Henry L Lazarus
Home
4603 Springfield Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Science Fiction for August and September 2014
by Henry Leon Lazarus
I got my start in Science Fiction and Fantasy, as
many people do, reading comic books so I always have a soft spot for
super heroes. Written fiction can get inside of the head of these
people far better than graphic novels, or even movies and also can
have complicated and nuanced plots.
I discovered Marion G. Harmon’s
tales and immediately was enthralled. He tells of a world of
super powered people after a wave hit the earth knocking everyone
out. Some heroes emerged immediately and others when faced with a
stimulus to cause a breakout. Hope Corrigan had a bridge fall on her
car and became super-strong, got super senses, and was able to fly.
She was recruited by the Sentinels, the best known of the Chicago
Super groups with their own comic books and movies. There she has to
do her first semester of college on-line so she can learn
to master her new powers. In this world, supers help with
national disasters and are far more concerned with the safety of
citizens than fighting insane superheroes. Her father, she finds, is
a retired super hero who is worried about the dangers facing
her. Wearing the Cape (paper from Amazon) even as a
sidekick code-named Astra, has it’s problems, especially when
Teatime Anarchist , time traveler who is apposed to another version
of himself in trying to make the future better, gets involved.
The mob has supers who work for them.
Sometimes the mob loses control over their henchmen and they form a
version of Villains Inc. (Paper). Astra doesn’t manage to
attend too many classes when they start killing people, but luckily
she gets to work with a strange cop who may have literally dropped
out of a book series. It doesn’t help that reporters are convinced
she is under-age and may have had an affair with the older Atlas who
died in the first tale.
There are bigger villains waiting,
including one who can amp up powers or temporarily take them away.
The Green man, who works for him for instance can cause huge forests
to grow, threatening the Chicago Airports. Astra picks and is put in
charge of a group of Young Sentinels (paper from Amazon)
Then reporters out her and she can’t hide as Hope anymore. Then her
powers are taken, she is kidnapped. When rescued she only has her
team to help save the city as the rest of the Sentinels are putting
down a prison break. I love the series and eagerly await more tales.
Jewish mysticism is filled with tales of
wise rebbes who work magic to save their people and of Angels like
the Angel of Losses (hard from ecco) who brought the Sabbath
Light and the missing letter of the Hebrew language to the White
Rebbe. Marjorie never knew that her Grandfather Eli was not only
Jewish, but a holocaust survivor, and a descendent of
the White Rebbe. As Stephanie Feldman tells the tale, Marjorie, a
literature grad student who was brought up with a secular background
and her thesis is about the Wandering Jew. Her sister Hanna has
married a very religious Jew and converted to his strange Hasidic
Sect. Then their new-born son gets sick and Marjorie comes into
possession of one of four tales about the White Rebbe written by her
grandfather. Somehow, she discovers there is a relationship to these
tales and saving her nephew. This is tale that will be nominated for
awards.
Megan Lindholm has been very successful
since she started writing as Robin Hobb with her tales of a
medieval land with psionic magic like the skill that can be used
like telepathy or actually influence people and the ability to link
minds to animals. The best books are about FitzChivalry Farseer, a
royal bastard trained as an assassin. Fitz, now in his fifties has
been living a comfortable life as a landholder as Tom
Badgerlock. Molly, his wife and too old to be pregnent keeps
telling everyone she is pregnant for two years until, amazing
enough, she delivers Bee, a wonderful little girl. Like fine wine,
the description of Bee growing up and Fitz’s reaction to his wife’s
death seem both fascinating and almost entirely ordinary. Fool (also
known as the Tawny Man) is a strange type of person who can
sometimes see the future. His warnings of trouble go astray and it
is only at the end that Fitz has to become the The Fool’s
Assassin (hard from Del Rey). This is a wonderful tale, even
if it is only the first third of the full tale.
Carol Berg starts another of her intense
tales of Dust and Light (trade from Roc) Lucian de
Remeni-Masson is a pure-blood magician in disgrace for a youthful
discretion allowed only to use is gift for portraiture in the
Registry. Then he paints portraits of the curators and within a week
his family is wiped out by harrowers, except for his younger sister,
and his contract sold to one of the King’s coroners. There, while
drawing the dead, he learns that his pictures show more than what is
present, they also show a real truth. Politics, especially that of
the two princes dueling for the Kingdom, and the politics of the
Registry soon haunt his life and the coroner turns out to be
an ally he never expected. This is the first of two, and much is
explained while leaving enough waiting to leave me eager for the
second part.
I’m starting to look forward to D. B.
