Science Fiction Category Archives

21 September, 2012

reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult

2 comments

Comedy, Scalzi, Space Travel, Star Trek

The Map of the Sky by Félix J. Palma

The Map of the Sky by Félix J. Palma

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

I loved The Map of Time and couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one.

I also recommend:

The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen

Summary from GoodReads:

A love story serves as backdrop for The Map of the Sky when New York socialite Emma Harlow agrees to marry millionaire Montgomery Gilmore, but only if he accepts her audacious challenge: to reproduce the extraterrestrial invasion featured in Wells’s War of the Worlds. What follows are three brilliantly interconnected plots to create a breathtaking tale of time travel and mystery, replete with cameos by a young Edgar Allan Poe, and Captain Shackleton and Charles Winslow from The Map of Time.

My Review:

I am completely in love with this series. Felix J. Palma is my hero. Seriously. I loved The Map of Time (which deals with H.G. Well’s Time Machine) – so it was inevitable that I picked up The Map of the Sky with anticipation, and thoroughly expecting a story that dealt with Wells’s sky-themed book like.. say.. War of the Worlds.

People, I cackled out loud several times as I read this story.

Something I’ve learned to appreciate, over the last year especially, is how a narrator can make or break a story. If you, as a writer, choose to write in the first person and the character you have speaking is unlikable or annoying in any way, the narration is going to get on the nerves of your readers. If you choose third-person and that intimate moment crops up when we need to be in the head of the character, then you’ve made a blunder there as well.

Then there are geniuses like Felix J. Palma who give us a third-person narrator who is a character in his own right. This book is like having Palma’s voice in our heads, enjoying the story right there along with us, and guessing (correctly in my case) what are reactions will be and then calling them out in the text itself. It was downright spooky at times – but a good spooky!

I knew from The Map of Time that I could expect another story intricate in its weaving, and filled with misdirection. But even knowing all of that, the misdirection was not easy to spot, and when I did spot it, I fully expect that Palma intended it to happen at that time because just a page later it was brought to light so matter-of-factly I felt foolish for feeling a bit jubilant.

I am not going to talk about the plot, other than to tell you that in three distinct sections, Palma writes such a complete story that is committed to all of the details, that even if you are dying for the answers, it’s impossible to not thoroughly enjoy the ride in getting to them.

This book was fun, pure and simple, and I am loving that the covers were flashy enough to catch my eye and make me pull them off the shelf.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Genre Go Round Reviews| The Secret Writer

Method of Obtaining: I received a copy of this to review from the publisher through Edelweiss.
Published by: Atria Books
Release Date: 9/04/2012

23 August, 2012

Fantasy, Favorites, reviews, Science Fiction

2 comments

Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Mars, Martians, Palma, The Map of Time

Railsea by China Miéville

Railsea by China Miéville

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

Moby Dick and an awesome cover. I couldn’t resist.

I also recommend:

The Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Ganymede by Cherie Priest

Summary from GoodReads:

On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one’s death and the other’s glory. But no matter how spectacular it is, Sham can’t shake the sense that there is more to life than traveling the endless rails of the railsea–even if his captain can think only of the hunt for the ivory-coloured mole she’s been chasing since it took her arm all those years ago. When they come across a wrecked train, at first it’s a welcome distraction. But what Sham finds in the derelict—a series of pictures hinting at something, somewhere, that should be impossible—leads to considerably more than he’d bargained for. Soon he’s hunted on all sides, by pirates, trainsfolk, monsters and salvage-scrabblers. And it might not be just Sham’s life that’s about to change. It could be the whole of the railsea.

My Review:

I’ve read a lot of books, but none of them have been nearly so enveloping as Railsea by China Miéville. What do I mean by “enveloping?”

Well, let’s take the ampersand for starters. Throughout the book (& this review, because I love it so much) China inserts the ampersand for each “and,” & it’s there for a reason – which is explained once the story is about 3/4ths of the way through. It’s alternatively very, very cool & very distracting, but it works for what it was intended to do & is a constant reminder of how different things are.

Also, there is the narrator. I’m not sure who exactly is narrating the book, but suffice it to say the narrator keeps things interesting. You know those books that jump around between three different sets of characters & always jump right when things are really heating up for the one that has you completely sucked into? The narrator acknowledges that is happening in a way – but still you have to wait & you may have to read a few short pages of the narrator musing on the state of the world in the process. It’s very cool – that’s all I have to say about that.

