Starfish
{4.5/5} “Outside, she watched the others change. They moved around her without speaking, one connecting smoothly with another to lend a hand or a piece of equipment. When she needed something from one of them, it was there before she could speak. When they needed something from her they had to ask aloud, and the […]
Towers Fall
{4.5/5} “Towers sometimes lost great chunks of themselves to offensive spells, or in failed hostile takeovers. Such wounds caused the Towers pain, hindered their movements and damaged their systems; bad wounds could take years to heal. She though, too, of what Xhea had said when she first discovered the living Lower City’s presence: that it […]
Hunted
{4.5/5} “I stepped on a Balrog when it was in a dispersal phase — actively looking for a new host. Now, it’s happily bonded to me and reproductively dormant. Entirely. Almost. It would only spread to someone else if the chance was too promising to pass up: a host so superior, the Balrog had to […]
Defiant
{4.5/5} “I don’t want to die, she thought, and realized it was true. Not that she could stop it; but perhaps she could die standing. Perhaps she could look that death in the face — not just shake and shiver until the darkness came over her and swept her away. She could die like a […]
Radiant
{4.5/5} “‘Towers need Radiants. They’re born rarely, and are never allowed to change their citizenship. But the human body isn’t designed to hold that much energy. So much life force… the magic kills them in the end.’ To Shai he added, ‘That’s what happened you, yes?’” Radiant by Karina Sumner-Smith, published in 2014 Unlike everybody […]
Heaven’s River
{4.5/5} “Don’t ask me, Bob. Replicant drift seems to be accelerating. I think we’re approaching fifteen to twenty generations, and it’s no longer just a matter of enhanced or suppressed attributes of Original Bob. The differences are accumulating, and some clones are going in completely new directions.” Heaven’s River by Dennis E. Taylor, published in […]
Star Trek: Living Memory
{4.5/5} “The Federation isn’t perfect. We’re better than most, but we only got that way because of past generations of protestors who pushed for a better world. And we do backslide now and then — our leaders get complacent and lazy and need a kick in the pants to remind them what we stand for.” […]
Star Trek: The Higher Frontier
{4.5/5} “Seems to me that you can’t learn that much from someone who’s already like you. That might just be why we’re out here exploring strange new worlds instead of ordinary old ones.” Star Trek: The Higher Frontier by Christopher L. Bennett, published in 2020 When many Aenar are killed on Andoria by unknown attackers, […]
Notes from the Burning Age
{5/5} “The kakuy do not care for the payers of man. They are not interested in our good or bad, our desires or whims. We pay them our respects, not because they will smell the incense or taste the wine, but to remind ourselves of the needfulness of this pact. Everything changes; the balance is […]
Titan
{4.5/5} “”Something tried to eat me,’ she said. ‘Something ate all the organic parts of my suit, and all my hair, then excreted the junk right here. Including me.’ She noted in passing that she was glad the thing had classified her as junk.” Titan by John Varley, published in 1979 The Ringmaster’s mission is […]