Henry L Lazarus
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Philadelphia, PA 19143
Science Fiction for October 2017
Fantasy and Science Fiction can create worlds
that operate with rules that are totally different from our own. To
read them requires the ability flex ones mind and exercises the mind
to look at our world from a different view.
Max Gladstone’s craft sequence
takes place after a war of the Gods and has led to a technology
based on craft magic and funded by a currency based on the soul. The
city of Alikand was at the heart of the war and a new city, Agdel
Lex has been forced on the perceptions of its inhabitants. A visitor
might actually drop into the older city by losing concentration,
People illegally dive into its depths for find lost treasures.
It is surrounded by a desert littered with dying gods. Kai Pohala,
who is an agent for a company that manufactures gods comes to the
city for a quick business venture, only to have her sister Ley
asking for a large sum of money . When Ley is turned down she stabs
her partner with a knife that steals the woman’s soul. Then works
with her ex-lover to rob a train. Kai, trying to save her sister,
works with the city and a Craftswoman to recover the knife so that
the partner can be revived. What she doesn’t know is that Ley is
trying to disrupt a huge venture that will cause The Ruin of
Angels (paper from TOR)and has the potential to destroy
Alikand and the people who still live in it. This very complicated
tale even involves a rocket launch into a space where the stars
sing. This series keeps getting better.
Ed McDonald tells of a land under
attack by the Deep Kings who modify the humans under their rule to
make them both powerful and subservient. Outside the cities is the
desolate Misery created by a deadly magical weapon eighty years
earlier. Ryhalt Galharrow is a Blackwing (hard from
Ace) captain working for Crowfoot, one of the powerful beings
protecting their land. Once he was a noble and officer in the army.
He chases heretics into the Misery, living off the rewards that he
doesn’t drink away. Then Crowfoot sends him to Lady Ezabeth Tanza a
magical researcher under attack because she has been trying to
convince people that the magical weapon is broken and that the
Deep Kings might soon launch a new attack. When he was young Rhyhalt
almost married her. Unfortunately she is right and that puts both of
them in the center of a conspiracy that may end their world. I
really enjoyed this tale.
Marcus Sakey has a most unusual
secular version of the Afterlife (paper from Thomas &
Mercer). FBI agent Will Brody was chasing a terrorist sniper
when he is killed in a trap. This sends him to an echo of our world
in which murdering another ghost gives people extra powers. Attacked
immediately, as most newcomers are, he saves himself by killing one
of the attackers. Then he finds a collection of other people working
together to protect themselves. Claire McCoy is boss and lover traps
the sniper and is caught up in his suicide explosion, sending her to
the same afterlife. The sniper proves far more powerful in this new
world and only Clair and Will workign together can stop him. That
only leads to the discovery of other levels of this universe. This
is a solid tale. Apparently Imagine Entertainment plans to
make it a movie. I can only hope they can capture the essence of
this fascinating tale.
Bob Johansson sold his software
company for a lot a money and for a lark decides to arrange for his
head to be frozen after death. Three days he’s killed by a bad
driver. A century later it’s possible to scan a frozen brain and
upload the personality to a computer. The theological state that the
US has become can only use heads like Bob, because the government
has appropriated the frozen heads. Bob is put in a Von Neuman to be
sent to the stars and make copies of his ship and himself to look
for potential colony planets. Dennis Taylor starts his tale with We
Are Legion (paper) in which several Bob’s are created, colony
worlds are found and Earth has had it’s population almost wiped out
in the war that started with Bob’s launch. We Are Legion (paper)
starts the evacuation of Earth that soon will be uninhabitable and
the discovery of Three alien civilizations. Two are less developed,
but the Others are building a Dyson Sphere in their system and see
nothing wrong with destroying other systems for raw material. Earth
is on their path and they will arrive sooner than the planet can be
evacuated. All the problems come to a culmination is
(paper from Worldbuilders Press) with more than five hundred Bob’as
working to oppose the Others. Lots of fun. I love the way the Bobs
have to think their way through their problems. Lots of fun.
