science fiction story which tells the story of Pell’s World which has fought itself caught between two empires. This is the first world which was found to be habitable and while generally unimportant still serves as a jumping off point for other colonization. At some point later faster than light travel has been created and the control earth has over the colonies is largely breaking down w [..]
Hugo Book Review: The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge
Published on 2011-07-13 04:21:30
The Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge tells the story of a world in an empire that has collapsed. The story is set on a world that has a medicine which effectively allows immortality. Very rare it is used primarily by the royalty of this world, but they do not hold that position forever and the world takes place as that is about to change, something the queen doesn’t want. It is hard for me to read The Snow Queen because separating out the difficulties in reading it is going to be almost impossi [..]
Hugo Book Review: Gateway by Frederik Pohl
Published on 2011-06-20 01:16:51
Gateway by Frederik Pohl is one of the Hugo award winning novels that I have most enjoyed. This is a story that isn’t entirely about what you expect it to be about and that is part of the reason I enjoy it so much. The Gateway is an ancient spa
The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke
Published on 2011-06-14 00:36:22
Arthur C. Clarke is one of the masters of hard science fiction. His ability to write stories that examine plausible or possible technology makes for stories that are impressive and in The Foundations of Paradise he writes about one of the most intere
Hugo Book Review: Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre
Published on 2011-06-02 22:05:57
Perhaps I am too quick to judge books because Dreamsnake is another of the Hugo nominated books that I did not enjoy much at all at the beginning but soon found myself really enjoying, and while there were still parts of it where it felt as if things
Review: The Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft
Published on 2011-05-30 18:40:42
Mountains of Madness is H. P. Lovecrafts longest story, and at times as you read the story it certainly feels as if it is the longest, though there are a few others that were much harder to read. This is in fact a very interesting story most of the t
Medusa's Coil by H. P. Lovecraft
Published on 2011-05-28 15:34:36
One of the interesting parts of reading through H. P. Lovecraft’s stories in chronological order is that you never know what you’re likely to get. One story will be great and then there will be several that are not as good. Medusa’s
Book Review: Grendels Shadow by Andrew Mayne
Published on 2011-05-26 20:18:37
I have been wanting to try to read more independent science fiction books and so when I heard the ads for Grendel's Shadow on a podcast that I regularly listen to I knew it was a great place to start. I knew Andrew Mayne was an interesting person who
Review: The Mound by H. P. Lovecraft
Published on 2011-05-25 19:58:03
Sitting in the dark with nothing but a few candles I felt the desire to read. There is nothing quite like reading a story by candlelight and no genre better suited to it than horror. So I started in on H.P. Lovecraft and The Mound. A story that appea
Hugo Nominee Review: The Things by Peter Watts
Published on 2011-05-20 05:39:56
The Things by Peter Watts is the only one of the four Hugo nominated short stories that I read before it was nominated. In fact it may be the only Hugo award nominated story that I have read before it was nominated and even recommended it to a couple
Hugo Book Review: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm
Published on 2011-05-14 21:08:53
I have not had good luck reading science fiction stories that have titles from Shakespeare. The problem is that they tend to take themselves far too seriously and the author is trying to impress people rather than tell a good story. When I began Wher
Hugo Nominee Review: Ponies by Kij Johnson
Published on 2011-05-09 02:31:19
Ponies by Kij Johnson is certainly the most unique of the Hugo nominated short stories. It is far shorter than the other stories and isn’t actually science fiction, but it certainly deserves to be nominated for this award because it is one of t
Hugo Nominee Review: For Want of a Nail by Mary Robinette Kowal
Published on 2011-05-09 01:49:46
The second of the Hugo nominated short stories this year is For Want of a Nail by Mary Robinette Kowal and printed in the September issue of Asimov’s. This is a story about AI’s and a generation ship. This story though is as much about th
Hugo Nominee Review: Amaryllis by Carrie Vaughn
Published on 2011-04-27 14:21:25
As I have been reading the Hugos this year the announcement of the award nominees is more interesting to me than normal and I decided to begin to read some of them. I am starting, alphabetically, with the short stories which are all available online
A Hugo and Nebula Award Quiz
Published on 2011-04-23 17:12:09
It is generally safe to pick up a Hugo or Nebula award winning book with the assumption that you will like it. That makes books which have won both of these awards a special lot and books that you should know if you consider yourself a science ficito
Review: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Published on 2011-04-23 14:11:20
After how much I disliked the last Hugo award winning book it was a real pleasure to start The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, a book that I had heard about for a long time and could barely bring myself to put down as the story progressed. In addition I
Great Science Fiction Books That Shouldn't Be Movies
Published on 2011-04-23 02:46:49
There are a lot of very popular science fiction books which people talk about making into movies. And I can certainly understand the desire to see your favorite book as a movie. I too love Foundation, Ender’s Game and many other books on these
Why is Genre Fiction Looked Down On?
