Posts Tagged ‘science fiction’
Dune Messiah, by Frank Herbert
Posted on: April 24, 2014
Dune Messiah, by Frank Herbert (Dune, book 2)
published in 1969
where I got it: have owned forever.
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Why am I starting with the 2nd novel in this series? The first book in the series, Dune, was one of my gateway books to science fiction, and I’ve read it so many times in the last 20 years, that I practically know it by heart. I grew up reading this series. But you may not know Dune by heart. You may not have grown up with it. It’s okay, I forgive you. But since I’m not a total jerk, here are some reviews of Dune to get you up to speed (The Founding Fields, Fantasy Book Review, Best Fantasy Books, Looping Wor(l)d, Josh’s Fantasy Novel Reviews ), and if those are tl:dr, here’s the wikipedia cliffsnotes.
My goal is to get through the rest of the series during this year. It’s been a good eight (yikes, ten?) years since I attempted Chapterhouse, so I’m due for a reread of the entire series. And who knows, maybe I’ll even rewatch the movie and miniseries, and we can talk about that too.
Will there be spoilers in this series of blog posts? yes. sorry, ‘tis unavoidable.
Will they wreck your enjoyment of these books? Nope. read ‘em, and you’ll see what I mean.
and as usual, these will be my weird, impressionistic, paint thrown at the wall style reviews.
Dune Messiah opens with the planning of a conspiracy to dethrone Emperor Paul Muad’Dib Atreides. Before Paul ascended the throne, there had always been an unspoken rule of checks and balances – the Corrino Emperor ruled of course, but often bowed to the needs of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, and the Spacing Guild. Compromises were made, powers were kept relatively happy, any embarrassments could be swept under the rug of money and power. If Paul continues his refusal to compromise, he will have to be removed, and a more suitable (suitable = controllable) person put on the throne. The conspirators consist of Paul’s wife Princess Irulan, Scytale the Tleilaxu face-dancer, the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, and Edric the Guild Steersman, representing s cross section of the political parties whose future stability relies on being able to influence and control the ruling family. The plan they come up with involves nothing more suspect than a gift befitting an emperor.
Dune Messiah takes place twelve years after Dune, and we really see the metamorphosis Paul and his family have been forced to go through. Paul rules as Emperor of the known universe, yet he is completely powerless to stop jihadists who kill in his name. By allowing his Fremen to call him Messiah, he has given up all personhood, becoming a prisoner of his own success. Nearly overnight the known universe became a theocracy, and everything that’s happened, everything that will happen, Paul has already forseen. The future isn’t written in stone, Paul has merely seen all the possible paths, with roads that narrow as events get closer. He’s the most accidental Emperor ever, and he and his sister Alia sometimes joke about the tragicomedy of their whole situation. A renegade genetic success and his abomination of a sister, ruling the galaxy, what could be funnier? it’s actually a little depressing, when you think about it.
Everyone in this saga is trapped. It is important to remember that.
this blog post is part of Apex Magazine’s Operation Fourth Story. If Apex picks up enough new subscribers this month, they’ll be able to include a fourth original story in future issues, and how awesome would that be! Click here for more info about Operation Fourth Story. Already a subscriber? click here. But don’t just take my word for it, check out these other recent Apex Magazine blog posts:
Books, Bones, and Buffy interviews Cameron Salisbury, Managing Editor
Two Dudes in an Attic reviews Issue 55 (Dec 2013)
Bibliotropic reviews Issue 58 (March 2014)
Lynn’s Book Blog reviews issue 57 (Feb 2014)
Over the Effing Rainbow reviews issue 59 (April 2014)
Beauty in Ruins reviews issue 54 (Nov 2013)
Genre-Bending reviews issue 55 (Dec 2013)
new! Bibliosanctum reviews issue 58 (March 2014)
And for those of you who would like to take my word for it, here are my thoughts on issue 58, the March 2014 issue:
I’m yet another newbie when it comes to short fiction magazines. I’ve subscribed to Asimov’s for maybe two years now, and have picked up the occasional promotional issue of short fiction magazines at conventions and bookstores and such. But these new fangled electronic magazines you say? Read it on my phone or e-reader, you say? say WHAT?
Once I got over the omg this magazine is on my phone thing, I suddenly realized omg this magazine is on my phone, this is wonderful! I don’t need to worry about it not fitting in my purse or getting all mangled in my purse (a part of me is still mourning that poor, poor issue of Asimov’s that I shoved in my purse and it got completely mangled by my keys), or it getting soaked in the mailbox (the fate of too many Asimov’s). okay, so having Apex Magazine on my phone is pretty neat. And hello gorgeous cover art! Julie Dillon is one of my favorite artists! ok, so it’s pretty to look at, as portable as chapstick, and easy to navigate, but what about what’s in it?
