Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for February 2014
by Henry Leon Lazarus
The volume of books, especially fantasy and
science fiction has grown un believable proportions. In my teen
years there were only a few publishers and most books could be found
in, of all places, the local drug store. I got a lot of my early
reading from a used book store in Akron where I grew up. Over the
decades the number of SF publishers ebbed and flowed. Today, ebooks
on the internet represent a flood and not all the best reads are
found at major publishers.
Drew Hayes looks at a world with super
heroes, supers who haven’t been certified to fight super villains,
and the powered who can’t control their super abilities like a man
who teleports only when he sneezes. Powered people are
despised. Lander University is one of five in the country with a
Hero Certification Program run by Dean Blaine Jefferies, a former
hero, and one of the Class of Legends, not only for the heroes it
produced but because one of them murdered another and had to be
destroyed. Super Powereds:Year 1 (ebook which I bought from
Amazon) is the tale of five powered teens who have had special
treatment to control their abilities. They join the fifty or so
freshman class members, hiding their secret. Over the year they make
friends, form relationships, do a lot of drinking, and, have two of
their members kidnaped during final exam week. With unforgettable
characters like Nick who is the brightest of them with the weakest
power, the ability to control luck; Vince who lived on the road
until his ability to absorb energy wiped out the energy grid of a
small town; Alice the only daughter of a super billionaire with the
ability to fly; Hershel who turns into super Roy; and the most
powerful, Mary a telepath and telekenitic who spent most of
her life living in the woods well away from people. Super
Powereds: Year 2 (ebook which I bought from
Amazon) is their sophomore year where their powers are refined
and honed so that they can get one of the twenty-seven slots for the
third year. One of them is kicked out and a member of the Class of
Legends appears who was thought long dead. Two more years to come
until only ten graduate. This series is as addicting as the Harry
Potter tales with five, three-dimensional main viewpoint characters
and tons of interesting secondary ones. There’s a solid puzzle
that keeps growing with each chapter. I cannot recommend these more
highly. The only problem I can see for someone getting addicted now
is the wait for the final two years growing chapter by chapter on
Mr. Hayes website.
Equally absorbing but more adult is
Daniel Price’s tale of people who are given silver wrist bands just
before our world is destroyed. They are sent to an alternate version
of our America where tempis technology allows flying cars;
rooms that slow time so that you can watch a two hour movie in ten
minutes real time; and time viewers that allow the police to see
crime scenes as the crime occurred. For a few weeks six of them are
sheltered and discover they can manipulate tempus without machines.
Amanda creates solid time. David produces images of past events; Mia
gets messages from her future selves; and Hannah can move at super
speed. Eden never joins their group but he can undo the present
retaining memories of what has happened. He is the only one of them
who knows this world will be destroyed in five years. Then They are
attacked and sent running. The Flight of the Silvers
(hard from Blue Rider Press) takes them from Los Angeles to New York
where they find allies. They are also chased by the Feds but have
the time to refine their abilities. This is pure adrenaline
excitement with plenty of unanswered questions. I suspect this might
get an award nomination despite needing more books to finish the
tale.
Watching sf movies, going to convention,
buying associated doodads, that’s the fun of being involved with
fantasy. Imagine if there were a type of magic like Geekomancy
(ebook from Pocket Star which I bought electronically) in which
watching an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer would give you her
strength and speed for a few minutes or having a light saber that
worked like the real things. Ree Reyes was a twenty-something
working at a graphic art, coffee shop and trying to sell a
movie script, when she sees a man fighting a troll. A magic spell
called Doubt erases mundane minds. Soon she’s investigating suicides
and trying to stop a deal with a demon. Then she sell a script for a
speculative tv show (that sounds neat) and ends up working for the
star of a television show she grew up with. Unfortunately there’s a
mogul out there using Celebromancy (ebook from Pocket
Star which I bought electronically) to attack the set with monsters
from old movies. It might be neat to fight actual dragons, but, as
Michael R. Underwood informs us, it could also get you killed. Lots
of fun.
An Accident throws Jack Fargo,
ex-military turned history professor after his wife’s death,
from our universe to an alternate 1880 where anti-gravity wood
allows giant zeppelins. In this James Bond inspired steam punk
universe, Nikola Tesla is the villain and he has used the wood to
make The Forever Engine (trade from Baen) deep in Bosnia.
