Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for October 2022
by Henry L Lazarus
One of the joys of reading science fiction and
fantasy is finding something truly original.
Ula Frost is a famous,
reclusive painter known for painting alternate versions of her
subjects. Pepper Rafferty had figured out since she was a teenager
that Ula was her mother. But happy with the two mothers,
Veterinarians, who raised her. She is a forensic anthropologist,
happily married. Then Ula’s agent announces Ula’s disappearance.
Somehow that sends her to Poland searching for Ula. The key,
according to Aimee Pokwatka, is the painting
Self-Portrait with Nothing (hard from Tordotcom)
located in a local post office. Things then get very strange. This
is an intensely interesting tale and I hope it finds itself on some
award listing.
After first contact with alien
civilization a few decades from now, three humans have found
themselves on Station Eternity (paper from ACE), a growing,
living creature. Adrian, Earth’s Ambasssador; Xan Morgan, a soldier
literally abducted by aliens made of stone, and Mallory who had
sought sanctuary on the station for an unusual problem. Mallory
constantly found herself at murder scenes which she then solved.
Even though she earned a living writing novels based on these cases,
she thought of heerself as causing the murders by being present.
Now, unfortunately, a shuttle full of people was heading towards the
station, and she knew there would be a murder. Unfortunaely the
murder causes the station to attack the shuttle, t killing all but a
dozen passengers, all of whom have some relation to Mallory or Xan.
Somehow she has to solve an impossible murder involving a hive mind
of wasps, the stony Geniss who mature into spaceships, and other
aliens before the station tears itself apart. Wow! I hope this finds
some awards.
Ray Nayler tells a near future
tale of first contact with Octupi. Dr. Ha Nguye who wrote a
speculative book about such a possibility has to work with Evrim,
the only android ever created and legally the only one that can ever
exist. This is a world of AI computers. Heavy fishing, by
intelligent boats staffed with slaves, have changed the oceans
enough to create conditions for the octopi to reach higher
intelligence levels. DIANIMA has bought Con Dao Archipelago
Archipelago, The Mountain in the Sea (hard from MCD),
to protect them, leaving Ha and Evrim the space for communication.
However they know they will be killed if they try to leave.
Fascinating.
A thousand years before the
Ministers conquered part of the human realm, a huge human ship was
built to discover the secret of Immortality. Abandoned and orbiting
a star soon to explode, it has been rediscovered and needs The
Immortality Thief (hard from Rebellion Publishing Ltd).
Sean Wren, a man with a gift for languages, has a bomb placed in his
head and forced to the ship to find the missing data about the
imnmortality process. Taran Hunt tells an exciting tale, filling the
ship with monsters. Sean’s group is vying a group of Ministers and
soldiers from the Republic. There are twists, enemies have to
workJames J. Butcher together, nd the pulse pounding action never
lets up. Fun.
The mcguffin of James J. Butcher’s
fun tale of a world, where witches policed by an Auditor of
the Department of Unorthodox Affairs, and monsters are quite
real, is a Dead Man's Hand (hard from Ace). Grimshaw
Griswald Grimsby flunked out of the Auditor program and earns a
minimum wage by doing magic at at Chucky Cheese type restaurant.
Then the witch who flunked him, Mansgraf, is murdered and scratched
by her body is the words “kill Grimsby”. Mayflower, a huge man and
Mansgraf’s partner before he retired visits Grimsby at wotk before
the Auditors do. Somehow, instead of killing our hero, the two start
working together to find the murderer and the missing hand. Grimsby,
of course, has to get over his fears and find the hero within, while
facing both magical and witch monsters. This is a lot of fun and an
interesting magical world, especially Wudge. I look forward to
Grimsby and Mayflower’s next case.
Colin Alexander has another tale
of Leif the Lucky, who fought in the time of troubles in our near
future, and returned from an expedition to the stars in Starman's
Saga (paper) and discovered he didn’t fit. His second trip
takes him to the planet Heaven, which is hot as hell, to deliver
colonists and supplies to the colony left by the last ship.
Unfortunately, picking colonists from a group people who
desperately need to leave Earth, doesn’t provide the best candidates
for colonizing a new world. As a result there’s Murder Under
Another Sun (paper from Alton Kremer). Leif has to turn
private eye to solve the murder. Unfortunately the main suspect is
the only one with ideas that can allow the colony to survive. I
really like the idea of a colony not composed of the best and the
brightest. Highly recommended.
Laura Anne Gilman tells of
siblings Rosemary and Aaron Harker who hunt monsters in
1913. The suspicious death of a distant relative in a small
town in upper New York state, to discover a trail of murders Uncanny
Times (paper from Gallery / Saga Press) is the first of a
series. It takes all of Rosemary and Aaron’s skill and that of their
hellhound’s to confront the monster who is very different from
what they expected.
Luanne G. Smith continues her tale
of Edwina Blackwood, a witch in Victorian England who has a rare
poweer of turning into a Raven. In The Raven Spell (paper),
she and her sister Mary earned a living finding pretty objects on
the beach that they cleaned up and sold in their shop.Mary had a
habit of stealing memories from people she found dying.
Unfortunately detective Ian Cameron suervives and the process of
discovering the would-be murdeerer leads to Mary’s death. The
Raven Song (paper from 47North) starts magical arson of her
shop, forcing her and Ian to flee to the North of England and the
home of Sir Henry Elvanfoot, a famous wizard. It;s midsummer and the
Fae are making their annual visit to Earth and a human with the help
of a demon will stop at nothing to use her transfornmation ability
to let him turn himself into a wizard. Nothing is as it seems is
this fun victorian and magical tale.
Andrzej Sapkowski concludes his
historical adventure that at times reminded me of the Three
Musketeers. It takes place during the horrors of the Hussite wars in
Czechoslovakia between 1419 and 1434. Light Perpetual (hard
from Orbit) concludes Reynevan’s adventures as he finds his
lover and then loses her again against the backdrop of major
battles. Constantly Reynevan finds himself in peril and somehow gets
rescued. Magic is constantly in the background, both from monsters
that haunt the countryside, to the magical cures sometimes uses on
his patients. The constant references of, what was to me was a very
obscure war against the very corrupt Church of the time, made my
eyes glaze over. When the tale works, it’s very good. I skimmed the
rest.
Glynn Stewart’s fifth tale of
Henry Wong and Sylvia Todorovich, Commodore and Ambassador
respectively, starts with the Remnant Faction (ebook
from Faolan's Pen Publishing) of the insectoid Kenmiri. Most
of the Kenmiri acccept that with their Queen’s deaths they are a
dying species. Some want revenge, and Henry Wong’s ship has to stand
by helplessly when they destroy an inhabited planet. Most of the
tale is about his small fleet surviving a trek to meet up with a
hastily assembled armada for a final battle. Glynn Stewart is one of
the best military sf writer today, and this is a solid addition to
his huge collection.
Dan Koboldt continues his tale of the
Build-A-Dragon company and Genetic engineer Noah Parker who has been
rehired as Director of Design. Because of the fiasco of the events
of the first tale, the company is working on a military contract.
They are considering Deploying Dragons (hard from Baen).
Unfortunately Build-A-Dragon has a competitor and there is a
competition. He also gets to meet Summer’s father. Nothing unusual
happens, but it’s a fun readable series.
Subterranean Press has a collection by Jack
McDevitt Return to Glory(hard) .
Baen has reprinted Larry Correia and Kacey
Ezell’s collection of tales about No Game for Knights
for Kindle, and Christopher Ruocchio’s collection of Sword
& Planet tales
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady
Martine ( hard from Tor) won the 2022 Hugo Award.
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.