Thursday, July 24, 2025

Review of Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God by Steven Erikson

As they were conceived as a single volume, I will review Dust of Dreams (2009) and The Crippled God (2011) as a single volume, despite they were published as two separate books. No spoilers.

Fairly or unfairly, epic fantasy series are often judged by their closing volume. Throughout a series, things have been building, ramping up, and are ready to explode by the end—to provide readers the catharsis via fireworks they have been lead to believe will occur. The Malazan series has been a little different, however. Each of the eight books leading to the closing volume has been insular, closed off. Overarching threads of story and certain characters, bind the series together, but the concerns of a given volume remain inherent to to themes and characters to that volume. Which is what makes Erikson's decision to do what he did in Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God so... interesting? To explain.

All of the Malazan Book of the Fallen books to date have been massive. Each features ~1000 pages. Each features dozens and dozens and dozens, if not more than a hundred characters. Each features multiple, multiple storylines and settings. The reader has had to max their mental RAM keeping all of these pieces straight—who is who, where they are, and what they're trying to do. Add to this magic, warrens, gods, and characters who can shapeshift and it's a smorgasbord extremely few readers have any chance of digesting their first one or two times through the series. You almost have to take notes.

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Review of The End & the Death: Volume III by Dan Abnett

This is it. The arrowhead striking home. The mushroom cloud rising. The supernova erupting from the Horus Heresy series. Sixty-four books into one of the most epic tales ever told, and we've reached the end. The third end. The absolute end. The End and the Death: Volume III by Dan Abnett (2024).

In reality, the expectations for the final-final-final volume of the Horus Heresy are even higher than that. The book must not only deliver the explosive showdown between Horus and the Emperor, it must also propel the reader into the 40th millennium. It needs to resolve the demi-gods' conflict and set the stage for the thousands of stories that have been told, are being told, and will be told. It must answer the questions why the Emperor sits on the throne, burning through souls like cigarettes, rather than kicking ass around the galaxy. It needs to provide the impetus for the Astra Militarum, Sisters of Silence, Plague Marines, et al, et al. And it needs to ____(fill in your Warhammer jam here)____. The natural question is: does Volume III deliver on these expectations?

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Review of The Ceres Solution by Bob Shaw

Utopia/dystopia is a popular science fiction theme. It would be hyperbole to say 'innumerable' books have been written on the subject. It's not as ubiquitous as other common sf themes like exploration, colonialism, xenomorphology, etc. But there is a healthy amount of books in the area. Nerdy Master's and PhD students do not lack for source material. One potential reference is Bob Shaw's The Ceres Solution (1981).

The Ceres Solution is a story of world's (metaphorically) colliding*, as told through the eyes of two unlikely people. One world is Mollan, a former Earth colony, now evolved into a quasi-utopian society. World peace exists, people live for hundreds and hundreds of years, technology like magic exists, and the individual is free to pursue their interests. This includes Gretana, a young woman who goes to Earth to act as an observer for Mollan society. And the other world is indeed, Earth. An unevolved version of our Earth, crime, depravity, and vice run rampant. Hargate is a bitter young man who grows up in these conditions, exacerbated by the fact he is confined to a wheelchair. But upon completing his education, he receives the opportunity of a lifetime—to go into space, a place where his lack of legs means significantly less. Eventually, Gretana and Hargate meet, and that is where The Ceres Solution attempts to come to terms with its utopian/dystopian dichotomy.

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Review of Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson

Gardens of the Moon, first book in the Malazan series, was centered around Darujhistan. A city featuring an Arabian vibe, its streets glowed with blue ether fire, politicians built cabals behind wooden doors, and assassins had secret wars on dusty rooftops. But the series never returned to the setting. Until now. Toll the Hounds (2008), eighth book in the series, goes back to the exotic city to see how things have fared since a Jaghut tyrant nearly razed it to the ground.

In Darujhistan, several retired Bridgeburners have found a new home. But when assassination attempts start targeting them, they can't relax, and begin fighting back. Separated from Icarium, Mappo has heard rumors his old friend has tried to kill the unkillable Tiste Edur ruler in Letheras, and sets out on the long journey with the help of the Trygalle Trade Guild. Since defeating the Seerdommin in Memories of Ice, Anomander Rake has destroyed his massive, airborne island and taken up residence in the city of Black Coral. But the cult of the Seerdommin remains, and a new secret hand has been found trying to manipulate it. And in perhaps the most interesting setting of all, Anomander Rake's sword Dragnipur, the great wagon being hauled by the souls the sword has slain begins to slow. Losing power, the god Draconus tries to prevent the realm from losing all its power.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Review of Grendel by John Gardner

As a teen, I would amuse myself with the classic thought experiment of observing life on Earth through the eyes of fictional aliens. Undoubtedly this lead to my agnostic “beliefs”, but it likewise lead to a lifelong appreciation of viewpoints which examine life from abstract angles. Perhaps this is the attraction to John Gardner's Beowulf-inspired Grendel (1971).

