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These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs

By John Folk-Williams

These Burning Stars

Before getting into the gripping debut novel, These Burning Stars, by Bethany Jacobs, I need to mention a few things about this blog. After four years of writing reviews for SciFi Mind, I ran into a burnout period earlier this year and took some time off. I’m getting back into review mode again but find […]

Filed Under: Space Opera Tagged With: Bethany Jacobs, colonialism, exploitation, identity, oppression, power, rebellion, revenge, social classes

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

By John Folk-Williams

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh

Emily Tesh set herself a difficult task in Some Desperate Glory. Present the reader with a young protagonist raised in a militaristic society who is all about duty, war-breeding, xenophobia, homophobia and worse, then draw her through enough world-shattering experiences to make her interesting, flaws and all, from start to finish. And Tesh hits the […]

Filed Under: Space Opera Tagged With: alien life forms, artificial intelligence, coming of age, family, identity, multiple worlds, spaceships, trauma

Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott – Book 2 of The Sun Chronicles

By John Folk-Williams

Furious Heaven by Kate Elliott

Kate Elliott’s Furious Heaven is a big, richly detailed reworking in space of the career of Alexander the Great, though you don’t need to know that background to enjoy this epic space adventure. At more than 700 pages, it’s long but never tedious, and each chapter repays close reading. In this volume Sun Shan, daughter […]

Filed Under: Space Opera Tagged With: battle strategy, destiny, galactic empires, identity, Kate Elliott, power, space governance, transhuman

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick – #VintageSciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) by Philip K. Dick asks a basic question that is all the more pressing today. What’s the difference between a human being and an android? Dick goes beyond the current debate about the potential replacement of humans by robotic software to produce creative works we feel should only […]

Filed Under: Post-Apocalytic, Vintage Science Fiction Tagged With: androids, human emotion, identity, Philip K. Dick, religion, ruined earth

Excession by Iain M. Banks – A Culture Novel

By John Folk-Williams

Excession by Iain M. Banks

Well, it’s a new year – and good wishes all around! After a mentally tired December when I wrote little, I relaxed while getting to know the work of Roger Zelazny – and re-reading Iain M. Banks’ Excession, the fifth of his Culture books. Some people suggest starting with other novels set in this universe […]

Filed Under: Space Opera Tagged With: alien life forms, artificial intelligence, gender, Iain M. Banks, identity, spaceships, The Culture

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky for #SciFiMonth

By John Folk-Williams

Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

By now, I just accept the fact that Adrian Tchaikovsky can write about anything in SFF and do it brilliantly. Children of Memory, which follows the award-winning Children of Time and Children of Ruin, continues this great saga of human evolution and species uplift in multiple star systems. There is a moving and exciting story […]

Filed Under: Great Series Read Project, SciFiMonth, Space Opera Tagged With: Adrian Tchaikovsky, human survival, identity, memory, sentient beings, space colonies, terraforming

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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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