Book Reviews
Review: “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
Before I get started with my review of READY, PLAYER ONE, let me state my admiration for the publicity campaign surrounding it. This campaign has generated rapturous reviews all over the blogosphere and multiple author interviews on numerous podcasts. It’s a little intimidating to review a book that has been so widely (and positively) reviewed. For authors, I think it would be useful to study this campaign and see what has made it so successful.
Review: “Calculating God” by Robert J. Sawyer
If you read science fiction, you have to read Robert J. Sawyer. That’s all there is to it.
Calculating God explores such mundane questions as “Was the universe designed by an intelligent creator?” “Is there a God?” “Does he influence the affairs of man?” “Why is there life in the universe?” Sawyer’s answers are the most imaginative you will ever read.
Review: “The Ghost Brigades” by John Scalzi
Ghost Brigades is a pageturner with surprising emotional rewards, but I’m hoping that Scalzi plans to write more books in this universe, because as it is there are too many ideas here for his own good.
Review: “The Carpet Makers” by Andreas Eschbach
For those who believe that The Great Masters of sci-fi are necessarily long gone, that the depth of their insight was greater due to a proximity to some essential force that we, as descendants, find always already out of our touch, that singular genius is all but evaporated from the modern writer, to you, I submit The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach for consideration.
Review: “Gaudeamus” by John Barnes
When John Barnes gets a visit from his old buddy and private detective Travis Bismark, he knows two things for sure: Travis needs a ride, and he’ll get at least one new science fiction book out of it.
Review: “Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town” by Cory Doctorow
This is a book that will appeal mostly to geeks, both because it’s SF and because it dwells so enthusiastically on the topic of wireless connectivity and networks and all that. But above and beyond those trappings, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town is about family and society: fitting in, feeling left out, struggling for acceptance, struggling for independence.
Review: “Letters From the Flesh” by Marcos Donnelly
Robert J. Sawyer is one of the Dragon Page’s best friends. Besides the fact that he writes ridiculously good science fiction, he has been generous with his time and has given us several great interviews and plugs. Which is why I’m trying to rehydrate my parched lips as I type. I’m giving the first title from his new line of books a thumbs down.
Guest Review: “The Traveler” by John Twelve Hawks
The first words that come to mind are speechless and breathtaking. I lose all sense of almost any vocabulary when trying to define the experience while reading The Traveler. The imagery and realism with which Hawks so cunningly captures in his words are profound and exhilarating.