Grendel is Beowulf through the eyes of the eponymous monster. It tells the tale in first-person, tracking the hairy beast's observations, feedings, and musings on the villages and tribes he terrorizes. His encounters with dragons and priests likewise come under the story's lens, all before the monster meets his known fate.

But the script is flipped in more ways than one. Rather than a paean to heroism, Grendel is an evisceration of human behavior, mundane to ethereal. Gardner takes the piss out of our social hierarchies, religions, and methods for blowing off steam—aka sex, murder, drunkenness, etc. It's an expose—a yin to Beowulf's yang, that not all is glory and honor and legacy.

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Review of The End & the Death: Volume II by Dan Abnett

Volume I of Dan Abnett's The End & the Death was largely about setting tone and yes, getting the two Bigs off their idle asses. It was the quiet before the culmination of Horus' grand storm. In Volume II, drops start falling and lightning begins to flicker.

Indeed, in Volume II the pace picks up, tension ratchets up (somehow), and worlds begin to twist. Certain characters find themselves far out of their element as Chaos blurs the line between reality and dreams. The narrative rotates through a large fistful of characters—Malcador, Loken, Sigismund, Sanguinius, Horus, Horus, Ull, John, Vulkan, and several others. The dark king emerges from the shadows, but does he go further? The Dark King, a personage who has flitted through the shadows, finally reveals itself. And the BIG Chaos evil (finally) shows his (its?) face in theatrical fashion. Abnett seeming to relish these scenes, the Hansel & Gretel breadcrumbs that have been dropped throughout the series finally amount to a path.

Friday, June 27, 2025

Review of Written on the Dark by Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay has become, like many aging writers, a one note tune. He has been churning out the same cut/paste novels for the past decade. This is fortunate and unfortunate. As the market has made clear, there is a large swathe of readers who want dependable product. But there are also readers who look to storytelling to be an art, an idea that inherently requires innovation, evolution, and experimentation. Does Kay's latest, Written on the Dark (2025), buck his own trend?

Written on the Dark is the fictional biography of one Thierry Villar, a tavern poet. More episodic than overarching, the book picks and chooses the events of the poet's life relevant to how it shapes his fate. Skipping Villar's childhood, the book opens in his youth in the alleys and waterholes of the city of Orange (a clear medieval French analog). Villar is a talent recognized by the city's aristocracy, but he reserves his most subtle barbs for critiquing their feudal rule. That is, until broader events in the city drag him into court politics.

Console Corner: Review of Citizen Sleeper

In case you missed it, 100% it bears repeating. We are living in a golden age of culture. Each media form is producing so much content it's impossible for one person to consume everything in their area of interest. And so many pockets, niches, and layers have evolved within each. The layer of video gaming which has most strongly evolved the past 5-10 years is indie games, i.e. technology has simplified to the point producers and directors can drum up enough cash for a few people to design and program legitimate gaming experiences. They cannot compete with the big AAA developers for size and scope, but at the same time their bite-sized offerings are precisely what many players are looking for. Maybe Citizen Sleeper (2022), a story-based rpg, is for players like you?

Citizen Sleeper might be called cozy cyberpunk. But there are enough hard decisions that the word 'cozy' only partially applies. Players take on the role of a 'sleeper': an android body occupied by a transferred human sentience. At the beginning of the game, you arrive on a lonely space station. Having escaped corporate overlords, you're looking for a new life. And so you start picking up odd jobs to earn credits. Your body also needs food and maintenance, and getting these quickly takes you into the underbelly of the station. It's there you discover the anarchists, the engineers, the yakuza, the nurses, the optimists, and everybody else making the station a colorful sphere of humanity. Whether or not it will become your permanent home is up to you to discover and choose.

Monday, June 23, 2025

Review of The Will of the Many by James Islington

Here we go again, into the ocean of contemporary mainstream fantasy where finding a piece of solid ground isn't easy. Most novels seem content sticking to float away. Does James Islington's The Will of the Many (2023) offer a foothold?

The Will of the Many is a few story types rolled into one. It is a revenge story; An orphaned teen attempts to punish the unjust execution of his regal parents. A deeply held secret those around him do not know about, he bides his time. It is also a mystery; Shady things are happening at the highest levels of Senate, and our orphan seems to continually find himself in the right place at the wrong time—or perhaps right time—to learn more. And he may just become part of the mystery. And perhaps most predominantly, it is a boarding school drama; The orphan attempts to navigate the waters of teen drama in a school for potential magic wielders. Cue the emo.

Friday, June 13, 2025

Review of The End & the Death: Volume 1 by Dan Abnett

We've done it. 60+ books. Dozens upon dozens of short stories and novellas. Hundreds of characters. Uncountable battles in space and on land. Three sides have defined their stake in the game—Loyalists, Traitors, and Chaos. And now we've reached the end—at least Volume 1 of the end. And the death (sorry). Everything comes together in the Horus Heresy and Siege of Terra with The End & the Death (2023) by Dan Abnett. This is the review of the first of its three volumes.

