Book Beginnings on Friday June 8, 2012

Book Beginnings on Friday is a meme hosted by Gilion at Rose City Reader. Anyone can participate; just share the opening sentence of your current read, making sure that you include  include the title and author so others know what you're reading.



I am reading Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  This is our Science Fiction Books Club selection for June.  I read this years ago.  As I read I things seem vaguely familiar.  I looked at the copyright and found that the publication date is 1966.   One of the main characters is a computer. No computer in 1966 had the abilities that Heinlein gave this character.  He really did write something that was not in the present but might be around in the future.  Here is the beginning.

"I see in Lunaya Pravda that Luna City Council has passed on first reading a bill to examine, license, inspect - and tax- public food vendors operating inside municipal pressure.  I see also is to be mass meeting tonight to organize "Sons of Revolution" talk-talk." 

So far the book is holding up very well.

Teaser Tuesday January 3, 2012

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: 

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

This is one that has been sitting on my TBR shelf for quite awhile.  It is Shades of Grey by Lisanne Norman.   This is book 8 in the Sholan Alliance Series.  The book came out almost 7 years after book 7.


Here is the teaser:
"We must go.  The Prime Prince and the children are causing a serious incident on the emergency Bridge."


"What?" Kaid asked incredulously as he got hurriedly to his feet.  "There must be some mistake."

Hunting Kat by PJ Schnyder

Science Fiction Romance

I received Hunting Kat as a free ebook from Carina Press.  Like many of Carina Press’s publications Hunting Kat is a short novella of 90 pages.

Kat Darah was captured and given a virus that changed her into someone who could shape shift.  It has taken her three years to get back to anything like normal.  Lt. Christopher Rygard is back from a mission that left a bad taste in his mouth and is thinking about quitting.  They are attracted to each other and decide to spend the night together.  During the night there is an attack and Kat has to shift to protect the two of them.   To save lives Kat and Rygard have to join forces to meet the attackers demands.

I liked the story but for me it needed a little more fleshing out.   Some of the back-story just was not there and some of the back-story was confusing.  It also was not a true SFR as there was not a HEA.  Instead there was a “We are going our separate ways but we will see each other again”.  I would still recommend it as a short easy enjoyable read. 

Carina Press published Hunting Kat by PJ Schnyder in 2011.

Accidental Abduction by Eve Langlais

Science Fiction Romance

Accidental Abduction is another Science Fiction Romance with a familiar plot; a feisty earth girl meets big strong purple alien and true love follows.  It is how Eve Langlais uses the plot that makes this story so much fun.  Megan has been pushed overboard and left to drown in the Pacific Ocean by her current boyfriend.  Just as she is about to loose strength and give up she is scooped up by a alien space craft gathering marine samples.  And that is when the fun begins.  Tren was a successful mercenary who has traded that life for a more peaceful one as a “wrangler and transporter of rare species from undeveloped galaxies”.  While the life was boring  at least no one was shooting at him.  Boredom went out the window when he scooped up Megan. 

Tren and Megan are a lot of fun.  Megan has a smart mouth.  Tren likes to have the last word.  Their trip while predictable is a lot of fun and full of laughs.  If you are looking for a fun SFR story pick this one up. 

Smashwords published Accidental Abduction by Eve Langlais in 2011

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I purchased Accidental Abduction as an ebook.

Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Asimov’s Science Fiction

Science Fiction Magazines

I have several favorite authors and I hate the long wait between books.  Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Asimov’s Science Fiction magazines help break that wait up.  Some of my favorite Science Fiction authors often have short stories or novella in both magazines.  John Hemry who writes the Lost Fleet series as Jack Campbell has several alternate history novellas in Analog.  My favorite is Swords and Saddles in the April 2010 issue.  Kristine Katherine Rusch has several novellas set in the Diving in the Wreck and The Retrieval Artist Universe published in Asimov’s.  She also has stories set in other places in both publications.  I have another post today about Killer Advice, one of those novellas.  

Both Analog and Asimov’s are available on Fictionwise either as individual issues or as subscriptions.  

Killer Advice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Science Fiction/Mystery

Vaadum Resort and Casino is not much of a resort.  In fact to quote the author “It was more of a Hail Mary pass.  If you were passing through Commons System (which was what most people did ….) and for some reason you needed to exit your luxurious spaceship ….. and you couldn’t wait the extra day to go to Commons Starship Resorts –which were real resort ….. then you ended up at Vaadum Resort and Casino.”  The resort did have a very good repair bay and the ship in this story stopped for repair.  The ship also came with more than mechanical problems.  There have been two murders and then a fire on the ship and it could go no further. 

