The Android That Ate its Grandmother

vN
Madeline Ashby
Angry Robot Books
448pp trade paperback
$12.99 US $14.99 CAN
448pp B-format paperback
£8.99 UK
ebook $4.89 Kindle $6.01 Nook

This book took me over two weeks to read, but please don't take that as a negative comment on the book.  It's actually a high compliment.  Life was happening at the time, and the fact that the book could hold my attention when I wasn't able to read it for literally days at a time speaks highly of the author's ability to tell a compelling story.

Normally, I don't get excited about the whole androids who act like humans subgenre, partly because I got enough of it with ST:TNG and Commander Data.   I like Data, but the whole trope gets old after a while.

Fortunately something I read in a blurb by Joe Lansdale on a novel by Christopher Golden years ago is true:  There are no boring genres, only boring writers.  Madeline Ashby is not a boring writer, and vN is anything but a boring book.  This one surprised me several times by the direction it took.

A Review of Mary Sisson's Trust

Trust
Mary Sisson
Various ebook formats:  $2.99
Amazon, B&N, Smashwords

I reviewed the first book in this series, Trang, not too long ago. It was the author's first novel, and I found it to be enjoyable.  Now, Sisson's sophomore effort is available.  It's more enjoyable than the first, which is as it should be.  Authors, especially those early in their careers should be learning and improving with each new work.

There are some mild spoilers for Trang in what follows.  No way to avoid them, really, if I want to talk about this novel, since picks up shortly after the previous one ended.  

Clarkesworld Issue 69 is Now Available

Clarkesworld Issue 69
monthly
free online or available by subscription in various ebook formats

Clarkesworld has gotten some high profile attention in the last few years, having won the Hugo for Best Semiprozine in 2010 and 2011.  I've had subscription for the past six months or so.  Time constraints have kept me from finishing all of the issues, but based on everything I've read so far, it's been a good investment. 

This magazine provides a good balance of fiction and nonfiction, and the new issue is no exception.  Here's a closer look at the contents:

A Review of Night's Engines by Trent Jamieson

Night's Engines
Trent Jamieson
Angry Robot Books
US/CAN
29 May 2012
416pp mass-market paperback
$7.99 US $8.99 CAN
eBook
29 May 2012
£4.49

UK/RoW
7 Jun 2012
384pp B-format paperback
£7.99 UK

This book won't be released for another week here in the States, and later in other parts of the world, so if you haven't read Roil yet (reviewed here), don't worry.  You still have time before the conclusion of The Nightbound Land duology hits the shelves.

This is a science fiction novel that reads like fantasy, but a careful reading of either book shows it's clearly science fiction (or at least science fantasy), which is why I'm reviewing it here rather than at Adventures Fantastic.  It's different than most anything I've seen lately, further proof of my conclusion that Angry Robot is one of the publishers you should be reading.

Night's Engines is old fashioned adventure, the kind we don't see enough of these days.   One of the advantages of being in the Robot Army is getting to read some of the most exciting new science fiction and fantasy before anyone else does.  And while not every title I've previewed has worked for me, most of them have.  This series certainly does.

A Review of Mary Sisson's Novel Trang

Trang
Mary Sisson
$2.99 ebook Kindle Nook Smashwords
Print $11.99 trade paper $18.99 large print

Although it's been years since I read them, I was reminded a little bit of Keith Laumer's Retief stories while reading Trang.  But only a little bit.  Phillipe Trang is also a diplomat, but he's cut from an entirely different cloth that Retief.  For one thing, he's more idealistic.  For another, mankind is just entering what passes for galactic society in Trang. 

Most of the novel takes place five years after the discovery of a portal in the Saturn system (that's the moon system of the planet Saturn, in our solar system, in case you were wondering).  Phillipe Trang is a rising young diplomat who has been selected to be the first ambassador to the alien station on the other side of the portal.

RIP Ralph McQuarrie

I've been traveling this weekend, so I just heard the news when I got home and logged in to the computer.  Ralph McQuarrie has passed away.  He was most famous for his work on Stars Wars, but I think my favorite work of his was the set of illustrations for Isaac Asimov's Robot Dreams, back in the 1980s.  He will be missed.  Rest well, Ralph, and peaceful dreams.

Strata in the Sun

Strata
Bradley P. Beaulieu and Stephen Gaskell
various ebook formats (Kindle, Nook) $0.99

Between dayjobbery and a number of fantasy novels I'd committed to review, it's been a while since I read any science fiction.  I'm trying to restore a little balance to what I've been reading, and so between things I've committed to review, I decided to take a quick break with Strata.  Beaulieu's The Winds of Khalakovo was one of my favorite novels last year (see my review here), so when I saw he had co-written this short novel with Stephen Gaskell, I knew I had to read it.

And I'm glad I did.  While it's not what I would consider hard science (the authors don't go into a great deal of technical detail), they did do their research.  I've always been skeptical of stories where spacecraft, never mind whole stations such as those here, get right up next to the Sun.  So when I say the authors made me suspend my disbelief, that's saying something.