"The Map of Chaos" by Felix J. Palma

 

Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9781451688184

This novel is like the first two in the series is also very detailed, and meticulously plotted. In combination with the first two this series this is one that should be in any science fiction or fantasy readers collection. There are even more plot twists than before, to once again make it a good combination of mystery and science fiction.

The third book in the series wraps things up quite nicely and brings everything to a good conclusion and in it the reader meets the Invisible Man, Charles Babbage, Alice Little, and a few more rather famous people.

It is true these novels are quite long, and as mentioned above the plotting is very detailed, so you will have to pay attention to what's going on in order to grasp what Mr. Palma is telling you about, but it is well worth the read.

Very highly recommended.

"The Map of the Sky" by Felix J. Palma

 

Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9781451660319

This novel is like the first in the series very detailed, and meticulously plotted, with a very interesting premise that definitely makes it worth adding onto any science fiction or fantasy readers list. There are even more plot twists than before, to once again make it a good combination of mystery and science fiction.

The second book is "Map of the Sky" and a number of the same characters reappear (sometimes quite literally in this one, but we also journey to Antarctica, and meet some new characters such as Arthur Conan Doyle and a few others, however they are rather busy combatting an invasion of planet Earth.

This novel is long, but the reader will quickly lose themselves in the story so that time will pass quite quickly. Mr. Palma does force you to pay attention to what's going on in order to grasp what he is telling you about, but it is well worth the read.

Very highly recommended.

"The Map of Time" by Felix J. Palma

Publisher: Atria Books
Copyright: 2008
ISBN: 9781439167397 (Time)

This novel is a very detailed, and meticulously plotted time travel story, with a very interesting premise that definitely makes it worth adding onto any science fiction or fantasy readers list. There are lots of plot twists, some very interesting red herrings both of which make this a good combination of mystery and science fiction.

The first book in the series is "Map of Time" and in this book you will meet a number of different historical characters such as H. G. Wells, Bram Stoker, Jack "the Ripper", Marie Kelly and number of others. Some of these people play large roles, while others are minor but all of them do their job in advancing the plot very well.

This novel is long when compared to most on the market today, however the story is so well written that you don't really notice it. Mind you you will have to pay attention to what Mr. Palma is saying to grasp the concept, but that shouldn't be too hard a thing to do when the story is as well written as this one.

Very highly recommended.

"Police Your Planet" Lester Del Rey (1915-1993)

 

Publisher: Del Rey Books

Copyright: 1956

ISBN: 0345298586

This book is quite dark in its portrayal of life on Mars, which is essentially an outlaw territory where citizens of Earth who are no longer welcome are sent. This plot detail obviously parallels the British use of Australia as a penal colony.

The protagonist Bruce Gordon is an ex-boxer, ex-gambler, ex-cop, and ex-reporter who is shipped off Earth for Mars with a one-way ticket, his alternative punishment being the mines on Mercury. Gangs run various parts of the city, graft is ever present, the police are corrupt, as are the politicians, and pretty much everybody else. While I can't be totally sure (as I was never exiled to Australia, not have I visited Mars), I think that the descriptions of how people would live in a penal colony are likely fairly accurate. 

Being that this book was written in 1956, the science is fairly incorrect based on what we now know of the solar system. The story itself is also quite confusing in a number of places, as there are a fair number of characters, and unfortunately for the most part they are very one dimensional. I have read very few of Mr. Del Rey's books, so I'm not overly sure how his other works stack up to this one, but he is a very famous author, so I will see what else I can read of his.

"Brandyjack" by Augustine Funnell

 

Publisher: Laser Books

Copyright: 1976

ISBN: 0373720394

"Brandyjack" is an interesting novel that was written by a Canadian author by the name of Augustine Funnell. At the time according to the book he was a young but fairly experienced author, who published a couple of titles through the Laser Books in imprint. Unfortunately, the Laser Books line only last a little over a year (1975-1977) and consisted of 58 novels. The line included some big name authors such as Tim Powers, Piers Anthony,Dean R. Koontz, Jerry Pournelle, and more.

The story revolves around the character Brandyjack who is a wayfarer, traveler, etc. who links up with a merchant by the name of Thoruso who plans to leave Earth for Alpha Centauri. The story itself is set in the 55th century, and the Earth is essentially a waste land, it it is implied that science in general is to blame for this condition. However we learn later on that politics had a whole lot to do with it as well. There is a starship poised and ready to leave earth, but never got a chance, and that has been waiting for a crew since all the problems started, about 3000 years earlier.

