Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for December 2015
by Henry Leon Lazarus
Science Fiction and fantasy writers have as much
fun creating backgrounds as they do interesting characters.
Cameron Dayton imagines a world where
civilization at a high level collapsed,. It’s a world where monsters
designed for gladiatorial bouts freely roam the earth. People who
could afford the nanotech devices to keep themselves young, walk
around as specters. A lot of the original progress came from
people with the Etherwalker (paper from Future House
Publishing) with the ability to communicate directly with
intelligent machines, and when civilization fell they were all
murdered except for one saved by his guard and raised in seclusion
as a shepherd. Enoch is discovered and his guardian murdered, but he
finds friends like an angel whose wings have been clipped and
Rictus, and ancient singer turned specter. The story is a standard
coming-of-age tale, but the background with details like a
half-finished starship used as a city, make it stand out.
Ancillary Mercy (hard from Orbit) completes
Ann Leckie’s award winning trilogy set in a far future in which
ships and people can have multiple ancillaries. One of these
ancillaries, the only survivor of the two millennium old Justice of
Toren, became fleet captain protecting Athock station from the civil
war between two halves of the Lord of the Radch. When a young
ancillary body of the ruler actually arrives at the station,
Breq and her allies on the Mercy of Kalr along with the
artificial intelligences of the station and her ship, face doom
unless they can counter her. I would start the tale where it began
in the Hugo and Nebula award winning Ancillary Justice (paper). It’s
a little confusing because Breq sees every person as either neuter
or female, but it is an amazing look at a possible human future and
this tale provides a satisfying ending to Breq’s tale.
Michael Livingston tale of The Shards
of Heaven (hard from Tor) is wrapped tightly in the arms of
real history that some of the character’s fates can be looked up in
wikipedia. The shards, that may be pieces of God, give magical
powers to Neptune’s Trident, that also might have been Moses’s rod
and the Arc of the Covenant. This first tale is set in the infamous
time of Cleopatra and Marc Antony. Juba II, one of Caesar’s adopted
children has discovered the Trident and works to control it at the
behest of Octavian. He and Caesarion; the son of Cleopatra and
Caesar; are hunting for the Arc in Alexandria where it has sat
since Alexander the great brought it there. This is an excellent
historical tale with a magical mythos that doesn’t quite work for
me.
Carol Berg’s Dust and Light
(paper) introduced Lucian de Remeni-Masson , a pure-blood sorcerer
with the ability to draw truth in his portraits. Too much truth.
Political consequences first have in working for an ordinary Coroner
drawing pictures of murdered victims that help find their murderers.
But politics and Lucian’s own quest for truth led him to Order of
the Equites Cineré, knights devoted to Justice. His memories
deliberately removed, he trains with no idea of his potential to not
only paint the truth but also to open portals to a land of an
ancient city whose inhabitants have been changed to trees. Three
princes are destroying the kingdom while fighting for the throne
and politics throws Lucian, now called Greenshank into a
complicated mess shaped by Ash and Silver (paper from Roc).
The tale is far too complicated and even strains belief to reach the
happy ending of this tale.
Kate Elliott returns to the world of the
one hundred that she set up in her Crossroads Trilogy (Spirit
Gate, Shadow Gate, and Traitor’s Gate all in
paper) Kellas was one of the Kings elite Black Wolves (paper
from Orbit) when King Atani was assassinated. Two decades later King
Jehosh returns to his capital to discover that his first wife, along
with the priests from the Empire the first king had come from, and
the people he trusted to rule in his stead have corrupted his
empire. The kings Aunt Dannarah a Marshal of the Reeves who
fly the giant Eagles has been pushed out of leadership and she is
asked to get Kellas to return and help clean up the mess. I find
villains caught up in their own superiority had to read about when
then torture view-point characters. However I love the way Ms. Eliot
has expanded the magic of the land of the Hundred with a glimpse of
mermaids. There is also a clustered family whose men have horns, and
a sailing family that can use magic instead of wind to furl their
sails. There’s a surprising ending, but the tale is far from
over.
Deborah Blake has a fun tale of a witch
cop who gets witness statements from the dead. When a dead art
restorer points Donata Santori at a cursed painting that may have
horrible implications for paranormals not out of the closet. Not
only that but the Veiled Magic (ebook from InterMix)
hidden in the painting is protected by a curse. Soon the cabal of
Catholic extremists who want the Church hunting paranormals again
are after the painting (which Donata stole from evidence) and only
an old shape-changing lover, and a half-dragon art forger can help
her and her family survive. Light fun. Hope there’s a sequel.
I’ve been enjoying James Berardinelli’s
movie reviews (http://www.reelviews.net/) for years since I
discovered him at rotten tomatoes. He has ventured into fantasy with
a tale of The Last Whisper of the Gods (ebook). The Gods got
bored and wished themselves out of existence. A thousand years
before they removed wizardry from Ayberia, but their last gasp
restored it. We meet Sorial of Vantok, as a simple stable boy
who works hard and doesn’t know why the Duke keeps bringing his
daughter near. As expected, Sorial was bred for his ancestral
talents for wizardy and he must eventually quest to a portal in an
abandoned city to either face death or become one of the four
wizards (earth, air, fire, or water). The Wizard of fire has brought
global warming, making Soriel’s home town slowly uninhabitable. The
tale takes its time to get started, but the characters are fun and
the ending left me wanting the sequel due in January.
Mike Resnick has a second of his Mission
Impossible team in the far future, the Democracy of Man. This time
the team of Dead Enders has to rescue a prisoner from The Prison
in Antares (paper from Pyr) Not only do Nathan Pretorius and
his team have infiltrate a world on which they are the only humans,
but they have to do it twice. Unlike the last mission, not all
members survive. Pulse pounding action. A lot of aliens are casually
killed and the team succeeds a bit to easily.
The late Robert Jordan along with Harriet
McDougal. Alan Romancuk, and Maria Simons have put together a Wheel
of Time Companion (hard from TOR)for fans of the long series.
Five of David Drake time travel tales are
collected in Dinosaurs and a Dirigible (paper From Baen).
The first two fun Tales of the Time Scouts (trade from Baen)
by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans are available. The second two are
coming.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on, December 11th 2015 at 8 p.m. at the Rotunda
on the University of Pennsylvania Campus.Campus. Fran Wilde
author of the fun tale Updraft will speak As
usual Guests are Welcome.
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a local 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 where six formulas define our
universe.