Sci-Fi | Raging Biblio-holism

The Silent History

April 19, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Around the year 2011, children begin to be born without the ability for language. Over the next 30 years, humanity struggles to come to terms with its silent brethren: some reject them, others seek to be like them, and several seek to cure them. Told over the course of short interview-based installments, the oral history of the silent pandemic is a groundbreaking event in the history of the novel. The Review: So I am (if you haven’t […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: App, Eli Horowitz, Epistolary, Fiction, Field Reporters, Field Reports, iPhone, Kevin Moffett, Literature, Matthew Derby, Sci-Fi, The Silent History, YYYHHHQQQ

Transmetropolitan: Lonely City

April 9, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: So the Smiler won the election and Spider is feeling a bit gloomy. Still, there are stories to be discovered and Truth to be told – so he, along with his filthy assistants, continues about his merry way. But when he latches onto the story of a brutal beating on Dante Street, he suddenly finds himself smack in the middle of a perfect trap, laid out by maybe even the President himself… The Review: I’ve been impressed […]

Categories: Fiction, Sci-Fi • Tags: Darick Robertson, Dystopian, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Journalism, Lonely City, Patrick Stewart, Politics, Sci-Fi, Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis

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Old Man’s War

March 20, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: After humanity begins to colonize the stars, Earth becomes a bit of a backwater planet – and the best way to get off of it, after having lived a full life, is to sign up for the Colonial Defense Force. No one knows how, exactly, they intend to take a fighting force of septuagenarians and defend a galactic mini-empire… but, then, there’s a LOT John Perry doesn’t know about what’s really happening out in space… The Review: Reader, I […]

Categories: Fiction, Sci-Fi • Tags: Fiction, John Scalzi, Old Man's War, Sci-Fi

Transmetropolitan: Lust for Life

February 8, 2013 by Drew

The Short Version: Spider Jerusalem, back on the beat, manages to lose his assistant to a cult and get himself hunted by a bunch of assassins and cops and other angry ne’er-do-wells. All in a day’s work… The Review: Coming from the world of novel-novels, I’m still learning a bit about the Graphic Novel realm. I grew up with Jeff Smith’s amazing Bone (how have I not referenced that in all this time?) and that set a sort of standard […]

Categories: Fiction, Sci-Fi • Tags: Comic Books, Cyberpunk, Dystopian, Fiction, Graphic Novel, Lust for Life, Sci-Fi, Transmetropolitan, Warren Ellis

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The Age of Miracles

August 24, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Without warning, the Earth’s rotation begins to slow down. At first, it’s not really noticeable… but as it continues and days literally turn into weeks, the human race is forced to adapt to a planet no longer hospitable. Meanwhile, young Julia is still just trying to navigate the minefields of being 11-turning-12 – and life does go on, even in the face of horrible realities. The Review: There’s a reference at one point in the novel to […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Apocalyptic, Fiction, Indiespensable, Karen Thompson Walker, Literature, Powell's, Sci-Fi, The Age of Miracles

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Ready Player One

August 23, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: In the future, a massive online universe has begun to supplement reality. The OASIS, as it’s called, is full of everything and anything you could want – a perfect escape from the dystopian reality of life in the 2040s. When James Halliday (the creator of OASIS) dies, his will sparks a treasure hunt with the grand prize of Halliday’s entire fortune. Then, when a young teen named Wade makes the first breakthrough in the hunt after years of […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Dystopian, Ernest Cline, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Music, Ready Player One, Sci-Fi

The Fortress of Solitude

August 17, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Dylan Ebdus is the first white kid on the block in what-we-now-call Boerum Hill in the 1970s. This is a novel about growing up in Brooklyn when shit was really happening. Loosely autobiographical, with a healthy dose of science fiction sprinkled on top, we follow Dylan as he goes from scrawny kid to full-fledged adult and we see the various ways in which his childhood – and his friendship with Mingus Rude, the son of a black musician […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Fiction, Jonathan Lethem, Literature, New York, Sci-Fi, Superheroes, The Fortress of Solitude

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How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

May 17, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Charles Yu is a time-travel technician… but he’s sort of feeling a bit listless of late. His father sort of invented time travel but lost out on fame and then disappeared in time, his mother is in an old-age time loop, his dog doesn’t actually exist, and he just shot a future version of himself in the chest. The answer, apparently, lies in a copy of a book called “How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional […]

Categories: Fiction, Sci-Fi • Tags: Charles Yu, Fiction, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Sci-Fi

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The Wind Through the Keyhole

May 1, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: There are many levels to the Tower, friends, and sometimes the wheel of ka turns us to places we’ve already been and times we’ve already known – but to see moments we missed before. After escaping the strange OZ in Mid-World but before they reached Calla Bryn Sturgis, Roland and his ka-tet weather a brutal superstorm in the remnants of yet another ghost town. To keep them warm as the starkblast blows, Roland tells them a story […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Sci-Fi, Stephen King, The Dark Tower, The Wind Through the Keyhole, Western

Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley

April 28, 2012 by Drew

The Short Version: Twenty-six short stories by “the creator of dystopian worlds and alternative universes”, blending sci-fi, morality, and humor is a way that would later inspire writers like Douglas Adams and Jonathan Lethem. The Review: I vaguely remember reading a handful of these stories as a very young man, in the second floor office at my grandmother’s house – the room where all of the books were, the books my two uncles hadn’t taken with them into their lives. And […]

Categories: Fiction, Sci-Fi, Short Stories • Tags: Alex Abramovich, Dystopian, Fiction, Humor, Jonathan Lethem, New York Review Books, Robert Sheckley, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Short Stories, Store of the Worlds, The Stories of Robert Sheckley

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Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Category Archives: Sci-Fi

The Silent History

Transmetropolitan: Lonely City

Old Man’s War

Transmetropolitan: Lust for Life

The Age of Miracles

Ready Player One

The Fortress of Solitude

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

The Wind Through the Keyhole

Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley

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