http://www.sfreviews.net/ Hundreds of in-depth science fiction and fantasy book reviews by Thomas M. Wagner, for discriminating readers. en-us http://www.sfreviews.net/sfr-button2.jpg http://www.sfreviews.net/ 111 45 http://www.sfreviews.net/drinkard_elom.html Debut novelist Drinkard is way, way out of his league with this ambitious but immensely tedious SF epic about primitive humans on an alien world confronting the aliens who have been watching over them. Drinkard's method of world-building involves piling on the exposition, so that everything is painstakingly detailed yet superficial and lacking in mystery. Same goes for his characters. (**) Mon, 12 May 2008 11:49:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/aguirre_grimspace.html Another hybrid of romance and space opera has debut author Aguirre freely indulging in the cliches of both genres. But her heroine has a farily good character arc, the plot takes some strange turns, and the entire cast is such a bunch of neurotic screwups that they're actually kind of endearing. A reasonably promising first novel. (***) Mon, 12 May 2008 11:48:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/novik_victory_of_eagles.html Novik's Temeraire saga cements its reputation as modern fantasy's most consistently rewarding series with this exciting fifth volume, in which Napoleon lands on England's shores at last and all bets are off. Climactic battle scene is one of the genre's best. (****) Mon, 05 May 2008 10:01:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/castro_emissaries_from_dead.html Absorbing, unusual, and extremely bleak and cynical murder mystery set aboard an artificial alien habitat, in which investigator Andrea Cort's search for a murderer could have interstellar political consequences, as well as forcing her to confront her own past traumas. Story becomes impressively more daring and complex as it goes on, only rarely overreaching. A worthwhile read. (***1/2) Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:45:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/bodeen_compound.html Teenage son of an IT billionaire has been holed up six years with his family in their absurdly lavish underground bunker, following a WMD attack on the US...but it quickly looks like Dad hasn't been truthful, and is going crazy to boot. What could have been a fine young adult debut with something to say about paranoia in the post-9/11 age collapses into ludicrous illogic and one lame Hollywood movie cliche after another. (*1/2) Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:35:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/butcher_df07_dead_beat.html The seventh Harry Dresden novel is longer and more expansive. But a better plot than book six, plus some expanded roles for previously minor supporting characters, keep the whole thing humming along like a well oiled machine. Plus, the climactic battle (which doubles as a rousing parody of 'Jurassic Park') is something else! (****) Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:58:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/butcher_df06_blood_rites.html Harry Dresden goes undercover on, of all things, the set of a porn flick, and learns that a murder plot is tied into a power play within the vampiric White Court. One of the series' funnier installments, but Butcher does rely a bit too heavily on big cliches where both his arch-villain and a few surprises in the series' metastory are concerned. (***1/2) Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:31:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/butcher_df05_death_masks.html The fifth "Dresden Files" adventure is Butcher's most assured and satisfying yet, as everything about the universe he's been establishing for his series up to this point comes together as a fully-fleshed out fantasy milieu. It's so enjoyable even the silly premise, involving the theft of the Shroud of Turin, works. (****1/2) Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:30:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/butcher_df04_summer_knight.html Butcher's fourth Harry Dresden novel has his hard-done-by paranormal investigator drawn into a looming war between the Summer and Winter houses of the Sidhe. Another example of taut, expertly crafted escapism from the series that's become the standard bearer for this type of urban fantasy. (****) Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:59:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/pfh_dreaming_void.html Hamilton follows his duology ("Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained") with the first volume of a new trilogy, set 1500 years on. It's the usual epic-scaled, multicharacter storytelling he's given us before. And while some scenes feature some of Hamilton's best-ever storytelling, others feel like he's retreading old ground, going through the space-opera motions. Still worthwhile for fans, most assuredly, and the next book holds much promise. (***) Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:47:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/pfh_neutronium_alchemist.html The second volume of Hamilton's gargantuan "Night's Dawn" trilogy (like all of them, split into two books for US publication) is just as sprawling and layered, but has a more focused narrative overall, and some surprising (and very entertaining) bad guys. A real spectacle in every way. (****) Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:46:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/kent_clone_alliance.html Kent's third novel about clone Marine Wayson Harris has plenty of enjoyable