Spent a good amount of time working at Balticon 57, first helping to unload the truck, then mostly at Registration. Worked many hours Thursday evening through Saturday, but I hit the wall Sunday morning and had to retire. Am I getting too old? Also made a first visit to the BSFS clubhouse in December. Friendly folks, a massive SF library, and a very impressive and well-maintained space. Attend two monthly meetings, pay $45, and you can become a BSFS member. My main interest in Sci-Fi is in the written word. Not precisely "Literary", because I also enjoy older, Pulpy stuff, like Edgar Rice Burroughs or Leigh Brackett. I didn't keep current on upcoming writers after about 1993, being busy with other interests, but since retiring I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to find writers who've broken into the scene since then. This year, I've found two relatively new, although hardly young, writers -- James Cambias and D. J. Butler. I will be dipping into more of thei...

The Godel Operation -- James Cambias -- 2021 An engaging, exciting and humorous space opera. Thousands of years after an AI/Human war almost wipes out humankind, a Droid who is more that he appears (but you'll figure it out) makes friends with a young man, and is sucked into a web of intrigue and adventure, beset by foes both red-blooded and robotic. Soon joined by two young women with competing motives, they criss-cross the solar system in search of a McGuffin rumored to be a doomsday weapon. Told from the Droid's viewpoint, which finds plenty of (well-founded!) humor in the strange, often irrational, behavior of his human companions. A superb SF novel -- highly recommended. To maximize enjoyment, do what I did -- read the Mass-Market paperback , which features an appropriately garish cover. Galaxy's Edge -- No. 57 -- July 2022 POD magazine, published out of Rockville MD. A mix of reprints by noted authors (even the columns!) and amateur efforts of little note. I didn...

    Last Saturday (24 Sep 2022) dawned promising a beautiful, cool early autumn day. Time for another book run up to Hagerstown MD! The Sci-Fi and Fantasy haul, all from Wonder Books :   -- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress -- Robert Heinlein -- 1966   -- When Night Falls -- C. S. Friedmann -- 1993   -- Eternity Road -- Jack McDevitt -- 1997   -- Emerald Sea -- John Ringo -- 2004   The Heinlein will be a re-read. Last time about 50 years ago, whilst in High School ... one of the options on the school's summer reading list, believe it or not. I've been looking for a one-volume mass-market PB of Cherryh's "Cyteen." Was it ever published? I've seen the three volume mass-market PBs, and the one volume trade paperback.

Braking Day -- Adam Oyebanji -- 2022 A young midshipman prepares for the fast approaching day when a small fleet of generation starships will begin braking in preparation for arrival at their destination world after a 132-year journey. He's from the crew class, not the officer class, a rare (potential) climber in a socially stratified world. I was excited to read this one, as I enjoy the Generation Ship sub-genre. Unfortunately, it's written somewhere between Juvenile and Young Adult. With no real adult themes or any nuanced examination of the social system, it reads more as High School in Outer Space. Still, it was enjoyable enough, try it if the theme / setting appeals to you ... or if you're a young adult. And, blessedly, contains no SJW bushwa! Black Sun Rising -- C. S. Friedman -- 1991 First volume of a fantasy/horror (with a bit of SF) trilogy. Set 1000 years after humans settle a planet where the local 'fae' can be channeled to create magic; but, unfortunatel...

John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction   A history of the early days of modern Science Fiction, centered about the lives of John W. Campbell Jr. and three of his proteges: Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and Isaac Asimov. A sometimes interesting account of a crucial era in the history of Science Fiction, but mainly just biographies of the titular personalities. Most of the interactions among these characters occurred before World War II, long before the lifetimes of anyone likely to be reading. I'm a longtime SF reader who grew up reading Heinlein and Asimov, and started reading Analog intermittently from about the time of Campbell's death.  As invested as I am in the SF of the second half of the 20th Century, the history of the first half didn't interest me that much. Really, if you want to know what was happening in SF way back when, just read the stories! (SPOILER: It mostly sucked, especially Hubbard an...

      I've been an avid science-fiction fan from childhood. Through the eighties into the early nineties, I subscribed to IASFM. Some truly great stuff was published in that mag, particularly when Gardner Dozois was editor. I became acquainted with some of my favorite authors through that magazine and got caught up in the excitement generated by the Cyberpunk movement, which was prominently represented in its pages. Around 1994, I dropped my subscription, and fell out of touch with new and upcoming SF writers. Still followed my favorites from the eighties but, besides John Scalzi, really didn't become acquainted with any new SF writers. About ten years ago, I decided to try to discover some of the new talent, since some of my favorites (e.g., Bruce Sterling) weren't publishing much anymore. So I took a six-month subscription to IASFM in an attempt to educate myself. Good lord, in those six issues I enjoyed the grand total of ONE story! The rest, just dross, pure dross. Fa...

