Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
Wow! This historical fiction/science fiction novel by a master of both genres was so absorbing that I stayed up late to finish reading it and to find out what would happen to Christopher Columbus in a re-imagined world, changed by time travelers from the future. The book reminded me of Connie Willis’s Doomsday Book and [...]
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Good story. Annoying political agenda. The story is about seventeen year old San Francisco high school student Marcus Yallow, who in the wake of a terrorist attack is arrested, held and tortured by the Department of Homeland Security. Marcus is a techno-geek and a smart-aleck, but he’s no terrorist. Well, at least he’s not a [...]
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Connie Willis has a new book out called Blackout. No, this review is not supposed to be about Ms. WIllis’s new book, a book that I am not going to buy even though I’m a big fan of Ms. Willis’s writing. This post is about the reason that I’m not going to read Ms. Willis’s [...]
Wednesday’s Whatever: Perelandra and Truth
Jeanne Damoff, one of the writers at the blog The Master’s Artist, writes about how C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra “Can Powerfully Inform the Practical Application of Truth.” Part 1: “The plot basically answers this question: “What would happen if God created reasoning beings on another planet and gave them the same opportunity Adam and Eve had [...]
BBAW: Best Speculative Fiction Blog
Voting is now open at the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards. Bibliophile Stalker Charles Tan, The Bibliophile Stalker, is having computer issues; I can sympathize. He’s a promoter of Philippine speculative fiction, a niche that hadn’t occurred to me but sounds interesting. In addition to speculative fiction, he enjoys and reports on RPG’s, anime, and [...]
Dystopian Reading
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. The Roar by Emma Clayton. These two books actually have quite a bit in common, although the tone in each is quite different from the other. Both books are set in a future dystopian England, war-ravaged and poverty-stricken. Both books emphasize the meaninglessness of war, with quite strong [...]
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
TSNOTD is a comedy in contrast to the tragedy of Doomsday Book by the same author, which I wrote about last week. It’s a delightful romp in which the fate of the universe may or may not be at stake. However, the course of history and the universe is “self-correcting,” shades of LOST, so the [...]
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
I have a new author to add to my list of favorites: Connie Willis. And I’m delighted because she’s written and published lots of books, and I’m planning to read all of them (except for the short story collections; I don’t like short stories.) I’ve already read three of her books, and although each of [...]
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Wow! This book was not what I expected at all. I don’t remember who recommended it, and I didn’t make note of the recommendation in my TBR list along with the title of the book. I had some vague idea that that title had something to do with Matthew 10:29-30, where Jesus said: “Are not [...]