This story is part Moby Dick, part Treasure Island, part Robinson Crusoe. There are characters with strange names, a strange world filled with dangerous creatures (I always thought moles were freaky). There’s a strange caste structure & instead of sticking to a specific genre, China moves between Steampunk, Post-Apocalyptic, & Dystopia – mixing all three into a wonderful stew of adventure goodness.

Before you dive into this unique, incredible story though let me warn you – it’s taxing to the brain. I had to take several breaks before diving back in because my mind was having to work so hard to adjust to everything. This is classified as a Young Adult book, but frankly I haven’t worked so hard reading a “Young Adult” book since I picked up Ender’s Game.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Puss Reboots | Reader Dad| Bookshelf Bombshells

10 June, 2012

Dystopian, reviews, Science Fiction, Steampunk, Young Adult

6 comments

Miéville, Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

I enjoyed Terry Pratchett’s humor in Good Omens.

I also recommend:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
A Star Curiously Singing by Kerry Nietz

Summary from GoodReads:

1916: the Western Front, France. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong, and the wind in the leaves in the trees. Where has the mud, blood and blasted landscape of No man’s Land gone?

2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson has returned to the burned-out home of one Willis Linsay, a reclusive and some said mad, others dangerous, scientist. It was arson but, as is often the way, the firemen seem to have caused more damage than the fire itself. Stepping through the wreck of a house, there’s no sign of any human remains but on the mantelpiece Monica finds a curious gadget – a box, containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a…potato. It is the prototype of an invention that Linsay called a ‘stepper’. An invention he put up on the web for all the world to see, and use, an invention that would to change the way mankind viewed his world Earth for ever. And that’s an understatement if ever there was one…

…because the stepper allowed the person using it to step sideways into another America, another Earth, and if you kept on stepping, you kept on entering even more Earths…this is the Long Earth. It’s our our Earth but one of chain of parallel worlds, lying side by side each differing from its neighbour by really very little (or actually quite a lot). It’s an infinite chain, offering ‘steppers’ an infinite landscape of infinite possibilities. And the further away you travel, the stranger – and sometimes more dangerous – the Earths get. The sun and moon always shine, the basic laws of physics are the same. However, the chance events which have shaped our particular Earth, such as the dinosaur-killer asteroid impact, might not have happened and things may well have turned out rather differently.

But, until Willis Linsay invented his stepper, only our Earth hosted mankind…or so we thought. Because it turns out there are some people who are natural ‘steppers’, who don’t need his invention and now the great migration has begun..

My Review:

As a rule, I’m not a fan of co-authored books. I mean, I enjoyed Good Omens because I knew I love Neil Gaiman and had heard good things about Terry Pratchett. So, following in that vein, I enjoyed Good Omens and Pratchett’s writing, so I was willing to give The Long Earth a shot.

While this wasn’t the best book I’ve read, I will say it was pretty amusing and interesting. Gee, that’s glowing praise isn’t it? I don’t want to give the impression that I didn’t like the book, because I did. I found myself wanting to pick it up and read more and I loved the world building (LOVED the world building). I felt like I was back in my childhood days, exploring those new worlds via Star Trek. In fact, that’s what this book really reminds me of – if you liked Star Trek, Stargate or any sci-fi show that involves world exploring then I think this book will really appeal to you.

The humor was okay most of the time, sometimes I laughed out loud, sometimes I barely cracked a smile. The robot-man and ship (you will have to learn about them when you read it – including names because my book is in the other room and their names escape me) were okay and frankly, reminded me more of Douglas Adams than anything else.

When all is said and done, I don’t feel as if I wasted my time reading this one, but I don’t want to jump all around and push it on all my friends either. It was an amusing past time and when I put it down I was ready to move on to the next book on my pile.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Beauty in Ruins | Fantasy Bytes| Teen Reads

6 June, 2012

reviews, Science Fiction

Baxter, Exploring, Pratchett, Spaceships

Earthseed by Pamela Sargent

Earthseed by Pamela Sargent

Order from:

Book Passion for Life

Reason for Reading:

I received this from TOR Teen – apparently it’s been optioned for a motion picture!