Published on 2011-04-21 23:08:24
Anyone who loves genre fiction understand that it is generally looked down on by other people. The books are not considered “literature” in general even though almost all the most popular writers write fantasy, science fiction and horror.
Huge Review: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Published on 2011-04-18 16:18:39
It took me almost a full month to read The Dispossessed and it is not all that long of a book, or even one that is difficult in any real fashion. It was simply that I did not like this book. I didn’t care and even when I sat down to try to push
Diskworld: Book Order Map
Published on 2011-04-06 16:00:20
I have read and generally enjoyed several of the Diskworld novels. They are in fact often compared to one of my favorite science fiction stories the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I can understand why. Having looked at this image I remember why
The Electric Executioner by H. P. Lovecraft
Published on 2011-03-24 02:26:33
To call the Electric Executioner a H. P. Lovecraft short story is a bit of a slam against Lovecraft as it is almost certainly one of the worst stories that he worked on. This is a story which he made with Adolphe de Castro and was published in Weird
Hugo Review: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Published on 2011-03-20 00:37:33
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke is one of the classic alien stories which is in large part defined by the fact that the aliens are never actually in the story directly. This makes it a disturbingly realistic feeling story. It does this in la
Huge Review: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Published on 2011-03-20 00:37:33
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke is one of the classic alien stories which is in large part defined by the fact that the aliens are never actually in the story directly. This makes it a disturbingly realistic feeling story. It does this in la
They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson
Published on 2011-03-15 03:03:36
They're Made Out Of Meat - Click here for another funny movie. This is a simple video of one of the funnies science fiction short stories I have ever read. Because the story is almost entirely a conversation it comes across almost as a dramatic rea
Huge Review: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Published on 2011-03-14 02:36:19
When I began to read science fiction heavily one of the first authors which I began to delve into was Isaac Asimov. That is the primary reason that I was excited when I saw “The gods themselves” by Isaac Asimov on the list of the hugos.&n
Hugo Review: To Your Scattered Bodies Go By Phillip Jose Farmer
Published on 2011-03-10 22:53:34
To your Scattered Bodies Go by Phillip Jose Farmer is the first in the Riverworld series of books. It tells the story of an artificially created world that is inhabited by humans from all of human history. This allows for interactions between people
Hugo Review: Ringworld by Larry Niven
Published on 2011-03-08 01:45:10
Ringworld by Larry Niven is one of my favorite books. This is a book that could have stuck with a single interesting idea, that of the ringworld itself and made an interesting book, but it is the other elements that it adds into the story which make
Review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Published on 2011-03-03 22:36:43
I tried to read “The Left Hand of Darkness” a few years ago and didn’t make it all that far into it. It isn’t that it is bad in any way, in fact there are interesting points, but like some of the other books it is an att
Hugo Review: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
Published on 2011-02-25 16:07:37
I started out disliking Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner almost immediately. I didn’t know enough about it to dislike it on any merit at this point, but I did not like the style. The problem that any story in which one of the first things you
Hugo Review: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Published on 2011-02-18 03:44:41
I can recognize that there are a lot of interesting ideas in Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. It actually reminds me in some ways of Stargate something that I really do enjoy and there are points that were very interesting. The problem was that
Hugo Review: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Published on 2011-02-18 03:44:41
I can recognize that there are a lot of interesting ideas in Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. It actually reminds me in some ways of Stargate something that I really do enjoy and there are points that were very interesting. The problem was that
Hugo Review: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Published on 2011-02-14 02:24:52
One of the best part of reading the Hugo award winning novels has been returning to book and authors that I have tried to read in the past and failed to enjoy in some way. Chief among those is Robert Heinlein. The only one of Heinlein’s books t
Hugo Review: Dune by Frank Herbert
Published on 2011-02-10 22:07:08
This is the third time that I have read the first book of Dune by Frank Herbert, and the first time that I was tempted to continue to read. In fact if I wasn't in the middle of a large project I would continue to read. Much of this is simply that I r
Hugo Review: This Immortal by Roger Zelazny
Published on 2011-02-01 04:32:43
I like what This Immortal by Roger Zelazny was trying to do and in many ways it succeeds. This is the myth of the Greeks in science fiction form. A story of a trip traveling through many hardships and strange places and finally returning home changed
Review: The Wanderer
Published on 2011-01-27 05:53:05
The Wander by Fritz Leiber won the Hugo award in 1965 and, so far, is my least favorite of the Hugo award novels. In fact had I not been planning to write about it I would have quit this book at about a third of the way through. That said, this book
