Book Reviews
Review: “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Christopher Golden
Many people who read and write science fiction believe that through the last few decades science fiction has actually prepared society for future technological advances. The idea, some say, is that in science fiction all the pitfalls, moral uncertainties, and roads best not traveled can be discovered and worked out in the pages of entertaining fiction, rather than bitter experience.
So why won’t this generation learn? If science fiction has taught us one thing, it’s that if you have the ability to go into the past in order to change events and make the world a better place… don’t do it! You’re just gonna fuck it up.
Review: “The Ghost Brigades” by John Scalzi
Ghost Brigades is a pageturner with surprising emotional rewards, but I’m hoping that Scalzi plans to write more books in this universe, because as it is there are too many ideas here for his own good.
Review: “The Tattooed Wolf” by K. Bannerman
If you like short, satisfying reads between your “Harry Potter” or “A Song of Ice and Fire” ten pound seat-raisers, then buy the tree-killer or planet-friendly version of this book.
Review: “The Crazy Years: Reflections of a Science Fiction” by Spider Robinson
I can tell you this: Spider is funny, and he’s smart, and you can’t go wrong with a combination like that. Warren James, host of Mike Hodel’s Hour 25, says that science fiction allows us to see the world through another set of eyes. Take a chance and take a look at world through the eyes of the Spider.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Review: “Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void” by Mary Roach
Science fiction movies and novels dealing with long exploration missions to deep space rarely deal with the complexities of our bodies surviving during the long journey through space.
Review: “Steampunk!” edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant
I do enjoy a good short story anthology and Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories really fits the bill. It offers 14 terrific stories all in the steampunk genre (although some of them are pretty loosely connected — I’m looking at you Garth Nix!). And the quality of the stories are uniformly good.
Review: “Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty” by Raymond Benson
Let me begin by saying that I wanted to love this book. I love the game, I love the characters, I love reading; it seemed a natural fit. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. What I ended up reading was an “okay” version of a story that I know could have been much better.
Review: “Calculating God” by Robert J. Sawyer
If you read science fiction, you have to read Robert J. Sawyer. That’s all there is to it.
Calculating God explores such mundane questions as “Was the universe designed by an intelligent creator?” “Is there a God?” “Does he influence the affairs of man?” “Why is there life in the universe?” Sawyer’s answers are the most imaginative you will ever read.