The End & the Death opens on a classic Warhammer scene—perhaps the quintessential Warhammer scene: a battlefield in ruins. A breeze tugs at abandoned banners. Space marines lie in awkward repose. Debris and wreckage scatter smoking ruins. Sightless eyes... With this imagery Abnett signals that the Siege of Terra is moving to a new phase, the end phase. No longer are Traitor forces endlessly assaulting the Palace's walls. The Loyalists have locked themselves inside and now need to be pried out. The End & the Death is the can opener.

Monday, June 9, 2025

Review of Sleeper Beach by Nick Harkaway

2024's Titanium Noir was a bit of a left field move for Nick Harkaway. But only a bit. Looking at the context, he was writing another book at the same in the George Smiley series (Karla's Choice). It made sense to test out the noir mode, or at least something similar, in a trial novel—which Titanium Noir was. This year's sequel, Sleeper Beach, however, was a complete surprise. Titanium Noir by no way ended on a wait-and-see vibe. It was self-contained, a specimen unto itself. How could Sleeper Beach continue the story?

Sleeper Beach moves forward with Cal Sounder, main character of Titanium Noir. Now a first-dose, baby-faced titan, he remains a private investigator, however, and in the opening pages is called to a Florida resort town to examine a body that has washed up on the town's washed up beach scene. The family who owns the town, the Erskines, have hired him to find out who and why. Communist plots, gangsters, and fertilizer bombs coming out of the woodwork, Sounder must navigate a load of danger as well as the load of his new, massive size to get to the bottom of the murder.

Friday, June 6, 2025

Review of Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson

Thanks to The Bonehunters, the pieces on Steven Erikson's MASSIVE chess board have been rearranged mid-series. In the aftermath of the Letherii-Tiste Edur war, all arrows now point toward the continent of Letheras. It's time to discover their targets (cannot be singular in this huge series) in Reaper's Gale (2007).

Reaper's Gale, as with all Malazan books thus far, features not one but several main storylines, as well as several minor. One at the forefront is that of Silchas Ruin and his quest to find and destroy Scalbandari's soul. Alongside him are Fear Sengar, Udinaas, Seren Pac, and Kettle. In Letheris city, the immortal emperor Rhulad battles his inner demons while continuing to take on any and all challengers. Karsa Orlong, a mysterious Seguleh, and Icarium wait in line. On the shores of the continent, a new threat to the Letheri/Edur empire arrives in a wave of boats, while the eastern part of the continent opens up to reveal age-old feuds coming to a boil as a warleader from a tribe called the Awl brings a powerful duo of warriors with him to attack and defeat the Letherii.

Monday, June 2, 2025

Review of A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Robert Jackson Bennett strikes me as a compulsive writer, a writer driven to sit down and write, regardless the output. The quality of the output can therefore be hit or miss. At one book per year and on to the next, it's easy to be mediocre or poor, true inspiration only occasional. 2024's The Tainted Cup was therefore a surprise. Considered, embedded, developed—it bore the signs of a story a long time brewing, not something a compulsive writer typically produces. That the sequel arrived in 2025, A Drop of Corruption, was not a surprise, but I definitely had worries it would not be as inspired as its predecessor.

My worries were misplaced. A Drop of Corruption equals, and may even top, The Tainted Cup. Bennett is starting to show himself a master of fantasy mystery. And it's a difficult genre to pull off. Where mimetic mysteries have real world constraints to invisibly guide the reading experience, the author of fantasy mystery must do double work. They need to string along a good mystery, but they also need to ground it in a world that doesn't exist. There are fewer invisible guardrails to guide the reader. A locked room can be entered by a wizard, for example. But they still need to ensure their readers' hunches hit somewhere near the mark. It's this fine tuning of 'what is possible in my fantasy world' where Bennett excels.

Friday, May 30, 2025

Review of Garro: Knight of Grey by James Swallow

Note: If you are looking ahead in the Siege of Terra series, finding reviews of potential books to read, strongly consider reading Garro: Knight of Grey before Mortis. It is listed after Mortis due to publishing date, but exists prior in the internal chronology of the series.

In my lurking around Warhammer forums and Horus Heresy discussion, it seems Garro, the Death-Guard-warrior-turned-warning-beacon in The Flight of the Eisenstein, has clout among some readers. People seem to like him. He doesn't stand tall in my reading of 30k, however. He has been more of a flat, hardboiled stereotype not to mention incidental character—one who happened to be in the right place at the right time—rather than a character with proper agency worth developing in the series. Take this review of Garro: Knight in Grey (2022) with that in mind.

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Review of The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson

The first five novels of the Malazan Book of the Fallen saw three major conflicts explode and collapse. Seven Cities, Genabackis and Letheras (at least Western Letheras) all had continent-wide wars ravage them. The Bonehunters (2006), sixth novel in the series, picks up the pieces and looks at what's next.

The Bonehunters starts where things left off from two settings. First is House of Chains and the Seven Cities continent. Adjunct Tavore, having killed her sister/the Whirlwind, looks to take down the last threat to the Malazan empire that the continent offers: Leoman of the Flails and his army in the city of Y'ghatan. Second setting is Midnight Tides and Letheras. The Tiste Edur have spilled out beyond the continent and are looking for a person who can kill their own god-ruler once and for all. Whether they like it or not, Icarium and Karsa Orlong's story threads wind that direction. And behind it all, Empress Laseen works her own strategies to ensure the imperial machine grows and grows.

