Science Fiction | Raging Biblio-holism

Version Control

February 26, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: Something feels slightly off about the world Rebecca Wright is living in, as though things have shifted in some small way that she can’t define. Her husband is a scientist working on a causality violation device (NOT A TIME MACHINE) and her son is perhaps misunderstood by both of them. After a horrible accident, Rebecca’s life changes irrevocably – or… does it? What if her husband’s work is exactly what he thinks it isn’t? The Review: Remember that Michael […]

Categories: Fiction, Sci-Fi • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Dexter Palmer, Fiction, Literature, review, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, The Tournament of Books 2017, Time Travel, Version Control

Slaughterhouse-Five

January 4, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time – and as he bounces between the decades of his life (a young man, an optometrist, a prisoner of war in Dresden, a prisoner of aliens on Tralfamadore), the novelist creating him considers his own time in Dresden and how best to write about it. The Review: It feels fitting to me that the first review I’m publishing in 2017 is of a book that needs no review. Slaughterhouse-Five is the […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Autofiction, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Dresden, Fiction, Kurt Vonnegut, Literature, Memoir, Re-Reads, review, Reviews, Science Fiction, Semi-Fiction, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Ten Year Catch-Up, Vonnegut 201x, World War Two

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Roundup, December 2016

December 23, 2016 by Drew

Samedi the Deafness by Jesse Ball 4.5 out of 5 The Short Version: When James Sim comes upon a stabbed man, his life is upended. Who (or what) is Samedi? Why are people following him? What is the horrible plan that will happen on the seventh day? Can his own mind be trusted? The Review: Ball’s earliest novel is in some ways his most categorizable. It reads like a thriller in the mold of John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps or Hitchcock’s mistaken-man […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Mystery, Sci-Fi • Tags: Cibola Burn, Classics, Consider Phlebas, Culture, Fiction, Futurism, Iain M. Banks, James S. A. Corey, Jesse Ball, L. Frank Baum, Literature, Mystery, Normal, Samedi the Deafness, Santa Claus, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Science Future, The Culture, The Expanse, Warren Ellis

“The Dancer” & “The Speckled God”: Two from Unsung Signals

December 2, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Penelope D’Silva is a world-famous dancer, perhaps the best alive. But attendance at her performances is dropping, even as her filmed performances continue to sell out. What can be done to recapture the magic of live performance – and how far will Penelope go to find it? The Review: This short is an episode of Black Mirror waiting to happen. I don’t mean that to say the story reads like a film treatment – it doesn’t, at all – […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Advance Review, Book, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Horror, Marc Joan, Rab Ferguson, review, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Speculative, The Dancer, The Speckled God, Unsung Signals, Unsung Stories, Weird Fiction

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The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016

November 16, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A twist on the tale of the Mad Hatter, stories of human evolution gone awry, scenes of warfare turned endless, and all manner of creatures (including but not limited to the Daydreamer-by-Proxy and djinns) feature in this collection of the year’s best Science Fiction and Fantasy, compiled by Karen Joy Fowler. The Review: It’s interesting to think about how a collection is often a manifest representation of its editor. Joe Hill’s work guest-editing the first annual installment […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Sci-Fi, Short Stories • Tags: BASFF2016, Best American, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016, Best American SFF, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantasy, John Joseph Adams, Karen Joy Fowler, review, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Short Stories

Jack of Shadows

November 9, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: On a tidally locked world where technology rules the Day and magic the Night, one man – know as Jack, among other things – seeks revenge for a series of slights in a vendetta that will lead him across the entire planet, passing between worlds that might as well be in a different universe. The Review: I fell for Roger Zelazny last fall when I read A Night in the Lonesome October. Playful, inventive, full of imagination – I […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Sci-Fi • Tags: Book, Book Reviews, Books, Chicago Review Press, Fantasy, Fiction, Jack of Shadows, review, Reviews, Roger Zelazny, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction

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Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse #3)

November 7, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: After the protomolecule had its way with Venus, it launched something out into orbit in the outer reaches of the planetary solar system. Nobody has yet gone through this Ring, but when a rogue spacecraft does and discovers something on the other side, humanity’s interest is piqued. And of course, James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante find themselves in the midst of it all – but this time, they have to figure out how to battle back […]

Categories: Fiction, Sci-Fi • Tags: Abaddon's Gate, Adventure, Aliens, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Colonization, Fiction, James S. A. Corey, Outer Space, review, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Solar System

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Animal Money

September 9, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Five economists at a conference in Latin America all receive injuries that keep them from the conference at large. In their conversations, they develop the idea of animal money – a currency that is qualitative as opposed to quantitative and also alive. The world quickly begins to spin out of control, as does the narrative, all because of one idea… The Review: Imagine a generic sci-fi B-movie. The scientist is in his lab, readying the latest attempt at some […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Animal Money, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Economics, Fantasy, Fiction, Lazy Fascist Press, Literature, Metafiction, Michael Cisco, review, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Speculative, Speculative Fiction, Surreal, Surrealism

Roundup, August 2016

August 31, 2016 by Drew

A monthly round-up of any books that didn’t get a full review! Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang 3 out of 5 The Short Version: On Nov. 1, 1988, four paper girls are doing their early morning route when they encounter strange creatures. What seems like leftovers from Halloween quickly turns out to be something else entirely: some kind of invasion from across time and space. So they fight back. The Review: I’m a sucker […]

Categories: Fiction, Graphic Novel, History, Literature, Non-Fiction, Sci-Fi, Short Stories • Tags: August 2016, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Fiction, Frederic Morton, Graphic Novel, History, Judaism, Literature, Non-Fiction, Paper Girls, Rebecca Schiff, review, Review Roundup, Reviews, Roundup, Science Fiction, Short Stories, The Bed Moved, Thunder at Twilight

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Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Science Fiction

Version Control

Slaughterhouse-Five

Roundup, December 2016

“The Dancer” & “The Speckled God”: Two from Unsung Signals

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016

Jack of Shadows

Abaddon’s Gate (The Expanse #3)

Animal Money

Roundup, August 2016