In The Third Lynx, Zahn again puts agent Frank Compton (from Night Train to Rigel) through some of the classic noir detective paces in his unusual near-future setting, which prominently features interstellar trains. (One of several tropes Zahn explores this time around is the detective who finds himself unexpectedly a murder suspect; there are also [...]
Entries Tagged as 'science fiction'
Timothy Zahn: The Third Lynx
10 Mar 2010 · No Comments
Tags: alphabetical-author · mystery · science fiction · t-title · z-author
Timothy Zahn: Night Train to Rigel
03 Feb 2010 · No Comments
Night Train to Rigel’s unusual premise sounds a little jokey, but Zahn plays it (mostly) straight: interstellar travel is accomplished with trains that travel along a sort of hyperspace railway. Frank Compton is an ex-intelligence agent who finds himself embroiled in one of those mysteries that’s bigger than it first appears, and which ultimately affords [...]
Tags: mystery · n-title · science fiction · z-author
Timothy Zahn: Dragon and Thief
19 Jan 2010 · No Comments
Even if I count them as guilty pleasures, I’ve enjoyed several of Zahn’s Star Wars novels enough that it’s a bit odd I never got around to trying one of his non-tie-in novels until now. (Many of them seem to be packaged/marketed as “military science fiction” as opposed to “space opera,” which probably partially explains [...]
Tags: d-title · science fiction · young adult · z-author
Paolo Bacigalupi: The Windup Girl
03 Jan 2010 · No Comments
I eventually decided Bacigalupi’s Pump Six and Other Stories was one of the strongest and most-memorable single-author science-fiction story collections I’ve read in the past several years. If The Windup Girl didn’t quite live up to my expectations, it’s at least partly because those expectations were high.
But I also think that The Windup Girl would [...]
Tags: b-author · science fiction · w-title
Charles Stross: Wireless
20 Dec 2009 · No Comments
I finally figured out that I like Charles Stross better when he’s being funny than when he’s being preachy. His short fiction collection Wireless offers both. My favorite entries were “Rogue Farm” and “Trunk and Disorderly.” The former is a sly future backwoods noir that almost lives up to its killer opening:
It was a bright, [...]
Tags: fantasy · s-author · science fiction · w-title
Cherie Priest: Boneshaker
13 Nov 2009 · No Comments
The phrase that kept coming to my mind to describe Boneshaker while I was reading it was “purely awesome.” The back cover copy gives away a little too much of the setup for my taste, but I will say that it shifts between being a steampunk adventure story and a gritty, claustrophobic zombie novel so [...]
Tags: b-title · historical · horror · p-author · science fiction
Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler’s Wife
11 Nov 2009 · No Comments
I loved this book almost unreservedly — it’s easily one of the 5 or 6 best novels I’ve read so far this year. The title is very literally descriptive: it’s the chronicle of Henry and Clare’s relationship. Henry jumps around in time (involuntarily, sometimes forward, mostly backward, mostly within his own lifespan); Clare moves linearly [...]
Tags: n-author · science fiction · t-title
George Mann: The Affinity Bridge
31 Oct 2009 · No Comments
The Affinity Bridge sets some derring-do and a Sherlock Holmes-ish mystery in an alternate history where England had much more sophisticated technology under the Victoria’s reign (some of the tech, in fact, extends Victoria’s lifespan farther into the 20th century). Sometimes it seems like Mann is juggling a few too many plot threads — a [...]
Tags: a-title · fantasy · historical · m-author · science fiction
Scott Westerfeld, Leviathan
16 Oct 2009 · No Comments
A week after visiting three bookstores to score a copy of Larbalestier’s Liar on its release day, I was preparing a multi-book store itinerary to buy her husband’s new novel, Leviathan on its first day of sale. I’ve been awaiting this book since at least June of 2006, when Westerfeld first started mentioning an in-progress [...]
Tags: l-title · science fiction · w-author · young adult
Sean Stewart: The Night Watch
20 Jun 2009 · No Comments
I’ve never read anything quite like The Night Watch. It shares a background with Stewart’s earlier novel Resurrection Man, but it’s not a direct sequel; it takes place roughly a century later.
Stewart’s novel is set after the cataclysmic return of magic to the world — the Dream — ended civilization as we know it. [...]
Tags: fantasy · n-title · s-author · science fiction