Each issue of Apex Magazine includes a short note from the editor, a few short stories, poetry, interviews, and a non-fiction essay about issues that are near and dear to genre fans. The March issue opens with a short essay from Editor Sigrid Ellis (who I recently interviewed), where she talks about crossroads, the fine line between flying and falling, thresholds, and breaking through those thresholds, deciding if we are falling or if we are no, flying. She’s not just randomly talking about decision trees, she’s introducing you to what lies in the pages ahead. Characters in transitions, characters who are standing at the precipice, people at the cross roads of what will define the rest of their life. And you know what? Falling or flying, it’s up to the person in the air to decide which verb applies to them.
Apex Magazine is know for feeding your need for weird, speculative, surprising, sometimes shocking, and always satisfying short fiction.
And now they want to feed that need even more.
Lesley Conner explains it best on the Apex Magazine website:
So far 2014 has been a good year for Apex Magazine. We have a new editorial team, led by Editor-in-chief Sigrid Ellis, submissions and web readership are at record levels, and yearly subscribers are on a steady rise.
With this in mind, we’ve decided we want to take the magazine to a new level. We want to make it bigger and better than it already is. We want to give you more.
Launch Operation Fourth Story!
Over the next two weeks (April 3rd to April 17th) we’re going to be showcasing Apex Magazine – and short fiction in general – here on the Apex blog and across the web. Every day we’ll have guest posts from authors, editors, and bloggers about the importance of short fiction. Several bloggers will be reviewing issues of Apex Magazine, and there will be guest posts and interviews with the Apex Magazine crew popping up everywhere.
Our goal is to get 250 new subscribers. If we meet this goal, then we’ll have the revenue to add a fourth piece of original short fiction to every issue. That means more stories from the authors we love, more new talent being found amid the slush piles. It means Apex Magazine will bigger and better than ever.
Click here to visit the Apex Blog and read the rest of the press release. There are links to subscription options,everything you need.
I’ll be posting about Apex Magazine, I’ll be linking to others who are posting about Apex Magazine, it’s gonna be an Apex themed party. (and Apex throws a hell of a party, trust me, I’ve been to one!)
so, discussion time in the comments: what’s your favorite thing about short fiction? What are some of your favorite short stories?
Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter
Posted on: March 31, 2014
Gemsigns by Stephanie Saulter (®Evolution Book 1)
published in the UK April 2014, US May 2014
where I got it: received review copy from the publisher (Thanks Jo Fletcher books!)
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Plagued by an often fatal syndrome, it was the miracle of genetic manipulation that allowed humanity to survive and to ensure that future generations would live in a world safe from disease, from birth defects, and from congenital conditions. The corporations known as Gemtechs who developed these life saving technologies were quick to realize that their boon to society was directly linked to vast profits and additional technological developments. Children born under the auspices of the Gemtechs were designed with vast genetic manipulations, everything from extended eyesight to super strength, to savants of all kinds. The property of a Gemtech from the day of their birth, they knew nothing except a life of indentured servitude.
Until now.
Gemsigns takes place a year after the Declaration, the piece of legislation that gave the Genetically Modified People (known as “gems”) a modicum of human rights and the legal ability to separate themselves from their parent Gemtechs and integrate into regular society. Forced to display their “gemsigns”, usually naturally florescently colored hair,the gems know every instant of every day that they are different, and that normal humans see them as inferior, dangerous, and other. The big question is, are they as human as you and me? Because if they are, don’t they deserve human rights?
Dr. Eli Walker has been hired to research the situations of gems who are integrating. After generations of forced servitude (let’s just call it what it is: slavery), how are the gems handling finding a job that meets their abilities, or paying their rent? Are they becoming too dependent on social services? After one particularly violent interaction where a norm child was killed, can any gem even be trusted around normal children? Dr. Walker has his work cut out for him, and the European Conference on the Status of Genetically Modified Humans is right around the corner. This will be a landmark moment for the gems, either providing them full human rights, or solidifying their legal permanent status as slaves. Legal status aside, is humanity ready or even able to accept as equals those they have seen as inferior?
Survival, by Julie Czerneda
Posted on: March 25, 2014
Survival (Species Imperiative #1), by Julie Czerneda
published in 2004
where I got it: purchased used
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Just because we’ve traveled to the stars and met with aliens doesn’t mean everyone wants to travel to the stars and hang out with aliens. Evolutionary biologist Dr. Mackenzie Connor is perfectly happy to study salmon at the Norcoast research facility, working with other quirky research scientists and grad students. Why should she care about aliens, outlying human colonies, or a dead spot in the galaxy, when all her salmon are doing just fine?
