Henry L Lazarus
Home
4603 Springfield Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Science Fiction for April 2017
Publishers, at least in Fantasy and Science
Fiction tend to release their major works in the Spring because many
people love to read in the lazy summer days.
Physics won’t allow humans tiny
enough to live with insects. Clark Thomas Carlton invents a world
where humans have domesticated various insects using odors to
control them. Anand is half-untouchable caste of the Slope a giant
ant hill, and half-Britasyte the people of the Roaches. His mother’s
people teach him to hunt and his father’s people have him collecting
night soil and other garbage. He speaks both languages. His fiancee,
Daveena, is of the Roach people. When selected as part of a new
colony, he and the rest of the colony are captured by the democratic
Dranveria who don’t believe in killing. Selected to be a missionary
to the Slopeans, he doesn’t know of a new group of Hulkrites who
worship termites. These Prophets of the Ghost Ants (paper
from Voyager) are intent on conquering the surrounding tribes and
have captured Daveena’s tribe. When he does, he goes undercover to
the Termite people intent on rescuing her and her tribe. The war at
the end uses a lot of insect traits for a fun and exciting conflict.
I would nominate this for awards.
Alpha Marsh and her brother Caleb
are the only survivors of the Innsmouth community sent to desert
camps in 1929. Because of the fear of their magic. Late in life her
people metamorphize into beings of the sea able to live
millennia. After the war they were released with the captured
Japanese. Two years later an FBI agent wants her, and the book store
owner she works for, to investigate the potential that the Russians
have somehow gotten hold body-switching magic. So they go to
Miskatonic University, near Boston, to read through the papers from
her people. They are helped by a Yith. The Yith borrow bodies from
every era of Earth’s long history, past and future. The Yith is
inhabiting Dr. Turnbull, a math professor. What they don’t know is
that another group of FBI agents are trying to evoke truly dangerous
magic. Ruthanna Emrys uses Lovecraftian tropes with
subtlety. Winter Tide (hard from Tor) is a
fascinating tale that may make it to award lists.
Imagine a fighting order of
nuns. On a world covered with ice, there’s a fifty mile corridor on
the equator is most of a settlement of humanity. Mark Lawrence tells
the tale of a Red Sister (hard from ACE). Abbess Glass finds
Nona on the scaffold ready to be hung for murder. Most of the
families at Convent of Sweet Mercy have their educations paid
for by their families, but Nona has potential, far more than
expected. The tale is at it’s best when Nona’s friends
get themselves into trouble, as growing girls are opt to. All
too often the brutality of their world comes forth. This is a pulse
pounding tale. I expect sequels, that will explore more of this
strange world. This is a satisfying read.
Holly Jennings shows us a near
future in which virtual reality gaming has become bigger than movies
and other sports events. Small teams fight in virtual setting in
which full sensations are transferred to their bodies in pods,
allowing them to even feel their deaths. Kali Ling did so well her
first year as the first female team captain, that she raised to
money to buy her own team – something usually reserved to the ultra
rich. She also exposed drug abuse problems and the VGL. A Japanese
company has new pods that are safer and to promote their use, they
sponsor a major tournament . VGL wants Kali’s team destroyed and
they invite her in, only to make her team look bad. Thus Holly and
her four teammates including an ex-lover have to face a Gauntlet
(paper from Ace) of their base terrors in addition to fighting their
opponents. This is a very exciting future sports tale and difficult
to put down.
D.J. Butler starts his quest tale
in an unusual America in the third decade of the nineteenth century.
Because of the first-souled who can work magic, America is an empire
ruled by Thomas Penn who has tortured the old empress, his sister,
to discover the whereabouts of Sarah, the girl with the Witchy
Eye (hard from Baen), who is the oldest daughter of the
Empress. Chased by a magic-using Priest and company of the Blues.
Sarah and friends are helped by a wizard-monk and are chased from
Nashville to New Orleans in quest of the one man who knows where her
brother was hidden. Also chasing her are zombie Lazars, and
sometimes helping is the Heron King, a magical being with beast-men
followers. Along the way Sarah learns how to use her magic and find
the missing magical items buried with her father. I’m eagerly
waiting for the next part of this exciting tale.
Cherie Priest imagines that the
spiritualist movement of the 20's were real and the small community
in Cassadaga, Florida was haunted by a spirit filled with Brimstone
(paper from Ace) that threatens to burn out their community. Tomas
Cordero fought with flamethrower in the great war and somehow the
spirit found its way to him. Thinking it was his dead wife, he
ignores the fires around him until they burn down his house and
tailor shop. Alice Dartle is a newly come seer to the community, but
she is the one who will see the truth and find how to destroy the
evil ghost from the middle ages. Exciting
Drew Hayes has a look at the
villains side of the meta-human divide. After villains and capes had
to work together to save the world, the villains came up with a code
to protect civilians. The capes lock up truly evil villains, but the
villains guild just kills them. Tori Rivas had an accident while
trying to build a mata-suit and can turn into living fire. The Guild
sets a trap for her, forces her to join the guild or die.