Jackson’s tales of Ethan Kaille, thief taker and conjurer in a very
well researched Revolutionary War Boston. An old enemy has come to
town to snatch the bodies of the recently buried to create A
Plunder of Souls (Hard from Tor). Nathan Ramsey may have a
magical way to bring his father back from death, but it also causes
Ethan’s and the other conjurer’s spells to fail. The tale
follows the mystery style as Ethan is first hired by one of the
cemeteries, and then follows clues to find out what is happening.
There’s also a smallpox outbreak effecting Ethan’s ex and
complicating matters. Fun, especially for those who like their
history tales with a dash of magic.
Charles E. Gannon concludes his tale of
interstellar diplomat and intelligence operative Caine Riordan.
Caine had discovered an Alliance of aliens watching Earth and his
discovery let to a convention that possibly could have lead to Earth
and it’s colonies joining the alliance. Earth’s technology is slight
below that of some of the aliens and that gives two of them license
to attack Earth taking the Island of Java as a base. With control of
Earth’s orbit and a willingness to sink any ships that come near, it
seems that the World confederation will have to put up with fake
legality that the Aliens were invited by large corporations. But
wheels with wheels allow a Trial by Fire (hard from Baen)
that involves armed resistance locally as well as deep space
battles. Caine finds himself in the heat of action from a module
from a destroyed cruiser to the heart of enemy territory the action
never ceases. Fun, but a bit too long.
The only Zombie apocalypse series I can
tolerate is John Ringo’s exciting tale of the rebuilding after
someone created a disease to turn most of the human population.
Islands of Rage and Hope (hard from Baen) has the six thousand
or so survivors starting to clear some islands like Gitmo and Saint
Barthélemy. There’s also a prince and a princess rescued, as the
hunt for materials needed to make a vaccine pushed them harder. As
usual very exciting. I really love seeing civilization slowly being
reestablished.
Ilona Andrews tells how Kate Daniels
meets her father as Magic Breaks (hard from Ace) in the
seventh tale sent in Atlanta after magic returned in waves allowing
technology to operate only when magic is absent. New readers of this
fun action series get a short summery of the previous books. Kate is
the daughter of a five-thousand- year -old sorcerer who has been in
hibernation since the end of the last magical age. She and her
boyfriend, the beast king head of the packs of animal shifters,
usually have only to deal with The People, a group of vampire pilots
(vampires are mindless). Then Hugh d’Ambray, Roland’s warlord, comes
to town to start a war between Pack and the People and to capture
Kate and get her to her father. This is the usual, hard-to-put-down
fun.
Jane Lindskold likes tales of people who
bond to animals. So her tale of a rediscovered vacation planet
located centuries after the empire fell hard, has Adara and her
intelligent Puma. Griffin Dane has enough family money afford his
own star ship and not smart enough to know that you don’t explore a
strange Planet on your own. Artemis Awakening (hard from
Tor) tells of his exploration of the communities surviving with low
technology, but having some with genetic modifications on the
planet. The villain is a man who doesn’t age and who has begun to
see normal people as experimental subjects. It’s a fun start to a
light series.
Mist, a Valkyrie who survived
Ragnorak till our time only to discover that she has to face Loki,
returns with new allies in Black Ice (trade from Tor) Loki
has a son he is protecting, Denny who seems autistic, but has more
magic potential. At the same time Mist finds some of the lost
Valkyries and other allies. The Alfar Dainn has to deal with his
dark curse that turns him into an animal. I like this series by
Susan Krinard far better than the comic based Thor movies.
Peter Watts is an author worth mining for
ideas and he throws everything into a crazy future only a century
from now. Echopraxia (hard from Tor) is mainly the tale of
Daniel Brüks, a biologist collecting samples of native species
modified with artificial genes. The local monastery of bicameral
monks (people who modify their brains to better understand the
universe) is then attacked by zombified people (brain dead killing
machines) led by Vampire escaped from a testing center.
Daniel seeks refuge at the monastery and then is brought along on a
expedition to Icarus (a nearby asteroid). Icarus generates power for
Earth, but its staff may have been killed by an alien invasion.
After than the tale gets stranger. There were points even I
couldn’t follow. I liked Mr. Watt’s earlier books better.
Prime books has issued The Year's Best
Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014 Edition (edited by Rich
Horton in paper)
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on, August 8th 2014 at 8 p.m. at International house
on the University of Pennsylvania Campus. Artist Dominick
Saponaro will speak.. The September 12th guest will be
Myke Cole, author of fun, military-based fantasy. 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).