Book Reviews
Review: “Nexus” by Ramez Naam
Nexus is a thriller for the post-human age, Ramez Naam does a phenomenal job of taking modern cutting edge science and building a realistic world of the near future. In Nexus, Naam asks the question, “what if?”.
Review: “Dust” by Joan Frances Turner
In Dust we get to experience zombie matters from the eyes of the source, as it were, and what a strange experience it is. The undead are not romanticized in this novel, so you might not want to eat before or during your reading session. Nausea may ensue.
Review: “The Prestige” by Christopher Priest
This is an odd, hard to define, impossible to put down book, first published in 1995, but out in a new paperback edition. The reason I’m bringing it to your attention is primarily due to news of an upcoming film: Christopher Nolan, director of Batman Begins and one of my personal favorites, Memento, will begin shooting an adaptation of The Prestige this month.
Review: “A Companion to Wolves” by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
Now this was a surprise. Here is one of those rare books not produced as a precursor to a series.
This is not to say that the land Monette and Bear have created couldn’t support multiple visits. It is merely to say that they have constructed a tale that is complete and unconcerned with possibilities and marketing strategies beyond its own ken.
Review: “The Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark” by Ridley Pearson
What I will remember about this book is how the kids worked together to find the answer to what is going on in the part at night, and how they all became friends. I loved the sci-fi part a lot! How they made the holograms work and how it couldn’t do some things, and even though I don’t like young adult books too much, I really liked this one.
Review: “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Christopher Golden
Many people who read and write science fiction believe that through the last few decades science fiction has actually prepared society for future technological advances. The idea, some say, is that in science fiction all the pitfalls, moral uncertainties, and roads best not traveled can be discovered and worked out in the pages of entertaining fiction, rather than bitter experience.
So why won’t this generation learn? If science fiction has taught us one thing, it’s that if you have the ability to go into the past in order to change events and make the world a better place… don’t do it! You’re just gonna fuck it up.
Review: “Red Glove” by Holly Black
Red Glove is promoted as a YA novel, although I’d put it more at the 18 year old to adult end of the spectrum than the 13-16 year old range. If your kids are old enough to watch the “Sopranos” or “The Riches” and they like those shows, then this is the right book. Much like those shows, Red Glove contrasts the supposed glamour of a criminal lifestyle with the pain it causes our hero. A younger reader might only see the glamour and magic and miss the misery.
Review: “Sagramanda” by Alan Dean Foster
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a techo thriller with near future sci-fi thrown in. It is a well written and enjoyable tale that is full of the flavor of India, its culture and people, from a forward looking perspective.
