Book Review: The Icarus Hunt

Timothy Zahn. You know him, you love him. He's the author of Star Wars extended universe novels and he invented Grand Admiral Thrawn… but how are his original novels? Pretty great, actually. The Icarus Hunt is straight-down-the-middle gritty scifi noir, but it works. https://youtu.be/6Ug4i4kmGk4 "If this is supposed to make us feel better about trusting…

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Book Review: Gideon the Ninth

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is the first in a series of fantasy/scifi novels. It's tagline is Lesbian Necromancers in Spaaaace! And while it is that, that description is also hugely misleading, the story's biggest draw, in my opinion, is its delightfully bull-headed main character. A fun, fast novel, but first you have to…

Book Review: John Scalzi’s Interdependency Trilogy

The Interdependency Trilogy by John Scalzi, including: The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, and The Last Emperox is a set of fast paced scifi political thrillers full of great characters and snappy dialogue. https://youtu.be/wgoZpwR0nIg "It was just a dream.""In our line of business, there's no such thing. Emperox's never just dream they have visions. That's…

Did Not Finish: Personal Stakes

A story is nothing without personal stakes. No matter how villainous the villain, or how lofty the goal, it doesn't matter to the reader unless it matters personally to the characters. In this post, I pick on a particular example of a book I did not finish because the life-and-death stakes didn't matter to the…

Book Review: The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir is a fast and fun thriller about survival through hope, grit, and human ingenuity. It is packed with quite a bit of science, but give it a chance! The charm will win you over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl3IZjUUztM Teddy swiveled his chair and looked out the window to the sky beyond. Night was…