Inside GMT Playing at the World Dyson’s Dodecahedron Quest for Fun! Bruce Heard and New Stories CRRPG Addict Fantasy Cafe Sitrep Hex and Violence Desperation Morale Banzai!! Dungeon Fantastic Gaming Ballistic Let’s GURPS The Collaborative GamerThis is yet another indication that I need to pay more attention to book review blogs. I picked this up because of an interesting post on one, and am very happy with the result. I doubt I would have come[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This is… almost a novella collection; the third story is notably shorter, but the other three reach into novella length. The four stories all deal with the ‘dreamers’ of Ty-Kry: Women who can dream and, through a device, share those[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
This old Ace collection of Andre Norton stories is not aptly named. There’s not a lot of sorcery to be had, high or otherwise, and certainly, it’s never called such. As usual for a collection, it is bookended by the[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Okay, I have some problems with the basic premises here. Technology for scanning your personality, your soul, and imprinting it on a disposable clay-like… ‘golem’ who is effectively a mental duplicate of you, is so cheap that sending it out[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Catseye features Norton’s usual broader theme of the main character finding his place in the world, but isn’t really a coming-of-age story like many of her books. In fact, Troy Horan doesn’t need to be exiled or otherwise lost to[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Warlord’s World is decidedly pulp. The Interstellar Patrol is a service in the Federation of Humanity with excellent ships and technology, and a fair amount of latitude in powers (one wonders just what the organization of the Federation is, but[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Starstrike wants to be a simple book. Aliens show up on Earth, and because we’re so much more experienced with war than anyone else, recruit a team of the best soldiers we have to offer to change the balance of[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Overall, The Weapon Shops of Isher was enjoyable, but it has a number of problems. Some of this is structural leftovers from being a combination of three short stories, but some run deeper. The novel starts with a prologue that’s[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The structure of Red Mars is in eight parts, with each one using a different viewpoint character (with two of them repeating earlier viewpoints). They cover about 35 years of the early colonization, settlement, and early terraforming of Mars. The[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Hexwood starts off conventionally enough. Earth is an unwitting backwater in the galaxy when an ancient device activates, and the ruling junta’s efforts to stop the problem fail. Life on Earth continues normally, except for our main character. She observes[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…