Cardboard Corner: Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack [print-n-play]

Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack is a quick pen-n-paper game that burns through a couple satisfying hours solo-style. Fun escalates as the player figures out better and better ways to scoot their airbike from A to B—literally. (And C, too.)

In Citizen Sleeper, players take on the role of a cyberpunk delivery boy (a spindlejack) trying to earn a buck and get some street cred by delivering packages to various points of a space hub. To make deliveries on time, spindlejacks must navigate busy intersections of haulers without getting crushed or overheating. Thankfully they've got a couple tricks up their sleeve—drifts, grinds, and skitches—in getting goods where they need to be. Do that on time and get some cryo cash to feed yourself and upgrade your airbike. Fail and lose reputation.

Sunday, May 18, 2025

Review of Echoes of Eternity Aaron Dembski-Bowden

Mortis by John French, sixth book in the Siege of Terra, laid low the defenses of the Emperor's Palace. Horus' legions are now on the brink—demon-crazed, ready to run rampant. One gate stands in their way, and with Angron and Magnus pushing with all their might, it seems just a matter of time til it falls. With Rogal Dorn organizing the Palace's defenses from a central location, there are only two primarchs to hold back the tide: Sanguinius and Vulkan. Echoes of Eternity (2022), seventh book in the Siege of Terra, tests their might.

Echoes of Eternity is the most powerful book in the Siege of Terra yet. The two most recent books, Mortis and Saturnine, have seen the fighting build and climactic events bigger than anything yet—at least in terms of character deaths. But these small compared to Echoes of Eternity. It takes the upward slope of the Siege of Terra story and converts it into a parabola. Things escalate.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Review of Past Master by R.A. Lafferty

Christian apologetics and science fiction make for interesting bedfellows. One a be-all end-all explanation of how things came to be, the other a fantastical potential for things to come, they would seem to be at odds. And yet there have been books which make it work, notably Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz and James Blish's A Case of Conscience. Can R.A. Lafferty's Past Master (1968), a book which likewise features extra-terrestrial Christian shenanigans, join the list?

An exercise in utopianism, Past Master is set on Golden Astrolobe, an Earth colony famed for its high quality of life. But the story begins in the middle of a firefight planet-side. Robots attack a trio of men who have been tasked with finding the next leader for the colony. The three agree that special measures are required to solve the situation, and so they head into history and pluck Sir Thomas More out of time and space to bring him to Astrolobe. The trio hope his wisdom writing Utopia will be able to resolve their conflict. Can it?

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Review of Warhawk by Chris Wraight

And the Siege continues. Warhawk by Chris Wraight (2021) takes the conflict to the next level. In Mortis, traitor forces pushed hard on the walls of the Emperor's Palace and breached the Lion's Spaceport. Honoring an oath, Jaghatai Khan rallies the White Scars for a counter-strike; the port's role is critical to Loyalist plans for stopping Horus. But Horus has other plans.

Warhawk follows a handful of sub-plots. Primary is Khan honoring his promise—or at least trying. The second is a secret Loyalist plan to refurbish a destroyed space platform and use it as a battle station. In a third, Mortarion and the Death Guard close the open threads of The Buried Dagger—coming to terms with their bodily changes due to Chaos. Further plot points still, Imperial Fist Sigismund gets a new sword that seems to have power of its own, in turn becoming a focal point for Traitor forces. And lastly, we have Olli shenanigans; the Perpetuals' mission draws closer to ending, and in doing so he finds deeper questions than originally thought.

Monday, May 5, 2025

Review of Mortis by John French

Titandeath, 53rd book in the Horus Heresy, was the BIG titan one. It's the one which properly put the massive war engines on the field of battle and turned them loose. Mortis (2021), fifth book in the Siege of Terra, turns what's left—horned or unhorned—toward the Emperor's Palace.

Mortis takes Horus' siege on Terra to the next level in bombastic fashion. World Eaters, Death Guard, Word Bearers, and Chaos continue their assault on the walls, and now, titans are unleashed from deep storage in the Emperor's palace to battle the Chaos titans Horus drops from space. The fields start to run slick, not only with blood, but also oil, prometheum, and all other manner of chemicals leaking from the damaged and destroyed siege engines. The war antes up.

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Review of Midnight Tides by Steven Erikson

I am in the middle of my first re-read of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. Memory of the first read of Midnight Tides (2004) is: the most organic story in the series to date. Erikson loves jumping between settings and characters as often as he can, but Midnight Tides felt more contained, more streamlined. Let's do a memory check.

