Book Blog
May 24, 2026
his is the second in the series following The Cruel Stars, by John Birmingham (and make sure you follow this link for the details – I have another book of that name in my library, one of the Ark Royal books). Yeah, so anyway, this is a middling book in a set so most of the action (while interesting and fun) just pretty much works through its plots. We have the aging Scottish Admiral (who is something of a Highlander, being 700 years old) and his sarcastic floating super computer. And the Captain of the Defiant, pretty much the last ship facing the […]
May 10, 2026
he novella Livesuit is one of those James S. A. Corey things, a way to keep the fires burning between novels in a set. In this case, it’s following the starter for the set (presumably three), The Captive’s War, reviewed by me a year or so back. They did this same thing in their long-running series, The Expanse, with short stories coming out online to endrun the publishing field and keep their property warm until the next book was penned. So, they market better than I even did with this flea-bite of a blog site. So, yes, Livesuit. The first book involves an interplanetary […]
May 3, 2026
bout forty years ago, I was still designing games for a living of sorts. One idea I had was a game about the fall of civilization and managing a community in the aftermath. Titled After the Fall, it was based off a little Atari game where Malthusian growth is gamed, with populating outstripping food. In mine, you had the added features of hordes from the fallen cities, failed crops and an early hot-seat multiplayer game. Alas, we never got it finished beyond play testing – couldn’t get the tech advancements to work. It’s a good thing I knocked off when […]
April 26, 2026
always start most of my reviews like this, but I picked this up at the used bookstore on my credit. Was nosing the scifi books and it looked interesting. So, let’s see what author John Birmingham penned us, shall we? In this novel, it seems that hundreds of years ago, a bunch of anti-re-life, anti-augmenting, anti-genesplicing, anti-alteration purist bigots tried to kill off all “mutants and cyborgs” (their words, not mine). They almost pulled it off but apparently a stunning victory by the liberal (they don’t call it that, but it sure feels that way) elements of the galaxy kicked […]
April 19, 2026
magine my delight when after enjoying the first book by this new author (L.M. Sagas), Cascade Failure, my friend told me a second novel just came out (This one!). Rushed right down to the bookstore and picked up a copy hot off the shelf! So again, we’re focused on the crew of the Ambit, a no-account dime-a-dozen rockhopper (seemingly unarmed) and its crew of three – Saint, Dash and their AI captain Eoan (with its “”Them/Their” pronoun). And they are just minding their business, back to dirty Guild jobs (in this case, doing a prisoner transfer for badass terrorist Drestyn) when […]
April 5, 2026
ound this book on my dad’s old Kindle, good for me since I had jury duty in a few day’s time and this would be more compact than a 1980’s paperback (most would fit in your back pocket). So it worked out well for me. So, Hornet Squadron is the usual Derek Robinson fare; a squadron made up of arch-types and fuckups that is muddling through the worst of it – in this case, World War One. It’s an interesting link-up book, since Hornet Squadron was the name of the squadron in Piece of Cake, and Woolley, the horrific squadron CO […]
March 29, 2026
oddamn, but I loved this book. We start with a down-on-his luck hero who is wandering a spaceport, scruffy, worlds-worn, looking for any sort of ship work if only to get passage to move along. A ship opens up for him. He goes in, calling “Hello…. Hello?” and suddenly the door slams shut and an AI bot starts talking to him. Frightened, scared, he tries to get the lock open and suddenly it does, to reveal the crew of the Ambit, a merc-looking guy and a tufnut female engineer. But the merc the drifter knows and freaks, trying to make a […]
March 15, 2026
he Japanese love cat stories, specially ones that deal with cats interacting and improving their owners. And this book is nothing short of that. Kyoto (as I remember from my trip there) is a town arranged in a neat grid, everything lined up nicely. Further, there is the old geisha quarter just across the river, still active. So, interesting place. What I didn’t know is that is an alley that can only be located if you really need to locate it, one that leads to a run-down building. At the top of five flights of stairs, a large door. Go […]
March 8, 2026
ong time John Scalzi fan, from Old Man’s War to Redshirts to Starter Villain. So when my best friend (and fellow Scalzi fan) told me about this book, I had to immediately say… “What?” Okay, so stay with me. One day, for reasons not given or even hinted, the moon changes… to cheese. It is first noticed in various museums and lunar rock storage areas, where now all they have are lumps of cheese. But it is quickly noticed in the sky – so as not to throw off the tides and wreck havoc, the moon is much bigger (since the mass of cheese […]
March 1, 2026
he Warrior is a David Drake novel, following along in the tank tracks (not correct, since they are hovertanks) of the feared and respected Hammers Slammers, a mercenary tank battalion in the far future. I’ve mentioned a couple of novels from this series, including the titular Hammers Slammers. The thing is, the author is a combat veteran and it shows in the novels. People don’t question, don’t ponder life’s strange events, they simply act. And the tanks they act in are the largest and most dangerous machines in the galaxy. As witness in the three short stories that make up the central […]