I also recommend:

Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Summary from GoodReads:

The classic YA science fiction adventure by Nebula and Locus Award–winning author Pamela Sargent The ship hurtles through space. Deep within its core, it carries the seed of humankind. Launched by the people of a dying Earth over a century ago, its mission is to find a habitable world for the children—fifteen-year-old Zoheret and her shipmates—whom it has created from its genetic banks.

To Zoheret and her shipmates, Ship has been mother, father, and loving teacher, preparing them for their biggest challenge: to survive on their own, on an uninhabited planet, without Ship’s protection. Now that day is almost upon them…but are they ready to leave Ship? Ship devises a test. And suddenly, instincts that have been latent for over a hundred years take over. Zoheret watches as friends become strangers—and enemies. Can Zoheret and her companions overcome the biggest obstacle to the survival of the human race—themselves?

My Review:

To be honest, when I first looked up Earthseed by Pamela Sargent on GoodReads I choked a little bit with laughter seeing it’s original, 1983 cover. It was cheesy, embarrassing, and frankly everything I remember reading when I was 10 years old in the 80′s.

Thankfully, the edition I received from TOR Teen featured an updated cover and, after reading a few reviews, I dove into the story with hope.
After just a few pages I was immediately reminded of Beth Revis’ Across the Universe – which was not a bad thing, just made me remember the hope I had to see more sci-fi leaning Young Adult fiction out there and less paranormal-romance.

Earthseed gave me just about everything I look for in a sci-fi-”lite” book. It wasn’t too filled with technical terms that I had to struggle to figure out what was going on, in fact almost immediately I knew exactly what was happening, between the sentient Ship and the children. What I had an issue with, however, was the blatant type-casting of both races and disabilities. Since this book was written in the early 80′s I think it’s safe to say that Pamela Sargent was definitely not aware of what we are today. So if you want to read this book, keep in mind the year it was published – not that it gives Sargent an excuse (and I’m rather surprised that TOR Teen editors did not tweak it a bit), just that it was written nearly 30 years ago.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

To Read Or Not To Read

29 May, 2012

reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Earth, Sargent, Spaceship, Survival

The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman

The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

The cover caught my eye.

I recommend:

Constellation Chronicles by Vincent Lowry

Summary from GoodReads

The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had just turned thirteen. The Reverend Feye simply climbed on the roof to fix a shingle, let out a scream, and vanished – only to walk up the driveway an hour later, looking older and worn, with a strange girl named Lahlia in tow. In the months that followed, Tucker watched his father grow distant and his once loving mother slide into madness. But then both of his parents disappear. Now in the care of his wild Uncle Kosh, Tucker begins to suspect that the disks of shimmering air he keeps seeing – one right on top of the roof – hold the answer to restoring his family. And when he dares to step into one, he’s launched on a time-twisting journey- from a small Midwestern town to a futuristic hospital run by digitally augmented healers, from the death of an ancient prophet to a forest at the end of time. Inevitably, Tucker’s actions alter the past and future, changing his world forever.

My Review:

For a book that took forever to get actually moving, I was actually surprised at how disappointed I was in The Obsidian Blade. Here’s what my journey through this story looked like.

Confusion: First – a completely strange, utterly alien world was introduced. Fine, that I can deal with. But then it was shoved into a closet and I was thrown into a reality that, honestly, sent me back to the internet to find out what was going on with this books genre classification. It seemed like a typical, young adult, non-science-fiction book. But nope.. after what seemed like forever, I was thrown back into the science fiction realm.

Disbelief: Not only were historical events not sacred (World Trade Center) but religious stories were pulled into the mix and treated with a heavy hand. It’s one thing to express disbelief in the stories that are the foundation of a religion, but using them as a catalyst to make the story seem more interesting? Not cool – especially since it completely felt as if the stories were being used for mere shock value.

I was disappointed in this series, and definitely will not be investigating the rest of the trilogy. The science fiction elements seemed to be implemented merely as an excuse to use past events in a novel, and, as a result, were not very fleshed out in and of themselves. There was virtually no world building, no explanation other than a few vague paragraphs about the diskos, and no resolution of any sort. I understand it’s the first book of a trilogy, but you have to throw your reader a bone, you know? Make the book worth reading now, rather than having to wait.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Emily’s Reading Room

Charlotte’s Library

15 May, 2012

reviews, Science Fiction, Young Adult

4 comments

Hautman, Religion, Time Travel

Freeheads by Kerry Nietz

Freeheads by Kerry Nietz

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

This is the final book in a trilogy that I really enjoy!

