Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for January 2015
by Henry Leon Lazarus
Gender roles were well-defined during most of
human history. Still, despite this, strong women did appear.
Fictional versions done right, makes for fun Fantasy and Science
Fiction.
![](http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9780452298095_p0_v2_s114x166.JPG)
Maggie Anton writes historical tales
about strong Jewish women. Rav Hisda's Daughter (trade from
Plume) was one of the few women mentioned in the Babylon Talmud and
probably lived from the late third century to the middle of the
fourth at a time when the Parthian Empire, dominated by
Zoroastrianism ruled Babylon and Persia and was invaded numerous
times by the Romans. It was also a time of strong ceremonial magic
with spells written on clay pots and metal amulets. When Hisdadukh
was nine, she was asked which of her father’s students she wanted to
be betrothed to and told her father both of them. At thirteen she is
married to Rani, and has a happy marriage until he is bitten by a
snake. Convinced that Raba, the other student, was magically
responsible she travels to Israel where a disease kills her daughter
and almost kills her. From the very beginning she earns extra money
as a certified amulet and blessing maker. But her training becomes
more intense as she works to become an Enchantress (hard from
Plume which I bought as an ebook) . She is prophesied to have and
does have five sons. At the same time her magical powers grow.
Eventually she faces the sorcerer who has been turning travelers
into burros in the Arabian Desert. I was enthralled by the
description of Jewish life in the era before Constantine made
Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire. At times the
magic here seems like superstition, but then it starts working. I
hope this gets nominated for an award.
Jo
Walton loves Plato’s Republic and imagines Athena using time travel
to create The Just City (hard from Tor). People
from our past, Like Maia, a Victorian spinster originally
named Ethel, who prayed to be part of the experiment are
picked from their time and sent back to be masters. Ten thousand
forty children, including Simmea, are bought at slave auctions over
various periods. Apollo is one of them, learning what is human
by becoming one. The city is placed on Thera two centuries before
the island will explode and erase all traces. There are no slaves
because robots provide the labor. When the children are old enough
Sokrates is added as a teacher, taken just before his fatal hemlock
drink. When the children are old enough they are paired in
single-day weddings to randomly chosen partners, every four
months until most of the girls are pregnant. Sokrates is fascinated
by the Robots, convinced they are intelligent beings and wants to
communicate with them. The tale ends with Sokrates confronting
Athena about the logic of her choices. Fascinating and I think
an award nominee.
Michael Moorcock has been writing for a
living since his teenage years in the middle fifties and was very
much at the core of the New Wave when he edited New Worlds in the
late sixties. However instead of a memoir, which would be well
received, he tells of an alternate version of himself with subtle
differences (his wife’s name, the number of children and even his
birthdate) The radical difference was his ability to enter,
Alsatia, the refuge of the Carmelite Friars in which fantasy
characters like Pecos Bill and Dumas’s musketeers share drinks at
the pub with real historical figures like Prince Rupert,
nephew and general of Charles I. In the real world he hears the
noise of The Whispering Swarm (hard from Tor) while he lives
the same life as the real author. In Alsatia he finds refuge from
the noise and from his wife in the form of Moll Midnight. But things
eventually get dangerous when he gets involved in Prince Rupert’s
plan to rescue Charles I from beheading by Cromwell in 1649. The
tale is a mind-bender, mixing reality with the fantasy Michael
Moorcock is known for. It ends when Mr. Moorcock turns thirty and
there are two sequels promised.
W. C. Bauers tells a very intense tale of
future war and an Unbreakable (hard from Tor) heroine who
also talks to her dead mother. Promise Paen’s parents were both
murdered by Pirates attacking her home world Montana which is
loosely tied to the Republic of Aligned Worlds. The
Lusitanian Empire feels Montana is an easy addition to their empire
Promoted to Lieutenant, Promise soon finds that her platoon of
marines, along with Ann, the President and a small militia lacking
modern weapons. Mr. Bauers lets you feel the bloody violence
involved in military encounters. I can’t wait for sequels.
Joel Shepherd sixth tale of android
Cassandra Kresnov finds that the Federation is being infiltrated by
the Originator ((trade from Pyr) species that created the
technology that created her and other GI’s . The Talee have
destroyed themselves twice and are very leery of any technology that
led to their apocalypses. Sandy’s adopted son Kiril was fitted with
a growing uplink connection that improves on the connector driving
elements in the League literally nuts. In fact for humans it’s a
solution to the problem. To get at him the Talee GI’s who look like
humans, put Sandy’s home in artificial reality . Only the GI’s
can shake it. High action with lots of fun. S
Justis Fearsson is a weremyste, a magic
worker who goes nuts during three nights around the full moon. The
only drugs available to curb the symptoms also keep the magic at bay
and, despite his father have mostly gone over the edge, he’s not
ready for that. He was a cop, like his father for eight years till
his condition got in the way. Now he works as a P. I. Then the Blind
Angel, a serial killer he investigated as a cop, returns with a
high-profile victim and only Justis knows that magic was
involved. Then the killer attacks all the weremystes involved
and only really learning how to improve his magic can keep Justis
alive. Spell Blind (hard from Baen) is a solid mystery with
an interesting magical twist. David B. Coe has more adventures
planned for Justis and I look forward to them.