action, but some dubious storytelling choices make this one a disappointment. The enemy this time out is simply so colossally stupid, that's most of the book's suspense is dulled. (**1/2) Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:45:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/psb_fine_private_place.html Beagle's first novel is a moving and quietly profound character study of four people on the cusp between life and death -- two of them are living, two are ghosts -- and what they learn about themselves, life, love, and how soon we come to cherish what we once took for granted only after we've lost it irrevocably. (****1/2) Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:45:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/psb_tamsin.html A smashing young adult fantasy about a young American girl forced to relocate to the English countryside when her mom remarries, and who there encounters the ghost of a young girl whose tragic situation, begun in the 1600's following the Monmouth Rebellion, is far from over. Lovely melding of romance, fantasy, ghost story and history was a well-deserved World Fantasy Award finalist. (****) Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:30:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/psb_last_unicorn.html Beagle's beloved, classic fable about a unicorn in search of others of its kind remains funny, charming and moving to this day. (****) Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:29:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/psb_folk_of_the_air.html Beagle's least favorite of his own novels, this tale of a man returning to his beloved Bay Area college town, only to find himself embroiled in a good-vs-evil battle centered on an SCA-ish group of medievalist re-enactors among whose members are some very real castaways in time, is captivating despite being overlong and occasionally draggy. Beagle is planning to release a revision at some point. (***1/2) Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:28:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/kk_braided_world.html Shortlisted for the Campbell, this is one of Kenyon's best books. A team of explorers from a genetically depleted Earth are led to search for a hoped-for store of lost genetic information on an alien world where a quasi-human species is on the cusp of societal upheaval and war. As emotionally involving as it is intellectually stimulating, this is a richly rewarding story. (****) Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:35:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/kk_world_too_near.html With much of the world-building out of the way in the first book, the second installment in Kenyon's ambitious new tetralogy amps up the action and suspense, as grim hero Titus Quinn must wrestle with the complex politics of the artificial universe the Entire, all the while trying to find a way to stop it from destroying our own universe completely. This series is best appreciated as pure escapist adventure, without as much intellectual depth as Kenyon's earlier stand-alone books. But it still rocks. (***1/2) Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:02:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/kk_bright_of_the_sky.html Kenyon's first effort at series fiction, the first volume of a tetralogy, is set within an artificial universe created out of exotic matter. While the book's plot doesn't stray too far from Campbell's classic "Hero's Journey" template, there's still much glorious world-building here, and the story is inventive and absorbing. (***1/2) Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:59:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/keck_in_time_of_treason.html Keck's sophomore effort -- following 'In the Eye of Heaven,' offers a suitably grim and dour depiction of a kingdom at war, but mostly, the book is a sumptuously mounted boregasm. (**) Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:58:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/clarke_childhoods_end.html Elegiac story of humanity's final generation following first contact with benevolent aliens called the Overlords, who transform Earth into a utopia -- until the other shoe drops -- retains quite a lot of emotional force today, and launched Clarke on thematic concerns about humanity's place in the cosmos that he'd later refine in his '2001' and 'Rama' stories. (****) Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:08:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/clarke_baxter_firstborn.html Clarke and Baxter complete their sprawling and ambitious trilogy pitting hapless Earth against an inscrutable and hostile race of aliens who seek to destroy us with a weapon that hurls its target into an unstable pocket universe. Disappoints with a lousy ending that fails to tie together a surfeit of loose ends, and even seems to suggest a segue into yet another series! (**1/2) Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:55:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/clarke_earthlight.html Very exciting and enjoyable old-school space opera. It isn't hard to stay one step ahead of this tale of espionage set on the moon, where humanity's first major war in 200 years, between the Earth and its Federation of colonies, threatens to erupt. But there's a humdinger of a climactic battle scene and a tangible sense of wonder about space exploration that only the best classic SF seems to offer. Not as dated (beyond the obvious) as you might think either. Smashing. (****) Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:47:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/clarke_sands_of_mars.html