Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for July 2020
by Henry L Lazarus
Adventures are at the heart of Fantasy and
Science Fiction. Strange worlds need to be explored.
Kate Elliott tells a pulse
pounding tale of Unconquerable Sun (hard from Tor). Princess
Sun, the heir to Queen-marshal Eirene of the Republic of Chaonia has
a number of problems. Firstly she’s been side-lined to keep her
mother’s remarriage from her, and the Lee house hopes for a
different heir from the marriage. Then there’s the assassination
attempts on her and her companions. Finally there’s the secret
attack on Chaonia’s naval bases by the Phene Empire. Both star
empires are long separated from the rest of humanity. The Phene
elite are four-armed and run by Riders who are connected
telepathically to eachother. Persephone Lee had run from her family
to join the military academy for commoners. By the death of her twin
brother, Companion to Sun, forced the family to use her has his
replacement and putting her in the heart of the action. The
background is very rich with complex detail that begs for more
information. The tale has a nice ending point for this first
of a trilogy, but I can’t wait for the rest. Excellent.
Django Wexler introduces a strange
world ruined by a magical technology war between the Chosen and the
Ghouls, both of which are thought lost in the four centuries since
the war. This is a world built on the Ashes of the Sun
(paper from Orbit) where scavengers illegally sell half working
devices, where cities are built on the ruins of the war, and where
plaguespawn that absorb living things into their bodies are a
constant threat. Gyre, who lost his eye trying to save his sister
from the Twilight order is a thief stealing relics from the duq of
Deepfire, a city of tunnels heated by a fire set by the weapon that
destroyed the Ghouls who had been living there. His sister Maya has
become one of the magical warriors of the order. The two come
together because of a secret at the heart of the city and an ancient
weapon that could reshape their world. This tale of Burningblade
& Silvereye is an exciting introduction to the world and
characters. While complete in itself, it calls for sequels.
KayLynn Flanders has a fun
princess-in-trouble tale that has charming characters to balance a
generic plot. Princess Jennesara has hidden her magic that only the
King and her brother the Prince should have. The kingdom of Hálendi
is being attacked and Jenna is betrothed to the Prince of Turia, and
she is bundled off with maid and protective soldiers through the
magically wild lands. That’s where the expedition is attacked by an
ancient Gray mage, her maid is murdered pretending to be the
princess and Jenna barely escapes. Hopefully she can learn to
be Shielded (hard from Delacorte Press)
and use her magic and the magical sword and ring her father
gave her, while finding information in the library in the kings
court in Turia about a hoard of magic buried somewhere.
Pretending to be sole surviving guard from the Princess’s
expedition, She ends up protecting the princesses of Turia while
fighting magical creatures. There’s also a touch of romance. Lots of
charming fun with sequels promised.
Ryan Van Loan’s tale of The Sin
in the Steel (hard from TOR) reads as an old movie serial
where Buc (sambuciña), a brilliant girl who grew up parentless in
the slums and remembers every book she ever read; and Eld (Eldrich
Nelson Rawlings), ex-army officer who has found someone to follow,
start by being almost hanged for murder. Every few chapters after
that they are on the verge of being murdered, whether by sin-eater
priest turned into a bull, a pirate queen making them walk the
plank, or eaten by a necromancer pirate whose crew are all zombies.
They have been hired by Kanados Company to discover why the sugar
ships haven’t gotten through, leaving the company on the verge of
bankruptcy. The trail leads to an ancient artifact belonging to one
of the dead gods. This is a fun world with magic coming from the
bodies of dead gods who fell to earth after killing other worlds. I
hope that Buc and Eld will be back for another adventure,.
Veronica Roth tells of two
alternated Earths recently awoken to magic. A decade ago in the
first, The dark one’s drains destroyed cities until five teenage
Chosen Ones (hard from John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt) managed to defeat him. Now they’re all celebrities and
hate, particularly Sloan who dumped the magical needle that gave her
powers in the Chicago river. When Sloan throws the ashes, of one of
them who died, she and two others are pulled to the second world to
fight the resurectionist whose followers are all dead. The second
world’s champion was defeated, and they need new champions. This is
a world where magic is more common. Sloan keeps finding reasons to
distrust the leaders of this world, but they are far worse than she
expected. This is a fun alternate Earth tale.