The first four books in the Malazan series bounced between the continents of Genabackis and Seven Cities. Midnight Tides takes readers to an entirely new region: North Lether. The area is beyond Malazan imperial control. A different set of groups vie for power, meaning the reader gets a (welcome) break from the endless scenes of soldiers' gallows humor. The Tiste Edur and the Letherii take center stage. A savage history between the two, the Letherii antagonize through commerce (legal and illegal) while the Tiste Edur tend to more traditional values by forcing fealty and hierarchy, trying to keep the Letherii to heel. When the Letherii raid a Tiste Edur hunting ground, the king of the Edur decides to take advantage of the opportunity and bring to bear a power none on Lether have seen in millennia.

Review of The Fury of Magnus by Graham McNeill

After three straight novels of space marines attacking space marines, wave after wave, Graham McNeill's novella The Sons of the Selenar offered an excellent respite. Catching up with things beyond Terra, it looked at what was happening with the Shattered Legions on the outskirts, and told a compelling story in the process. McNeill's second novella in the Siege of Terra series, The Fury of Magnus (2020), likewise takes a look at a character who has largely been sitting by the side. Things, however, eventually get even closer to Terra—even more so than Horus has been able to achieve—to date, at least.

Magnus is aloof, perhaps the most cerebral primarch among the Traitors. As such, his involvement in the Siege of Terra has been ambiguous to date. He allowed the Shattered Legions carrying the legacy of the Selenar to escape without a fight, yet he appears to be loyal to Horus and the goal of tearing down the Emperor. Inherent to the novella's title, The Fury of Magnus cracks open the primarch to see what is boiling inside.

Friday, April 18, 2025

Review of Alas, Bablyon by Pat Frank

If there were ever a place to explore the potentialities of the Cold War, it was through fiction. Mushroom clouds in the imagination are a much better place to perform experiments of how things might turn out if somebody finally 'pushed the button'. And indeed there was a good chunk of fiction through the 50s and 60s exploring what nuclear world war might look like. One of the better specimens, at least of the six or seven that I've read, is Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon (1959).

Alas, Babylon is the story of several people, but none so dominant as Randy Bragg. Korean War veteran now attorney, he lives in Fort Repose, a rural area of inland Florida. Randy's brother Mark calls one day, telling him to start preparing for the big one in secret. Tensions with Russia are about to boil over. The H-bombs fly and Randy's world as he knows it is turned upside down. Miami, Orlando—the majority of the US blown to smithereens, Randy and his small town acquaintances must all take a new tack on life, one increasingly stiff by the day.

Monday, April 14, 2025

Review of Saturnine by Dan Abnett

The assault on the Emperor's Palace is in full swing. Horus throws his forces, wave after wave, at the kilometer high walls, looking for a breakthrough. The forces of Chaos have been unleashed, and now attack the walls along with the traitor legions. In Dan Abnett's Saturnine (2020) something has to give. But where?

Assault after assault, bomb after bomb, death after death. Horus' attack on Terra is starting to have an effect. Endless supplies of munitions becoming finite, Rogal Dorne's storage facilities are starting to run dry. And with The Lion and Guillaume still nowhere to be found, the manpower the Emperor can throw at the traitor legions is starting to come up short. Dorne cannot keep up with Horus' volume of men and materiel. Hard decisions now sit in directly front of Rogal Dorne, no avoiding them. Horus is attacking at four critical junctures, but only three can be defended. Does Dorne have one last trick up his sleeve for his nemesis Peturabo at Saturnine Gate, or is the writing on the wall?

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Review of House of Chains by Steven Erikson

It's an understatement to say Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series is an acquired taste. It's a MASSIVE fictional world that seems to be constantly in flux. Every chapter, every book requires the reader to update their knowledge. Each book is also different in its own right; Erikson evolves his style volume to volume. It all makes for shaky footing that a minority of readers have the patience for. For me it's here, the fourth book in the series House of Chains (2002), that things solidified.

For those paying attention—which can be difficult given the plethora of plotlines and endless-endless strings of characters running through the series—Sha'ik's rebellion in Deadhouse Gates was unresolved. The desert folk found a new Sha'ik in Helisin, but the Whirlwind didn't actually whirl. At the beginning of House of Chains, Adjunct Tavore arrives on the Seven Cities continent with a rebuilt Malazan army to finally put an end to the Whirlwind, and maybe patch ends with her sister, Helisin. Memories of Ice revealed that the Crippled God was looking to take down the system, and in House of Chains he recruits more servants to achieve this goal. Everyone's goals—the Whirlwind's, the Crippled God's, and the Malazan Empire's—come to a crashing, massive head that leaves the series wide open.

Saturday, March 29, 2025

Close But No Cigar: Response to Library of America's Nine Classic Science Fiction Novels of the 1950s

A decade ago, the Library of America released the set Nine Classic Science Fiction Novels of the 1950s. The series was edited, or perhaps more accurately, curated by Gary Wolfe. Wolfe is a genre personage who I often disagree with, but a person who I respect, particularly his knowledge of 20th century science fiction. Wolfe is a proper scholar and a person to be trusted when looking to curate such a series. Nevertheless, differences in opinion there are, and it's in those differences that my views have been percolating for ten years, waiting until I've read enough sf from the 50s to have an informed rebuttal. With more than thirty-five novels from the decade under my belt (and this post sitting in my drafts folder for all that time) I think I've reached that point. In the very least I will introduce you to some old school science fiction that perhaps wasn't on your radar before.

