Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for July 2016
by Henry Leon Lazarus
Everyone knows that war is Hell, even in Fantasy
and Science Fiction, but it is sure fun to read about, as long as
you’re not living through it.
Elliott Kay has a great ear for action
scenes, putting the reader clearly inside the fight, creating
pulse-pounding action impossible to put down. In a future with many
settled planets, big corporations dominate everything including
basic education. How much debt you depends on how well you do on the
final test, and Tanner Malone, after being told his parents were
moving to another planet, blows it. Tanner enlists in the Archangel
navy, his home star system. Then when smugglers fight his small
boarding, he discovers he has a talent for killing, something he
doesn’t appreciate until in this Poor Man's Fight (paper
from Skyscape) he is the only survivor of the Corvette sent to
rescue a star liner from pirates. He pulls an impossible die hard
attack on the pirates and ends up with a medal of honor.
Archangel decides to drop contracts with the big corporations and
they react by sending a whole fleet to attack the system. In this
Rich Man's War (paper from Skyscape), all the soldiers have to
do the impossible for their out-gunned navy to survive. One of their
planets are captured, despite the win It takes an attack on the
corporate headquarters for this Dead Man's Debt (paper
from Amazon) to be satisfied. I gobbled up this series in three days
and really like the way that all the plot puzzles are solved.
Karen Diem tells a tale of
ordinary people who get super powers after suffering a coma that
effects thousands Zita Garcia, has been working several odd jobs
while she trains heavily for an Olympic sport that really doesn’t
exist. It’s all part of a reaction from almost dying of cancer as a
child. When the coma victims are all quarantined, she meets friends
from the cancer ward. Then the area is attacked and she and her
friends escape with new found powers. Her Super (ebook)
powers include the ability to shape shift to animal form and to
teleport. While she and her friends come under more attacks, they
have to hide their abilities from the Feds who already know of other
powered people. Lots of fun.
The ninth (and maybe the final tale) of
the Napoleonic wars on an Earth with dragons, starts with
Temeraire and Capt. William Laurence fighting with the Russians to
drive the French forces out of Russia. But it will take a League
of Dragons (hard from Del Rey) to finally confront the Emperor
and force him to resign. Nebula Award winner. Naomi Novik provides a
rousing tale of air war with dragons, along with dragon politics for
a fun tale set in a really great series.
The City of Illharek threw out its gods,
and relied on magic. They don’t know that Tal’Shik and her followers
want to destroy the city and have willing allies. Their conquered
city Cardik has already fallen, and only those who escaped from the
city , Snow, half-blood conjuror and Veiko who can walk into
the spirit world, have to work with legion scout Dekklis whose
mother is one of the senators of the Republic and warn the city of
its danger. Enemy (paper from 47th North by K. Eason)
is the second of what is becoming a solid tale. The mythology
Godhood and the otherworld starts to make more sense and left me
hungering the next tale.
Laurence Macnaughton imagines what a
crystal shop would be like if it sold its crystals to real
sorcerers. Dru Jasper’s mother was a sorcerer but Dru only had weak
powers so she established The Crystal Connection to sell working
crystals and other magical objects to real sorcerers. Rane, one of
her clients can turn to metal to fight demons, and constantly blows
up rings from the shop. It Happened One Doomsday ((trade
from Pyr) that Grayson, a mechanic whose been dreaming of turning
into a demon, walks into her shop and soon is literally turning into
one of the horsemen of the Apocalypse. Things keep getting worse as
the other horsemen and their evil cars keep chasing them, but Dru’s
magical powers expand when she touches Grayson. What follows is a
rollicking light adventure with sequels promised.
Sarah Kuhn haas a light fun tale of a
woman with a Heroine Complex (paper from DAW). San Francisco
was attacked by demons leaving some people with weak super powers.
Since then the demons have been coming back by imprinting on objects
like cupcakes and bring them to life. Aveda Jupiter has styled
herself as San Francisco’s hero and, despite only small telekinetic
abilities, has become the protector of the city. Evie Tanaka,
raising her teen age sister, is her assistant and very content to
stay out of the limelight. Then Avedo sprains her ankle and Evie has
to use a glamour to replace her. But that brinks out Evie’s fire
throwing ability, something she’s been suppressing since she burned
her college library. It doesn’t help that the demons have changed
tactics, and are using San Francisco’s chief blogger, a woman
who already hates Aveda Jupiter. Light fun with more tales promised.
Empires may make peace, but they still
play power politics. In David Drake’s latest tale of Daniel Leary
and Adele Mundy, Death’s Bright Day (hard from Baen puts
them in the middle of a civil way in the Tarbell system of worlds
loosely aligned with the Alliance. Cinnibar, itself, cannot
intervene. The rebels are financed by one political element of the
Alliance, and another politician wants Daniel and Adele to do the
impossible without help from the Cinnabar Navy. The government of
the Tarbell system has very few ships able to stand up to a
destroyer and a governor more interested in wine than in
ruling. As usual Mr. Drake has borrowed from history,
pre-Roman, to provide an exciting adventure for the crew of the
Princess Cecile. This series is great fun.