On the world of Heaven, last
refuge of humanity after the last fall, one of the gods may be
plotting in the Quantum Shadows (hard from Tor). Corvyn has
been around since before that fall and will do anything to prevent
another fall. When a trident is marked on the walls of his house, he
takes his electrobike and goes from the territory of one god to
another, trying to find out who left trident images on all the
temples of the believers. Corvyn takes his time, enjoying
delicious meals in every city, leading to a tale that takes its time
to get moving. L. E. Modesitt, Jr. is attempting to make a
depressing point about humanity. The result is interesting, but not
for everyone.
Jason Offutt tells an odd tale of
Brick, who sells muffins and loves dungeons and dragons; Skid Roe,
who grew up in a circus and now works as a guard at concerts; Cord,
who has turned a house where a man went mad and killed his family
into a murder house with fake haunted house effects; and Dave
Collison, who lived in that murder house before the murders and now
is a physicist working in a secret government lab. Dave’s boss is a
mad scientist, and when he turns the machine on one night, it sends
Dave bouncing between places from his past and alternate
worlds. Dave had been trying to pick up Skid at the time the
machine went on. Brick had been close enough to be effected. Soon
Dave and Skid are in an increasingly changing world that eventually
includes both Zombies and Klingons. So You Had to Build a Time
Machine (hard from CamCat Publishing) is a fun romp through
the implausible and great fun.
Catherine Asaro returns to the
dying planet Raylicon where the city of Cries sits next to The
Banished Seas (hard from Baen) This time Major Bhaajan, a P.I.
who grew up in the undercity, and served in the Skolian Army, has to
find two missing people including one who vanished from a party she
was being honored at. Along the way Bhaajan is almost murdered and
discovers a plot that may involve her sponsors, the power Majda
family. The problem is also related to the ancient starships
that brought humans to Raylicon six thousand years ago. Great
series.
Raymond E. Feist continues his
epic tale about the lost King of Ashes (hard which I had to
buy), the only survivor of the royal family of Ithrace whose
existence as a new born was hidden when treachery destroyed the
kingdom and all the known members of the family executed. The
problem is that the family had magical power, leaving many groups
hunting for the baby. Hatu, raised and trained by assassins
and his best friend hiding as his wife, Hava end up in Beran’s
Hill at the end of the first tale where they become innkeepers. Then
the whole area is invaded by an unknown army. Beran’s Hill is
destroyed. Hatu is kidnapped by one group and sent far across the
seas to a land hidden by perpetual fogs called the Queen of
Storms (hard from Harper Voyager). Hava soon
follows, is captured by slavers, and put on a ship heading the
same way. The sword smith Declan has lost his new wife and
joined a mercenary troop looking for vengence. I’m eagerly waiting
for the next part of the tale.
Lois McMaster Bujold’s eighth
Penric tale finds the sorcerer captured by pirates, which proves to
be very bad for the priates. He also runs into two young sisters, The
Orphans of Raspay (hard from Subterranean Press) whose mother
had died and were traveling to find their father. The first six
Penric tales have been reprinted by Baen books and are lots of fun.
Baen has reprinted in paper the last Kencyrath
tale by P. C. Hodgell By Demons Possessed, Wm. Mark Simmons
fun tale of A Witch in Time, and David Weber and Jacob
Holo’s time travel tale The Gordonian Protocol.
Locust magazine has posted the top sf and fantasy
novels this year at locustmag.com. Winners will be announced June
27th.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on July 24th. This is the annual Hugo Review Panel for
the 2020 Hugo awards. Unless canceled, the meeting starts
at 8 p.m. at the Rotunda on the University of
Pennsylvania Campus. As usual guests are welcome.
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a retired 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 fusion generation requires
less energy because only one frequency is needed rather than a full
spectrum. It also explains dark matter, the proliferation of
subatomic particles, and the limit of light speed for matter.