  Our Heroine, a software baron (who actually knows how to code -- talk about science fiction!), flees dark forces in a near-future Earth only to be yanked into a strange universe populated with highly evolved, cyberneticly enhanced human-like races. The action gallops along briskly in a strange and original setting. It's pure Space Opera with an evil Empress, a marauding galaxy-consuming alien entity, and rivals who hurl titanic energies against each other. One action sequence follows another as our Heroine and her allies are battered, bruised, and tortured, miraculously recover, then move on to another girl, another weird planet. But before concluding in the somewhat underwhelming final conflict, our Heroine learns to overcome her selfish, controlling tendencies and place her trust in the ability and loyalty of the odd collection of friends she's gathered during her journey. It's an enjoyable and well-written tale, but it runs a little long. Shaving off 20% probably would...

  Took advantage of a bright, blustery Sunday and motored out to Hagerstown, Maryland to troll the used bookstores. Picked up a bunch of history and biography at 2nd & Charles , but all the Sci-Fi at Wonder Books . The latter had a 2-for-1 deal on mass market paperbacks, which regular readers know would make me happy. The Haul:   -- The Tar-Aiym Krang -- Alan Dean Foster -- 1972   -- Probability Moon -- Nancy Kress -- 2000   -- Midnight at the Well of Souls -- Jack Chalker -- 1977   -- Bloodhype -- Alan Dean Foster -- 1973   -- Black Sun Rising -- C. S. Friedman -- 1991 Also picked up "King Jesus", by Robert Graves. Haven't read it yet, but I guess it's either an alternate history or an alternate myth, depending on your tribal allegiance. Genre-adjacent, at least.

The Concise Version Science Fiction should only be read in mass-market paperback, preferably with a garishly illustrated cover. And the reader should be 12 years old. The Verbose, Profusely Self-Referential Version Science Fiction should never be read in hardback. Paperbacks merely by their tatty, down-market appearance flag you as someone who's just that type of shifty subversive capable of imagining a reality more than half a step distant from the status-quo. And you can hide it away in your back pocket so won't be eyeballed as one of those people should you ever find yourself in some rigidly conformist stronghold -- like a Whole Foods or University campus. Back in the previous century, when libraries actually bought books instead of burning them, it was common to have at least a couple of spinner racks stuffed with Sci-Fi paperbacks. A perfect gateway drug for youngsters venturing out from the Heinlein juveniles stashed in the children's section. I can't remember wh...

    Tinker -- Wen Spencer -- 2003 My membership for Balticon 2020 was rolled over to Balticon 2021, then rolled over to Balticon 2022 . Hopefully it'll stop rolling. If it starts to gather some moss, I'll see you in Baltimore over Memorial Day weekend. One of the scheduled guests is Wen Spencer, from whom I've read nothing. I decided to try something, in my quest to discover new SF authors -- by new, I mean someone not publishing before the present century. One of her earliest novels, "Tinker", was highly recommended in on-line reviews. Even though it was awarded Best Science Fiction Romance novel of 2004, I decided to take a flyer. In the near future, the Chinese have built an orbiting inter-dimensional gateway that sends out colonists for interstellar exploration. An unexpected side effect from the gate's operation sends the city of Pittsburgh to a parallel Earth where magic exists. This mirrored Earth, Elfhome, is populated by a race of elves who have esche...

  Whence we learn the history of how the Posleen boiled forth to scourge the spaceways. A small surviving band of Posleen are whisked off Earth by the Indowy / Himmit, and sent off to discover the ancient and forgotten origin of their rampage across the galaxy. A team of human clerics chases them in the hope of converting the race, and leading them back to a peaceful existence in Galactic civilization. The designs of the Aldenata are revealed, and it seems that they themselves burst upon a galaxy already ravaged from a genocidal onslaught of unknown origin. This, and the John Ringo novel "Eye of the Storm", the last two published in the series, seem to be setting up a new existential threat to humanity, presumably those responsible for the pre-Aldenata catastrophe. Nothing has been published since 2009, though. This novel, like the rest of the series, is a well-written Space Opera romp -- leave your slide-rule at the door. I've greatly enjoyed this series, and have read a...