I love Hard Sci-Fi full of real science
I love Social Sci-Fi full of serious social issues
Do all of the above in one story
And Illuminate the Human Condition
What more could I ask for
Lightless by C. A. Higgins
Does it all
The Ship (the Ananke) is magnificent
Think big, as in Death Star big
We do not know it's purpose
On the ship a crew of 3
You heard me right, only 3 crew members
And an awakening computer
Althea, the engineer, designed much
Coded the computer
Ananke is hers and hers alone
Ananke is her child
Althea will protect her child
This book is on many Best of 2015 lists
With good reason
Music from 1988
Steve Earle / Copperhead Road
Scott Hawkins / The Library at Mount Char / Bizarre Twist Twisty Twisted Pleasure To Read
There is a Library
There are Librarians
Like nothing you have imagined
Scott Hawkins debut
The Library at Mount Char
Inventive merely hints at the brilliance here
You can't become complacent
The rules are always changing
The ante, your life
The stakes, always being raised
Carolyn and her peers
Spirited away as children
Raised by "father"
Each with their own library skill set
Some much more deadly than others
Father, perhaps God, or something else
Missing now
Turbulent times to be sure
I'm just not giving any spoilers here
Sometimes touching
Sometimes uber-violent
Sometimes both, often with a Bam! of Bazaar
This is a very unique read
You will be engaged
Music
Ryan Adam / 1989
Covering Taylor Swift's CD 1989
There are Librarians
Like nothing you have imagined
Scott Hawkins debut
The Library at Mount Char
Inventive merely hints at the brilliance here
You can't become complacent
The rules are always changing
The ante, your life
The stakes, always being raised
Carolyn and her peers
Spirited away as children
Raised by "father"
Each with their own library skill set
Some much more deadly than others
Father, perhaps God, or something else
Missing now
Turbulent times to be sure
I'm just not giving any spoilers here
Sometimes touching
Sometimes uber-violent
Sometimes both, often with a Bam! of Bazaar
This is a very unique read
You will be engaged
Music
Ryan Adam / 1989
Covering Taylor Swift's CD 1989
Adam Mansbach / The Dead Run / Page Burning Thriller
Adam Mansbach can make you turn pages
The Dead Run defies genera placement
The pages turn none the less
The Jess Galvan Series will hook you
In The Dead Run
Jess is just trying to do the right thing
Save his daughter, from the cult mom joined
Save a Mexican hooker from some very bad people
Save the World from an Aztec God
Pretty much average day after average day
The plotting makes complete sense
Convoluted it may be
It makes perfect sense to the reader
Fans of Richard Kadrey's Sand Man Slim series
This may be a good choice for you, it was for me
Music revisited
Not for the faint
Trout Mask Replica
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
The Dead Run defies genera placement
The pages turn none the less
The Jess Galvan Series will hook you
In The Dead Run
Jess is just trying to do the right thing
Save his daughter, from the cult mom joined
Save a Mexican hooker from some very bad people
Save the World from an Aztec God
Pretty much average day after average day
The plotting makes complete sense
Convoluted it may be
It makes perfect sense to the reader
Fans of Richard Kadrey's Sand Man Slim series
This may be a good choice for you, it was for me
Music revisited
Not for the faint
Trout Mask Replica
Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band
Alex Marshall / A Crown For Cold Silver / A Delightful Abundance Of Diversity
A Crown for Cold Silver
A terrific debut by Alex Marshall
My kind of characters
Flawed, Broken, Irreverent
Indomitable at their core
My kind of Epic Fantasy
Sprawling, Conniving, Bloody
Interesting magic, not over used
I'm a big fan of first novels
This on stands tall
I want more
Music
Ryan Bingham
Junky Star ocn644730229
Not on the CDs in the library
My Very Favorite Song
Until I'm One With You (listen up on YouTube)
(Theme song to The Bridge TV series)
A terrific debut by Alex Marshall
My kind of characters
Flawed, Broken, Irreverent
Indomitable at their core
My kind of Epic Fantasy
Sprawling, Conniving, Bloody
Interesting magic, not over used
I'm a big fan of first novels
This on stands tall
I want more
Music
Ryan Bingham
Junky Star ocn644730229
Not on the CDs in the library
My Very Favorite Song
Until I'm One With You (listen up on YouTube)
(Theme song to The Bridge TV series)
James S. A. Corey / Nemesis Games / Brilliant, Engrossing, Captivating Back Stories / Best Of The Best / Space Opera
I hope you are already reading the Expanse series
This is The Space Opera of this moment in time
The SyFy Channel will be airing the new series soon
They say December
The first book owned me from the opening
The next four did not skip a beat
The character development is complete
Or so I thought
Book five, Nemesis Games, woke me up
The Rocinante goes in for repairs, lots of repairs
The four main characters scatter
All have their secrets
Secrets we did not know
Jim, Oh Captain my Captain
You didn't notice this stuff?
