Sunsets, Stars, West, Wind
Includes all types of publications: books (hardcovers, trade paperback, mass market paperbacks, ebooks, magazines, graphic novels)
http://io9.com/syfy-basically-admits-they-screwed-up-1651974076
Well, duh. It’s about time Syfy got back in the game.
The only show I watched last year was Helix and it was just okay. Looking forward to some better SF coming down the pipe
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
http://io9.com/if-you-read-one-thing-today-make-it-this-canticle-for-1649946606
Canticle is one of my favorite SF novels.
See my review from March 2013.
If you want to skip the I09 recap of the New Yorker essay and just get right to it, follow this link:
The Abyss Beyond Dreams
A Novel of the Commonwealth
The wait is over. Bestselling science fiction master Peter F. Hamilton is back with the first of a new two-book saga set in his popular Commonwealth universe. Distinguished by deft plotting, a teeming cast of characters, dazzling scientific speculation, and imagination that brings the truly alien to life, The Abyss Beyond Dreams reveals Hamilton as a storyteller of astonishing ingenuity and power.
The year is 3326. Nigel Sheldon, one of the founders of the Commonwealth, receives a visit from the Raiel—self-appointed guardians of the Void, the enigmatic construct at the core of the galaxy that threatens the existence of all that lives. The Raiel convince Nigel to participate in a desperate scheme to infiltrate the Void.
Once inside, Nigel discovers that humans are not the only life-forms to have been sucked into the Void, where the laws of physics are subtly different and mental powers indistinguishable from magic are commonplace. The humans trapped there are afflicted by an alien species of biological mimics—the Fallers—that are intelligent but merciless killers.
Yet these same aliens may hold the key to destroying the threat of the Void forever—if Nigel can uncover their secrets. As the Fallers’ relentless attacks continue, and the fragile human society splinters into civil war, Nigel must uncover the secrets of the Fallers—before he is killed by the very people he has come to save.
After spending a month or two reading World War I fiction and non-fiction as well as a somewhat depressing post-apocalyptic dystopian novel, I needed something lighter and a bit more uplifting. I switched to space opera. I lucked into several ebooks available as pre-release eARCs via Netgalley, this being the third one I’ve read of the four I found (see my two previous reviews on The Chaplain’s War and A Call to Duty).
I enjoyed Hamilton’s writing style, but I must admit to being a bit confused or at least uninformed about his existing Commonwealth and Void universes. This was my first Hamilton novel so I dived right in and either sank or swam by his efforts. To his credit, even with limited world-building or recap exposition in the Prologue, I gleaned enough to make the read enjoyable.
Continue reading “Book Review: Abyss Beyond Dreams by Hamilton (3.5 stars)”
I went to bed slightly early last night, but first I set my alarm for 4:45 a.m. Central. As I noted a couple of days ago, I wanted to get up early to observe a total lunar eclipse. As usually happens, I woke up early at 4:15 a.m. Who needs an alarm?
I decided to go ahead and throw on my clothes, grab my purse and smartphone and take the van to Dillons to fill it up. While I drove west (one mile) and north (two miles), I noted that the full moon was already missing a good chunk in the upper left-hand quadrant. After filling up the van, I continued west on Eisenhower Road, crossing Tonganoxie Road and heading up over the ridge. I crossed over 187th street, leaving the paved roads behind and continued until I was forced to turn left at 195th street, just south of an electrical substation (talk about light pollution out in the middle of no where). Continue reading “Observing the Blood Moon Eclipse”
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014/10/book-review-ancillary-sword-by-ann-leckie/
Another review of Ancillary Sword and it is a bit more in depth than the previous one I reblogged earlier today.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
http://io9.com/10-types-of-fictional-apocalypses-and-what-they-mean-1643403076
Anything but zombies please!
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
I can’t wait to start reading this. I may have to ditch the other three novels I’m in the middle of just to return to Breq and the Radchaai Empire. Meanwhile, Stefan gives Ancillary Sword his highest recommendation.
There is a total eclipse of the full moon on October 8, 2014. This is the Northern Hemisphere’s Hunter’s Moon – the name for the full moon after the Harvest Moon. It’s also a Blood Moon, and this eclipse is the second in a series of four so-called Blood Moon eclipses. For North America and the Hawaiian Islands, the total lunar eclipse happens in the wee hours before sunrise on October 8.
For more information about the total eclipse and answers to questions like ‘What’s a Hunter’s Moon?”, please visit the full article at EarthySky.
http://io9.com/must-watch-mystery-about-a-lab-rat-trapped-in-a-probabi-1641715420
Weird and trippy. Very well done short film. Minimal dialog but still very interesting.
4-4.5 out of 5 stars
Release Date: 10/7/2014
I previously read parts of this as a short story and as novella (one of which was nominated for a Hugo last year and got my enthusiastic vote). This novel fills in the gaps in Chaplain’s Assistant Harry Barlow’s past and a few important bits of his future.
The original stories were expanded and an additional story line added to pull all of the narrative into a cohesive whole. I related well to Harry Barlow and had no trouble re-reading parts of his story. Continue reading “Book Review: The Chaplain’s War by Torgersen (4.5 Stars)”