Review: The Dunwich Horror
Published on 2011-01-24 06:37:33
As I try to slog through "The Wanderer" I decided to take a short break and read something else. For that I picked The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft. I had not read this story before but I had heard a lot of it. This is one of my favorite of the
Hugo Review: Way Station by Clifford D. Simak
Published on 2011-01-18 03:01:54
One of the things that I love about science fiction is that I never really know what to expect when beginning a story. Listening to the descriptions of Way Station by Clifford D. Simak on the cover I expected a story that was a traditional story abou
Review: The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick
Published on 2011-01-16 04:57:08
I was looking forward to reading The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick. I have read a number of his novels and have been wanting to read more and this is one I have heard talked amount more than almost any. Unfortunately this book was not as
Review: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Published on 2011-01-16 04:57:08
I was looking forward to reading The Man in the High Castle by Phillip K. Dick. I have read a number of his novels and have been wanting to read more and this is one I have heard talked amount more than almost any. Unfortunately this book was not as
Review: Stranger in a Strang Land by Robert Heinlein
Published on 2011-01-13 02:53:14
I did not much care for the beginning of Stranger in a Strange land. It wasn't bad in any way and the aliens were interesting. The problem was that it took a long time to get started and even once it felt as if it was to the point it wasn't. Once it
Review: A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Published on 2011-01-09 00:51:22
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr is one of the leading works in the post apocalyptic sub genre. This is a sub genre that I generally do not care all that much for. Its a bit better in movies that are generally far more action movies t
Review of Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein
Published on 2011-01-04 17:57:24
After reading a couple Hugo award winning novels I didn't enjoy that much Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein was a real pleasure. I had read the book previously and knew I would enjoy it. What I didn't know was how much I had missed the first time.
Review: A Case of Conscience by James Blish
Published on 2011-01-02 00:38:29
Religion in science fiction is one of my favorite themes when it is done well. I find the ability of science fiction to examine religion in new ways fascinating. The problem is that most of the time science fiction writers are more interested in writ
Review: The Big Time By Fritz Leiber
Published on 2010-12-31 03:11:53
The Big Time by Fritz Leiber is a book that had me hooked and lost me. It was never bad but as the story advanced I begin to drift. The ideas of how time travel was interesting but I didn't really care about the war, the character or any of the event
Review: Double Star by Robert Heinlein
Published on 2010-12-29 01:42:16
I am more or less ambivalent towards Double Star, the 1956 Hugo winning novel by Robert Heinlein. This is a book that demonstrates the range of science fiction as a genre because this is really a novel about politics not science fiction. There is lit
Review: They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley
Published on 2010-12-24 00:44:20
I made a concerted effort to avoid any information about “They'd Rather be Right” by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley (Also known as the Forever Machine) and I am glad that I did. I did not know when I began this that it is considered by many
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Published on 2010-12-21 00:25:13
I had read Fahrenheit 451 before and I planned to read it slowly this time, taking a week or more to read it. I did not do that. Having sat down to read only a little I found myself not only half way through the book but not wanting to stop reading.
Review: The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
Published on 2010-12-19 02:29:43
The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is the first Hugo to win a novel, though not the first Hugo Award winning novel published as several retroactive Hugo Award were given. This story is one that frustrates me because there are a lot of elements of th
Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein -- Review
Published on 2010-12-16 02:25:48
From date of publication Farmer in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein is the second of the Hugo award winning novels. This book was given the award for 1951, but it was awarded in 2001. The fact that this book is remembered fifty years later is one of the
Review: The Mule by Isaac Asimov
Published on 2010-12-13 21:51:53
Having decided to read all the Hugo Award winning novels I decided that I would reread anything on the list as well as those I had not read before. The first is The Mule a book I have read, but have never read alone. This is part of the foundation se
My New Project: Reading Every Hugo Winning Novel
Published on 2010-12-11 19:26:39
I have been looking for something that I can really focus on, not only on this site, but in general and I have decided. I want to read more good science fiction, so I am going to be reading and writing about every Hugo award winning novel. I will als
Has Science Fiction Become Redundant?
Published on 2010-12-10 17:25:18
I'm not all that old, and yet I grew up in a completely different world. The Internet was something we began to hear about as I neared my teenage years and even then it was not anything common. Computers still had floppy disks and monochrome monit