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Azura Ghost by Essa Hansen (Part 2 of The Graven) – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Azura Ghost by Essa Hansen

Essa Hansen’s Azura Ghost, second book in The Graven series, marks an enormous step up from her already impressive debut, Nophek Gloss. This new story takes us deeper into the mysterious multiverse of the Graven, an ancient race of vast accomplishments that disappeared ages ago but left numerous traces both in architectural and technological remnants […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, Space Opera, Taking on My SFF TBR Tagged With: adventure, alien life forms, consciousness, Essa Hansen, family, memory, multiverse, power, space opera, transcendence

The Quantum War by Derek Künsken – A Review for #SciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

The Quantum War by Derek Kunsken #scifimonth

Derek Künsken’s The Quantum War, the third book in The Quantum Evolution series, continues the stories that blend exciting space adventure with probing speculations on the philosophical and religious implications of altering human evolution. At the heart of these novels, set in the 26th century, are new human species, especially the Homo quantus, endowed with […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, SciFiMonth Tagged With: artificial intelligence, brain, consciousness, Derek Kunsken, evolution, genetic engineering, religion, sacrifice, sentient beings, Venus

The Outside by Ada Hoffman – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

The Outside by Ada Hoffman

There is so much to love, so much to be challenged by in Ada Hoffman’s The Outside. It’s one of those books I immediately set about re-reading because the characters and what happens to them are so compelling. One of those characters, as I think about it, is the Outside itself, that mysterious level of […]

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: artificial intelligence, autism, consciousness, obsession, religion, sapphic love, shape-shifting, technology

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Never having read Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, I picked up her Piranesi with no preconceptions about the sort of book it might be and promptly fell in love with it. It’s a masterful fable about life in this world that introduces us to the mind of a narrator who proclaims himself to […]

Filed Under: Secondary World Fantasy Tagged With: alternate worlds, consciousness, fable, identity, memory, Piranesi, psychic powers, Susanna Clarke

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds – A Review

By John Folk-Williams

Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds brings us back to the Revelation Space universe with the magnificent Inhibitor Phase. It’s a story about sacrifice, redemption, rebirth and basic human bonds of friendship, love and loyalty that builds to a powerful conclusion. Now, a confession here. When I started reading science fiction seriously almost 20 years ago, Alastair Reynolds and […]

Filed Under: Reviews, Space Opera Tagged With: Alastair Reynolds, alien life forms, consciousness, human survival, identity, inhibitors, memory, rebirth, redemption, Revelation Space, sacrifice

Ursula K. Le Guin on What Is Science Fiction?

By John Folk-Williams

What is Science Fiction Ursula K. Le Guin

When I started this blog, I considered having a page offering various answers to the question, What is science fiction? There are so many different, often clashing views that I thought that would be interesting, but I eventually rejected the idea because it seems too pedantic to even suggest that there is or ought to […]

Filed Under: What is Science Fiction Tagged With: art, C.G. Jung, character, consciousness, myth, Philip K. Dick, unconscious, Ursula K. Le Guin

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Something is struggling to be born in this damaged and inspiring world, and I believe science fiction and its speculative cousins are helping us figure out what it is. It’s pushing the imaginations of fiction writers to bend and twist familiar forms to try to capture the forces that are hurling us into a barely conceivable future. This blog is my small way of exploring the half-perceived … Read More about About

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