There's a fair bit of violence, fighting, racism, etc. in the book but the story reads very well, and when the context of the plot is taken into account this is to be expected as the Earth itself is a fairly wild and nasty place, with what's left of civilization having to get by any way they can.

There is a second book, also published by Laser Books, but I have been unable to find it so far.

"Far Edge of Darkness" by Linda Evans

 

Publisher: Baen Books

Copyright: 1996

ISBN: 0671877358

Historical time travel novels are likely one of the more difficult stories to write (at least in my opinion), as the author needs to do something called research. In "Far Edge of Darkness" Linda Evans comes through as a star in the field as her research is impeccable.

The story revolves around three main characters:

Sibyl, a PhD student in Classical Archaeology who had recently discovered a something while digging in Pompeii that shouldn't have been there. This one little thing changed her life dramatically as we next see her in ancient Rome where she is being sold as a slave. 

The second, is Charlie a Miami Vice cop who was deep under cover, and is now a slave in the house of a cruel Roman master, after spending a few years in the Circus Maximus fighting for his life.

The third is Logan a psychiatric patient on day leave who disappears in a monstrous lightning storm in Florida and reappears five years later in Alaska.

These three characters, and many secondary ones interact in a truly believable way and I believe this is mainly due to the great job the author did in setting the stage, and painting the world of ancient Rome in a detail that will delight virtually all readers.

Ms. Evans has written a number of other books as well, which I will review, but this was the first of her I read (a number of years ago), and it is well worth it. She unfortunately hasn't written much lately, but hopefully this will be corrected in the near future.

Highly recommended.

"Time's Eye" by Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) and Stephen Baxter

 

Publisher: Ballantine books

Copyright: 2005

ISBN: 034545247 X

"Time's Eye" is the first book in the Time Odyssey trilogy and is rounded out by Sunstorm, and Firstborn. It tells the tale of  a cataclysm that sees the world being carved up in time and reassembled much like a jigsaw puzzle. All over the world different periods in time lie next to each other, and the inhabitants of those times are forced to interact with each other, and survive.

Some of these groups consist of three members of the UN peacekeeping force who's helicopter is shot down, three cosmonauts who have just left the international space station, part of the Indian army from 1885, Genghis Khan and his troops, and the army of Alexander the Great.

The answers are all the quests seem to lie in the city of Babylon, which is a long ways away from where ever they were when the Kataklysm happened.

Very interesting book. Time travel books have always been one of my favorites, as it's always interesting to see how authors perceive the interaction between various cultures, and various time periods. For the most part the culture part is ignored by many authors, typically much to the detriment of their plotting and storyline.

I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.

"Dome" by Michael Reeves and Steve Perry

 

Publisher: Berkley Books

Copyright: 1987

ISBN: 0425095606

Dome is an extremely well written, and well plotted out novel. That tells the tale of a massive, mostly completed, mobile underwater city and it's inhabitants. Now while this might not seem too exciting, things do become very interesting early on in the book when a nuclear detonation/test is conducted in Asia that triggers a number of volcanic events throughout the world.

These "natural"" disasters trigger a number of political events that lead to a limited nuclear war between Vietnam and Laos, and when one shot misses its intended target and ends up in Cambodia they retaliate with banned bacteriological weapons, that have mutated and these spread to devastate the surface of the earth.

The characters in this novel are quite memorable, and you really get a feeling that they could be actual people, which at least in my books, is an excellent way of doing characterization.

The action is fast-paced, and the writing style very concise. The story is told from multiple perspectives at one time and this leads the reader to be even more involved in the actual story. Even though it was written 34 years ago the technology is not dated, and the science itself is sound. I was some somewhat sceptical with regard to the genetics / biological part of the science, but it sounded good, and this is not something I have studied my so it may very well be perfectly legitimate but I don't know.

Well worth the read, highly recommended.

"The Bayern Agenda" by Dan Moren

 

Publisher: Angry Robot

Copyright: 2019

ISBN: 9780857668202

It's been along time since I read a good spy novel, but this definitely made up for it. As Anthony Johnson commented on the cover "like John le Carré meets The Stainless Steel Rat ...", which aptly he describes this novel. For those not in the know John le Carré is the author of "Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy" which is a novel about British intelligence. On the other hand "The Stainless Steel Rat" is a series by the late Harry Harrison that deals with the life of a professional criminal in the far future. Both are excellent authors and these series are definitely worth reading too.