For a bit of historical context, the 1950s was the time science fiction made itself respectable in the US. Writers like H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley, Olaf Stapledon and others had been writing a more literary style of science fiction for decades, but they were based in Europe. (Yes, you Brits, you are European.) To that point America had almost exclusively driven down the road with signposts like: damsels in distress, men in tight jumpsuits, slavering aliens, laser blasters, and Pulp Ahead! A difficult era to take seriously (save for collectors and connoisseurs, natch), the Golden Age of scientifiction in the US is stinky cheese at its worst and fun escapism at its best. It took writers like Ray Bradbury, James Blish, Theodore Sturgeon, Alfred Bester and several others in the 50s to inject the genre with a bit of rigor and raise standards—to comb the genre's hair, brush it's teeth, put on clean clothes, and teach it a little etiquette. In real terms, this meant improving technique, cleaning up syntax and diction, interweaving metaphor and theme with plot, device, and character, etc. They pioneered what most now refer to as the Silver Age of science fiction.

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Review of Sons of the Selenar by Graham McNeill

The first handful of books in the Siege of Terra have steadily ramped pressure. The Solar War, The Lost & the Damned, and The First Wall saw Horus attack the solar system, land on Terra, and assault the Emperor's palace with everything he has. And each book featured varying perspectives on the brutal, relentless assault. Graham McNeill's novella Sons of the Selenar (2020) offers readers a break in the Siege of Terra actiona Meanwhile, back in the galaxy... moment to catch up with what's happening with the so-called Shattered Legions

The Iron Hands, Salamanders, and Raven Guard are aboard the ship Sisypheum. But without a primarch to command them, opinions abound as the group decides whether to chase rumors of a resurrected captain or return to Terra to join the fight. While they eventually decide on one of the two options, it is far from their ultimate destination. The third way forcing itself upon the group, what they must do has repercussions far beyond Horus' assault on Terra.

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Review of Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson

Gardens of the Moon, first book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series, was a bit of a false start. Whether due to publisher pressure or Erikson's unwillingness to jump feet first into the fire, the novel is limited. It doesn't know how to properly set a scene for maximum impact and distinguishing the plethora of characters is a challenge. Deadhouse Gates, second book in the series, was a clear step forward. Scenes hit harder and characters started to pop. But it had a large amount of content, not all of which felt value-add. I think it's here at the third book, Memories of Ice (2001), that Erikson finally hits the series' stride. There are still issues, but at least they are by design.

The story of Memories of Ice occurs in parallel to that of Deadhouse Gates. While the Whirlwind rebellion builds in the Seven Cities in Deadhouse, a tyrant of the Pannion Domin threatens the city of Capustan in Memories. The Domin are a massive foe,, heedless of life or civility, who force an unlikely alliance between the Malazan Empire, the warlord Caladran Brood and his army, and the Tiste Andii led by Anomander Rake. An uneasy truce, the band nevertheless know they have no recourse but to take on the tyrant, discover which god is backing him, and stop the takeover of the Genabackis continent.

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Review of Fairyland by Paul McAuley

Paul McAuley is in that late stage of a career so many science fiction writers unfortunately find themselves: decent production but without the fanfare it once received. His most recent books have received middling media coverage—a far cry from 90s' McAuley, a McAuley who was one of the top dogs of British sf. One of the reasons, if not the biggest reason, was 1995's Fairyland. Standing up to the winds of time even in 2025, let's take a look.

Fairyland is the story of middle-aged, overweight biohacker Alex Sharkey. At least it begins that way. Author of many popular street drugs, he spends his days in a dim apartment cooking up bioengineered narcotics and his nights trying to repay the debts he owes a local London gangster. Stuck in the cycle, Sharkey finds himself in the unenviable position of having to create a gene splice that goes far beyond the legality of his already illegal drug manufacture. Kick starting an evolutionary leap he knew was likely but couldn't stop, London proves to be only the beginning of Sharkey's story, as soon enough the world will know of his creation.

Friday, March 7, 2025

Review of The First Wall by Gav Thorpe

Horus' approach to the heart of his ambitions started in The Solar War and landed on Terra in The Lost and the Damned. The assault on the Emperor's mountain fortress achieves a critical point in Gav Thorpe's The First Wall (2020).

Having made his way through the solar system, Horus stands at the doorstep of Terra. Below him, the Lion's Gate Spaceport sits as a meaty target. Take it over, and there is a path into the Emperor's fortress. But this is the one thing Rogal Dorne, primarch of the Imperial Fists, knows he cannot let happen. He has set up and organized defenses to repel what he thinks Horus will throw at him. In response, Horus gives Peturabo, his cleverest primarch, the task of taking the Spaceport. Let the battle begin.

