Review of The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin (1969)
Bottom line: Meh. Rating: Recommended if: you’re doing a tour of classic sci fi authors. Blurb: When the human ambassador Genly Ai is sent to Gethen, the planet known as Winter by those outsiders who have experienced its arctic climate, he thinks that his mission will be a standard one of making peace between warring […]
Review of The Martian by Andy Weir (2012)
Bottom line: Highly recommended for sci-fi fans and/or survivalists. Rating: Strongly Recommended Blurb: Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking […]
Review of C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy
Review: C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strengthh) is the most disjointed trilogy I have ever read. That’s not to say it isn’t worth reading, or even good, but it feels more like a very loosely related collection of books than a trilogy. What makes it feel so […]
Close Encounters of the Fourteenth Century Kind
Howdy! I’m on vacation in Brazil for most of September, so I turned the tables on my readers and opened up the blog for guests posts while I’m gone. Today’s post comes from John, a.k.a. Mr. Lector’s Books. I have a confession: I listen to a lot of audiobooks. Where most people listen to music, […]
Review of Illusion by Frank Peretti (2012)
Bottom line: A fascinating and intriguing story about love, time-travel, and magic. Rating: Strongly Recommended Blurb: In a world where nothing is as it seems, anything is possible. DANE AND MANDY, a popular magic act for forty years, are tragically separated by a car wreck that claims Mandy’s life—or so everyone thinks. Even as Dane […]
Review of The Host (2008) by Stephenie Meyer
Bottom line: A fun science fiction story with great characters, action, and romance. Rating: Recommended Blurb: Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, didn’t expect […]
Review of Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall (2010)
Bottom line: A fun read for Star Trek fans who don’t mind a little spattering of bodily fluids and high body count. Ok, there was a lot of spattering. Rating: Recommended if: you are a zombie fan and/or Trekkie Blurb: Journey to the final frontier of sci-fi zombie horror! Jim Pike was the world’s biggest […]
Review of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Rating: Strongly Recommended Blurb: Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. […]
Review of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1985) (The Ender Quintet)
Bottom line: A compelling character and suspenseful story combine to create an engrossing read. Rating: Recommended Blurb: In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race’s next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, […]
Review of the Chronological Man Adventure Series by Andrew Mayne
Bottom line: A fun, historical, science-y, steampunk-y, adventure-y series of short stories. Rating: Strongly Recommended Review: I really like this series. It consists (so far) of two short stories, telling the tale of Smith, time traveler extraordinaire, who shows up to save the day whenever he is needed. The books are short enough to be […]