The best way to write a tale abut
the FBI investigating monsters in a Chicago suburb is for one of the
writers, Alistair Kimble, to actually be a FBI special agent. Eric
Flint adds the fantasy excitement to Iron Angels (hard from
Baen) which starts with rescuing a girl kidnaped as a cult
sacrifice. Beings from another world can enter ours and love the
iron in human blood. Someone who has gone into their world comes
back with powers. Jasper Wilde is a special agent working with local
police. After rescuing the girl and seeing inexplicable things, is
joined by Supervisory Special Agent Temple Black from a new x-files
like department. Very exciting with probable sequels.
Marshall Ryan Maresca fantasy
tales take place in the city of Maradaine. Veranix Calbert is a
university student of magic by day and The Thorn at night, using his
magic to rout drug pushers from his part of the city. Satrine
Rainey, the only woman cop and her magic using-partner, Minox
Welling, are inspectors in another part of the city. They are called
to the university area because The Imposters of Aventil
(paper from DAW) have killed cops while dressed as the Thorn. The
university is the host of a massive athletic contest and drug vials
have been appearing on the campus. I love both of these series and
was excited to find the characters I’ve grown to love working both
at cross and together. I can only hope that Mr. Maresca plans more
of these intersections. I really love his world and the fun stories
he tells.
Catherine Asaro returns to the
ancient Skolian empire built by people stolen from Earth four
millennia ago. The Bronze Skies (trade from Baen) sends
Major Bhaajan back into the Undercity (paper) where she was born on
the trail of a Jagernaut who had done the impossible – murdered an
Assembly Councilor in front of the Ruby Pharaoh. Her AI should have
prevented her from even firing her weapon. The core of the puzzle
lies in the ancient ships that brought people to Raylicon and in the
birth parents Major Bhaajan never knew. This is a nice
addition to the saga and I hope Major Bhaajan returns for another
tale.
Curtis Craddock sets his tale of An
Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors (hard from Tor) as a potential
civil war blooms between two princes whose king Father is dying.
Continents float about in a sphere of air with sailing ships flying
between them. The destruction was caused by a technological society
that left ruins and a priesthood that worship their remains.
Princess Isabelle des Zephyrs was born with a crippled right hand
and a lack of the blood-killing sorcery normally found in her
family. Jean-Claude is the King’s musketeer whose been watching over
her since her birth. She is so brilliant that the math papers
published under a pseudonym have received renown. On another
continent the King is dying and the eldest prince’s wife is barren.
She is chosen to wed the younger prince, but things are not as they
seem. There’s a deeper plot by an ancient priest who believes that
she will birth the savior of their world. Unfortunately he also
wants to start a massive war. Isabelle and Jean-Claude have their
hands full, especially since the previous bride was assassinated
before arriving. Lots fun with a sixteenth century feel. Even though
this tale is complete, I’d love to revisit this complicated world.
Melissa Caruso sets her tale of a
a lady and a street kid in a world based on the Venetian Empire of
the fifteenth century. The empire collects most children with
magical abilities and these ‘falcons’ are jessed to
falconers without abilities who can turn their abilities on
and off. Lady Amalia Cornaro is the heir to one of the great
families and normally wouldn’t have been allowed to be a falconer.
But a chance encounter with Zaira, a girl who had live on the
streets and who hid her fire abilities but unleashed them when
attacked by kidnappers. She would have destroyed the city because
she lost control, but another Falconer who had followed the girl,
gave Amalia the jess bracelet because he was already linked to his
sister. Raverra, the city in which Amalia had gotten her education,
is on the verge of revolt and The Tethered Mage (paper from
Orbit) with the rare ability of fire, represents a fearsome weapon
to bring the city back under control of the Raverran Empire.
First however Amalia has to find common ground with Zaira so that
the two can work together and save her friends in Raverra. I look
forward to further adventures.
October Daye’s eleventh adventure
starts when Amandine, Toby’s powerful mother decides that only Toby
can find her lost half-sister, August, a sister who
disappeared in 1910. She kidnaps Toby’s fiancee and only by working
with her worst enemy, Simon Torquill,, August’s father. The trail
leads deep into lost parts of Fairy and The Brightest Fell
(hard from DAW) and then back to San Francisco. The problem is
that August is under a spell that keeps her lost. The series is
still very strong and fans of the series will be very happy with
this episode.