There are great characters in Killer Advice.  Hunsaker is a disgraced casino manager who owns Vaadum Resort and Casino, William F. Bunting is not who he says he is and then there is the Admiral’s daughter who seems to be running from someone or something.  Killer Advice has a great cast of characters, a good story and lots of hooks for future tales at Vaadum Resort and Casino.  I am hoping for more stories set at Vaadum Resort.

Killer Advice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is a novella published in the January 2011 edition of Asimov’s Science Fiction. 

I purchased the January issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction at Fictionwise.

Blade Dancer by S.L. Viehl

Science Fiction/Science Fiction Romance

Blade Dancer was our Science Fiction Book Club choice for June.  I read the book several years ago, even so I had to pull it off the bookshelf and re-read it before our meeting.  Blade Dancer is one of several side novels in the Star Doc series.   Although I never carried for the Star Doc books I liked Blade Dancer. Another member of the club agreed that the side novel was better than the series.  S.L. Viehl’s original plan was to use Blade Dancer as the lead novel for a series but something interfered and even though Blade Dancer was very successful the series never got off of the ground. 

We all process what we read differently and that really comes out in a group discussion.  In Blade Dancer the main character is Jory Rask who has both Terran and alien blood.  When she is kicked off of Terra she ends up training at Tana, the school for assassins known as blade dancers.  The story included pages of description about how you moved during a fight.  I could not picture the fights when I read the descriptions and I could have skipped over that part.  Others in the group said they got a very clear picture of what was happening and felt that the descriptions were key to understanding the story.  We were pretty evenly divided on the topic.

We alway share as much information as we can find about the author.  S.L. Viehl has an interesting background so look her up on the web and find out more about her.  She writes under several different names.  As a group we agreed that we enjoyed the book and would be willing to read other books written by S.L. Viehl.

ROC published Blade Dancer by S.L. Viehl in 2003.

I own a hardcover copy of Blade Dancer.

Day of the Moron, by H. Beam Piper

Science Fiction

I’ve been an H. Beam Piper fan since I was a young whippersnapper. With the new Fuzzy novel out, I dusted this one off, as well. Day of the Moron is a story I read as a child, and it always troubled me a bit. Although dated, it is appropriate for modern times.

There is trouble at a nuclear power plant, and it stems from a labor/management showdown. The protagonist, Melroy, wants to test his union employees to make sure they aren’t morons. They, of course, object. It follows tired lines of melodrama and the very foreseeable ending doesn’t cast the “enlightened individual vs. everyone else” Ayn Randian moral that I think was Mr. Piper’s intent. It comes off as a self-assured blowhard doing things that he knows will have a bad result, and he does them at the worst possible moment. In the end, Melroy might have proven himself to be technically correct, but you have to wonder about the intelligence of someone who does what he did.

The “enlightened individual” who saves everyone is a theme in Piper’s work, and when the characters are capable of self-reflection, don’t preach, and are up against clearly bad people, he pulls it off. This is not one of those stories. I guess there is a reason this one doesn’t see the light of day very often.


Day of the Moron is available at Project Gutenberg. (It’s free!)

Review written by Christopher Jones.

Fuzzy Nation, by John Scalzi

Science Fiction

Billed as a reboot of Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy Nation is indeed a reboot. Gone are mentions of contragravity and collapsium. Also gone is the Yeoman Farmer pipe-dream that was always a hallmark of H. Beam Piper’s work. There is a hint of it at the beginning, but it evaporates by the end. While I did miss contragrav and ExTeeThree, the story rings true and Scalzi kept my attention.

The story begins much the same as the original, with the addition of a running gag that’s present throughout. And it works. The list of characters is a bit different, but still full of rivalry and tension. Whereas Holloway of the original was a gunslinger, Scalzi’s Holloway is a schemer. It’s a sad state of affairs but it’s not an indictment of the work; merely an observation Scalzi wove into the story line. Perhaps it’s also a wry comment on the current state of our schizophrenic Nash Equilibrium obsessed world.

I’m a bit of a retro-grouch and protective of my childhood scifi. Even so, I can still recommend Fuzzy Nation.

Review written by Christopher Jones

Ghost Ship ARC by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Science Fiction

An ARC is an uncorrected advanced reader copy sent out to people who will recommend the book.  An ARC from Baen is a little different.  When Baen has a book everyone is waiting for they will offer the ARC as an ebook priced at $15.00.  It is a good deal for the author and the publisher, and fills a need for those of us who can’t for the final copy of the book to be released.  To make it an even better deal for the author and publisher most of us buy a paper copy of the book when it is finally released.  In my case I have a signed copy of Ghost Ship on order from Uncle Hugo’s book story. 

