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Featured Sci-fi: The Space Between Us (The Enceladons Trilogy)

May 25, 2024 by Carolynn

99¢ as of May 25, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Australia

Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay, Apple

Editor’s Note: I read this last year. It’s lovely. It will keep you up late and flipping virtual pages. Recommended.

When three people suffer strokes after seeing dazzling lights over Edinburgh, then awake completely recovered, they’re convinced their ordeal is connected to the alien creature discovered on a nearby beach… an adrenaline-soaked, deeply humane, life-affirming first-contact novel from one of Scotland’s most revered authors…

Lennox is a troubled teenager with no family. Ava is eight months pregnant and fleeing her abusive husband. Heather is a grieving mother and cancer sufferer. They don’t know each other, but when a meteor streaks over Edinburgh, all three suffer instant, catastrophic strokes…

…only to wake up the following day in hospital, miraculously recovered.

When news reaches them of an octopus-like creature washed up on the shore near where the meteor came to earth, Lennox senses that some extra-terrestrial force is at play. With the help of Ava, Heather and a journalist, Ewan, he rescues the creature they call ‘Sandy’ and goes on the run.

But they aren’t the only ones with an interest in the alien … close behind are Ava’s husband, the police and a government unit who wants to capture the creature, at all costs. And Sandy’s arrival may have implications beyond anything anyone could imagine…

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Box Set List Featured Sci-Fi, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: Doug Johnstone, The Enceladons Trilogy, The Space Between Us

Book Reviews: Mal Goes to War by Edward Ashton

May 25, 2024 by Carolynn

Available at Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Australia

Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay, Apple

When I heard Edward Ashton, author of Mickey 7, had a new book out I rushed right out to pick it up from my local library. (What is with Trad pubbed ebook prices? The US price is the highest. In the UK, Canada, and Australia it is more reasonable. I would love to know the reason for the discrepancy. The audiobook version, if you have an Audible subscription, is more reasonable.)

It was my best read in a long while. If you’re looking for something poignant but funny and optimistic, I highly recommend it. “Mal” is short for Malware. Can you see already how it is awesome?

Here is the blurb:

The humans are fighting again. Go figure.

As a free A.I., Mal finds the war between the modded and augmented Federals and the puritanical Humanists about as interesting as a battle between rival anthills. He’s not above scouting the battlefield for salvage, though, and when the Humanists abruptly cut off access to infospace he finds himself trapped in the body of a cyborg mercenary, and responsible for the safety of the modded girl she died protecting.

A dark comedy** wrapped in a techno thriller’s skin, Mal Goes to War provides a satirical take on war, artificial intelligence, and what it really means to be human.

**My note: can a comedy really be dark if the ending isn’t one of abject despair?

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Edward Ashton, Mal Goes to War

Book Review: Athena’s Champion (Olympus Trilogy Book 1) by David Hair and Cath Mayo

March 13, 2024 by Carolynn

Featured Fantasy: Athena's Champion by David Hair and Cath Mayo


Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada, Australia

Available at higher price Amazon UK, Germany

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

I am currently reading the last book of this trilogy, which I think is an endorsement in itself. This is a much softer version of Odysseus, but he is crafty, pragmatic, and has no time for trying to do things the “honorable way.” I recommend it, even if my most favorite version of Odysseus is probably in Ilium, by Dan Simmons. (How have I not written a review for Ilium? A wicked, scheming Odysseus who has much the same aims as this one in a far future, sci-fi universe.)

Gods and mortals collide in this spellbinding retelling of a legend from classic Greek mythology, the first in the epic Olympus Trilogy.
 
A prophecy condemns him, a goddess binds him, but wisdom can set Odysseus free . . .
 
Young Prince Odysseus is about to have his world torn apart. He has travelled to the oracle at Pytho to be anointed as heir to his island kingdom, but instead a terrible secret is revealed, one that tears down every pillar of his life and marks him out for death.
 
Outcast by his family and on the run, Odysseus is offered sanctuary by Athena, goddess of wisdom, and thrust headfirst into the secret war between the gods. But can his wits, and his skill as a warrior, keep him ahead of their power games—and alive?

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Athena's Champion, Cath Mayo, David Hair, Olympus Trilogy

Book Review: Thunder Below!: The USS *Barb* Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II by Eugene B. Fluckey

January 31, 2024 by Carolynn

Book Review: Thunder Below!: The USS *Barb* Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II by Eugene B. Fluckey

This was loads of fun! This is the autobiography of the famous (then) Captain Fluckey, who revolutionized submarine warfare in WWII. (He later became an Admiral.)

This is a great insight into the mind and heart of man born for the military. He also is generous with his depictions of his fellow servicemen.

As a 50 year old woman, whose death defying adventures are a long time ago the insight into someone whose “fear” emotion seems to be turned off when it came to anything physical, it was very interesting. (Depth charges meters away? No problem! Lose a gift his wife had given him? Bawling in his bunk–and not ashamed to put it in print.)

It’s also a great insight into the times before rapid communications, when people wrote letters on actual paper with pencils and pens. It shows how little people have changed.

It’s also a reminder that people who read widely are unlikely to be duped. I keep seeing how heart attacks are a “modern” phenomena brought on by trans fats, grain fed beef, and vaccines. (Which isn’t to say that the mRNA vaccine doesn’t cause serious complications in young, athletic males.) But I think people died of heart attacks back in the 40s without being diagnosed. At one point one of his officers has a heart attack, despite being in his twenties, and it is almost immediately recognized by the ship’s medic who had seen “plenty” of them before.

Great book, with lots of hair raising escapades and plenty of humor, too. I highly recommend it.

Traditionally published, and available at your local library or Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia also GooglePlay, Nook, and Apple

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Eugene B Fluckey, Thunder Below

Book Review: Linda Nagata’s The Red Sci-fi Thriller Trilogy

January 31, 2024 by Carolynn

Hero and secondary characters that you actually care about. Check.

Cool tech? Check.

Dilemmas that necessitate a sci-fi setting (as opposed to a story that could be told anywhere, but is sci-fi just because)? Check.

The series takes place on a near future Earth a little further along on drones and cybernetics than we are now. They’ve notably not done too much in the way of space exploration. Humanity seems to be stuck, stewing in its own corruption, the USA still in the clutches of a military industrial complex run amok. Humanity is still very much alone in the universe … or is it?

The Red is traditionally published, and the first book was a Nebula Finalist, which means you can pick it up at your local library. The trilogy is also available on Amazon of course. Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia also GooglePlay, Kobo, and Nook.

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Linda Nagata, The Red

Book Review: Antimatter Blues a Mickey 7 Novel by Edward Ashton

January 4, 2024 by Carolynn

Antimatter Blues is the follow up to Mickey 7. If anything, it was funnier and more poignant than the first–I laughed and cried in this one. It points out a danger of cloning that I rarely see articulated: people thinking that a clone is essentially the same person as a previous clone, making the clone “expendable” in the minds of the people around him or her.

Highly recommended, just like the first. You can purchase it at Amazon US, Canada, Australia, GooglePlay

Filed Under: Book Reviews Tagged With: Antimatter Blues, Edward Ashton, Mickey 7

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