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Science Fiction for June 2025

by Henry L Lazarus

I have a soft spot for superhero tales mainly because I found comic books before I moved to Fantasy and Science Fiction

John Ringo tells of an alternate Earth where for a generation a very few people have gotten superpowers under stress, about three hundred in modern day America. Most are average teenagers raised in good families. Michael is Not that Kind of Good Guy (hard from Baen). At thirteen he was raised on the streets, becoming an enforcer for a Baltimore gang with twenty-five kills. He is also a genius who is part of a hacker group dedicated to rescuing children from slavery around the world. Despite not having formal schooling, he has audited free College classes and actually had three papers published. His current problem is the MS-13 head wants him dead because he killed a nephew. So when he is put in the Junior Super Corp, they don’t know what to do with him, Especially since the newspaper labels him a white supremacist  despite living in a black neighborhood with black friends. I really enjoyed this start to what promises to be a fun series.
 Adrian Tchaikovsky’s tale of two scientists trapped in a walking pod on the  inhospitable moon of Shroud(hard from Orbit) reminded me of Hal Clement’s classic tale of an astronaut sent to retrieve a missing probe and helped by aliens. Juna Ceelander and Mai Ste Etienne crash on the high-gravity, high-pressure, zero-oxygen  surface after their station was  accidentally hit by an ore load. The mining company is strip mining the system, and its employees can be put into hibernation for any reason. To survive the pod has to go from one pole to the space elevator on the opposite side of the moon. They have minimal contact with the intelligent life of the moon  and it helps them out of curiosity. This dark tale should be considered for awards, but I wouldn’t want to live in its future.
A new Guy Gavriel Kay tale is always a cause for rejoicing. All of his tales take place on an alternate version of Earth with a small dab of magic,  Written on the Dark (hard from Ace) borrows from the life of the poet François Villon and starts with the murder of the King of Orane’s brother who was acting regent since the King had gone mad. Thierry Villar is roped into the investigation because he is a tavern poet and has contacts. That brings him to the attention of the Duke responsible for the attack on public streets. The tale adds an English invasion, and Joan of Arc. Eventually it leads to Thierry writing his best work and settling down. This will probably be nominated for awards. 

What happens when the hell demon is vanquished? Katrien was drafted into the horrible war, as a spear carrier in a losing battle. Then the impossible happens, a prince with a hundred magical tokens defeats the demon. The prince offers to let all soldiers out of their contract after a road is built back to the capital. This is actually a ruse, because three minor demons are still at large.  Emily Skrutskie tells how Kat and her part-time lover Emory and the rest of their company are assigned to protect the Prince. This is A Legionnaire's Guide to Love and Peace(paper from Del Rey) when the stress of war is over. The tale has a wonderful ending that left a tear in my eye. 

Glynn Stewart has a new series set in a future in which the Santiago Corporation has a monopoly in hyperspace travel. Captain Cirilo Webster has risen in Santiago ranks and has been assigned as captain to an older ship the Santa Mica. Seekers in the Void (ebook from ‎ Faolan's Pen Publishing Inc.) tells what happens when the ship is hired by a xeno-archeology expedition, investigating an alien base abandoned only several centuries ago. The best part is about one of the fighting cyborgs who has somehow obtained human intelligence and has to understand that it is now a person. Great, though mostly quiet beginning to a new series. 

In a world where dragon’s eggs can bring magic, Brynla Aihr, who with her teleporting dog, is very good at finding the eggs on the midlands. To aid his own house, Lord Andor kidnaps her, especially to find a rare dragon egg that can confer immortality. The egg is hidden in a dragon worshipping convent that Brynia had escaped as a child. Of course it’s a love story.Karina Halle’s Realm of Thieves( paper from Ace) is the beginning of a series, but is complete in itself.  I enjoyed it. 

Alex Delmore just graduated high school and needs to earn money for college. She is hired by a free Genie who has decided to sell wishes at the local dilapidated mall. The Genie has been trapped in a magical ring for centuries, and doesn’t realize what would happen If Wishes Were Retail (paper from Tachyon Publications). Alex’s father’s  grounds-keeping business has been losing business to gnomes, and her parents are constantly fighting. Luckily Alex has a steady head, and can somehow surmount the crazy problems the genie causes. This is a perfectly wacky tale, and very enjoyable. 

Frank Phantom is out on parole after serving six years of a ten year sentence. The man who betrayed him, Bishop has done very well with the magical token they stole, before betraying Frank, and somehow is running for Mayor of New York. Marcus Fell tells a fun heist tale set in a world with magic. It will take a Five Phantom Discount(paper from Sterling & Stone) for Frank and his crew to break into a heavily guarded mansion and somehow unlock a safe that is impossible to open. It doesn’t help that the Feds are on their tail. Lots of fun and sequels are promised.   

Aelys of Brionne is weak in magic though she dreams of joining the Imperial Battlemage Corps by bonding to the warrior she loves. He, however, picks her best friend, and she flees the school only to be attacked by bandits. She is rescued by three friends who had come together after twenty years; a soldier, a forester, and a thief. Somehow she bonds to all three commoners and is able to draw magic from them to face monsters and bandits as she makes her way home. At home, her mother and Aunt want her protectors dead, and her magic burned out. Kacey Ezell’s Magelight (hard from Baen) is a fun start to a series. 

Once there were trained seekers of truth with Sherlock Holms ability of observation and also the ability to enter the magical realms and fight demons.Sargent Holt Hawley who has been linked to a massacre,  is sent to follow rumors of The Last Vigilant (paper from Orbit). Unfortunately he does not know his men are sworn to murder him when the quest is complete. That’s why he is the one who escorts Enelda Drake to the local castle where a young boy, a hostage to peace, disappeared one evening. Another boy’s body has been found, and Enelda with the help of Holt must determine who had kidnapped the first boy, and why a dozen ten-year-old children have been disappearing every year  for the last decade. The answers are deep, dark, and cultish. Corruption is rampant. Even Though the solution to the mystery depends on understanding the magic, the tale is difficult to put down. Sequels are promised.   

Jarom Strong tells the tale of an ex-supersoldier who had drifted into salvage, until his wife and crew were killed by death robots called rippers. He survived but ended up in jail because he was salvaging without a licence. Then an old friend breaks him out for the ultimate salvage job, a lost battleship holding a deep secret that could aid a rebellion against Paragon, the group that conquered the galaxy with vanguard soldiers like him. There are people willing to kill his crew and the ship might have the same sort of deadly rippers that killed his wife, In addition his mercenary  crew and the rebel crew helping them have a basic conflict of interest. Vanguard Strike (ebook fromSecond Sky) is a fun tale set in an interesting future. Sequels are promised. 

Magic is created by drinking Mana, cutting hands, and speaking spells. In the human world it is controlled by the Quinarium who test the youth. Those who survive and show an ability are sent to one of five schools. After that they are given a quest, working with another student, to become a full mage. Brendan Corbett tells the tale of two girls from the houses of Blood and Flame (paper) who are given the task of saving a small village from monsters out of a haunted forest. Along the way they meet an elf mage Ami and discover much of what they had been taught was wrong. This young adult tale was hard -to-put down and quite enjoyable despite a simplified background. Recommended. 

Nadia Afifi’s A Rebel's History of Mars (hard from ‎ Flame Tree Press) is set in two time periods. Kezza is an acrobat living in a crowded mining colony on Mars on the edge of rebellion. She is infected with a virus that makes people more powerful before killing them. Azad lives a thousand years later in a utopian planet where the colonists fled when they left Mars. Chasing his missing twin sister, he joins a ship of smuggling historians who have invented a device that lets them see into the past. Unfortunately his sister has been infected by the same virus discovered by miners. The puzzle of what happened during the rebellion on Mars and how Kezza died is slowly unfurled in a fascinating tale. 

Kate Elliott, one of my favorite authors, has the first half of a tale set in a world beset with the remains of a sorcery war, with spore that can turn animals, and people into monsters, and the flowing deadly pall. Only The Witch Roads( Hard from Tor) provides some safety. Ancient spires might contain ghosts. The road north of Orledder Halt has been blocked by an avalanche that killed Elen’s sister.  Elen is a courier for the hamlet and because she knows the only route around the avalanche, she has to guide a misinformed Prince with urgent business north. Unfortunately he insists on visiting a haunted spire, gets himself possessed by an ancient spirit also with business north. The party has to be small because of the narrow roads, but that means that enemies of the Prince will attack the party. Elen is infested with a magical snake that kills the spore, I really enjoyed this first half which ends with Elen in deep trouble and am waiting early for the second half in November. 

Jeff Wheeler imagines what might have happened if Eve had driven Adam out of Eden. Eve is Queen Mother(paper from Oliver-Heber Books) to a group of angel sworn guards of Clairvaux who are made immortal by the fruit of the Gallows Tree. Most enter as foundlings like Cimree who is training to be a healer. It is a paradise where grafting rods allow humans to absorb talents from animals and thus fly like birds or climb like goats. Then monsters come, killing the angel sworn. For reasons she doesn’t understand, Cimree is caught up in the fight and must work with one of the original angels, kept in a dungeon, to protect her world. This is unfinished and I eagerly await the next installment. 

Malka Older has a third Mossa and Pleiti adventure set in a future where refugees have settled on platforms floating on Jupiter. The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses (hard from Tor) involves the cousin of one of  Pleiti’s friends. She is an up-and coming researcher promoted early to Don, in a city weeks away by rail. Someone will do anything to destroy her, including false accusations of cheating, and when that doesn’t work, violence.  Pleiti starts this on his own, but Moosa eventually joins him saving his life a couple of times. This is a minor episode in a great series. 

David Dalglish continues his tale about a survey ship that finds an artifact in a once-inhabited world. The relic sends Nick’s mind into a digital, perfectly realized world, where he is called demon because he returns after being killed. In Level: Ascension(ebook from Orbit) Nick and his friends rescue the former king, Batal the beast, who is practically unkillable. They need him in their quest to kill the god-king Vaan and restore time to this imaginary world. Meanwhile in his rare visits to his real world, something is learned about the huge disk floating above the abandoned world. Fun.  

Thomas the Rhymer has survived four centuries fighting the Elf Queen when he saves Queen Elizabeth. Gregory Frost has him use his talents to discover a link between  supporters of Mary Queen of Scots who are plotting rebellion. Rhymer: Hel (hard from Baen) doesn’t feel like the end of a trilogy, though brief action at the end against the Elf Queen might have proven successful. The taste of the Elizabethen era is the best quality of this fun tale. 

William Stacey knows what happens when an army of trolls are hit by machine gun fire. A thousand years ago, the fae were exiled to another world. Unfortunately the Canadian and American armies have found a way to breach the barrier and that opens the way for the Fae to send a scouting party to Earth. Magic comes back to Earth, awakening magical abilities in a few people. Cassie, a college dropout, has returned to her small town in British Columbia. She and two others have to discover how to use their new powers and then assist an expedition into the other world to rescue a captured officer. Starlight (paper from Bastard Sword Press) is an exciting beginning to a trilogy. I’ve already enjoyed the sequel. 

Tordotcom has reprinted both of The Emilie Adventures  in paper which take place in a victorian age where sailboats can move between planets. I really enjoyed both of them and would love more. 

Baen has reprinted in paper  David Weber’s  fun Honorverse tale Toll of Honor and Sharon Lee  and Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe tale Ribbon Dance.

There are more reviews at http://www.henrylazarus.com/sf.htm