Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for September 2021
by Henry L Lazarus
We’re already through three quarters of a crazy
year. Only Fantasy and Science Fiction tales have crazier ones.
In Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s world,
vampires are a separate species and there are ten types. They are
the heads of the drug cartels. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting
street kid, knows about these Certain Dark Things (paper
from Tor) but he is captivated by Atl from the moment she gets blood
from him. Atl is in the city state of Mexico City to get documents
to go south, even though vampires are illegal in the city. She is
also being hunted by the truly evil son of the head of the
clan that killed her family. This is edge-of-your-seat excitement.
Marina J. Lostetter tells the tale
of an android, Unit Four, who is decanted hurriedly when it’s mining
station above Jupiter is attacked by aliens. Because of the
radiation, its kind only live nine months so it’s born with all the
abilities it needs, and within minutes it is on a ship attacking the
aliens. Unfortunately it crashes its ship into the alien vessel and
is captured. Activation Degradation (ebook from Harper Voyager) is
an intense look at what it means to be human after Earth became
uninhabitable. Very intense and highly recommended.
Lincoln Michel has a noir tale of
a grubby future Earth ruined by greed. Smog fills the low levels of
New York and the inhabitants are modified both by machine and by
chemicals. Artifical insects can attack at any time. Baseball
has been resurrected by big Pharma to push the drugs that they use
on the players. Kobo is The Body Scout (paper from
Orbit), a onetime star of the defunct Cyber league who scouts for
future players and the scientists who might produce breakthrough
drugs. Then his adopted brother, and big league baseball star,
suddenly dies on national television. Murder? Koba starts
investigating, despite goons after him to collect on his massive
debt. Soon he runs into a girl who might be his niece and who is
being hunted by the drug companies who might have killed her father.
Dark and very violent. The tale is impossible to put down. I don’t
want to live in that future.
Tor is reprinting Alex Pheby”s
tale of the city of Mordew(hard) where its master is all
powerful, able to create marvelous buildings for the very rich,
while the poor starve in their hovels. This first third of a
Dickinson like tale about Nathan Treeves, a thirteen-year-old boy
whose parents tell him not to spark. His father is dying of bugs
growing in his lungs sending Nathan off to find medicine. He quickly
joins a small group of orphans living on the streets and helps them
steal. Alex Pheby paints a harsh world with a dead god,
talking dogs, and soldiers with gills. Ghosts fill the streets and
people who have mastery of magic are all powerful. Recomended, even
though two more parts of this tale are still to come.
M. J. Kuhn starts a fun tale of
treachery Among Thieves (ebook from Gallery / Saga Press).
The mcguffin is a magical quill that controls the adepts (kenetics
who move very quickly and use telekenesis, and sensors who can sense
danger). They obey their masters and are sold to the rich and
powerful. Owned by the powerful Guildmaster, it is on his private
island only accessible to the public once a year. The thieves
include: Ryia, a cat burgler with some of the adept abilities; Nash
a smuggling sea captain; Tristan, a con man with a dark secret;
Ivan, a master of disguise; and Evelyn, who was tossed out of the
guards when Ryia took a finger from the prince she was guarding. How
they come to work together and infiltrate the Guildmaster’s island
is thrilling and impossible-to-put-down. I can’t wait for the rest
of this pulse pounding tale.
Niko Larson was an admiral in the
Army of the Hive Mind for less than a day after brokering peace
between three major galactic powers. She had her crew have retired
and set up a restaurant on a station. The Last Chance
restaurant has been doing well enough to attract a galactic critic,
and then disaster strikes. TwiceFar station is destroyed and Nico
and friends find refuge on the bioship You Sexy Thing (hard
from Tor) headed for a prison planet because the ship thinks they
have tried to steal it. Cat Rambo tells a whimsical fun
tale, constantly putting his characters in deep trouble. The
end deliberately forces the tale into the first of a series.
Interesting.
Naomi Hughes writes of a world
drained of magic, which had its magical technology destroyed.
Monsters that originally thrived from the magic, have become
monsters. Unicorns have the only magic and their riders fight
the monsters. Jackson Harper (age 16) has refused to join a Unicorn
Patrol because of things he had done to survive before bonding with
a Unicorn. Then he runs into Moira Maldrigo, a girl who had been his
friend when he was ten, until she moved away. Then Jackson somehow
starts the broken magical machinery in a mine. Is magic coming back?