Okay, Okay, neither did I
We're a little dense
A little stubborn
Okay, a lot stubborn, very dense
Naomi
What Were You Thinking?
How Could You?
Oh, How do you live with that?
What in Hell are you going to do?
What will they do?
Messy, Messy Messy
I'm with you, I understand, Keep Walking
Alex and Amos
My kind of "A" Team
And I thought I knew you
How could I love these characters any more?
Book 5, Nemesis Games, that's how
Back stories on the crew
Wow!!
James S. A. Corey, a pseudonym
Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck
Music
Lindi Ortega
Faded Gloryville
Alt-Country, Americana, Canadiana
This is The Space Opera of this moment in time
The SyFy Channel will be airing the new series soon
They say December
The first book owned me from the opening
The next four did not skip a beat
The character development is complete
Or so I thought
Book five, Nemesis Games, woke me up
The Rocinante goes in for repairs, lots of repairs
The four main characters scatter
All have their secrets
Secrets we did not know
Jim, Oh Captain my Captain
You didn't notice this stuff?
Okay, Okay, neither did I
We're a little dense
A little stubborn
Okay, a lot stubborn, very dense
Naomi
What Were You Thinking?
How Could You?
Oh, How do you live with that?
What in Hell are you going to do?
What will they do?
Messy, Messy Messy
I'm with you, I understand, Keep Walking
Alex and Amos
My kind of "A" Team
And I thought I knew you
How could I love these characters any more?
Book 5, Nemesis Games, that's how
Back stories on the crew
Wow!!
James S. A. Corey, a pseudonym
Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck
Music
Lindi Ortega
Faded Gloryville
Alt-Country, Americana, Canadiana
Paolo Bacigalupi / The Water Knife / Riveting Near Future Thriller
Paolo Bacigalupi owns our near future
It started with The Windup Girl
Along came his YA hit Ship Breaker
He has my undivided attention
Again in YA I devoured The Drowned Cities
Now another Adult SF The Water Knife, WoW
Bacigalupi is really hitting his stride
As the title suggests
It's all about the water
Who has the rights
What people are willing to do
The landscape and lives being lived
Lush or Bleak
There is no middle ground to speak of
With the current drought in South West
He placed the action right where it is
Action there is, lots of it
The pages fly
The characters
People to invest in
People to cheer for
Don't miss the new one
Don't miss any of the above
Music
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
It started with The Windup Girl
Along came his YA hit Ship Breaker
He has my undivided attention
Again in YA I devoured The Drowned Cities
Now another Adult SF The Water Knife, WoW
Bacigalupi is really hitting his stride
As the title suggests
It's all about the water
Who has the rights
What people are willing to do
The landscape and lives being lived
Lush or Bleak
There is no middle ground to speak of
With the current drought in South West
He placed the action right where it is
Action there is, lots of it
The pages fly
The characters
People to invest in
People to cheer for
Don't miss the new one
Don't miss any of the above
Music
Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn
Kathleen Baldwin / A School For Unusual Girls / YA Historical Fiction Romance
Thank goodness for simple stories
Told blisteringly fast
No heavy thinking required
Just Escape
Just what I needed
New to the YA collection
A School For Unusual Girls
The first Stranje House Novel
By Kathleen Baldwin
Young ladies don't do science
Young ladies don't burn barns down experimenting
Young ladies must not be "unusual"
Georgiana Fitzwilliam does science
Georgiana Fitzwilliam is "unusual"
Georgiana Fitzwilliam burned the barn down
Georgiana is taken to Miss Stranje's school