S.G. Redling tells a tale of the Nahan,
the real species of human hiding among us and the basis of the
vampire myths. They get energy from blood, can hypnotize with their
breath, and live for centuries but are quite alive. Killing a
common human while drinking their blood gets them high.
Ourselves (ebook from 47North) is the tale of Stell, a
Nahan raised in a religious group that tries to deny the Nahan blood
thirst. She ignored their teaching and mostly ran wild in the woods
where she met Tomas. Tomas applies and gets accepted to join
the ruling Storytellers, a job that takes the special talents.
Something went wrong with the previous apprentice and Stell and
Thomas have to break a few rules to get to the bottom of a
corruption in Nahan life. Very intense.
David Welch looks at a far future in
which hyperspace travel is common and humanity has spread out to
thousands of stars. Rex Vahl is sent on a suicide mission into the Chaos
Quarter (hard from 47 North) where piracy and general
lawlessness rules. A few settled planets have provide some
civilization, but there are rumors of a third major power forming,
the Hegemony. Sent in without crew, Rex soon picks up Chakruja,
former prostitute with tiger-striped skin as a co-pilot in training
and milk provider for the baby that Lucius, an ex-noble on the
run from the Europan empire arrives with (the mother was
shot). Finding the dead Ambassador to the Hegemony sends a Hegemony
bio-ship on his tail, while at the same time a Europan war ship is
in pursuit of Lucius. Lots of fun and exciting chases.
John Ringo concludes his Zombie
Apocalypse tale with the retaking of Washington D. C. Strands of
Sorrow (hard from Baen) has its fun with a few rescued brass
who don’t understand how a fourteen-year-old girl can be a Marine
Lieutenant and one of the best Zombie killers in the world. The
biggest hitch comes when the Secretary of Education is rescued, the
highest-ranking, cabinet member and immediately stops the
clea- up campaign because she thinks the infected are still human.
Exciting and fun.
I was expecting a twist but Mike Resnick
plays his tale straight. Colonel Nathan Pretorius’s impossible
mission, if he chooses to accept it, is to take a team deep into
Kabori territory to The Fortress in Orion (trade from Pyr)
With him is a clone of General Michkag and his handler. The mission
is to infiltrate and substitute the clone for the real General. His
recruited team includes: Snake, a contortionist thief; Circe an
empath; Pandora a computer genius; Gzychurlyx an alien who can
create visible images; and Proto an ex-soldier whose replacements
parts make him almost android. Fun and probably the first in a
series.
Roxane Dambre tells of the Daierwolves
of Paris (ebook from AmazonCrossing and translated by Patrick
F. Brown) who can change to any shape or partial change. They
have a preferred shape. Aloysia (who likes to be called Lou)
favorite shape is that of a Panther. Daierwolves also interbreed
with humans. Chalcrocs, which are more like the movie
werewolves with lots of hair and a killing streak that lasts for
three nights a month. Lou needs to join the French Secret service
because they apparently have discovered the hidden secrets. When she
arrives at their headquarters she discovers, in addition to the
handsome agent who recruited her, that they had one dead Chalcroc
and actually captured a Daierwolf. Letting Mister Bear escape was a
mistake because it turnsout he is quite mad and wants
Daierwolves to rule humanity. She has somehow to capture him again,
protect her sexy secret agent and keep him for learning her secret.
Fun. Light fun.
Emily Drake starred in her first Broadway
musical when fairies stole her to the Realm. Her sister,
Sophia, who had rescued her before, knew immediately and took
the first flight to New York. According to Shanna Swendson the Realm
had been missing a Queen for centuries and was slowly dying. In A
Fairy Tale (ebook from NLA Digital LLC) one of the fairy
leaders remembered a song sung by Sophia that gave directions to the
empty throne and kidnaped Emily to lure her sister. Helping the
sisters is a police detective on sick leave whose wife had been
stolen seven years before. There’s an interesting twist to what
would be a modern version of a standard fairyland visit, but the
tale is fun and I’m looking forward to the sequel.
Hard sf fans will enjoy Ben Bova and Eric Choi
collection of mostly new tales in Carbon Tipped Pens (hard
from Tor)
Baen has reprinted Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
last Liaden tale, Trade Secret and John Ring’s zombie tale To
Sail a Darkling Sea in paper. They also have reprinted classic
tales such as Robert A. Heinlein’s The Man who sold the Moon and
Orphans of the Sky (one Book) and two of James P. Hogan’s
tales in Worlds in Chaos both in paper.
New American Library has reprinted Daniel Price’s
fun time travel tale about people from our time taken to the future,
The Flight of the Silvers in trade.
Open Road Media is putting out the following
classics in Ebook form: Joe Haldeman’s Worlds; Philip
Wylie’s Tomorrow; Nancy Springer’s Larque on the Wing;
Bruce Sterling’s Schismatrix Plus; and Poul Anderson’s The
Broken Sword.
Mijke Redsnick and Robert T. Garcia have edited a
collection of original tales from the Worlds of Edgar Rice
Burroughs (paper from Baen) which are a must for Tarzan and
Princess of Mars fans
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on, January 9th 2015 at 8 p.m. at International house
on the University of Pennsylvania Campus. This is the
infamous election meeting 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).