Jumping Off the Planet, David Gerrold

By erika on 7/8/10 9:53am
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I feel genuinely bad for disliking this book.  Not only did it win a ton of awards, but it's written by David Gerrold who is virtually a science fiction legend.  Nevertheless, I didn't like it.

Jumping Off the Planet concerns the Dingillian family, which is dysfunctional in a ridiculously predictable fashion.  The narrator is a teenage boy named Charles Dingillian, whose nickname is "Chigger." The word "chigger" which has the misfortune of being one of my least favorite words, thanks to its similarity to a certain other word that starts with N and also has unpleasant connotations.


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PD James: Children of Men

By becksta on 6/22/10 11:12am
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PD James: Children of MenPD James: Children of Men

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Quantum Chronicles

By Anonymous on 4/14/10 12:07pm
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 Amazing book about life and why we are here, containing elements of philosphy and theology. This author leaves us questioning everything and wanting to read more! ....


In the world of Sci-Fi, reality becomes a fantasy and fantasy a relaity...it allows us to dream for a time our imagination wanders into a realm of impossiblit, it breaks the barriers of logic the summit of our knowledge and enters a neQuantum Chronicles in the Eleventh DimensionQuantum Chronicles in the Eleventh Dimensionw dimension......Six gripping sci-fi mysteries.....


 


Available at Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smith, Arima Publishing

Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson

By ecoscott on 2/15/10 9:39pm
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Pattern Recognition, by William GibsonPattern Recognition, by William Gibson

Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson

Pattern Recognition is a book about the Internet written in 2003. It tells the story of what happens when marketing and chat room communities collide- in essence, it takes on the ethics and influence of social media years before the term existed.

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Farenheit 451 and Modern Day Censorship

By becksta on 2/13/10 2:32pm
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Farenheit 451- Ironically BannedFarenheit 451- Ironically BannedProbably the most ironic book to enter the banned book list is “Farenheit 451”. Set in the future, where fireman have the arduous task of burning books, “Farenheit 451” is arguably one the most influential books on modern day science fiction.


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Mike Brotherton, "Star Dragon"

By erika on 2/12/10 4:26pm
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Star Dragon is an odd collection of funny-shaped bits that shouldn't fit together, and in fact have no business being thrown into the bag all together like that.  And yet, Brotherton somehow manages to make it work.  

Sadly, about a third of the way through the book, I suddenly realized that I have lost my taste for hard science fiction.  I used to really dig the "science" in science fiction, but it turns out that this is no longer true.  I ended up skimming the technical passages, my eyes glazing over like a college freshman thrown into, say, an advanced astronomy lecture.


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Beyond Pandora

By akgoemans on 2/11/10 5:13am
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Beyond PandoraBeyond Pandora
Beyond Pandora by Robert J Martin is a short story that you are most likely to find in short story collections. Actually, it is probably available to read on Kindle and such because this is one of those older works that have passed into the public domain. As for me, I came across it on Project Gutenberg website.

Admittedly, I read it as I was in the mood for a slightly old-school sci-fi story. You know, something along the lines of 'In the year 2889' where the author creates his own vision of the future. Ah, it's one of those moods. So how did the story fare? Funnily enough, I didn't dismiss it as a bizarre, absolutely outlandish take on medicine. It could happen; in fact, I am sure they have played around with this idea on a few sci-fi shows.

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This is Klon calling, 2 and 2 makes crazy

By akgoemans on 2/5/10 5:45am
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I can haz MacbookI can haz Macbook

I went through two of Walter Sheldon's short stories recently. One, Two and Two Makes Crazy, was something I read as a wee little brat and thus, was something I had fond memories of. The other, This is Klon Calling, was new to me and was more humorous than serious but, nonetheless, it was equally enjoyable in its own right.

Information about Walter Sheldon is hard to relatively hard to find. Well, there is a little bit but all you can tell is that he was in the army and that he was a ghost writer later on. More's the pity since he is fantastic writer who had a wonderful sense of humor, a trait that is evident in both of these stories.

Two and Two Makes Crazy is a jab at folks' reliance on computers.

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Neal Stephenson, Ayn Rand Fan?

By erika on 2/2/10 3:12pm
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Neal Stephenson an Objectivist?Neal Stephenson an Objectivist?I spent a lot of time researching Ayn Rand and her philosophies today.  And at some point, I started seeing Neal Stephenson everywhere.  Mind: blown.  Favorite author: tarnished.

Ayn Rand preaches Objectivism, which can be summed up as "greed is good."  She furthermore divides the world into two groups: a small group of talented elites, and the rest of the unwashed masses.  To quote Rush Limbaugh (an outspoken fan), "It is basically about the achievers of life quitting, because they're tired of being 1% of the population pulling the other 99% in the cart."  


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Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded

By becksta on 1/27/10 3:27pm
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Your Hate Mail Will Be GradedYour Hate Mail Will Be GradedJohn Scalzi is a science fiction author I learned about through my colleague. Scalzi is one of the more widely read bloggers in the realm of Science Fiction and has recently published a series of his more popular blog posts from “Whatever”. The book is  entitled, “Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded” and interestingly enough, he won the Hugo award for “Best Related Book” for 2009 and was awarded the prize at last year’s World-con. This is only interesting because of the books nominated, his seems to be the least-related to science fiction on the list.


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