I also recommend:

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Summary from GoodReads:

aving escaped the storms of Betelgeuse and the schemes of Jannah’s inhabitants, Sandfly and HardCandy make their way back to Earth. They have a message to deliver. A society to free. And A~A3 is with them. Their mission is simple, and just. What could possibly go wrong?

Unexpectedly, DarkTrench drops into normal space. He is malfunctioning, wounded, and the only people who can fix him are still hundreds of light years away. Sand and Hard scramble for a solution while catastrophe hurtles blindly toward them.

They reach Earth to find a different world, an unexpected domain. One they can no longer connect with.

They are stranded, hopelessly separated beneath a wasteland of death and a planet of rules. Debuggers amidst a cloistered community.

Ultimately, Sandfly is alone, and Earth’s freedom relies on him and his newfound faith. But does his mission even matter anymore?

He’s a misfit, and a throwback. A symbol for all that’s evil.
Perhaps he’s the last freehead?

My Review:

This book sealed the deal for me – I’m officially a Kerry Nietz fangirl. When I was first introduced to A Star Curiously Singing for the 2010 INSPY awards I was .. concerned. I’d never been a big science fiction (hard core sci-fi that is) fan, but I gave it a chance and was thoroughly hooked by this original, fantastic story.

Then came The Superlative Stream, and once again I was dragged into HardCandy, DarkTrench, and Sandfly’s world. And once again, I had to face disappointment and the book came to an end. So when I got a chance to read Freeheads I was giddy. However, school made huge demands on me.

So I put it aside and I read it over spring break – no, actually.. I devoured it over spring break. I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning reading Freeheads and loved every single moment of it. There was so much character development that happened over the span of the previous books and everything just came together well in this finale. Plus… I love returning home moments, and I think, considering how he wrote this book, Kerry Nietz might just share that love.

This is a great trilogy, and it’s so hard to just review one book without talking about the other two. I’ve talked them up to my friends and highly recommend you give them a shot. Just remember – it’s speculative fiction, and what else is more fun than reading a “what if”?

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

The Bookish Mama

Laurie Here

13 May, 2012

Christian, reviews, Science Fiction

DarkTrench, Nietz, Science Fiction, Speculative

Tribulations by Ken Shufeldt

Tribulations by Ken Shufeldt

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

Received a review copy.

I recommend:

A Star Curiously Singing by Kerry Nietz

Summary from GoodReads:

An asteroid storm has obliterated the Earth. Billy and Linda West have built enough space-going arks to save a small number of people who now roam the void in search of a new home.

Desperate to find a safe haven, Billy makes a dangerous attempt to exceed the speed of light. When his plans go terribly wrong, the Wests’ severely-damaged ship is separated from the fleet and left drifting near a mysterious planet.

This world’s conditions are hospitable—but its inhabitants are not. Suddenly the Wests and their fellow survivors are caught in the middle of an ancient war between two brutal nations. Faced with horrific dangers, they are forced to choose a side just to survive.

My Review:

You know, I’m willing to overlook names like Billy and Linda Lou if the story is good, and draws me in (and it’d have to be damn good to make me feel like I’m not reading about some hicks in outer space). Seriously though, that’s a personal thing.. I enjoy good character names, and these just seemed as if the author just didn’t give a damn about his characters – which becomes even more evident in his story.

If this story had been recited to me, orally, at bedtime, in increments, by my grandfather, I would have loved it. It moved at a quick pace, and was written in “everyday speak” sort of language. But that doesn’t translate to the page well. There needs to be detail, and description. An author should not write about how there is a language barrier between an alien race and the crew aboard a spaceship and then, a few lines later, solve that issue by saying Billy made some translation devices for everyone and they all could understand.

It’s not that easy!

There needs to be some depth to the story. There needs to be actual time passing, don’t tell me “…a few weeks later”, write about something that happened to make me understand that time is, indeed, passing. Did he face any difficulties? I mean, creating a translation device, that seems pretty interesting – tell me more about it.