Let me save you a lot of reading by simply saying Julie Czerneda’s Survival is damn near perfect. There is no possible way to cram all the awesome of Survival into one review, so I won’t torture us by trying. But by all means, keep reading. Excellently researched and presented hard science fiction, characters in difficult situations, betrayal, aliens, and genocide, it took me a while to write this review because my brain was so Wow’d by the implications of what I’d read.
As there’s a big blue alien on the cover of the book, it’s no spoiler to tell you that an alien, a Dhryn to be specific, visits Norcoast. Instead of being flattered that the first Dhryn to ever visit the Earth has chosen her research facility to visit, Mac is less than thrilled to have her meticulously timed research interrupted by a huge alien name Brymn. When I first met her, Mac reminded me of Dr. Ellie Arroway from Carl Sagan’s Contact. Both women are so very focused on their fields of research, that they take it as a personal insult whenever someone tries to interrupt their studies. And it’s not just an alien who visits Norcoast, it’s the entourage of political hanger ons and the media, all stomping all over the place. So much for this season’s salmon spawning research.
The Door Into Summer, by Robert Heinlein
published in 1956
where I got it: paperback swap
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I’ve been in a reading slump lately. Books seem to feel the same, not much has grabbed me lately, I seem to have burned myself out on epic fantasy for a while, and damnit, there is still two feet of snow on the ground. I need some nice weather, and I need a book that reads like a sunny day, something that’s fun as hell and won’t demand anything of me in return. I need a door into summer.
Does that cover art look familiar? if you’ve got this printing, do NOT read the blurb on the back. It spoils the surprise.
Dan’s cat Pete hates the snow. In the winter, the cat still wants to do his business outside, and will insist that Dan open every door in the house. Because Pete’s pretty sure that one of these cold winter days, one of those doors will be a door into summer.
The year is 1970, and Dan Davis is a brilliant engineer, but a horrible judge of character. Knowing he hasn’t got a head for business, Dan and his friend Miles go into business, with Miles doing all the accounting and paperwork, and Dan making all the inventions. It was going swimmingly until the gorgeous Belle showed up. It was hysterical to me how Dan describes Belle in engineering-talk. Belle plays both men for fools, gets Miles to do her dirty work, and in a sneaky round about way convinces Dan to go for Long Sleep. Dan is happy to leave this sorry, heartbroken world behind, so long as his beloved cat, Pete, can go in the coffin with him. He even comes up with a foolproof plan to make sure the one human being he still cares about, a little girl named Ricki, will be taken care of financially.
The Long Sleep isn’t death, it’s a hypethermia of sorts. You pay an insurance company to put you in hypothermic hibernation, and you wake up 5 years later, ten years later, or whatever period of time you choose. Maybe the world won’t suck as bad, maybe a cure will have been found for whatever is killing you. Doesn’t matter the reasons, companies have found they can make a fortune offering the service, and consumers are drawn in by the idea that they can invest some money, take the long sleep, and be millionaires when they wake up. What could possibly go wrong?
The Exodus Towers by Jason M. Hough (Dire Earth, book 2)
published in 2013
where I got it: borrowed from a friend
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This is the second book in Jason M. Hough’s Dire Earth Cycle, and due to some very important plot points revealed at the end of the first book in the series, The Darwin Elevator, there will be unavoidable spoilers in this review for the first book.
The Darwin Elevator was fun, but it certainly wasn’t my favorite book. Friends of mine kept telling me to give The Exodus Towers a try, that the series got better. And they were right. This second novel is far and away better than the first. The pacing is tighter, the characterization is better, the alien technologies are described better, the stakes are higher, the tension is built in a more effective way, it’s just a much better written book all the way around.
At the end of the first book, a second elevator plunged to earth, landing in Belem, Brazil. The stations and levels that escaped the Darwin elevator were able to attach to this new elevator, and since then, Tania Sharma and Skyler Luiken have been slowly but surely building a new colony. Hampered by a low population but helped by mobile towers that protect from the Subs virus, it’s slow going. Skyler spends most of his time on the ground scouting, and Tania is up in the elevator. She takes comfort in group decisions, being cautious with their limited resources, and not taking action until a sure course is decided on. Skyler on the other hand, is comfortable making snap decisions with incomplete information.