Did the unicorns come from another that still has magic? Not all the
questions are answered The Shadowed Flame (paper from the
author) in this first part of a fun series.
Nathan Foster and his teenage
nephew Ben are in The Family Business (hard from Baen) of
finding wanted collaborators after the alien invaders were driven to
Mars. Emmogene Anderson had been fourteen when the war ended and her
forced involvement had ended her in jail. The invaders had wiped her
memories and implanted her with a device she can’t control that can
be used to kill people. When the implant is discovered, she is sent
to a government lab, only to be broken out by an enhanced commando
for the aliens, Antony Kreig, who is convinced he is in love with
her. Mike Kupari tells a fun tale of Nathan and Ben, working with
obnoxious Feds, hunting them down. Emmogene attempts at escape
leave a trail of bodies as Antony’s crew head for the border. Fun,
but I dislike deus ex machina endings.
Cait Stevenson calls out all the
historically inaccurate fantasy tropes of the middle ages. How to
Slay a Dragon (hard from Tiller Press). He uses obscure, but
fun, historical examples of the years between the formation of Islam
to the fifteenth century. This is a must for would-be writers, and
readers interested in a true look at a lost world.
For about two decades Kristen
Britain has told tales of her Green Rider (paper) Karigan
G'ladheon as she works to save her kingdom. In the seventh book she
is still recovering from the torture of the previous tale, and has
to deal with the Second Empire attack on Sacoridia. In the middle of
the tale, for no apparent reason, the Elves name her Winterlight
(hard from DAW). I always get excited to read a new addition to this
fun series, because Kristen Britain gives standard fantasy tropes an
intensity that draws a reader in and traps them in its solid prose.
Highly recommended.
David Drake has a third tale of
nobel knight Pal in a world where solid ground exists in a world
where solid ground connects to voids. In The Serpent (hard
from Baen) Pal has to rescue ladies in distress, deal with bullying
nobility, and even serve as a agent for one side in a trial by
combat.
Larry Correia’s latest monster
hunting tale, Monster Hunter Bloodlines (hard from Baen) has
a magical stone macguffin that can kill big bads. It’s stolen by
Sonya, a half-shape shifter faster and stronger than your average
young woman. After her is a monster that has to be be killed
thirteen times before really dying, Catholic monster hunters
desperate to stop a big bad in South America, and Owen and the rest
of the Monster Hunter International. Pulse pounding fun for those
who like strong men with lots of fire power.
Jeff Wheeler’s third book about a
knight nicknamed Ransom who has been fountain blessed to seen his
enemies weaknesses, has finally married his love Claire, but his
home life is soon ended as events draw him back to court. Lady's
Ransom (ebook from 47North) borrows rom the tragic tale of
Richard the Lionhearted as Ransom’s king, goes off to fight
infendels . At home Ransom is one of the Lords set to look after the
Kingdom, and ends of fighting an invasion while Claire is convinced
he is having a love affair. Fun series.
Anthony Ryan sends Guyime, an
ex-king hunting for demon infested swords to the City of
Songs (hard from Subterranean Press) where one of the swords
may have killed the head of an aristocratic house. There’s also a
missing artist and truly magical paintings. Guyime and the demon in
his sword have to solve the mystery to locate the sword before it
kills them. Dark and moody.
Subterranean Press has Alastair Reynolds’ Belladonna
Nights and Other Stories (hard).
Tor has reprinted the late John M. Ford’s spy
tale of The Scholars of Night as an Ebook. John was an
exceptional writer who died much too young.
Baen has reprinted in paper: Narry Niven, Jerry
Pournelle and Steven Barnes second Heorot tale of a young colony, Beowulf’s
Children; Larry Correia's third in his fantasy series
Destroyer of Worlds; Wil McCarthy’s tale of the far future of
The Collapsium; and P. J. Butler’s tale of a valuable opera
singer in a fantasy city In the Palace of Shadow and Joy.
Tony Daniel anjd Christopher Ruocchio has a collection of World
Breakers (trade from Baen) super tanks.
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.