A school where "unusual" girls
Are tortured and beaten into submission
So they say
The girls Georgie meets at school
They all have their proclivities
They are all "unusual"
The Napoleonic Europe is at war with itself
Countries are teetering on the brink of destruction
The abundance of spies and counter spies, staggering
The Empire will do anything to avert invasion
Even putting young women in harms way
Music
The Decemberists
What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World
Told blisteringly fast
No heavy thinking required
Just Escape
Just what I needed
New to the YA collection
A School For Unusual Girls
The first Stranje House Novel
By Kathleen Baldwin
Young ladies don't do science
Young ladies don't burn barns down experimenting
Young ladies must not be "unusual"
Georgiana Fitzwilliam does science
Georgiana Fitzwilliam is "unusual"
Georgiana Fitzwilliam burned the barn down
Georgiana is taken to Miss Stranje's school
A school where "unusual" girls
Are tortured and beaten into submission
So they say
The girls Georgie meets at school
They all have their proclivities
They are all "unusual"
The Napoleonic Europe is at war with itself
Countries are teetering on the brink of destruction
The abundance of spies and counter spies, staggering
The Empire will do anything to avert invasion
Even putting young women in harms way
Music
The Decemberists
What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World
A. G. Stewart / Loose Changeling / Terrific Indie Series Opener
It's always interesting buying from small publishers
Loose Changeling was a pleasant surprise
A. G. Stewart has given us a good story
A protagonist to get behind and root for
And some delightful humor.
The characters are not mono-dimensional
Even the husband being divorced has some very good character traits
Nicole Philbin, the protagonist, is in no way perfect
But very likable, very engaging
Nicole Philbin is not what she appears to be
Nicole is not entirely human
Nicole does not have a clue
This is so fresh
I've never read a story like this before
Hey, Hey, Hey
I kept turning the pages
I was fully engaged and enjoying the story
Keep in mind
I don't post books I don't finish
I Never finish books I don't like
There may or may not be a romance here
Everybody and I do mean everybody
Is busy dealing with the detritus of a Fae power struggle
And the pending divorce
Nicole turned the errant mistress into a mouse
It was an accident, really, she had no idea
This was fun
I look forward to the next Changeling Wars novel
New music at the library
Marcia Ball
The Tattooed Lady and the Alligator Man
Loose Changeling was a pleasant surprise
A. G. Stewart has given us a good story
A protagonist to get behind and root for
And some delightful humor.
The characters are not mono-dimensional
Even the husband being divorced has some very good character traits
Nicole Philbin, the protagonist, is in no way perfect
But very likable, very engaging
Nicole Philbin is not what she appears to be
Nicole is not entirely human
Nicole does not have a clue
This is so fresh
I've never read a story like this before
Hey, Hey, Hey
I kept turning the pages
I was fully engaged and enjoying the story
Keep in mind
I don't post books I don't finish
I Never finish books I don't like
There may or may not be a romance here
Everybody and I do mean everybody
Is busy dealing with the detritus of a Fae power struggle
And the pending divorce
Nicole turned the errant mistress into a mouse
It was an accident, really, she had no idea
This was fun
I look forward to the next Changeling Wars novel
New music at the library
Marcia Ball
The Tattooed Lady and the Alligator Man
Judd Trichter / Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction / Whew!