Emma Newman continues her tale of
Charlotte Gun who is still hiding her magical talents from the Royal
Society of the Esoteric Arts in a version of 1850. Her brother, who
is in the society and now working at one of the magical wool
factors, asks her to pretend to be a worker at his factory because
something is destroying the looms and he is afraid he will be blamed
and sent to Australia. The work is far harder than she expected and
the workers have long hours and frequently die on the job. But it’s
really the Weaver's Lament (paper from Tor) at the heart of
the problem caused by the soul stealing looms. Fun.
P. C. Hodgell has been writing
about the Kencyrath who have been fleeing the Primal Darkness from
world to world for three thousand years with the amazing
God Stalk (found in Godstalker Chronicles) in
1982. The heroine Jamethiel lived with her traitor father in the
Primal Darkness and since has been finding her place. Her twin
brother, a decade older rules the Kencyrath despite powerful heads
of Houses who have their own agendas. Jame has been sent with the
command of a hundred to an abandoned Keep. But The Gates of
Tagmeth (trade from Baen) include not only physical gates but
also magical gates hidden in darkness that link the keep to places
all over Rathillien. The series in no closer to an end in this
episode. Jame deals with house politics like refugees from houses
whose rulers have gone mad, local gods awakened when the Kencyrath
arrived, and the problems her friends and enemies force on her. It
helps that Jame has claws and can ride a Rathorn (sort of a lion
horse) Rathillien is a strange world in which people can breathe
underwater if certain conditions are met, and in which the local
gods like the Earth Mother appear at will. Even though this is a
minor addition to the saga, I eagerly lapped it up. Hopefully there
will be more tales.
Patrick Hemstreet tells of
neuroscientist Chuck Brenton who works with advanced EEGs created
from creative volunteers. Then he has a bright idea that the EEGs
could be used to allow direct manipulation of computer effects.
Working with a mathematician Matthew Streegman and others they soon
discover that their subjects can create what they call a zeta brain
wave, The God Wave (paper from HarperCollins Publishers),
allows subjects to do impossible things like telekinesis.
Unfortunately their company signs a contract to train members
with what they think is the US Army but is actually a paramilitary
group. The first half of the tale is a lot of fun, but then
things go dark. It is the first book of a trilogy which I
bought when I read that the tv and film right had been picked up. It
should make for a great tv or movie series.
Tom Doyle’s third tale of secret
magical family fighting craft wars between the right hand magic and
the left-hand evil magic After a Japanese wedding between Michael
Endicott, and Grace Marlow, they are attacked during the
honeymoon and forced to flee to India, where they are asked to
stop an armageddon, with War and Craft (hard from Tor) in a
very real Shangri-La in the mountains between India and Tibet. The
living and ghosts are bent on a destruction that could destroy
the world. Of course it’s all the fault of the villain of the series
Rodney. When death doesn’t mean dying,it makes it harder to care
about the characters. Still this is a fun tale.
After America was invaded by
elves, New Orleans has become a war zone and has been evacuated.
Claire Connolly, who kept her small store operating in the
city, is able to use the magic now available. In her third
adventure she and bounty Liam Quinn have the government on The
Hunt (paper from Berkley by Chloe Neill) for them. Liam is
accused of a murder he couldn’t have committed because he was out of
the city. Of course there’s a conspiracy behind the hunt. Fun.
Michale Sims has put together tales of
Frankenstein Dreams (paper from Bloomsbury USA) of
Victorian Science Fiction with tales from Jules Verne, Mary Shelly,
Edgar Allan Poe, etc. Joseph Nassie has a collection of tales of
Urban Enemies (paper from Gallery Books) from major authors of
Urban Fantasy.The third volume of The Best of Ben Bova is
out in trade from Baen Books. Baen has reprinted David Drakes fun
tale of Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy, Death’s Bright Day in
paper. Baen has reprinted Sharon Lee and Steve Miller latest Lladen
universe tale Alliance of Equals in paper. Michael Z.
Williamson has a collection Forged in Blood (hard from Baen)
set in his Freehold universe.
The Science Fiction Society will have its next
meeting on October 12 2017. Kyle Williamson will speak.
The meeting starts at 8 p.m. at International House
on the University of Pennsylvania Campus. . 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.