Recovering addict, Doctor Kimber
Wellington, takes a job in Sand City in the emergency ward of
the Public hospitsl, the only hospital that would take him. One
evening he finds a battered woman that the police refuse to help,
and when told the hospitals would refuse treatment, takes her home.
Reader is the daughter of the super-villain General Savage and she
and her brother are fighting to to become his heir. What Kinber
doesn’t know is that most cities have a superhero fighting a Supervillainess
(ebook) and Sand City hasn’t had a superhero in fifty years. His
father is a retired superhero and never told him. Soon Kimber
applies for the job of superhero for Sand City and develops super
strength, which he has to learn to use. Eventually he and reader
have to work together to bring down her father.. Lizzy Ford tells a
fun, cute tale and promises sequels.
Victor Milan returns to the world of
Paradise where dinosaurs exist artificially with a feudal society.
Karyl Bogomirsky mercenary leader and Rob Korrigan Dinosaur master
have been hired by Providence town, home of a revolution of love and
beauty. They raise an army and protect the town from a neighboring
Duke and The Dinosaur Knights (hard from Tor) who follow
him. Add in Princess Melodia escaping from charges of treason as
told in the first tale. But there’s a grey angel, one of
the immortal beings created by the creators of the world, with other
plans. Soon the fate of the empire rests in Karyl and Rob’s hands.
The battle scenes here are first rate, but I found the sudden change
in attitude of Providence a bit disconcerting. Still I’m waiting for
the next book which might reveal more details of under-workings of
this complicated planet.
Jon Skovron starts a series about two
people orphaned at eight, who survive to eventually oppose an empire
of small islands. The biomancers who can reshape people with a touch
are allowed to destroy small villages to test their bio weapons. The
only survivor of one of those massacres is renamed Bleak Hope and
left, by a kindly Captain of a passing ship, with the all-male
Vinchen Order which trains fighter to protect the empire, but not
the emperor. Hurlo, the grandteacher, flouts traditions and trains
her at night. Eventually the rest of the order finds out, and she is
forced to flee with a special sword. Working as a bodyguard for a
ship’s captain eventually ends her on New Leven, Rixidenteron, son
of a famous artist and a whore, finds help from a thief and
part-time pirate, Sadie the goat, who renames him because of his red
eyes which came from his mother’s addiction. In their twenties
they meet during a revolution in the underground of the heavily
populated island. Hope & Red (paper from Orbit) form a
bond that leads to him helping her chase the biomancer who had
destroyed her small island. This is a fun beginning to what promises
to be a great series.
Ciel Halligan is one a small family of
adaptors who can mimic another person perfectly. As Linda Grimes
puts it, when taking the place of an astronaut (who had a kidney
stone which could take her off the flight) runs into assassins,
assassins who follow her home and even attack her in an ice skating
rink. Add in a positive pregnancy test that sends her boy friend
fleeing. Everything is eventually All Fixed Up (hard from
Tor) Giggling silly, like the other books inthe series.
Seanan McGuire likes to violate all of
fantasy writing basic rules in her series about a superhero who can
bring human shaped (toys especially) to life. Velveteen vs. the
Seasons (ebook from ISFiC Press) has her fulfilling her
promise to work for Winter, Spring, and Autumn, all of which push
her to her limits. Any fantasy series that includes Santa, and Trick
and Treat as major characters is of course inherently silly.
Ms. McGuire somehow gets you to care about nonsense. I eagerly await
each of Verveteen’s new adventures.
Fans of Jennifer Estep’s Elemental
Assassin series will enjoy the short tale of how Finnegan
Lane, Unwanted (ebook from Simon and Schuster) at his
bank since his mother tried to rob it and kill most of the guards,
gets his mojo back and helps one of the guard’s wife from an evil
bookie.
Baen books has several collections. Three
Faces of Asprin (trade) has three novels by the late Robert
Asperin; Bryan Thomas Schmidt edit a collection of new tales about Galactic
Games (trade); John Ringo and David Poole have put together a
collection of tales set in John Ringo’s Black Tide Rising
(hard) series about a Zombie apocalypse’ and David Afsharirad
has collected the Years’s Best Military and Adventure SF for
2015 (trade). Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s latest Lliaden
Universe novel, Dragon in Exile is now out in paper.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on, July 22nd 2016 at 8 p.m. at International
House on the University of Pennsylvania Campus. It’s the 36th
annual Hugo Review Panel which is always fun. 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 that suggests a simpler way to achieve
fusion generation.