Tania has lived the protected life of an orbital scientist, where if it takes two weeks to come to a decision it won’t really matter, whereas Skyler is more used to running from Subs and needing to grab scavenged cargo as fast as possible. I enjoyed watching the two of them play off of each other, and I appreciated the time Hough took to really develop their personality differences. So many times, they are both right, or both wrong, and sometimes they even see it. There is some obvious chemistry between the two of them, but Hough keeps their relationship complicated instead of taking the easy route of allowing them an easy or simple romantic relationship.
Go Win Some Stuff
Posted on: March 3, 2014
- In: give away | Uncategorized
- 3 Comments
While you are waiting with baited breath for the two book reviews I’m working on, check out these give aways. Because we all need more books, right?
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My Shelf Confessions is giving away a copy of The Book of Apex, Vol 4
And speaking of Apex Books, they are giving away a copy of Midnight, by Mari Adkins
Win a 5-pack of cozy mystery novels from My Bookish Ways, and while you’re over there, enter to win a copy of The Troop, by Nick Cutter
In celebration of World Book Day, Over the Effing Rainbow is giving away a limited edition, signed copy of Sebastien de Castell’s debut Traitor’s Blade. an autographed, numbered copy? holy crap!
like Tad Williams? Tachyon Publications is giving away an ARC of The Very Best of Tad Williams
Win a copy of James. S.A. Corey’s Star Wars: Honor Among Thieves over at Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
There’s a copy of Hounded by Kevin Hearne up for grabs through Goodreads. While you’re over there, make sure to enter for a copy of Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis
Over at She Wolf Reads, you can win a copy of Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong!
intrigued by A Darkling Sea by James L. Cambias? I am. Let’s go win a copy over at Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing
a copy of Jaime Lee Moyer’s debut novel Delia’s Shadow is being given away at Rainy Day Ramblings
Here be book pr0n
Posted on: February 25, 2014
no book reviews or interviews ready.
So you get photos instead. Here be book pr0n.
oh hell yeah! As a tease I had it sitting on my desk at work. SO wanted to start reading it, but had to, like, work. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is the only Jemisin I’ve read so far, and thanks to that book I will forever buy anything with her name on it.
Will McIntosh has a new book coming out soon in May from Orbit! Creative cover design of Love Minus Eighty and the unusual binding of this ARC leads me to wonder what incredible cover design is in store for the finished copy of Defenders? And speaking of Defenders, I also have
Which features McIntosh’s short story Scout, which is connected to Defenders. Also? I fucking love Robert Reed. I have an e-arc of The Memory of Sky which I can’t wait to start reading! And by the way, Scout made me cry at the end.
I’ve never read any Michael Sullivan, what does every one think of him writing scifi? This baby comes out from Tachyon in April.
Interview with Tim Susman
Posted on: February 23, 2014
- In: Blog tour | interviews | Tim Susman
- 2 Comments
![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000040_00012]](https://littleredreviewer.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/apex-blog-tour-banner.jpg)
This interview is part of the Book of Apex Blog tour. Want to win a copy of the book for yourself? Click here for some give aways!
What a great experience to get to interview Tim Susman, author of Erzulie Dantor (read the story here, read my review here). I knew that Tim was involved with small press publishing, but until now I had no idea it was his press that published Ursula Vernon’s Hugo Award winning Digger! How cool is that? You can learn more about Tim at his website, but before you click on that, let’s do the interview, ok?
LRR: Your story “Erzulie Dantor” takes place in a disaster ravaged Haiti. Can you tell us what inspired this story?
T.S.: My sister-in-law organized a relief effort from the hospital in Denver where she worked and went with them to Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. We followed the pictures and stories she sent back, which painted a vivid picture of the devastation and desperation there. That was in the back of my mind when I was researching werewolves of different cultures and found the Haitian je-rouge. It was a mysterious creature in legend and also on the Internet; I could find very little about it. So it occurred to me that where there is disaster and tragedy, there are also people willing to take advantage of the disorientation of others. From there, a story about jealousy and voodoo took place, and when I found Erzulie Dantor in the pantheon of Haitian gods, I had the last piece of the story.
LRR: What is your favorite type of fiction to write? Are there certain ideas or themes you enjoy writing about?
T.S.: I have in the past couple years written science fiction, fantasy, contemporary fiction, mystery, and horror…but if you pin me down to one, I like writing contemporary fantasy. A lot of my longer fiction is written with anthropomorphic animal characters (“furry” stories, about which more below); no matter what the setting, it’s always the characters that push me to finish stories. My works often involve questions of self-discovery or self-actualization, especially in the areas of sexuality or creative inspiration. I don’t like “message” stories, but I think that the best works do contain something that the reader can take away to make his or her life better, and that’s something I try to include in all my work.
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