Talking Books

Two more books came by mail this weekend. The first, from the Science Fiction Book Club—The Bloody Crown of Conan, the second volume in Del Rey’s new collection of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian stories. The second, from Mad Norwegian Press—Warlords of Utopia, Lance Parkin’s contribution to the Faction Paradox universe. I’ve only glancedContinue reading “Talking Books”

Warped, One More Time

A series of brutal, motiveless murders aboard station Deep Space Nine leads to Odo’s investigation of a new batch of holosuite technology that appears to have the ability to reshape the user’s perception of reality. I won’t really defend Warped, because oftentimes when I do I feel like I spend my time trying to explainContinue reading “Warped, One More Time”

New Reading Material

I stopped by Waldenbooks this morning and bought a copy of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I had some Preferred Reader coupons to use and I was curious. It’s received glowing reviews–Neil Gaiman’s pull-quote on the back cover calls it “unquestionably the finest English novel of the fantastic written in the last seventyContinue reading “New Reading Material”

Gauntlet: Paths of Evil

A week ago browsing the local Waldenbooks while in search of Keith R.A. DeCandido‘s novel Dragon Precinct I discovered that a novel based on the video game, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy had been published by iBooks, written by Richard C. White, entitled Paths of Evil. Dragon Precinct hadn’t arrived yet, or hadn’t been shelved yet–one canContinue reading “Gauntlet: Paths of Evil”

Speculations on Pak Protectors

Reading Larry Niven’s Ringworld’s Children recently sparked a thought or three. What if Tree-of-Life virus was a bioweapons project that went horribly wrong? As much as the Protector concept thrills me, the relationship between the Pak and Tree-of-Life has always struck me as unlikely and unnatural. Yes, evolution works in strange ways, and the firstContinue reading “Speculations on Pak Protectors”