Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category
Monday, October 20th, 2014
A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny
A classic by the late Grandmaster. It is set in the month of October, which each day being a chapter. The story is told by Snuff, a watchdog, who like his companion Jack, is the owner of several Curses. One of Jack’s involves a large knife. Whenever there is a full moon on October 31, a group of people and their animal companions gather together and work toward a ritual on the night of the 31st. They are trying to either open or keep closed, a gateway for the Elder Gods (think Lovecraft). So far, the Closers have always won. Up until the end, it’s hard to tell who is an Opener and who is a closer, or even who is in the game. Others who are in the area with Snuff and Jack include: a vampire called “The Count” and his bat; a mad Russian monk and his snake, Crazy Jill and her black cat, the Great Dective and his sidekick; and Larry Talbot and his furry alter ego. Zelezny had a lot of fun with this book. If you can pick up a copy with the Gahn Wilson illustrations, you are in for a bonus treat.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, October 13th, 2014
SpellBound by Larry Correia
Larry Coreia makes the book pick again. This time with the second book in his hard-boiled noir series complete with more than a bit of magic thrown in. It’s the 1930’s and magic has been around for about a hundred years. It started with just a few people, but it’s been growing pretty steady, so by the time this story takes place it’s pretty mainstream. Things pick up where the last book left off.
The good guys have managed to defeat what they thought was their greatest enemy, but they were mistaken. Not about killing the bad guy, just about him being their greatest enemy. The hard part is convincing even their allies about the oncoming evil. Before they can face that evil, they have to deal with a plot to register and round up all the magically active people in America. Hitler was put in front of a firing squad early in this reality, but there are still “good progressives” that want to put people in camps and eliminate the trouble makers. Lots of action. new bad guys, plot twists, and did I mention lots of action. Oh, and remember, don’t get on Faye’s bad side.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Baen, book, Magic, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Friday, September 19th, 2014
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Ten years ago, this Diesel Punk classic hit the big screen with enough CGI to choke server rooms worth of servers. Most of the cast did all their work against green screens that later became the amazing background of the film that never existed outside the digital realm. Damn fine cast as well, Jude Law as the title character, Sky Captain, the leader of a group of lawful good mercenaries. Gyneth Paltrow as his on and off again girl friend and intrepid girl reporter. Angelina Jolie as the frost British air ace and the other woman in Sky Captain’s life. This film is all about the larger than life aspect. From the giant flying robots to the Royal Air Corp helicarriers. Oh ya, there are dinosaurs too. Great film to escape and enjoy good old fashioned pulp adventure. Fire up the popcorn and enjoy!
Friday B-Movie Pick Archive
Tags: CGI, Diesel Punk, Friday B-Movie, Movie, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, September 15th, 2014
Kildar by John Ringo
The sequel to John Ringo’s military thriller Ghost, which also won an award as a romance novel. At the end of the first novel, our (anti) hero has been touring Eastern Europe and sampling its pleasures. Kildar starts with him lost in a snow storm in Georgia (the country, not the state). A series of events result in him buying a farm, complete with a manor house and tenant farmers. The “tenant farmers” turn out to be the descendants of a long lost band of famous warriors. This book tells how Ghost, now known as “The Kildar”, trains up a company of commandos (with plenty of expensive help), and breaks them in by killing a lot of bad guys trying to sneak into their valley in order to kill, pillage, rape, etc. It also tells how the Kildar just happens to obtain an harem of teenage girls, and is forced into hiring an older (26), and incredibly beautiful harem manager. So Ringo is continuing the themes that won the previous novel that romance award. Additional books in the series pick up the pace, with more killing of bad guys, and rescuing of young women, some of which just happen to be submissive enough to warm the cold, hard heart of a Dom like the Kildar.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Adventure, book, John Ringo, military fiction, Monday Book Pick, Pulp
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Monday, July 21st, 2014
Sunset of the Gods by Steve White
Jason Thanou is back (26 Aug 2013 Book Pick) and things are getting even weirder in his trips to the past. He finds out that there are worse things than finding that the anicent Greek Gods were aliens mucking with human development. At least they were slowing dying out. One a mission to observe, from a lot closer viewpoint than he planned, the battle of Marathon, things go pear shaped right quick when he runs into Pan!