Friday, February 28, 2025

Review of Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson's debut novel in the Malazan series, Garden of the Moon, is a tough novel to get through. A litmus test for would be readers of the series, the acid/base ratio forces readers to have the willingness to consume and process multiple plot lines and multiple pages of dramatis personae with little hand holding. The reader capacity to innumerable things churinging in RAM at one time is critical. And Erikson's erratic story-style never lets the reader keep both feet in the land of certainty. In short, the series did not stand a good chance of hitting the ground running. But enough people did pick up what Erikson was putting down, allowing Tor to move ahead with further books in the series. For those who get through Gardens of the Moon there is Deadhouse Gates (2000). Second book in the Malazan series, it's when the rubber really hits the road.

Before getting to the review, a note when reading the Malazan series: progression is not linear. Unlike George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, or other famous writers' fantasy series, Malazan is asynchronous. Each of the ten books must be taken individually, and not as a direct continuation of plot book to book. Certainly there are commonalities—characters, sub-plots, places, etc., but one does not feed the next. Deadhouse Gates thus does not pick up specifically where Gardens left off.

Console Corner: Review of Titan Quest

It's good sometimes to get outside your comfort zone, learn about the world, including video games—at least to some degree. (Hey, give a guy whose written a thousand review intros a little slack when he comes up with a dud...) For years I have seen internet content dedicated to isometric rpgs—dungeon crawlers where players begin with a weak hero but steadily, killing endless hordes, build them into a powerful warrior/wizard/whatever, kicking ass left and right. Having now played Titan Quest (2006) I think 'dungeon grinder' may be the better descriptor.

In Titan Quest, players take on the role of an ordinary Greek man. They literally begin the game with a club, and slowly work (aka kill) their way across a vast map, collecting better weapons, armor, talismans, etc. along the way. Killing enemies earns experience and skill points, which in turn can be used to turn the ordinary Greek man into a superhuman. And there are dozens of ways this can be done, from warrior tank to nature wizard, clever rogue to summoning master. Players progress through four regions, each of which culminates in a big boss fight that tests the player's skills to that point.

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Review of Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut

It's 2025. The Western world, and much of the non-Western world, is wholly dependent on machines, computers, and other electronics. And AI has become the #1 technological concern for the future. It's going to make humans redundant! It's going to collapse the economy by putting people out of work! Etc., etc. Turn back the clock 75 years and those concerns were directed at robots. Works like R.U.R. and War with the Newts by Karol Capek portrayed societies wherein humans become second-class citizens to robots. Tackling the topic from a broader, more corporate angle is Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano (1952). Still relevant in 2025?

Player Piano is the story of Paul Proteus. An intelligent engineer, Paul is a key leader at Ilium Works, a production facility for electronics and robotics that automate many forms of work. Also a good employee, Paul ruffles no feathers and keeps his nose clean. At least at the beginning of the book. As things develop, Paul has increasing contact with the reeks & wrecks—the skilled men and women who have been displaced from the labor force by machines and are now at loose ends. He finds himself increasingly sympathetic to their plight, something his ambitious wife Anita hopes he will forget in pursuit of a more lucrative position at the company's Pittsburgh location.

Monday, February 17, 2025

Review of Someone to Watch over Me by Tricia Sullivan

At the pace of publishing in 2024, it's easy to not only miss good novels when they come out, but to lose sight of good novels released not so long ago. Chasing the new is a road to burnout and FOMO, and as such, it's good to sample books from throughout the history of fantastika. Published in 1997 was a little cyberpunk gem, Tricia Sullivan's Someone to Watch over Me.

Someone to Watch over Me drops the reader, on page one, into the speeding car that is the life of Adrien. And doesn't often take its foot off the gas. Experiencing a medical emergency, Adrien wants the technology in his head, out. The technology lets another person see and experience everything he does. What at first was easy money (people paying money to live vicariously through him) has become a burden, and what's more, it's causing shortness of breath, high blood pressure, and several other things. He needs help. Hailing a taxi on the streets of Zagreb, he begs the driver, a musician named Sabina, for blackmarket pharmaceuticals. And further down the rabbit hole of his own creation Adrien goes.

Console Corner: Review of The Pathless

Journey is one of my favorite video games of all time. It is not action galore, frantically mashing buttons, killin' baddies. The opposite rather, Journey is a meditative experience that shows rather than tells” the player a quasi-zen transcendence of existence. Seeing comparisons of 2023's The Pathless to Journey, I was naturally intrigued. Zen?

Right up front, The Pathless is not Journey 2, nor does it ever intend to be. They are different games. But it's possible to see why comparisons are made. In The Pathless, players start as a robed figure only whose eyes are showing. They traverse an open world—in more ways 'open' than one—trying to locate lightstones that can be used to banish the evil brought about by a three-eyed god-man. Once three pillars are lit by the stones, an area is cleared, paving the way to a boss fight. Rinse and repeat—plus a big boss battle with the three-eyed god-man, and you... win? Play to find out. Based on this, The Pathless bears more in common with Shadow of the Colossus than Journey, but hey, I'm just a cellar-dwelling reviewer.

