1.5/5 (Bad)
Ben Bova’s second novel, published in 1964, was expanded from an earlier short story. It tells the tale of the Star Watchman Emil Vorgens, a representative of the Terran Empire that covers over half the Milky Way, sent to the rebellious planet of Shinar. The Shinarians have invited the Komani raiders (imagine greenish wookies with Continue reading
4.5/5 (very good)
Planet of Exile (1966) is a masterful piece of fantasy/science fiction world building for Ursula Le Guin spins her story, worlds, cultures, and each race’s animosities in flawless fashion. This novel is part of Le Guin’s Hainish Continue reading
4/5 (Good)
C. J. Cherryh’s Merchanter’s Luck is a heady brew of redemption, paranoia, fear, endless suspicion, and more paranoia. However, this work has markedly less of the seemingly-endless (and often unjustified) political manipulation that bogs down Cherryh’s more famous novels Cyteen and Downbelow Continue reading
4/5 (Good)
Barrington J. Bayley, an English sci-fi writer and a member of the Science Fiction New Wave, is considered a lost great — if not for his novels as novels, but for his well of bizarre/extraordinary/ Continue reading
3/5 (Average)
This was the first Poul Anderson book I managed to finish (I got bogged down in one of his later novels a few years ago). The Rebel Worlds is part of a series of books by Anderson about his main character Dominic Flandry and the failing Terran Empire. The series includes Ensign Flandry (1966), A Circus of Continue reading
3/5 (Average)
Poul Anderson’s Orbit Unlimited is comprised of four short stories linked together chronologically and occasionally by recurrent characters. This structure is essentially a loose-form novel.
The first section describes the persecuted Constitutionalists (think Continue reading
1/5 (Drivel)
First:
Imagine a universe where art has evolved to the point where a single man can utilize images, computers, mythology, drugs, history etc to single handily bring about a monumental shift in a culture’s society––even bringing about a past “culture/realization of past” that had long since dissipated on a planet. Continue reading
3/5 (Average)
The Reefs of Space, by Frederick Pohl and Jack Williamson, is the first novel of the Starchild Trilogy (which includes Starchild and Rogue Star).
The novel follows the brilliant (and amnesia induced) scientist Continue reading
2/5 (bad)
Future Earth uses special ethereal silk (from Mars) to power wood ocean going boats across the sky. The silk is running out and the ocean going boats with canvas are going to be the next big thing. OK.
AGAIN, the draw of the “future crumbling empire fixation” (FCEF) Continue reading
Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations 