The Dragon Page "Cover to Cover"
Conversations with Authors of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Some books I know I’m going to love within the first few pages. Other books I discard in a few paragraphs. And then there are the books where I can’t put them down, yet I also can’t decide at the end if I liked them or not.
Tony Ballantyne’s Recursion fits that latter category.
The first words that come to mind are speechless and breathtaking. I lose all sense of almost any vocabulary when trying to define the experience while reading The Traveler. The imagery and realism with which Hawks so cunningly captures in his words are profound and exhilarating.
I’m not even really sure where to begin with this review. I, along with 6,000 of Sigler’s closest friends, let Scott Sigler pull me around like fish on on an angler’s line for 20 some-odd weeks as he released this fast-paced, bloody mosh-pit of a book in audio form, one chapter at a time.
So yeah, I wanted to kill him on a weekly basis. But back to the story.
John Scalzi was a guest on our show not too terribly long ago talking about his book Old Man’s War. John also runs a very active and popular blog called Whatever. While I don’t get a chance to read it as much as I’d like (read: hardly ever), articles like “Writing in the Age of Piracy” make me kick myself in the ass for not making the time.
When John Barnes gets a visit from his old buddy and private detective Travis Bismark, he knows two things for sure: Travis needs a ride, and he’ll get at least one new science fiction book out of it.
I drive a lot. So I’m always on the lookout for free or cheap-ass audio books of great SF. A few days ago I stumbled across Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report and Other Stories narrated by actor Keir Dullea, the perfect mind-escape from the four-hour drive back from Vegas over the holiday weekend. And what a ride.
Robert Buettner is a great writer. Seriously. Anyone who can keep me not only interested in a military SF book, but also interested enough to read it in less than THREE DAYS is doing something right. You just don’t want to put the book down.
It’s not often I read books which both reverse and elevate my opinion of the author. Before reading Just a Geek, Wil Wheaton was the child-actor who played arguably the most hated character on Star Trek:TNG, as well as the kid with the biggest (leech-infested) one in four counties. After finishing the book, Wil has become one of my Personal Heroes.
As reported in The Scotsman, leading scientists from around the globe have picked their top sci-fi movies of all time. I agree with almost every one of their picks. Except one. See if you can figure it out in this top 10 list:
