Best tie-in novels by year

Posted by Dave Switzer under My thoughts

Here’s an update to this list.   Winner Runner Ups Year Author Title Author Title 2023 John Jackson Miller SNW: The High Country     2022         2021 David Mack ST: Coda — Oblivion’s Gate Christopher L. Bennett TOS: Living Memory   Una McCormack The Autobiography of Mr. Spock Cassandra Rose Clarke […]

Best science fiction novels by year

Posted by Dave Switzer under My thoughts

Here’s an update to this list.   Winner Runner Ups Year Author Title Author Title 2023 John Scalzi Starter Villain     2022 Ren Hutchings Under Fortunate Stars Julie E. Czerneda To Each This World       Mur Lafferty Station Eternity       Emily St. John Mandel Sea of Tranquility       […]

Author discovery of the year

Posted by Dave Switzer under My thoughts

Here’s an update to this list. The big winner for the year is Margarita Montimore, for Oona Out of Order. The runner ups are Ren Hutchings for Under Fortunate Stars, Travis Baldree for Legends & Lattes, Alexander Jablokov for Carve the Sky, and Charles Yu for How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. […]

Virga

Posted by Dave Switzer under My thoughts

Here are the novels in Karl Schroeder’s Virga series. If he writes more, I will read them. Sun of Suns 2006 -> 4.5/5 Queen of Candesce 2007 -> 4.5/5 Pirate Sun 2008 -> 4.5/5 The Sunless Countries 2009 -> 4.5/5 Ashes of Candesce 2012 -> 4.5/5

Ashes of Candesce

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “That’s our true enemy… Velleity means ‘having a vague desire to do something, but not enough will to actually do it.’ If we take our message of urgent action around to the nations of Virga, that’s what we’re going to get: a vague interest, some desultory waves of the hand, and no commitment… So, […]

The Sunless Countries

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “Her hands and feet had taken the whole weight of her body so that while she seemed to be sitting in her chair, in reality she hovered a fraction of an inch above it. For long seconds she sat, paralyzed in midflight or midattack by a decade of self-taught lessons in how to play […]

Pirate Sun

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “She saw infinite patience there, the look of a man who has long ago abandoned himself to his role in life. It came to her that he knew what was coming, had plotted out each of her moves as on a chessboard, long before she spoke or acted. He knew what she intended, and […]

Queen of Candesce

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “Eventually she moved over to the window and picked up a particular doll. Its tunic was ripped where the secret policemen had cut it open looking for hidden notes… So that’s what he’d been doing. Albard had rubbed its eyebrows off against the stone. Then, in meticulous tiny lines and curls, he had repainted […]

Sun of Suns

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “The shells of cloud that enveloped the center of Virga sometimes parted, revealing the sun of suns, Candesce. Daylight would suddenly flash out to fill the entire volume of winter. Each time, Hayden had stood on the air, amazed at the brilliance of it — at the sheer size of an ancient, untended fusion […]

Cage of Souls

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “Will you even remember, yourself? No, your minds contract so that nothing but that awful city is in it. You will forget that there are other ways of living. Even Stefan here, who writes brave words about how to save the world, never dreamed of living outside Shadrapar. If the city can be saved, […]