After reading The Mad Scientist's Daughter
How could another android human relationship interest me
Cassandra Rose Clarke won all my accolades
I had no more to dish
Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The title obviously caught me out
And the author, a guy, what's this about
How will a guy handle it
What became more important
What kind of guy falls for an android
Eliot Lazar is not a creepy guy
He is not a guy without problems
Why should he do today what can be put off again and again
What drew Eliot to Iris Matsuo
The flaw in her Iris
Her ability to create Art, real Art
Iris is obviously sentient
True Creativity does not come from programming
Trouble comes when Trackers grab Iris
Trackers trap freebots, dismantle them and sell the parts
Eliot finds focus
Eliot must find all the parts
Eliot is now a driven man
Judd Trichter has delivered the goods
A story that wraps you up and does not let go
New music to me and on my play list
This guy is channeling Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart
What more can you as for?
Jack White
Lazaretto
How could another android human relationship interest me
Cassandra Rose Clarke won all my accolades
I had no more to dish
Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
The title obviously caught me out
And the author, a guy, what's this about
How will a guy handle it
What became more important
What kind of guy falls for an android
Eliot Lazar is not a creepy guy
He is not a guy without problems
Why should he do today what can be put off again and again
What drew Eliot to Iris Matsuo
The flaw in her Iris
Her ability to create Art, real Art
Iris is obviously sentient
True Creativity does not come from programming
Trouble comes when Trackers grab Iris
Trackers trap freebots, dismantle them and sell the parts
Eliot finds focus
Eliot must find all the parts
Eliot is now a driven man
Judd Trichter has delivered the goods
A story that wraps you up and does not let go
New music to me and on my play list
This guy is channeling Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart
What more can you as for?
Jack White
Lazaretto
Robin LaFevers / Grave Mercy / His Fair Assassin Series / Compelling!
I was fortunate to be given ARC's of books 1 & 2
Once I started Grave Mercy it was over
No other reading material existed
No free time existed
I finished Grave Mercy and began Dark Triumph
I did not take a breath between books
Finishing Dark Triumph I found Mortal Heart
It was on the shelf in the YA library
It had no business being on a shelf
Finally done, finished, end of series
Three book, Three surprising young women
Three layered stories
Filled with characters you want to get to know
Filled with characters you want to figure out
The compelling element for me
All three books deal with the God of death
The young ladies are, after all, assassins
What they/we learn is Death is a loving God
Death is a natural part of the cycle of life
"Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil"
Comes to mind
Compelling stories with strong young women
His Fair Assassin Series by Robin LaFevers
Don't Miss It!
Music
Not my usual cup of genre tea
But I like this woman's religious music
As Sure As The Sun by Ellie Holcomb
Once I started Grave Mercy it was over
No other reading material existed
No free time existed
I finished Grave Mercy and began Dark Triumph
I did not take a breath between books
Finishing Dark Triumph I found Mortal Heart
It was on the shelf in the YA library
It had no business being on a shelf
Finally done, finished, end of series
Three book, Three surprising young women
Three layered stories
Filled with characters you want to get to know
Filled with characters you want to figure out
The compelling element for me
All three books deal with the God of death
The young ladies are, after all, assassins
What they/we learn is Death is a loving God
Death is a natural part of the cycle of life
"Yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil"
Comes to mind
Compelling stories with strong young women
His Fair Assassin Series by Robin LaFevers
Don't Miss It!