He’s using the energy created from this sort of perpetual motion
machine that steals momentum from the Earth to penetrate other
universes. A French spy provides the fun love interest and the
details of problems with that attacking force show Franl Chadwick’s
familiarity with real war and the historical period. Lots of fun,
though a bit predictable.
Jaye Wells has a fun cop tale taking
place in the rust belt city of Babylon where drugs are created by
alchemy. Big industry make the good stuff, but the gang Covens
provide the Dirty Magic (paper from Orbit) provides for the
habits of the addicts living in the Crucible of the city. Kate
Prospero is a beat cop, raising her brother after her’s mothers
death. As an adept she had been a rising star in one of the covens,
but gave it all up. A new drug turns people into man-eating
wolfmen brings the MEA (think DEA with magic) to town and Kate gets
into the task force only to come face-to-face with her unwillingness
to use magic. The tale shows a lot research into the way real cops
think and act. And the world feels real. I’m looking forward to the
second tale.
I wish it was summer and I could visit
the magical Archers Beach where fae folk work the carnival. Sharon
Lee provides a taste of that wonderful visit with Carousel Sun
(hard from Baen) in which Kate Archer has to handle the details of
running the Carrousel in which magical beings from the six other
worlds are imprisoned. In the first tale one escaped and replacing
the missing horse is her first problem As Guardian of the land she
there are always problems that have to be fixed. Theyn their’s the
local sea guardian who has disappeared for weeks, the away mundane
who came to run the midway and proves to be a good friend. This will
be a wonderful beach read and a good sequel.
To Sail a Darkling Sea (hard from
Baen) continues John Ringo’s tale of a Zombie Apocalypse from the
point in which the Wolf Squadron become part of the remaining U. S.
Navy which includes submarines that don’t dare to breathe unfiltered
air. The work of rescuing survivors and cleaning out ships of their
Zombies continues. Though the ability of anyone, crazy or otherwise,
to create a Zombie plague is improbable at best, Mr. Ringo has fun
with the concept by showing how survivors might start winning back
first the boats on the sea, and then eventually the land. One
character, a thirteen-year-old marine calls certain guns Barbie guns
because they take seven shots to put a Zombie down. The next book
will have the attempt to take back Gitmo and created a vaccine for
the Zombie plague, and I’m still reading. BTW I find most Zombie
Apocalypse tales unreadable.
Carrie Vaughn is one of the writers I
look for new works on Amazon when I run low on reading. Her latest
continues the attempt at super-hero realism that she started with After
the Golden Age (paper) in which Celia, the daughter of two of
Commerce City’s superheroes, had to use her smarts to survive being
constantly kidnapped. Decades later there are Dreams of the
golden Age (hard from Tor) as Celia’s daughter and friends
develop super powers and want to become super protectors like their
grandparents. All the super powered people had parents and
grandparents who were present when a crazy experiment went awry and
Celia has maneuvered the kids with scholarships into the same
private school. So we have the complications of adult/teenage
interactions; wannabe heroes learning their trade; and Celia’s
illness. There’s also, at the end a super villain to bring everyone
together. I don’t think the attempt at mixing real problems with
super powers work well together, but I enjoyed the attempt.
I was pleasantly captivated in B. R.
Maul’s tale of Portals, Passages, & Pathways (In the Land of
Magnanthia) in which two teenagers cross into the magical
land. One, the nerdy kid who’s in the school choir has, without his
knowledge, been groomed to bear one of the guardian rings of
affinity Simon was supposed to trained for two years, but a cracked
portal meant things had to be moved up and so he was rushed through
an underwater portal to avoid the evil enemy and has to come to term
with well-meaning advisors who wish him wel, and home-sickness. Jak,
a rich bratty kid taught by tutors and ignored by his family, is
kidnaped into the same world and has to survive a dangerous maze.
Only one of the seven entering the maze will survive to be given
magic. In spite of being generic, and a bit awkward in spots, I
found the tale fun.S
Open Road Integrated Media has put out Samuel R.
Delany’s classic and fascinating Dhalgren as an
ebook. Like a lot of people, I never finished it, but it was very
popular at the time. They also have a collection from the late
Octavia E. Butler, Bloodchild And Other Stories.
Baen has reprinted Sarah A. Hoyt’s fun A few
Good Men in paper and the fou- volume fun series Empire
of Man by David Weber and John Ringo in a binding-breaking,
trade paperback.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on February 1, 2014 at 8 p.m. at International House
on the University of Pennsylvania. Campus, Tom Doyle, a
Writers of the Future and Small Press Award winner, 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).