Henry L Lazarus
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Science Fiction for May 2021
by Henry L Lazarus
You don’t have to wear masks and keep social
distancing in Fantasy and Science Fiction worlds.
Andy Weir started his career abandoning an astronaut on
Mars. Ryland Grace, ex microbiologist and high school teacher gets
marooned on Project Hail Mary (hard from Ballantine Books),
a ship sent to Tau Ceti. At first he doesn’t remember why he is
there, and the two crew members died in the forced coma he survived.
The problem he’s been sent to solve is that of Astrophages,
microscopic organisms that have infected the sun. They travel to
Venus to breed and in doing so lower the solar output. Numerous suns
near Earth have also been infected, except for Tau Ceti. As he
finally realizes why he has been sent, an alien ship moves close to
him. Yes this is a first contact and scientific puzzle tale about
the survival of two intelligent beings. As much fun as The Martian
(paper).
Christopher Buehlman has a romp of
a quest tale of The Blacktongue Thief (hard from Tor) who
owes money to the Guild of Thieves for cost of his low education. It
takes place after the goblin wars and after the death of all the
horses and a good portion of all the men. To repay his debt, he is
asked to accompany Galva, a knight who fought with the giant birds
that helped win the war. She wants to cross the sea to rescue her
queen from a city attacked by giants. The Guild, for its own
purposes, insists Kinch Na Shannack accompany her. This is a fun,
albeit light adventure where things go spectactularly wrong and yet
somehow work out. The whaler they board to cross the ocean is
attacked by a Kraken and the cat that attaches itself to Kinch has
magical properties. Kinch is skilled at theft, with some magical
abilities. This is a world where creatures can be caught up in a
tattoo, and where wizards are quite weird. I’d definitely enjoy a
sequel.
I have a soft spot for superhero
tales. Alejandro Gonzalez tells of lights in the sky that give
superpowers. Manny is a nerd who works minimum wage jobs. When the
lights hit, Manny thinks of his favorite female superhero Capacitor,
His mind lifts the hero Off the Pages (paper from
BooksGoSocial) and he turns into his hero. While he can switch
between the two personas easily, he likes finding emergencies around
the world where his new powers can help. Billionaire Jericho
Torvalds gets the ability to copy superpowers (without stealing
them) and starts paying good money for people with powers. The world
adapts easily to the changes, because most people are law abiding,
until the Reverend Jack Hurst causes his version of Jesus to
manifest, and proceeds to try to converty. Manny as Jane Black, and
Jericho have to work together to save the world. Lots of fun. I
suspect I’ll read this one again.
P. Djèlí Clark tells of 1912 Cairo
in a world in which magic has returned and Djinns have integrated
into society. The man responsible for bringing magic back, al-Jahiz,
also known as A Master of Djinn (hard from Tor). Someone
pretending to be him has killed a society of Englishmen dedicated to
understanding him. Agent Fatma el-Sha’arawi , her friend Siti, and
her new partner Hadia, have their hands filled in stopping the
imposter before he starts World War I. Even the ancient gods of
Egypt and the clock-work angels are involved. Very exciting and lots
of fun.
If reincarnation is real, then
there are people who remember past lives completely. D. Eric
Maikranz’s The Reincarnationist Papers (paper from
Blackstone Publishing) is the memoirs of Evan Michaels, an arsonist
recruited Cognomina because he doesn’t understand how he remembers
two past lives. Many members of the club have memories stretching
back hundreds of years. The club allows them to pass wealth on and
they and have become blasé like vampires except for growing
old and going out in the sun. This is a fun tale and a nice
introduction to their strange world.
Gene Doucette has a tale of The
Apocalypse Seven (paper from John Joseph Adams/Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt) who wake up one morning to find the world empty of
people, with wolves roaming the streets. Gradually they find each
other and learn how to survive the dangerous weather to hunt for
their food. There’s also a flickering light that keeps appearing.
There’s no dead bodies, but dust and ruined clothes where the bodies
might have been. While the question of what happened permeates the
tale, how the seven survive is the interesting part. The
explanation for the events is revealed slowly and impossible to
guess. Lots of fun.