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi, Time Travel
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Monday, July 14th, 2014
Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny
The first book in the Amber series. Two sets of five books, plus a fist full of short stories and an amazing amount of fan fiction. It starts with a common theme for the author. The protagonist has to discover who he is, and why he is in a bunch of trouble. In this case he just isn’t a very long lived mercenary who wakes up in a private ‘sanatorium’, where the staff tries to keep him heavily sedated. Nope, nothing that simple. It gets weirder from there damn quick and stays there! Zelazny has the delightful talent of taking the line between fantasy and Science Fiction and using it to play jump rope. For Carl Corey is really Prince Corwin of Amber. The Kingdom at the center of all the varied realities. Toss in some wonderfully detailed sword fights (Zelazny was a fencer and an Aikido instructor), massive battles, treachery, and that special blend of wry Zelazny humor, and you will be be looking for the next book in the series straight off.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: book, Monday Book Pick, Roger Zelazny, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, May 5th, 2014
Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia
Larry Coreia makes the book pick again. This is the first book in his first series. He had self-published this book, after getting turned down by multiple publishers, and it was selling pretty well. Then Baen contacted him and Correia followed up his first hit with string of others, including three more Monster Hunter books and two other series with five books between them. In this book we meet Owen Z. Pitt, who has a soul sucking accounting job in Dallas that only gets worse, when his already bad boss gets bitten by a werewolf and attacks Pitt on the next full moon. It is close, but Pitt manages to kill his boss and get threatened by some Feds who tell him to keep his mouth shut or they will put a bullet in his head. Enter Monster Hunter International. A private company that hunts monsters and collects the federal bounty on them. Yes, Pitt finds his true calling. Hunting monsters. Zombies, werewolves, Vampires, and all that stuff. Stir in some Lovecraftian horror and an old Jewish monster hunter spirit guide and you have one fun read! It has monsters. It has romance. It has detailed and accurate firearm discriptions. Fun for the whole family!
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Adventure, Baen, book, horror, Monday Book Pick, Monster, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, April 28th, 2014
Hard Magic by Larry Correia
Larry Coreia makes the book pick again. This time with the first book in his hard-boiled noir series complete with more than a bit of magic thrown in. It’s the 1930’s and magic has been around for about a hundred years. It started with just a few people, but it’s been growing pretty steady, so by the time this story takes place it’s pretty mainstream. Magic takes different forms in different people. Some can move objects with their mind, others can heal people, others can change the effect (more or less) the effect of gravity, others can teleport, and so on. Then there are the Cogs. They are just really, really smart in specific areas. Einstein was a Cog, as was Count Von Zeppelin, and John Moses Browning. Larry Correia is a former firearms instructor, so of course John Moses Browning in the book, and he is hero. I enjoyed this book a lot. Good characters, both good guys and bad guys, and those who are really a bit of both. An interesting setting, and lots of action. I’m glad there are two sequels to this already in print.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Baen, book, Detective, Magic, Monday Book Pick, Noir, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, April 21st, 2014
The Given Sacrifice by S.M. Stirling
Once again, S.M. Stirling proves himself to be the current master of the epic trilogy. Set in his Emberverse, he wraps up another historic period of his alternate universe where Powers have denied technology beyond gunpowder. Don’t worry, there will be more epic trilogies set in the Change series. It’s just time for the next generation.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: alternate, Alternate History, book, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Sunday, April 13th, 2014
It’s taken a few years, but I’ve finally finished all ten seasons of Stargate SG:1. That, along with two movies, and seven seasons of two different spinoff series, make it one of the longest running and successful Science Fiction series of all times. Don’t forget the movie that the series was based on.
Over ten seasons, the series had time to do rich character development, story arcs, and even took the time to poke fun at themselves.
Overall, it is a good action series where the bad guys are truly bad.
Tags: Military Science Fiction, Science Fiction, SciFi, Stargate, Sunday SciFi
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