However, back to the Bayern Agenda which deals with a cold war a few hundred years  in the future and the clandestine operations of agents on both sides. So far there are only two books in the series, and I'm looking forward to reading the second one.

There is some political intrigue, some clandestine operations, a fair bit of humor which always makes for a good story. The world building seems to be very well taken care of, and even though  the standard tropes of faster than light travel (via wormhole), anti-gravity generators etc. are used Mr. Moran's universe is consistent, and believable.

Looking forward to reading the second book in the series.

"Saucer" by Stephen Coonts

 

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffen

Copyright: 2002

ISBN: 0312283423

Saucer tells the tale of a seismic survey team in the central Sahara who find an actual flying saucer entombed in the side of a sandstone cliff. 

The story's protagonist is Rip Cantrell an engineering student who is working on the team as part of a summer job, when he first spots a bright flash of light being reflected off the skin of the saucer which had become slightly uncovered. After uncovering the saucer over a number of days, they engage the services of an archaeologist who is at a dig a short distance away. They determine that it had been there for some 140,000 years, and this is just the beginning of their adventures.

Much to their dismay their discovery is soon found out by the United States Airforce, an Australian billionaire, and the Libyan military. All of whom claim ownership, or at least intend on keeping the saucer for their own.

This book is a fast paced read, that is written as if it could really have happened (at least when you ignore the anti-gravity technology, and a couple of other science fiction tropes). There is significant amount of political intrigue and corruption, that sets the stage for an interesting story, and gives it the link to world events in the first part of the 21st century.

A good read. There is a sequel to this book which I will review in the future.

"Putting the Science in Fiction: Expert Advice for Writing With Authenticity in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Other Genres" by Dan Koboldt

 

Publisher: Writer's Dugest Books

Copyright: 2018

ISBN: 9781440353383

This is an excellent book that if properly consulted by authors will go a long way towards correcting the numerous errors present in fictional work, which are primarily due to either the authors reluctance to do basic research, or their belief that the crap that comes out of Hollywood is even close to kindergarten school science.

The various contributors, all of whom are specialists in their field, give great examples of what is typically done wrong, and then explain why it's wrong, and how to correct it.

The materials in this book are applicable to authors writing in pretty much all genres, even those without a major science component as humans have lived in complex cultures since we started walking on two legs (and likely even before this) and science has a tendency to crop up when least expected, even if it is not recognized as science.

A book such as this should be expanded on, and could even be taken to the lengths of dedicating volumes to specific areas of science.

Highly recommended.

"Timescape" by Gregory Benford

 

Publisher: Bantam Books

Copyright: 1992

ISBN: 9780553297096

Timescape is an engrossing novel, that won the Nebula Award, and it isn't hard to see why. Mr. Benford, a "hard" science fiction author, who also happens to be a physicist, has written a tale that is immersed deep within this subject. It is true that my knowledge of physics is somewhat limited, but even so it was a fascinating story.

The world of the story is in deep environmental trouble, and a few scientists attempt to send a signal back through time to the early 1960s in hopes of correcting the problems they are now facing.

I've always found the idea of time travel, or in this case time communications, to be fascinating even though I know it'll likely never happen. But Mr. Benford explains the concepts in his book well enough that you will believe.

I reviewed another of Mr. Benford's books a couple of weeks ago, and I am looking forward to reading more of his work.

Highly recommended.

"Artifact" by Gregory Benford

 

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Copyright: 1985

ISBN: 0312930488

Artifact tells the tale of an archeological find in Greece that is not expected or understood. The excavation and examination of the artefact becomes an issue of Greek heritage, and when the basic principles of archeological research conflict directly with of an overzealous ex-archeologist who is now a member of the military, and also part of a junta that is trying to overthrow the government.

The lead archeologists is Dr. Claire Anderson, and she along with her crew foreman discover the artifact, just in time to be interrupted by Kontos the military / ex-archeologist who becomes the ever demanding bureaucrat, and who always wants his own way. Claire recruits another academic Dr. John Bishop to assist her in discovering what the specimen is, and this leads the story in a whole new direction. 

The characters in the story are very well written, and represented. I found the story to be very interesting, and there was actually science in the story, and as all science-fiction should have (but that is usually lacking).

Excellent read.

"Hench" by Natalie Zina Walschots

 

Publisher: William Morrow

Copyright: 2020

ISBN: 9780062978578

Hench is a delightful book that tells the tale of a temp agency worker who works for the criminal establishment, as the blurb says "even criminals need office help..."

