Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
These are stand alone novels (not part of a series).
Android at Arms by Andre Norton
This year Tantor Media has been producing audio editions of the Baen omnibus collections of Andre Norton’s science fiction stories. Gods and Androids (2004 in print, 2021 in audio) contains the two novels Android at Arms (1971) and Wraiths of Time (1975). I am reviewing the novels separately because that’s how they were originally released, and that’s usually been our practice here at Fantasy Literature. Each of these stories stands alone.
April 27th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Andre Norton | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Cosmic Geoids and One Other by John Taine
It was Polish biochemist Casimir Funk who, in 1911, isolated the substance now known as vitamin B3. In 1912, Funk wrote a book called The Vitamines (he’d coined that term as a contraction of the words “vital amines”), in which he spoke of other, similar substances and their abilities to prevent various ailments. And then, the vitamin ball really got rolling, with sales of vitamins A and C rising steadily in the 1920s and ‘30s. Before the onset of WW2,
April 26th, 2021. Sandy Ferber | John Taine | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Voorloper (1980) is the last novel collected in The Game of Stars and Comets (2009), Baen’s omnibus of Andre Norton stories. I’ve been reviewing the books individually (because they were originally released as separate novels), but it’s cost-effective and convenient to purchase them in the omnibus edition. Specifically, I’m reviewing Tantor Media’s new audio version of the omnibus, which is excellently narrated by L.J. Ganser.
The first three books in this omnibus are The Sioux Spaceman (1960),
April 23rd, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Andre Norton | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst
There’s a point almost exactly halfway through Sarah Beth Durst’s latest novel, The Bone Maker (2021), where the author teases us that the book we’ve been reading just might go in a completely different direction, prompting me to write in my notes, “Love this.” And then, well, it didn’t. Instead, as if the inertia were too great, we’re shortly steered back into a well-worn fantasy story, which, despite being mostly satisfying — with some moments that rose above that level and a few that pulled it below — had me wishing I could have gone back to that moment fifty-three percent of the way in and chosen the plot less traveled.
April 23rd, 2021. Bill Capossere and Jana Nyman´s rating: 3, 4 | Sarah Beth Durst | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
A Question of Navigation by Kevin Hearne
While on a hike, Clint Beecham gets abducted by aliens. The aliens have decided that humans are tasty and that Earth will make a wonderful buffet for them. Along with Clint, they’ve kidnapped 50,000 humans and are on their way back to their mother planet where they will report the location of this big delicious feeding trough.
Most of the captured humans have been put into a cargo hold and are being harvested for food, but Clint and a few others have been set aside for a special purpose.
April 22nd, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Kevin Hearne | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Eye of the Monster by Andre Norton
Tantor Media has published an audio version of Baen’s The Game of Stars and Comets (2009), an omnibus that contains these four novels by Andre Norton: The Sioux Spaceman (1960), Eye of the Monster (1962), The X Factor (1965), and Voorloper (1980). Each of these short novels stands alone and they are all set in Norton’s Council/Confederation universe. I’m reviewing them separately,
April 19th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 2.5 | Andre Norton | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Sioux Spaceman by Andre Norton
Tantor Media has published an audio version of Baen’s The Game of Stars and Comets (2009), an omnibus that contains these four novels by Andre Norton: The Sioux Spaceman (1960), Eye of the Monster (1962), The X Factor (1965), and Voorloper (1980). Each of these short novels stands alone but they are all set in Norton’s Council/Confederation universe. I’m going to review them separately,
April 16th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 3 | Andre Norton | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
“If they get everyone to stop taking pills and give bots equal rights, humanity is screwed.”
It’s 2095 and humans rely on drugs to stay healthy as well as physically and cognitively competitive in a gig economy where they must compete with artificial intelligence for jobs.
Cameras everywhere tend to keep violent urges in check, so life is fairly peaceful for Welga Ramirez, a 35-year-old physically-upgraded bodyguard who’s happy to have steady employment (most people don’t) and is looking forward to being transferred to a desk job soon.
April 15th, 2021. Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | S.B. Divya | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer
Hummingbird Salamander (2021) is Jeff VanderMeer’s newest work, and it may also be his most accessible. Certainly it’s his least strange, though admittedly with VanderMeer that’s not saying much. Though if he’s working in more familiarly popular territory — the thriller novel — there’s no doubt VanderMeer puts his own stamp on the genre, whether he’s working within its tropes or subverting them.
Chapter One opens ominously enough, as any good thriller should — “Assume I’m dead by the time you read this” — and ends even more so — “I’m here to show you how the world ends.” The stakes have clearly been set.
April 13th, 2021. Bill Capossere´s rating: 4 | Jeff VanderMeer | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov
Lord Shea Ashcroft, a government minister, faced with a rioting crowd of protestors in the capital city, makes the call to have the military fall back rather than killing the protestors — and innocent bystanders —with poisonous gas. Some people praise his mercy, but half the city now lies in ruins from the mob’s violence, and the queen is not so appreciative of his decision. Shea is shipped off to the border city of Owenbeg as punishment, charged with overseeing the finishing of construction of a colossal tower to protect the border against enemy airships.
April 8th, 2021. Tadiana Jones and Kat Hooper´s rating: 4 | Yaroslav Barsukov | Audio, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Previous SFF Author: Michael A. Stackpole
"Nor Iron Bars a Cage by Kage Harper" Freudian slip there. ;)
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I'm going to have to find these and read them.
R ,if you live in the USA, you win a Fan Lit T-shirt (please specify 1st and 2nd preferred sizes)…
Great review. Thanks!