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Console Corner: Review of Disco Elysium

STOP! If you normally come to my blog to read book reviews, do not skip this. Yes, Disco Elysium is a video game. But be aware, it's predominantly a narrative experience. The fact it is perhaps the best-written video game narrative ever should at least help you consider reading this review. (If not that, then maybe the killer title?)

Putting it lightly, the video game medium is not famed for its maturity. Of course every medium has its share of juvenile content, but video games may be the worst offender. Hand-eye coordination and onscreen interactions are what make the medium tick with aarrative almost always taking a back seat. Super Mario Bros features an Italian plumber trying to save a princess who has been kidnapped by a dinosaur protected by turtle ducks... Not quite Pulitzer material. But there are a few games out there that treat the person playing like they have an adult brain who has given thought to the layers of existence. Disco Elysium (2019) is absolutely one of them.

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Review of Ludluda by Steve Beard & Jeff Noon

Gogmagog by Steve Beard and Jeff Noon was a breath of river air. I do not say 'fresh' river air. The dark mood, the edgy fantastic, the murky waters, the lurking evil (the swearing granny)—it was not a light affair. About an aging river boat captain dealing with a vegetal crisis, said swearing granny decides to guide a few ignorant tourists through the most dangerous parts of the river, in turn rekindling a rivalry with an ancient enemy. Gogmagog the first half, Ludluda (2024) is the bookend.

I'll cut to the chase. If you enjoyed Gogmagog, Ludluda will not disappoint. Same quick-pace, same offbeat imagination, same curmudgeonly Cady Meade tackling her yellow-eyed dragon. The book does spend more time on land—or at least different versions of something semi-solid underfoot. There are two excursions (more in a moment) into unexpected territory. And there is an exciting climax. But beyond this, the artistic vision and storytelling are consistent—nice, that.

Console Corner: Aiko's Choice

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is one of the rare video games I have played through more than twice. Everybody has their gaming sweet spots, and for me this blend of stealth puzzle hits most of them. With its feudal samurai setting—cherry tees, rice fields, Japanese castles, temples, and the like—the game sings. Mimimi Games has, unfortunately since gone out of business, but before leaving the gaming scene they released a small standalone game (not technically DLC) in the setting: Aiko's Choice (2021).

Aikko's Choice features the same five characters as Blades of the Shogun, all with the same character abilities. But the game is about one-third the length: six total missions, two of which are short. What could be called a “side mission”, the story of Aiko's Choice takes place in the middle of Blades of the Shogun. A certain Lady Chiyo surprises the gang at their hideout, kidnapping Yuki and Togama in the process. Hayato, Mugen, and Aiko give chase, tracking down their friends and make sure Chiyo does not escape to tell Kage-yama of their cabal.

Thursday, January 30, 2025

Culture Corner: Egypt (Hurghada & Cairo)

For the first time, my family went on vacation the week prior to Christmas. Typically a time we are preparing for the holidays, we instead went to Egypt for seven days. The goals were local culture—people, food music, etc., pyramids, beach time, and a few day dives in the Red Sea. We accomplished most of that, and got a bit more than we bargained for.


1 – The Red Sea near our hotel. The kids loved it.  I didn't complain. :)

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Review of The Lost and the Damned by Guy Haley

Let's speak honestly. The Solar War, first novel in the Siege of Terra series, was essentially an extended prelude. When taken in context with the wider Horus Heresy story, it was a “necessary” kickoff to the final ten books in the series. But it was 90% perfunctory. Little of consequence or value was given the reader that could not have been summed up in a couple paragraphs. (Apologies John French for the cynicism; your effort was heroic to make something of nothing.) The Lost and the Damned (2019) by Guy Haley, second Siege of Terra novel, is when the series' rubber really hits the road.

The Lost and the Damned is Horus' opening assault on terra firma. The opening paragraph is a salvo of missiles landing on Himalaysia. Wide-angle, the book rotates through the points-of-view of primarchs on both sides, as well as the ordinary people running the palace's walls who must set aside their daily duties and take up weapons in defense. Their lives turned upside down by the attack, they are slaughtered by the millions. Overall, Haley does a nice job presenting the earth-level battles and the destruction leveled on both sides.

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Article: Fantasy Fiction: The Farce of Complex Characters

I recently switched phones, and in the process switched browsers to Chrome. On mobile, this means Google advertizing. One of the first ads I saw, undoubtedly due to browsing history, was a link to Fantasy Review's “6 Urban Fantasy Series for Fans of Complex Characters”. With a couple minutes to spare, the word 'complex' had my interest, so I clicked. Turns out there are different definitions of the word.

One of the centerpieces, if not the centerpiece of literary fiction is character realism. Readers of said fiction expect emotions, thoughts, actions, dialogue, and the details of human life to cleave to reality. That is the norm of the form. It arises, naturally, that subsequent characters are 'complex'. Real people's lives are, after all, complex. Another way of putting this is: complex characters are default in literary fiction. Nobody need call them out as 'complex', or make a list of literary-minded books with 'complex characters'. That is the logic I tried to apply to Fantasy Review's article about 'complex characters' in fantasy fiction. I failed.