Category: Uncategorized
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A couple of good sci-fi recommended reading lists
Always on the look out for something new to read, I came across a couple of lists of recommended new sci-fi books. At The Guardian, Lisa Tuttle has a round up of recent reviews including a book co-written by Nancy Kress and biologist Robert Lanza called Observer. Sounds intriguing. I am a huge fan of…
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Review: Consider Phlebas
The genre of space opera has gone through many ups and downs. Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke worked to ground their grand storytelling with scientific ideas. A bunch of folks like Roger Zelazny and Philip K. Dick in the new wave pushed back with more emotional and psychological concepts. George Lucas shook things up…
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Review: The Peripheral
In case it’s not obvious, William Gibson is one of my favorite authors. Coming off the excellent “Blue Ant” trilogy, we had to wait only a few years for The Peripheral, published in 2014. That wouldn’t be the case for the followup, Agency, but that’s another review. The Peripheral divides its story into two futuristic…
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Rereading: Kim Stanley Robinson’s ‘Science in the Capital’ trilogy
With the impacts of climate change crashing down upon us daily, I have been thinking a lot about the prescient trilogy written by Kim Stanley Robinson almost 20 years ago. Known as the “Science in the Capital” trilogy, it comprises Forty Signs of Rain (2004), Fifty Degrees Below (2005), and Sixty Days and Counting (2007).…
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Review: The Last Wild Horses
There have been a couple of sci-fi books involving horses lately. I was recommended Maja Lunde’s The Last Wild Horses and it did not disappoint. The Norwegian author is best known for her first book, The History of Bees, which won numerous awards. Here she is again telling three separate but interrelated stories, each taking…
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William Gibson got the idea for ‘cyberspace’ from listening to his Walkman
The New Yorker had the scoop back in 2019: He lived in Vancouver, and when he explored the city at night, listening to Joy Division, he felt as though the music were being transmitted directly into his brain, where it could merge with his perceptions of skyscrapers and slums. His wife, Deborah, was a graduate…
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A place for reviewing and reacting
After many decades as a science fiction fan, starting way back on the second floor landing of the dearly departed East Lexington Branch Library, it’s time to evolve and share some thoughts.