Bitchin' Blog Posts
: Science Fiction
May 08, 2012 | Tuesday | 15 Comments
Some people want scientific explanations for everything in fiction. I'm not one of them. Frankly, I prefer it if we never know why the zombies walk the earth, or how the Force works, but if the author feels he or she simply must try to explain the science of what's happening, I'll usually accept it and move on. You can get away with a lot of bad science and as long as the characters are compelling, I don't care. But people, this was just too much. The premise of The Last Night, insofar as I understood it in one reading,…
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March 27, 2012 | Tuesday | 12 Comments
I really enjoyed Queenie's Brigade but I have no idea how to grade it. Should I assign a letter grade based on the over-all quality of writing, or the level of enjoyment? I find that all the ebooks I've read so far (steampunk, steampunk western, space opera, space opera western) are really, really fun and similar in style - but not what I would call Great Literature. The writing style is always over the top, everything is very exciting and colorful and nothing is subtle. Attraction is in the form of instant, over-powering, and unprecedented lust. No one is "pretty"…
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January 11, 2012 | Wednesday | 10 Comments
(With Bonus Mini-review of: The Clockwork Girl.) I reviewed Archer's first science fiction ebook, Collision Course, about 8th Wing and their fight against PRAXIS and I loved it. A special thanks to all the commentators who pointed out that in real life PRAXIS can stand for a type of standardized test. I still love the series but now every time the word comes up all I can think of is number two pencils. Anyway, I had high expectations for Chain Reaction and those expectations were met and exceeded. Wonderful characters, a geek hero (SWOON!!!!), great dialogue both serious and funny,…
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December 13, 2011 | Tuesday | 43 Comments
There are only three kinds of people. There are those who think Connie Willis is a genius (that would be me). There are those who can't figure out what all the fuss is about and think she's over-rated (bah!). Finally, there are those people who haven't read her yet. If you are in the third group, go read her right away! Christmas is a great time to start, because she is widely beloved for her Christmas stories, one of which perfectly fits my geek profile as it involves aliens and romance. If you feel something has been missing from your…
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September 19, 2011 | Monday | 16 Comments
Boy, I gotta hand it to Carina Press. I’ve only read three of their eBooks (on my laptop, because I have no e-reader or smart phone, insert tears of self-pity here). None of the three was what I would call a classic work of literature that will be treasured through the ages, but DAMN have they been fun! Alas, while this stared off as super fun, it fell completely apart near the end. Still, points to Appleton for creating a great sense of place(s) and a loving tribute to the pulp science fiction magazines and gritty westerns of the past.…
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August 13, 2011 | Saturday | 10 Comments
This request for help comes from Wendy, who remembers a lot about the book, except, of course, the title. Which is why she’s here. I’ve been searching and searching for a book I read when I was much younger, at least 16 years ago, and someone recommended you guys to me in the hopes that you could help me out! I can’t remember the names of the characters, but the book was silver and it shimmered with rainbow flecks. It took place in the future and it was two opposing commanders of space fleets. The book starts out with the…
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July 14, 2011 | Thursday | 41 Comments
Carrie S. is back with another sci fi/fantasy romance that made her extremely happy. - SB Sarah I don't give A's lightly, but this grade snuck up on me. At first, I had a hard time getting into Moonstruck. It featured some tropes I'm not crazy about, and it was darker than I expected. But after reading it, I found myself thinking about the book a lot, and with great emotion and enjoyment. I realized that even though Moonstruck has some problems, and even though it might not be everyone's favorite due to dark themes, I couldn't possibly withhold an…
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August 16, 2010 | Monday | 69 Comments
Billie Bloebaum, romance book buyer for Powell’s in the Portland Airport, is exercising the power of her handselling abilities online, and fields requests for books to read. Kimberly writes in with a Bookmatcher request: Hi Sarah, I was wondering if you could help me out. I usually read urban fantasy or fantasy books with strong romance elements. I’m ready to move on and expand my horizons a little. I remember that you have done a feature called The Bookmatcher and was wondering if you would do one for me. I would love to read more space romances (think Linnea Sinclair-LOVE…
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October 30, 2009 | Friday | 22 Comments
Chris sent me this jaw-dropping amazing video that’s a feast for the ears, the brain, the eyes and the imagination: “We Are All Connected” was made from sampling Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, The History Channel’s Universe series, Richard Feynman’s 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye’s Eyes of Nye Series.
Dude. Awesome. May you have a weekend full of wonderment.
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October 13, 2009 | Tuesday | 93 Comments
I’ve read some truly hilarious “Science fiction has become nothing more than romance novels in outer space!” arguments in my time, but I don’t think I’ve read one quite as poorly-written and outright hysterical (word used with all due irony) as the article on The Spearhead about “The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky.” (Thanks to Eric Selinger for the link.) As far as I can tell, the argument in the article can be divided into the following premise and conclusion: 1. Science fiction has been egregiously feminized. Witness the new Battlestar Galactica, where Starbuck is now a woman.…
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January 07, 2009 | Wednesday | 6 Comments
Looking for free ebooks? Of course you are! If you’re inclined to read sci-fi and fantasy, which often has that delightful thing we call the Luuuuuuurve™ in it as well, Baen has a free ebooks library online at WebScription, with piles upon piles of free download options. Whee!
[Thanks to Gry for the link.]
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August 14, 2008 | Thursday | 43 Comments
A few months ago, I asked y’all what book you would recommend to introduce romance to a Sci Fi/Fantasy reader who was curious about the genre. Robert, one of the tech support gurus at our host Esosoft, was curious romance, and based on your recommendations, I sent him a copy of Lois McMaster (aka McAwesome) Bujold’s Cordelia’s Honor, a two-in-one book that features Shards of Honor and Barrayar. I asked Robert what he thought, and this is his reply, in the form of an informal quick guest review from someone who loves fiction, has no experience with romance (except what…
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August 12, 2008 | Tuesday | 24 Comments
Lois McMaster Bujold gave a Writer Guest of Honor Speech at Denvention 3 on 8 August about her experience as a writer crossing multiple genres, and it was full of awesome, puppies, win, and rainbow ponies. Her experiences with The Sharing Knife and her impressions of how romance and sf play nicely together and compliment one another are fascinating because her perspective is one from which we don’t necessarily see a lot of analysis: Romance and SF seemed to occupy two different focal planes, to steal another metaphor, this time from photography. For any plot to stay central, nothing else…
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