Archive for the ‘Reviews of books’ Category
Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes
{4.5/5} “There was something inside of man that made him want to destroy what he built. Alone among God’s primates he kills for sport or lust or greed. With each passing season, men found new ways to kill more of each other. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother’s land. And yet […]
Star Trek Typhon Pact: Paths of Disharmony
{4.5/5} “‘So far,’ Jean-Luc replied, ‘every move the Typhon Pact has made, regardless of the ultimate goal, has been carried out with deliberation and patience. Whatever they’re doing, it’s for a reason.’” Andor, one of the founding members of the Federation, was hit hard by the Borg and it’s facing a problem specific to their people — […]
Star Trek: Rough Beasts of Empire
{4.5/5} “Modern Vulcan culture focuses on the individual mastery of emotion as well as an everyday reliance on logic… This, of course, contrasts with Romulan cultural norms.” Spock is on Romulus, promoting the reunification of Vulcans and Romulans, when he’s attacked by a Reman and almost killed. Who sent the Reman to try to kill him? Romulan […]
Star Trek Typhon Pact: Seize the Fire
{4.5/5} “What do you propose I do about it? Do you expect the warrior caste to intimidate the local star into better behavior?” The starship Titan under the command of Captain Riker has discovered evidence that an ancient civilization had technology like the Genesis device to convert planets from lifelessness to life. Meanwhile the Gorn […]
Star Trek Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game
{4.5/5} “‘In Simon Says, the losers don’t get shot in the head.’ ‘They do in the original Klingon version.’” Dr. Julian Bashir has been recruited for a dangerous mission — infiltrate the Breen and sabotage their development of the slipstream drive. His accomplice is Sarina Douglas, who works for Starfleet Intelligence — Bashir has met […]
The Eyes of the Overworld
{4/5} “I dimly recall that I inhabit a sty and devour the coarsest of food — but the subjective reality is that I inhabit a glorious palace and dine on splendid viands among the princes and princesses who are my peers. It is explained thus: the demon Underherd looked from the sub-world to this one; […]
The Dying Earth
{4.5/5} “A dim place, ancient beyond knowledge. Once it was a tall world of cloudy mountains and bright rivers, and the sun was a white blazing ball. Ages of rain and wind have beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun is feeble and red. The continents have sunk and risen. A million cities have […]
Towing Jehovah
{4.5/5} “‘Glad you’re here, Ockham,’ said the creature in the sort of thin, scratchy voice Thomas associated with early-thirties gangster movies. His skin was astonishingly white, beyond Caucasian genes, beyond albinism even; he seemed molded from snow. ‘I’m told you are at once devout’ — he stood on his toes — ‘and smart.’ Whereupon, to […]
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
{4.5/5} “In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it’s far more common for human beings to turn into rats.” Iris is a young girl just arrived in Haarlem in Holland. She fled England with her mother and sister because […]
Revelation Space
{4.5/5} “It was not something to which she was ever going to become totally accustomed, Volyova knew, but in recent weeks visiting the Captain had begun to take on definite tones of normality. As if visiting a cryogenically cooled corpse infected with a retarded but potentially all-consuming plague was merely one of life’s unpleasant but […]