Ghost Ship (Liaden Universe) is the latest book set in the Liaden Universe by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.  While it is the third book featuring Theo Waitley in the time line it is the book that follows I Dare.  Ghost Ship answers some questions, poses some new ones, and lets all of us visit with many of the characters from the previous books.  Like all Lee and Miller Liaden books the pacing is great, the character well drawn, the plot full of unexpected turns and it ends with a new questions that needs to be answered.  Ghost Ship is a great addition to the series. 

If you can’t wait to read the book you can purchase the ARC of Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller from Baen.  If you can wait the paper copy will be out in August.  For all of the die-hard fans there is another book in the works and it is scheduled to be out in 2012.  I hope there will be an ARC released for that one so I will not have as long as wait.

Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton

Science Fiction

Galactic Derelict is one of the seven original issue Science Fiction books I picked up at a Garage Sale last year. It was published in 1959 and sold for 75 cents. If it was still in print today it would sell for 10 times that today. Some of Andre Norton books are being reprinted so there is a possibility that Galactic Derelict will be available as a new book in the future.

Galactic Derelict is a sequel to Time Traders but can easily be read as a stand alone. Most of the story still holds up today. The one exception is the political background. Written at the height of the cold war it reflects the politics of the time. The United States is in a race with the Reds for ships that crashed on Earth in the distant past.

Travis Fox has joined Ross Murdock and Dr Gordon Ashe as time agents. They are attempting to bring an intact alien ship to the present. The ship arrives in the present time but the transfer has set off the alien autopilot. Before they can stop the sequence they take off on a trip to the alien home world. The story is full of adventure and strange new places. Woven throughout is the need to find a way to return home and the tension that produces. Andre Norton always told a good story and Galactic Derelict is no exception.

My copy of Galactic Derelict by Andre Norton was published by ACE in 1959.

Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt

Science Fiction

Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt is a different take on time travel. When Shel’s father disappears leaving devices that allow travel thought time Shel and his friends Dave start on an exciting fast paced time travel adventure. None of the restriction usually found in time travel stories apply here. While trying to find Shel’s father the two friends pop up just about everywhere and even meet themselves.

Jack McDevitt allows us to meet many of the major historical characters plus some we may not be familiar with. The characters, especially Dave and Shel, are well developed. The historical characters come across as just ordinary people at a crucial time. Filled with danger, conflict and complex problems Time Travelers Never Die is a hard book to put down. Once again Jack McDevitt has written a fascinating science fiction novel filled with surprises.

Ace published Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt in 2009.

I checked out Time Travelers Never Die from the Rogers Public Library.

Boundary by Ryk E. Spoor and Eric Flint

Science Fiction

What do you do when you find what looks like an alien fossil on the K-T Boundary? That was the problem that confronted Helen Sutter on a dig that also had the strange fossil surrounded by several dinosaur fossils. As the story unfolds that fossil leads to even stranger events and Helen winds up on Mars!!!

A lot happens between these two events. Boundary has science, action, adventure, great characters and relationships all in an exciting format. I re-read Boundary because Threshold, a sequel, is coming out in June. The stage is set of more action and adventure and I am looking forward to Threshold.

Baen published Boundary by Ryk E. Spoor and Eric Flint in 2006.

Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson

Science Fiction

Bitter Angels is extremely interesting. The fact that it is written sometimes in the first person from different characters point of view and sometimes in the third person made reading confusing. It was important at the first of each chapter to determine whose point of view I was reading. Terese Drajeske has been called back into service to investigate the murder of a friend in the Erasmus System. Nothing is as it seems and as each character tells their part of the story the pieces of the puzzle come together. There are clues to the mystery scattered through the story. It is up to the reader to put them together. All in all Bitter Angles is an excellent example of good Science Fiction writing.

C.L. Anderson is a pen name for Sarah Zettel. This is her first novel for this publisher and they must have wanted her shelved in the A's and not the Z's.

Random House published Bitter Angels by C.L. Anderson in 2009.

Time and Again by Jack Finney

Science Fiction/Time Travel

Time and Again is the August reading choice for my local Science Fiction Book Club. After reading the book I decided that Time and Again is a classic time travel story that all time travel fans should read.

When you read about time travel it usually requires a time travel machine. Not so in Time and Again by Jack Finney. Here time travel is accomplished using intensive knowledge of the time you want to visit and self-hypnosis to allow you to cross to that time. Time and Again tells the story of Simon Morley, copy artist chosen for a secret government program. After extensive training Simon goes back to New York in 1882. One of the fascinating things about the book is the extensive historical detail about 1882 that are part of the story. While this is a different type of time travel story the problems with changing the past are still a part of the story. Read the book to see what problems Simon Morley encounters after he starts traveling between 1970 and 1882.

Time and Again by Jack Finney (1911-1995) was originally published in 1970. The copy I read was published by Scribner paperback Fiction in 1995. Time and Again will be released as an eBook in October of 2009.

In 1995 Finney published sequel called From Time to Time.