The protagonist Anna is working though a temp agency for criminals in a place where people are tested at puberty to see if they have any super abilities. If you do then you get to be either a super-hero or a super-criminal, if you are neither then you are a regular person which typically seems to mean you are either a target or will end up as collateral damage when the former two groups fight. At the beginning of the story gets a job with an up-and-coming criminal. But then she gets injured by a so-called hero and while she is recovering she begin researching things and it turns out when she compares injuries that she's the lucky one. The story itself from that point on revolves around her essentially getting revenge on this supposed "hero" after assessing all the damage that he is actually done in the name of justice.

This is a very interesting take on the super-hero / villain genre as the effects of their epic battles are never looked at. Don't believe me, just think of any Marvel comic book, movie (and DC for that matter too). The heroes and villains are fighting each other, buildings are falling down (and you'd expect there to be people in these buildings right, after all that what buildings are built for), cities are being destroyed, etc. etc. ad nauseam but who cleans it all up, pays for it etc.

This is the authors first novel, and it is a wonderful debut. I am definitely looking forward to any future novels, as she leaves us with an interesting cliff-hanger.

"The Genesis Machine" by James P. Hogan (1941-2010)

 

Publisher: Del Rey

Copyright: 1978
ISBN: 0345305760

    This book was the very first one of James P. Hogan's that I ever read, and that was many years ago so I can't really tell why I was attracted to it in the first place, but it turned out to be an excellent story that I have read numerous times since then.

    The tale revolves around a independent scientist, Bradley Clifford, who feels constrained by the rules and regulations that are being forced upon him by the government institution he is working at. The world at this time is on the brink of a major international conflict / World War III, which would essentially be an all out nuclear exchange.

    Clifford is a theoretical physicist who develops/discovers a brand new branch of physics that has the potential to revolutionize virtually every facet of physics. He attempts to publish his findings but is prevented from doing so, so does an end run around his institution. This of course leads to major conflicts and the overall premise of the story which is that science should be allowed to pursue its own course of action for the sake of science. He teams up with another rogue scientist Aubrey Phillips and they go on to pursue science their way and shock the world.

    Mr. Hogan is an excellent author, however he does have the habit of going into exorbitant detail, and subjecting the reader to large amounts of information / backstory. This is typically something that is discouraged in writing as many readers simply will not read it, and this therefore causes them to miss a lot of what the author is trying to get across. However the way it is written in this, and Hogan's other books is very well handled and you don't really notice it as much as you do in others.

    Mr. Hogan has written a number of other books, at present I've only ever reviewed one other which is a trilogy entitled "The Minervan Experiment".

    I would recommend this book to any hard science fiction readers, even though it is out of date with current world events by a long way it is well worth reading

"Cibola Burn" by James S. A. Corey

Publisher: Orbit
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9780316217620

Cibola Burn is the fourth book in the Expanse series and carries the storyline into the far reaches of space.

The Ring Gate has opened access to thousands of new worlds, but this has caused some problems in that some people decide to stake a claim on an unoccupied planet. Seeing nothing wrong with this they choose one, after all there were thousands to choose from, however it turns out the planet they chose was rich in Lithium, and they didn't consider the fact that a major corporation might want it instead.

These two opposing views end up in violence, as can be expected. Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are dispatched by Chrisjen Avasarala and Fred Johnston to act as mediators in the dispute. As expected though it turns out to be more than a simple mediation trip however, as many other factors come into play the least of which is the Holden soon comes to suspect that maybe his mission was meant to fail.

An excellent continuation of the series, I found the 4th season to parallel the book quite well, but as expected there were some changes, but none that seriously detracted from the storyline. As so far they have done a very good job of adapting these books into the series.

"Clockwork Angels: The Novel" by Kevin J. Anderson

 

Publisher: ECW Press
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9781770903371

This is a rather unique book in that it is the novelization of the song lyrics written by the late Neil Peart who was the drummer for the iconic Canadian rock group Rush. The story is essentially a coming of age story of a young man Owen Hardy or as he is primarily known in the book Owenhardy, an assistant orchard master from the village of Barrel Arbour in the land of Albion.

Albion is ruled by the supposedly benevolent Watchmaker who controls the entire culture with clockwork precision. Young Owen is soon to become an adult, and he is then elected to marry the love of his life, and then take over the orchard from his father, etc. The Watchmaker knows about Owen, and is watching him, however, so is the Anarchist who is the Watchmaker's opponent who wants to disrupt the society and allow people to think for themselves.

