Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for October 2021
by Henry L Lazarus
I write these Fantasy and Science Fiction reviews
a month ahead of time. The world has been changing so fast that
sometimes that things are really different by the time these books
hit the stores.
Gregory Benford has a potentially
award winning tale of first contact a few centuries from now.
Rachael Cohen becomes a trainee at the SETI library on the Moon.
Signals from other civilizations were very plentiful, some of them
AI beings that could be downloaded into computers and interrogated.
Rachael proves very good at communicating with these Shadows of
Eternity (hard from Gallery Books, Gallery / Saga Press),
finding a way to save the solar system from heavy radiation from an
ancient supernova. That brings a small ship of a flying species, the
Ythri, through a worm hole that the Ythrians somehow have managed to
lose. Their leader Fraq, quickly involves Rachael in a series of
escapades out of her comfort level, including diving from orbit to
Earth, and communicating with the Marsmat, intelligent vegetation
deep in cavern under Mars. This is a wow of a tale that gets more
exciting with each page. Highly recommended.
K. Eason tells a blow-away tale of
high-tech magic in the far future. A generation before, during a
major battle, one side opened a hole in the multiverse letting out
brood monsters attacking planets for many light-years around the
fault. The templars were formed to fight the Brood and stand Nightwatch
on the Hinterlands (hard from DAW). The tale starts with
a zombie cyborg leftover from the war, a Riev. Even though
programmed against violence, this one has murdered an artificer.
Enter Templar Lieutenant Iari who likes to work with her counterpart
Gaer, an ambassador from the Vakari ( the beings who had
created the warp in space) and probably a spy. There’s another
artificer creating portals to the Bloom and subverting Riev
programming. This is an edge-of-your-seat exciting tale set in a
very unusual universe. I hope it finds its way to awards.
J.S. Kelley has a fun adventure
for Rosalind Featherstone, known as the Gutter Mage
(hard from Gallery / Saga Press) because she doesn’t belong to any
mage Guild. She had to drop out of the Mage college after her
professor took advantage of her, not for xex, but for ritual that
left her hands tattooed and gave her the ability to summon fire.
Magic works by trapping spirits and has a nineteenth century
technology level based on it. Roz and her partner handle problems
for people, sometimes for barter. When a rich noble wants them to
rescue his kidnaped baby, they jump at the chance. Unfortunately
there is no baby, only a device to disrupt the spirits that make
elevators work. Roz, faced with deceit and treachery, has to somehow
save her kingdom. I read this with a smile on my face and hope for
more adventures to come.
Alastair Reynolds returns to
universe in which humanity is almost wiped out by alien devices
designed to destroy civilizations. Miguel de Ruyter heads a small
settlement hiding from these wolves, when a starship owned by a
woman named glass kidnaps him. Apparently he has erased centuries of
memories, and he is one of the keys to stopping the Inhibitor
Phase (paper from Orbit). Special stones were supposed to be
collected by Glass’s allies, but they were stolen. Stealing them
back, while avoiding the wolves in the system, is especially
difficult. In fact, everything in this quest tale is especially
difficult. Interesting characters keep this edge-of-your-seat
exciting tale from turning cartoonish. I had no trouble reading this
without remembering previous books in the series.
Leda Foley decides to create a
travel agency in this internet age. Then she directs one of her
clients, police detective Grady Merritt, away from a plane crash
because of her rarely used psychic talent. He decides to pull her
into a dead murder case that’s been sitting for a year. Grave
Reservations (hard from Atria Books) is Cherie Priest’s
venture into light mystery and I easily see it as a CW series. Lot’s
of fun.
Alix E. Harrow has a tale of a
mult-universe of Sleeping Beauties. A Spindle Splintered
(ebook from Tordotcom) starts with Zinnia Gray who is dying of an
industrial accident caused disease.. She is so fascinated with the
sleeping beauty mythos, that she got a PHD in literature studying
all the variations. Because of that her best friend got a spinning
wheel to prick her finger on her twenty-first birthday. That sends
her into a fantasy version of the tale (somehow her cell phone still
works and connects her to her friend) where she helps that sleeping
beauty confront the witch who cursed her. Properly funny and lots of
fun.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
introduces us to an empathic world where abilities range from
powerful empath to mistreated suggestibles. Steffan Dekkard is an Isolate
(hard from TOR) unaffected by empaths. He works security for
councilor Axel Obreduur who heads the Craft party. The other parties
have become corrupt. The councilor has started training him for
greater duties and he is falling from his security partner empath
Avraal Ysella. This is a time of unrest as political rivals use
assassination as a tool, and his knife skills and protection
from empathic attacks, allow him to save his employer. I find
L. E. Modesitt, Jr. always fascinating but other readers might
find this tale a bit dry. This is not his typical tale of magical
power. More of the tale is coming next August and I personally can’t
wait.
Derek Künsken continues his far
future tale in which ancient star gates link solar systems, and some
of humanity has been genetically modified. Belisarius finds himself
in the middle of The Quantum War (paper from Rebellion
Publishing Ltd). 145 Homo quantus were thought lost when their world
was destroyed. Unfortunately the Congregate and locked them in a
floating jail on their home planet of Venus. Despite being
pacifists, they are being modified to hook their brains to
computers to pilot fighter space ships. The only way
Belisarius can think to rescue them, is to let himself be captured
and tortured. Very exciting, and I look forward to more.
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.