Nicole Kornher-Stace writes of a
future in which wars between companies have left a depressed economy
and playing a shared game can actually earn people money. In Liberty
City Mallory and her partner fight the monsters in the game and hope
to spot the specops, who in the real world are super-powered
protectors of Stellaxis who fight mechanical monsters. When she
films a chance encounter with two of the surviving specops in the
real world, and releases her footage, it goes viral, propelling her
partner and herself to top tier in the game, no longer having to
work part-time jobs like dog walking. The specops, however, have a
dark secret. Mallory goes hunting to help them, and invariantly
starts a revolution against the corporations. Firebreak (hard from Gallery / Saga
Press) is a dark tale of a dystopian future and about
normal people who have to step up to improve the world.
In a very far future, the Earth is
uninhabitable, but still gets tourist visitors. The locals stage
battle droid fights. Zhi has found an ancient warbot that she is
fixing up. Desperate for money she tricks a researcher, Kas, into a
bet. She was thinking all off-worlders were rich. Kas is only third
class and the money risked is not hers. Django Wexler
has a fun, albeit predictable, tale of droid fights with impossible
odd and Hard Reboot (ebook from Tor) problems. Light fun.
Sirgrus Blackmane Demihuman
Gumshoe and The Dark-Elf (hard from BHC Press) is the tale of
the only dwarf in the city, trying to find why is partner, and
fellow soldier from the Great War against the Orcs in Europa has
been murdered. There’s also a dame who wants to know if her sister
was murdered. The two cases may be related to a feud between the two
gangs running alcohol in this time of Prohibition. There’s also the
fairy secretary who needs her salary. William Schlichter has too
much fun with this Mickey Spillane style fantasy. I look forward to
further adventures.
Seanan McGuire continues the tale
of Rose Marshall, the ghost in the prom dress haunting the roads.
This time she has to finally face the man who killed her and who has
been sucking up souls to keep himself young, Bobby Cross. The
crossroads died in the previous book, and he is no longer protected.
With the help Angel of the Overpass (paper from DAW) and her
friends, she will finally see to his end. Fun.
In the continuing adventure, Sir
Ransom Barton returns from his quest, which gave him a magic sheath
for his sword. Immediately he is caught up in a Warrior's Ransom
(paper from 47North) of a fight between an aging King and his sons.
This time he is commanding the army the father, and the son has help
from enemy nations. Fun.
Justin T. Call continues his epic
trilogy set in a world of gods and strong magic. In the first tale,
Master of Sorrows (paper), was saved by ancient priest after
his parents were murdered, all because he was born without one arm.
With a magical replacement that looked and felt real, he was able to
hide in the Academy of Chaenbalu, a place that trains its students
to steal magical objects they consider evil. At the end, his fake
arm destroyed, he replaces it with the powerful Arm of the dead god
Keos, and finds he can’t remove it. When the teachers at the academy
attack him, he destroys the Academy. The sequel sends him on a quest
to find how to remove the arm, and in the process become a Master
Artificer (hard from Blackstone Publishing) Under attack as
the vessel of Keos, who may eventualy become the god reborn, he
crosses the world. His friends learn to use their magical abilities.
One of his friends was locked in the Academy and barely survives,
becoming much stronger due to adversity. Another is apprenticed to a
shadow assassin and travels to shadow lands learning to kill
monsters. All are in trouble at the end, leaving the reader to wait
eagerly for the third installment.
Angela Yuriko Smith & Scot Noel edited tales
about Worlds of Light & Darkness (ebook from Uproar
Books) selected from DreamForge and Space &
Time literary magazines. Rhonda Parrish edit a
collection of tales about the tarot Arcana (ebook from
Poise and Pen Publishing).
The Nebula award nominations are: Piranesi,
Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury US; Bloomsbury UK); The City We Became,
N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US & UK); Mexican Gothic,
Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher);The Midnight Bargain,
C.L. Polk (Erewhon); Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Saga;
Solaris); and Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom).
Hugo nominations are: Black
Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press / Solaris); The
City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit); Harrow The Ninth,
Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com); Network Effect, Martha Wells
(Tor.com); Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury); and
The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books /
Solaris)
Dr. Henry Lazarus is a retired 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 fusion generation
requires less energy because only one frequency is needed rather
than a full spectrum. It also explains dark matter, the
proliferation of subatomic particles, and the limit of light speed
for matter.