The book is set in a "steampunk" style world and Owen is exposed to the reality of world he has always believed in and accepted as normal when various circumstances force his hand.

This is an excellent book, and highly recommended.

"Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang

Publisher: Vintage Books

Copyright: 2002

ISBN: 9781101972120

My primary reason for picking up this book of short stories was after seeing the 2017 movie "Arrival" by director Denis Villeneuve, which was based on the short story "Story of Your Life", and which follows the plot fairly well. Yes, I realize I am totally destroying my record of slamming Hollywood, but in this case they did a good job. Prior to this I hadn't read anything by Mr. Chiang at all, much to my dismay.

This book is a collection of eight short stories: the Tower of Babylon, Understand, Division by Zero, Story of Your Life, Seventy-two Letters, The Evolution of Human Science, Hell is the Absence of God, and finally Liking What You See: A Documentary".

All of the stories are very well written and quite thought-provoking. Of the eight stories though the first four are definitely my favorites. I'm not sure if I can say why they are my favourites, but I think it's possibly due to the fact that the characters and the storyline are very well developed and quite interesting.

Mr. Chiang has written the second book entitled "Exhalation", which I'll definitely be looking to get my hands on to read in the near future.

Definitely recommend it.

"Neuromancer" by William Gibson

 

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group

Copyright: 1984

ISBN: 9780441012039

Neuromancer was William Gibson's first novel, and it took the science fiction world by storm due to its realism, interesting characters, and well thought out plot.

The story tells the adventures of Case, a hacker that is being forced to complete a mission to stay alive. In his bloodstream is a toxin that will release after a certain amount of time if there's no antidote given to him. He teams up with an agent (for lack of a better term) named Molly Millions. A lady with Mirror shade implants in her eyes, and 4 cm retractable razors in her fingertips (I haven’t quite figured out how this would work, as the first knuckle on most people is an average of 1.5 cm behind the finger tip).

The story revolves around two artificial intelligences named Wintermute, and Neuromancer. The two AIs, along with Case, Molly and the rest of the crew are also up against the Turing Police, who keep an eye on the doings of AIs, and those that try to hack into them. There isn’t a lot of background information given on why the Turing Police exist, or why they have to watch the AIs, so I found this to be a little off-putting as I happen to like these world-building details.

Molly is a character that also appears in Gibson's short story Johnny Mnemonic, which takes place before Neuromancer, but was written a few years afterwards.

Gibson has also written two more novels set in the same universe entitled Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. However, I haven't read either of these yet.

This is an excellent book with great characterization, that makes you think and feel with the characters. The plotting is also very tight and well done, and the world building excellent. It however hasn’t quite kept up with the way technology has actually developed and changes since 1984, so I think it might have been better to set it further into the future - but that just my opinion.

Highly recommended to anybody who enjoys good science fiction.

"The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick (1928-1982)

 

Publisher: Penguin
Copyright: 1962
ISBN: 978-0241246108

"The Man in the High Castle" is set an alternate United States in 1962. The premise behind the story is the United States stayed out of World War II, and because of this Nazi Germany won the war as did Japan, and what we now know as the United States was carved up between these two nations. There is a buffer zone between the two powers, and within that zone lives a man who wrote an underground bestseller, which describes the world in which we live in.

In addition to this rewrite of history things like slavery are once again legal, persons of Jewish descent are hunted down -- but are able to live under assumed names -- however if they are caught they are automatically transported to Nazi Germany and executed.

This book was recommended to me as a great story that demonstrated the fusion between science-fiction and the contemporary novel. I'm not exactly sure how the person that recommended this could possibly have come up with that evaluation but it definitely did not live up to that in my opinion.

I found the blatant racism, and anti-Semitism in this book extremely disturbing, and even though these things are explained within the context of the plot, there was so much of it that I found it overwhelming, and extremely distracting from the story itself. In addition, the plot itself was very disjointed. However, even with these drawbacks it managed to somehow win the 1963 Hugo Award.

According to the website Fantastic Fiction this story has now been made into an Amazon series. It will be interesting to see how they treat the anti-Semitism and racism, as I believe this could turn off a great number of people in the world, however as racism and anti-Semitism are still alive and thriving in certain parts of the world I'm sure those folks will love it.

Due to the content of this book I believe it suitable for adult readers or mature readers only.