Apprenticed to a retired member of the Guild she has to lead a
normal life while testing with three others to become a member. Alas
there’s an evil plot afoot with both Capes and Villains to destroy
the code and bring back the true villains. Forging Hephaestus
(ebook from Thunder Pear Publishing) is an exciting beginning to a
fun series.
Darius Brasher’s second book about
Theodore Conley, a reluctant super hero who went to the academy
after his father was murdered by a super villain. He has to face the
Trials (ebook for DABA publishing) to get his super hero
license. Unfortunately the trials are rigged this time. I literally
couldn’t put this book down staying up way too late.
Mishell Baker’s nebula nominated
tale is about the Fey in Hollywood. They act as muses for writers
and directors. Millie Roper has Borderline (hard from Saga
Press) personality disorder that led her to jumping off a five
story building. She has an artificial leg and plenty of metal, a
strange detective in a strange Hollywood mystery. She is hired by
the Arcadia Project to find a missing Actor/Fey Riverholt who is
major director Berenbaun’s muse. But there’s a dark secret in a
Studio being built and missing commoners from Fairy. I’ve already
pre-ordered the sequel.
Kylara Vatta, now Admiral of a
space fleet, comes home on Vatta business to a Cold Welcome
(hard from Del Rey). Her shuttle is sabotaged as is the suit she was
supposed to be wearing. The pilots manage to drop the passenger
compartment on a cold, wintry sea where is enough time for the
survivors to get to rafts. With communicators blocked , and the only
land labeled inhabitable, it seems that surviving the poison was
only a slight mercy. But there are secrets on that land, traitors in
her crew. Luckily her family and friends don’t believe her death.
Kylara’s adventure feels almost like a video game with dangers to
overcome. Once the villains are unmasked there is a solid battle to
survive.
Sylvain Neuvel likes to write
about giant robots using discovered text like letters and
interviews. Sleeping Giants (paper) told of the
discovery of one such robot they call Themis whose parts were buried
thousands of years ago and of the difficulty of learning to pilot
it. Waking Gods (hard from Del Rey) tells of other
large robots suddenly appearing first in London, and then when that
one is destroyed. They are quite deadly, killing thousands with
poison gas. They intend to flood the world with that gas killing
99.5% of mankind. Only the people running Themis can stop the
attack. Very exciting.
Randy Henderson third tale of
necromancer Finn Gramayare has him trying to stop his grandfather,
who has taken over his second cousin’s body, from causing a war
between the Fey Realms and Earth. The best part is when he and his
girl friend go in the Fey Realms where he Smells like Finn
Spirit. (Hard from Tor) The dark Fey want him to fight for his
life with his brother, and silver Fey just want him to prove his
innocense. Tnhere’s a sort of silliness to the mythology, especially
because the fay love to become fictional characters, but the plot is
straight pulp with Finn and his girlfriend Dawn being constantly
chased by all sorts of monsters all over the crazy parts of Seattle.
Fun.
Emma Newman has gone from dark SF
to magic in Victorian England. Mages are dangerous and hiding talent
is against the law, even though acknowledged talent is well paid.
Charlotte Gunn is the daughter of an illustrator and is starting to
sell her work under a male pseudonym, hiding her work from her
parents and fiancee. She also has magical talent. Then her father
encores debt. There’s a hint that her constantly sick brother,
Archie might be a mage, and her desperate father reports his talent
for the reward. Charlotte discovers that other people who owed money
are dying and her father may be next. So she has to use the
abilities she has been keeping secret to protect her father. To
prevent her Brother's Ruin (ebook from Tor), she has to
fake her brother’s results so he will do well. This is the start of
a series, and much of the magical secrets are not revealed.
Baen has a silly collection of new tales about Little
Green Men – Attack in trade and edited by Robin Wayne Bailey
and Bryan Thomas Schmidt.
The Nebula nominees for best novel are: All
the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan);
Borderline, Mishell Baker (Saga); The Obelisk Gate,
N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK); Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha
Lee (Solaris US; Solaris UK); and Everfair, Nisi Shawl
(Tor). I’ve only read two.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on April 7th 2017 The meeting starts at 8
p.m. at the Rotunda on the University of Pennsylvania
Campus. David Mack author of Star Trek novels, television scripts,
and comics will speak. As usual guests are welcome.
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a local Dentist and the
author of A Cycle of Gods (Wolfsinger Publications) and Unnaturally
Female (Smashwords).Check out his unified field theory at
henrylazarus.com/utf.html that suggests a simpler way to achieve
fusion generation.