Music
Not my usual cup of genre tea
But I like this woman's religious music
As Sure As The Sun by Ellie Holcomb
Devon Monk / House Immortal / Most Enjoyable
Devon Monk always tells a good story
House Immortal is no exception
Matilda Case is not your average young woman
Matilda Case is "stitched"
Pieces sewn together with "thread"
There are 11 other "stitched"
Known as the Galvanized
Immortal one and all and in their hundreds
Pawns of the powerful houses
Readers will want to get to know Tilly Case
Immortal she may be, She is very young
A pawn to none, A piece to be played by all
Tilly is a righteous young woman
Everyone is out to get Tilly Case
Everyone wants immortality
Tilly has the key
The social and political machinations
Eleven houses out to best the other
Greedy scuts one and all
Book 2, Infinity Bell will arrive soon
I'm in for the long haul with Matilda Case
Don't miss the House Immortal series
Pages will be turned
Music
Ellie Holcomb
As Sure As The Sun
House Immortal is no exception
Matilda Case is not your average young woman
Matilda Case is "stitched"
Pieces sewn together with "thread"
There are 11 other "stitched"
Known as the Galvanized
Immortal one and all and in their hundreds
Pawns of the powerful houses
Readers will want to get to know Tilly Case
Immortal she may be, She is very young
A pawn to none, A piece to be played by all
Tilly is a righteous young woman
Everyone is out to get Tilly Case
Everyone wants immortality
Tilly has the key
The social and political machinations
Eleven houses out to best the other
Greedy scuts one and all
Book 2, Infinity Bell will arrive soon
I'm in for the long haul with Matilda Case
Don't miss the House Immortal series
Pages will be turned
Music
Ellie Holcomb
As Sure As The Sun
W. C. Bauers / Unbreakable / Good Military SF
Promise Paen is a warrior
By the end of the story there is no doubt
Raised on a remote rim world
Losing everything and everyone
Promise signs up with the Republic
Low and behold her first deployment
Return to her home world, Montana
Not what she wanted to do
Promise is a good soldier
Promise will do what needs to be done
Out gunned and out manned
Just a problem to be solved
Book 1 in The Chronicles of Promise Paen
A real page burner
I'm ready for more
Music on the play list
Rod Duncan / The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter / All The Right Ingredients
All The Right Ingredients
A story well told
Young Elizabeth
Surviving alone
Posing as her brother
A necessity to survive
The Victorian like steam culture
Fully realized
You could live there
The characters well developed
Diverse and complex
Good, Grey and Evil
Elizabeth in the guise of her brother
Working as a private detective
On the run from a very bad man
Her father's murderer
Trying to avoid prying eyes
The Patent Office has eyes everywhere
There is a missing device
The story takes a moment to fully develop
Fully fleshed characters and problems take time
An utterly irresistible title
I'll not spoil a story well told
The Bullet Catchers Daughter
Rod Duncan has done this right
The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, Book 1
Music on the play list
Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler
A story well told
Young Elizabeth
Surviving alone
Posing as her brother
A necessity to survive
The Victorian like steam culture
Fully realized
You could live there
The characters well developed
Diverse and complex
Good, Grey and Evil
Elizabeth in the guise of her brother
Working as a private detective
On the run from a very bad man
Her father's murderer
Trying to avoid prying eyes
The Patent Office has eyes everywhere
There is a missing device
The story takes a moment to fully develop
Fully fleshed characters and problems take time
An utterly irresistible title
I'll not spoil a story well told
The Bullet Catchers Daughter
Rod Duncan has done this right
The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, Book 1
Music on the play list
Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler
R. S. Belcher / The Shotgun Arcana / The Story Gets Better / The Weird Gets Weirder
I raved about The Six-Gun Tarot (post)
R. S. Belcher keeps improving the story
The Shotgun Arcana will hold your attention
Golgotha is one Strange mash-up of a series
Sheriff Highfather and his deputies are hard at work
Keeping things that go bump in the night at bay in Golgotha
The characters are getting more complex
Bad guys are showing some shine
Good guys are showing some tarnish
The truly evil are not so conflicted
A stand must be made
All are in harms way
Embrace the Weird
Music
Dark Eyes by Half Moon Run
R. S. Belcher keeps improving the story
The Shotgun Arcana will hold your attention
Golgotha is one Strange mash-up of a series
Sheriff Highfather and his deputies are hard at work
Keeping things that go bump in the night at bay in Golgotha
The characters are getting more complex
Bad guys are showing some shine
Good guys are showing some tarnish
The truly evil are not so conflicted
A stand must be made
All are in harms way
Embrace the Weird
Music
Dark Eyes by Half Moon Run
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