Furthermore, don’t create situations that you have an easy answer to. I felt like every obstacle facing Linda and Billy was easily solved, way too easily solved, with so little actual writing space between the problem and the answer that I barely had time to wrap my mind around the issue before it had been solved.

Also – never a good idea to start a book with the morning after a wedding night. That felt uncomfortable and weird.

I really was psyched up about this book – I wanted to enjoy a good science fiction book, and when I saw that TOR had mailed this one to me I jumped around the house and talked to everyone about it. But man, I am so. damn. disappointed. by this story.

31 January, 2012

reviews, Science Fiction

Earth, Outer Space, Shufeldt

The Bone House by Stephen Lawhead

The Bone House by Stephen R. Lawhead

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

I enjoyed the Lawhead books I’ve read in the past, and decided to give him a go with this series.

I also recommend:

The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen

Summary from GoodReads:

An avenue of Egyptian sphinxes, an Etruscan tufa tomb, a Bohemian coffee shop, and a Stone Age landscape where universes collide …

Kit Livingstone met his great grandfather Cosimo in a rainy alley in London where he discovered the reality of alternate realities.

Now he’s on the run – and on a quest, trying to understand the impossible mission he inherited from Cosimo: to restore a map that charts the hidden dimensions of the multiverse while staying one step ahead of the savage Burley Men.

The key is the Skin Map – but where it leads and what it means, Kit has no idea. The pieces have been scattered throughout this universe and beyond.

My Review:

The Bone House is the book that made reading The Skin Map worth it. I loved this book, for its adventure and its characters. My only complaint? It feels as if the story is being drug out for the series sake.

This is a problem that occurs when there are many storylines happening at once. When you skip from character to character and pieces are put together. Speaking of pieces put together, that’s another of my pet peeves – when characters are added into the book in such a way it seems as if they were added last minute in order to keep the story moving. Does it make the story less exciting? No. It just gives it that element of… “eye-rolling, whatever”, you know.. the unbelievable (even when reading about science fiction/fantasy things like time travel and magic).

I hope that all made sense.

Still, The Bone House took off running from where The Skin Map left off and left me wanting more answers at the end. Lawhead is definitely a master when it comes to spinning a good tale, I have to say. I’ll be right there on the list waiting for the next installment to come out.

Check out these reviews!

Footprints in the Butter

15 December, 2011

Christian, reviews, Science Fiction

Alternate Realities, Lawhead, Time Travel

The Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead

The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead

Order from:

Reason for Reading:

I enjoyed the Lawhead books I’ve read in the past, and decided to give him a go with this series.

I also recommend:

The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma
The Revisionists by Thomas Mullen

Summary from GoodReads:

Kit Livingstone’s great-grandfather has re-appeared with an unbelievable story–the ley lines throughoutBritain are not merely the stuff of legends but truly are pathways to other worlds. So few people know how to use them, though, that doing so is fraught with danger.

But one explorer knew more than most. Because of his fear of being unable to find his way home, he developed an intricate code and tattooed his map onto his skin. But the map has since been lost and rival factions are in desperate competition to recover it. What none of them yet realize is that the skin map itself is not the prize at the end of this race . . . but merely the first goal of a vast and marvelous quest to regain Paradise.

Enter the ultimate treasure hunt–with a map made of skin, a playing field of alternate realities, and a prize that is the greatest mystery of all.

My Review:

I don’t know what it is with all these books that deal with ley lines and time travel and alternate realities, but I’m totally digging it. Stephen Lawhead splashes into this time-travel alternate reality thing with a bang, giving us a group of characters that are likeable and not so likeable and providing us with trips to Egypt, England and other fantastic places and times – no limits here!

There is a lot of set-up in The Skin Map, a lot of scientific explaining and figuring out how things work and, I won’t lie.. a lot of the Cosimo/Kit storyline had me bored to tears in places – but as I’ve learned in the times I’ve read Lawhead, it’s worth the payoff.

I think my favorite storyline deals with Wilhemina – it was just so perfect and had me giddy with happiness – but I won’t spoil it more for you.. just check the series out because it is worth it!

If you are a science fiction fan, or even wanting to be a sci-fi fan but are too afraid of the genre to dip your toes into it, then this is the perfect blending of history and sci-fi. It moves slowly enough that it’s easy to grasp and has just the right amount of action in it to make it worth while.

Check out these reviews!

Inside the Wrong Mind