Clarke's first completed novel is a solid and wittily self-effacing hard SF adventure about humanity's first Martian colony. Only slightly dated, with the first half a bit too heavy on the talk. But satisfying and recommended all the same. An exemplar of optimistic, humanist SF, forseeing a bright future for humanity in space. (***1/2) Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:46:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/ebear_dust.html Ambitious and imaginative space saga in which conflicts between posthumans, rogue AI "angels," and a distributed AI "god" come to a head aboard a generation ship stranded for 500 years around an unstable dwarf star that's going to go nova any minute. Often brilliantly creative, with the ship itself a striking and memorable setting. But the plot is as painfully overworked as an epic fantasy, and apart from the heroine, the characters are generally unappealing. (**1/2) Tue, 01 jan 2008 23:45:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/pullman_amber_spyglass.html Pullman's finale to his challenging and polarizing 'His Dark Materials' trilogy ends on a triumphant note, though readers expecting everything to culminate in an explosive boss battle will likely be disappointed. Instead, the book takes a surprisingly personal turn as it becomes a story of love, duty over personal desires, and the need to transform the here and now into the heaven so many seek. Yes, devoutly Christian readers will be put off by the dismissal of religion, but there are messages here the open-minded reader will find uplifting. Quite powerful in its best scenes. (****) Sat, 15 Dec 2007 21:58:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/mebus_gods_manhattan.html Debut young adult fantasy by former MTV producer Mebus incorporates the colorful landscape and history of New York City into its exciting story with great imagination. Unexpected and impressive. (***1/2) Fri, 07 Dec 2007 23:55:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/earths_last_citadel.html Not a lot of Golden Age SF holds up well today, and this 1943 dying-earth adventure from that era's most famous husband-and-wife team is no exception. Nothing dreadful -- just too dated, dull and cliched to have much more than historical or scholarly value to a contemporary reader. (**) Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:26:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/enthoven_tim_defender.html Enthoven's sophomore novel is a loving tribute to all those old Japanese rubber monster movies, as a genetically modified, skyscraper-sized T.Rex named Tim is all that stands between London (and the world) and the ravages of a mad scientist who's turned himself into a nanotech cloud threatening to absorb all life on Earth into himself. Plenty of great knocking-over-buildings action. But even on corny escapist terms, Enthoven is sloppy with his plotting and characterization in a way that holds the story back from fulfilling its best potential. (**1/2) Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:20:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/black_j_devil_inside.html Hottie exorcist Morgan Kingsley gets more than she bargained for when she learns she herself is possessed, and her demon is at the heart of a power play between human-friendly "good" demons and the bad ones who just want to enslave us. Another urban fantasy in the Hamilton/Butcher/Armstrong mode by paranormal romance writer Black has, perhaps, too much kinky gay S&M for many readers, not to mention a sloppy plot flaw in chapter one. But overall there's enough entertainment value that fans of this kind of thing will be effortlessly won over. (***) Thu, 22 Nov 2007 23:40:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/osc_war_of_gifts.html Definite oddity is just a novella in book form, readable in around an hour (and thus overpriced as a $13 hardcover). In Battle School, a war of wills breaks out, eventually spiralling out of control, led by an unpopular and highly religious student over private religious expression. A good premise, not nearly as preachy as you might fear. But it's all so simplistic and banal, with trite stereotypes in place of characters representing opposing sides of the ideological fence. Whom does Card think the audience for this tale is, exactly? And where is it supposed to fit into the 'Ender's Game' continuity? (**) Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:42:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/osc_xenocide.html Card's highly-anticipated third Ender novel is an overlong and meditative affair as unlike 'Ender's Game' as it can be. The fate of the colony world Lusitania, which is slated for destruction by Starways Congress as it harbors a virus necessary to indigenous life but invariably fatal to humans, rests with a young girl on the Chinese Taoist world of Path. The thing is, she isn't aware she's going mad. Themes of duty and redemption are continued from 'Speaker for the Dead,' while Card additionally explores family dynamics in crisis. Good on the whole, but ultimately overreaches. (***) Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:43:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/osc_children_of_mind.html The race to save the planet Lusitania, as well as the AI Jane, continues in this extension of 'Xenocide' (the two books were originally intended as one mammoth epic). Here the drama gives way to talky melodrama, with Card's large cast of characters going into self-pity overdrive and being petulant and angsty all over the