4.5/5 (Very Good)
This is one of my all time favorite Arthur C. Clarke books. Published in 1955, Earthlight still remains a practically unknown work in Clarke’s massive canon. The minimalistic Continue reading
book reviews
Book Review: The Dueling Machine, Ben Bova (1969)
2/5 (Bad)
This novel feels like two separate stories connected by the presence of the dueling machine. The story when the dueling machine is a dueling machine and the story when the Bova decides that the dueling machine is also teleportation device and a therapy device and only occasionally used for duels. The first part of the novel Continue reading
Book Review: The Seedling Stars, James Blish (1957)
Overall score 3.75/5 (Good)
James Blish’s The Seedling Stars is a collection of three novelettes (Seeding Program, The Thing in the Attic, Surface Tension) and a short story (Watershed). Each is loosely connected by internal chronology and subject matter: pantropy (the modifications of humans for live on other planets instead of terraforming). The quality Continue reading
Book Review: The Man Who Japed, Philip K. Dick (1956)
4/5 (Good)
“At seven A.M., Allen Purcell, the forward-looking young president of the newest and most creative of the Research Agencies, lost a bedroom,” and so begins The Man Who Japed.
This novel, published in 1956 (a product of the very early period of Philip K. Dick’s career) is an immense step forward from his inferior, disjointed, and amateurish novel, The World Jones Continue reading
Book Review: The People of the Wind, Poul Anderson (1973)
4.5/5 (Very Good)
Notable Awards: Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1974 Nebula Award nominee, 1973
Poul Anderson’s delightful space opera chronicles the struggle between the growing Terran Empire and the Ythrian Domain (inhabited by birdlike beings). The main action occurs on the planet Avalon, a colony of Ythri but settled by BOTH humans and Ythrians who have managed to create a multicultural Continue reading
Book Review: Empire of Two Worlds, Barrington J. Bayley (1972)
2/5 (Bad)
Killibol is a bleak, dark, gray rock planet in another galaxy populated with isolated termite-mound-like cities of its human colonists. Because of the inability to grow food in Killibol’s soil, society is structured around protein producing tanks. As a result of the rigid system of food production (i.e. power), life on Continue reading
Book Review: Galactic Cluster, James Blish (1959) — collected short stories from 1953-59
3.25/5 (Good — collated rating)
James Blish, famous for his Hugo winning novel, A Case of Conscience, early Star Trek novelizations, and the Cities in Flight series also wrote some interesting short shorties. This volume includes a Continue reading
Update: Science Fiction Books to be Reviewed/Read this summer
I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of science fiction books from the classics to the not so classic. I’ve decided to use this blog as motivation to read new books. Hence, reviews of Dune (Herbert), Hyperion (Simmons), Stand on Zanzibar (Brunner) and other major works probably will not reviewed in the near future since I’ve read them already and until I run out of things to read I’m not inclined to read them Continue reading
Book Review: Three Worlds to Conquer, Poul Anderson (1964)
4/5 (Good)
Poul Anderson’s science fiction adventure tale, Three Worlds to Conquer, is a remarkably exciting and engaging quick read. Three Worlds is a “loose” sequel to Anderson’s short story, ‘Sam Hall’ published in the August 1953 edition of Astounding Science fiction. Both cover some aspect of post-WWIII Continue reading
Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations 