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Science Fiction for March 2026
by Henry L Lazarus
For about seventy years I’ve been enjoying Fantasy and Science Fiction. My tastes are a bit old fashioned, but frequently what I like is popular.
Award winning author Richard K. Morgan has his first new tale in a few years. World War I ended with the sudden restoration of magical forests all over the world, populated by the Fey who love to steal children and leave changelings behind. War veteran Duncan Silver makes a living going into the Forest from No Man's Land (Hard from Del Rey) using iron and his small magical abilities. He’s helped by some witches and a few friends from the war. Then he rescues a politically important little girl who represented a payment to the Fey from corrupt politicians. With the police and the bureaucracy after him, along with a Fey leader, he has to somehow not only survive but rescue the girl and her mother. Very dark, bloody, and impossible to put down. I expect to be on some award lists.
For two centuries Vera Van Valkenburgh has been unable to die. Then she decides to return to the small village in the Catskills where she, her brother Eli and her mother first discovered their immortality, hoping to find The Fountain (hard from Harper) of Youth and reverse her condition. Then her brother and his girl friend Lydia, also immortal from the same village, arrive. They are working for a billionaire hoping they can duplicate the effect. Ver has a job as a ranger and has been making friends with the locals and with the other rangers. Casey Scieszka tells a quiet tale about dealing with being forever young and impossible not only to die, but to deal with losing friends who age normally. Recommended.
Ilona Andrews shows remarkable growth in her tale of Maggie the unkillable. Maggie started reading fantasy with a two book trilogy set in Kair Toren and kept coming back to the tale even though it was unfinished. Then, even though she hates portal tales, she wakes up naked in this world, and soon discovers that when killed, she returns to life. Using her knowledge from the books she decides to somehow stop a major event that will destroy the city. Soon, while vowing “This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me (hard from TOR)” She makes friends, enemies and deals with a serial killer and other amoral powerful people. This has the promise of being a major series. I hope even this beginning will find awards.
A.C. Bishkey has an exciting tale of flying pirate ships, and magic from two types of crystals. Halcyon Days: The Colossus (hard from CALM Studios, Ltd) pits the Halcyon Days crew against the Azure Colossus the size of a mountain that has been raised by the evil prince Lucan to conquer the Iverian League. By the time the Halcyon Days reaches the monstrous contraption it has already destroyed cities and is within hours of reaching the capital city. All the crew are special and the ship designed to hide will be enough to actually approach the monster. This is impossible-to-put-down and an action adventure complete in itself. More adventures are planned.
Aliette de Bodard imagines Paris in a world where fallen angels provide magic and the dust from their bones are very addicting. The House of Shattered Wings (hard from JAB Books) had been run by the fallen angel Morningstar until he left. Then Philippe, an immortal from the Far East who has his own magic, is caught stealing the fingers from a newly fallen angel, Isobelle. Head of the house Selene takes him to the house where, in nosing around, he somehow lets out a spirit that wants to destroy the house. Five houses control Paris, and they would all benefit from the loss of the one house, complicating things for Selene. The tale is original and intense. Recommended.
Mary Anning, based on a real 19th century palaeontologist, discovers a living pterodactyl egg when uncovering a fossilized skeleton and it hatches. This a world where most have some limited magic, and the poor can sell their magic, and a world where women can’t belong to the Geomagical Society of London. Jennifer Mandula’s tale of The Geomagician (hard from Del Rey) revels in the politics and the social justice riots that catch the flavor of the time when England ruled the world. The baby pterodactyl steals the tale. Fun.
Elizabeth Everett has a light fun tale about a magical hotel that usually moves between parallel Earths, but gets grounded here.The solution is to reset the hotel by renting a room to a local. Some of the inhabitants want her sacrificed, but the manager Pax Nomen prevails. Josie LaChusia is a widow with a young daughter, and grandparents who are trying to intervene in the rearing of their son’s child. Magic and Mischief at the Wayside Hotel (paper from Ace) is a silly, and fun look at magical beings trying to cope with our unmagical world, and Josie learning to live with them. I had a smile on my face the whole book.
Michael Mersault imagines auto racing in catacombs of an alien space station with muscle cars from our time. Centuries from now Bethune is a minor planet that discovered alien artifacts during its early settlement period. Sherif Makoum, of a very wealthy family, finds the space station and instead of exploring it for technology decides to use the fascination of the extremely wealthy for ancient cars, to set up for betting on the drivers killing each other. Warren Springer Stowe had come to Bethune to steal an antique motorcycle from their museum. Cherry Aisha, a supersoldier from the last war, decides to help him. The two somehow become involved with the racing and profit with The Redline Heist(hard from Baen). Very exciting and a fun tale of an impossible con. Sequels would be fun.
J.N. Chaney and Nicholas Sansbury Smith start a fun future tale of two retired gunnery sergeants who are reinstated to face the hollow; strange aliens who can float through matter. These two Old Guns (paper from Podium Publishing) have to help train a team to face the aliens. Unfortunately Frank Cage and Martin Kelvin find out more than they should, including corruption in the high command and an ancient alien civilization known for killing all other intelligent species. Can humanity survive these aliens? Find out in the second book.
Synjyn Rourke is the Devil You Know (ebook from Dark Shadowy Cabal). He is a pirate convicted of destroying a habitat ring and sentenced to a labor colony. The ship carrying him is attacked because he has value, but he manages to escape, somehow taking on the persona of a Consolidation Captain. But circumstances and help push him to a new place in life. Arthur Mayer tells a fun, exciting space adventure with more promised to come.
Garrett W. Vance tells a fun tale of two adventurers where the Time Spike had merged time periods. Gonzalo Xoan de Alcantara had come to America with De Soto’s army and deserted it. He meets Nate Tucker from when Texas was a country. Together the two battle a dinosaur, encounter a pre-mound Indian city, and, with allies, travel to a mesa filled with large mammals. Time Spike: The Mysterious Mesa(paper from Baen) is a fun adventure set against varied epochs mixed together.
Ace is reprinting the first book of Tao Wong’s tale of an ancient China where magic comes from cultivating Chi. While the technique is taught in school, most never go beyond the basics. Long Wu Ying comes from a farming family that once had developed a sword fighting style. Wu Ying is conscripted and shows promise and somehow is asked to join the Verdant Green Waters sect that helps its monks become very powerful. Thus Wu Ying starts The First Step(hard) in his journey at a monastery that prefers its noble members over the peasantry. The rest of the series is available at Amazon and I liked this first tale enough to buy book 2.
There is a theory that we live in an alternate reality. Sarit Zadok takes that a bit further in which multiple quantum simulations were created that affect reality. On a colony on Proxima Centuri Vega where Korektor soldiers of the Order are tasked with finding The Correction (ebook) to these manifolds. One manifold problem is due to magical coins from the third century. Michael La has been born into this manifold twenty seven times as a deaf-mute, only to fail. Now in his latest he is forced to try something illegal. His sister in this version of the 20th century is diving in the Blue Hole in the Sinai desert (a real place) and finds an abandoned cave with a link to the third century. Unfortunately the tale abruptly ends, leaving the reader waiting for more. I liked the tale so far to include it in this review.
Dwain Worrell writes of an expedition to the ninth planet, deep in the Oort cloud called Orbis Alius. Most of the solar system has been terraformed and people know that the rest of the universe is empty of intelligent life. Cleo Xavier’s ability to handle isolation lands her on the expedition to this Otherworldly (paper from 47North). The crew is launched in individual modules to the surface which is covered in small habitats for various intelligent species, almost like a zoo. The problem is that there is a dangerous species that, if it escapes, could endanger humanity. I don’t like dark endings but Orbis Alius is fascinating. Interesting.
Charlie N. Holmberg concludes her tale about Nym, a healer drafted to cure a prince whom no one else can cure, a man that becomes The Shattered King(paper). Unfortunately that leads to her capture by King Nicosia, who tortures her to discover how she cured Prince Renn. Luckily she can heal the physical damage. She has to escape to help create the half-hearted queen (hard from 47 North). The ending is a bit heavy on the romance, but works in familiar pathways, Recommended.
Cuckoos(Johrlacs) are human shaped wasps. Some of them have played an important part of Seanan McGuire’s long running InCryptid series. In Butterfly Effects(paper from Tor) Sarah Zellaby, who has just become a Johrlac Queen(think insects), gets arrested(kidnapped) to the Johrlac home planet and members of the Price family go to rescue her. This is a nice addition to this great series and a must read for anyone curious how a telepathic insect society might function. Fun.
Lois McMaster Bujold tells of Penric & Desdemona dealing with The Adventure of the Demonic Ox(ebook from Spectrum Literary Agency, Inc.). People who bond with bundles of energy called demons can work magic. The demons first bond with small animals and jump to other animals on death. Penric is called when an ox is infected, but the simple solution to the problem is spoiled when the ox escapes. This tale is as much about Penric’s family, natural and adopted as about the ox. It’s a must for fans of the series.
Retired Colonel Carl Butler is talked into trying to recover a missing teenage girl, but it is a Blindside (paper from Harper Voyager) trap. The only way out is to return to Taug and finally do what should have been done years ago. Michael Mammay has a nice conclusion to his series with lots of military action. I really enjoyed the series.
Hache Pueyo tells of an alternate Brazil with human-eating long-lived guls who look human and interact with humans. Erik Yurkov, an independent medical researcher, who had made Ariadne’s artificial limbs, left five years before. Then an ancient Gul, Quaint, suggests Erik had been kidnapped. It all has to do with Gul longivity and a dictator trying to stay alive. Cabaret in Flames(hard from Tordotcom) is an intense dark novella that stays in your nightmares.
Baen has reprinted David Weber’s tale of Honor Harrington In Enemy Hands, Larry Correia’s fun Monster Hunter Nemesis, and Sharon Lee’s and Steve Miller’s Liaden Universe tale Diviner's Bow in paper. All are great series.
There are more reviews at http://www.henrylazarus.com/sf.htm
Henry Lazarus is a retired Dentist and author of several books.