place. Bleh. (**1/2) Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:44:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/osc_enders_shadow.html Card returns to form in this companion volume to his original 'Ender's Game,' which tells the same story from the perspective of Bean, the boy genius who becomes Ender's foil and confidant in Battle School. Card's writing recaptures the breathless momentum of his award-winning classic, and the new point of view allows for a different and thought-provoking take on the original's climax. (****) Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:45:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/troy3gemmell.html Often stupendous and worthy finale to the trilogy reimagining the Homeric epic, marred only by a climax that goes just a teensy bit over the top. Gemmell's widow (and principal researcher) Stella finished out the novel, which had yet to be completed upon his death in 2006. (****) Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:02:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/gemmell_dark_moon.html An unsung masterpiece of heroic fantasy, this is the tale of unwitting heroes brought together to battle a marauding hivemind race that seeks nothing less than humanity's annihilation. A more nuanced examination of the good and evil in everyone than one typically sees in much of the genre, married to nearly flawless storytelling. Don't miss this one. (*****) Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:01:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/memories_of_ice.html Yes, there are times when, like its predessors, it feels like it goes on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. But Erikson's third volume in his monstrous "Malazan Book of the Fallen" saga is the strongest yet, displaying marked improvement in both narrative structure and character development. As always, Erikson's eye for sheer spectacle is virtually unmatched. Still not a writer for everyone, but a considerable talent who dares to forge his own path. (***1/2) Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:00:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/accidental_time_machine.html Hard to tell how much Haldeman intends for his latest to be satirical. Still, his light-hearted story of an MIT grad student who becomes an unwitting time traveler with the aid of a mis-functioning device he ganked from his physics lab gets off to a great start...then lapses into eye-rolling silliness. (**) Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:42:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/haldeman_worlds.html Haldeman launches his ambitious trilogy, in which the life of student Marianne O'Hara, from one of the orbital habitats known as Worlds, is set against a backdrop of growing political turmoil and saber-rattling between the Worlds and Earth. Good attention to character, but I wanted more in-depth backstory about how the present political situations arose. (***) Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:39:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/haldeman_worlds_apart.html The most successful entry in the Worlds trilogy contrasts life in the last remaining orbital habitat, New New York, with the creepy post-holocaust landscape on Earth, devastated by a virus that kills all adult humans. Many familiar post-holocaust tropes at play here, and again, a curious lack of narrative depth, but an engaging story on the whole. (***) Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:37:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/haldeman_worlds_enough.html The climactic volume of Haldeman's ambitious trilogy first wallows in the tedious minutiae of administrating a generation ship, then squanders the whole thing by absurdly introducing omnipotent, magic aliens. What a waste of this trilogy's potential! (**) Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:35:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/stross_halting_state.html Riveting thriller (whose only demerit is a too-conventional wrapup) in which massively-mulitplayer online games are used as a front for international espionage and cyberterror. Cracking story of technoparanoia gets wonderfully twisted. Will arguably appeal more to gamers and programmers than readers who lack those backgrounds. (***1/2) Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:46:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/stross_atrocity_archives.html Charles Stross's hilariously snarky and lightning-paced stories about the Laundry, an offshoot of British intelligence dedicated to saving the world from the Old Ones and other Lovecraftian horrors from alternate universes, are a sheer delight. This book includes the complete novel 'The Atrocity Archive' and the Hugo-winning novella "The Concrete Jungle." Big recommendation to Jim Butcher fans. (****) Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:45:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/hammond_kop.html Once you get past a setup that relies more heavily on crime fiction cliches than it should, Warren Hammond's debut is a smashing, twisted, violent future-noir mystery/thriller set on a world where everyone's on the take and no one gets away clean. (****) Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:55:00 -0600 http://www.sfreviews.net/carlson_plague_year.html It follows a fairly conventional path, but Carlson's debut, about an out-of-control nanotech plague that burns out only at high altitudes, packs a lot of tension and excitement. (***1/2) Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:53:00 -0600