Ashes of Candesce by Karl Schroeder

Ashes of Candesce by Karl SchroederImagine a world where you can travel from sun to sun in wooden ships, without worrying about space suits since all of space is filled with air. Imagine a world without planets, with spinning town wheels to emulate gravity to keep humans – descended from us planet dwellers – healthy in a free fall environment.

Jane Austen with magic? Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

No this is not one of those mashups, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This is an original story, but with the setting, story-line and style heavily inspired by the works of Jane Austen. Except it's set in an alternate Regency period where magic is an art generally practiced by educated women.

Final Days by Gary Gibson

Final Days by Gary Gibson

You might like this book if you enjoy:

  • action-filled thriller type plots
  • time travel
  • science fiction stories with philosophical implications, but not too much
  • doom and apocalypse

Keep reading if you would like to know my thoughts on Final Days in a context of hard science fiction. 

Carnelians by Catherine Asaro – space opera with more opera than space

Carnelians by Catherine Asaro

It's gift-giving season again. The time of year when you want to buy really good things to people you love, and you realize again that you don't really understand their taste in books.

Deathless, by Catherynne M. Valente

Deathless, by Catherynne M. Valente

Marya Morevna, when you longed to see the world naked and watched for what was hidded behind everyday things, did you know where it would lead you? When you saw the three birds turning into men, did you recognize the structure of your tale? When you learned the date of your death, did it change your way of life?

The Restoration Game

The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeodTo summarise: I think you might like this book if you

  • like Ken MacLeods earlier work
  • are interested in history, or big political questions
  • want realistic female protagonists (not superwomen)
  • enjoy reality leakage and sense of wonder in your fiction

Through most of The Restoration Game you can safely allow yourself to believe that you are reading a kind of contemporary spy thriller, although kind of light on the action and violence and heavy on the personal history of the geek girl protagonist Lucy.

The science fiction lover reads Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku

Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku This is a book about the technologies that will shape our lives in various ways in the near future and in the coming 100 years. It's all extrapolated from the current front line of technology and from new knowledge that is anticipated to be exploited soon.

The Dervish House

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

This is so brilliant. Beautiful. At the moment I think this is the novel I'm going to recommend everyone to read for a long time to come.

As I have probably said before, it's a little bit risky to review a book before I have really digested it. I never know when I turn the last page what I will think of it in a week or a month. Still, I have now waited way too long to read this book, considering that I wanted to review it before the coming weekend.

Perhaps I'm just dazzled at the moment, but one thing that is safe to say is that I'm going to

Welcome to Bordertown, edited by Holly Black and Ellen Kushner

Bordertown - New and important things usually start at the edges, the borders, the intersections and interfaces. It's not through some central committee that revolutionary ideas are spawned, it's not in the limelight of the famous stages new musical expressions are tried. Things start in the gutters, in hidden corners, through the clashes between old and new, near and far.

That is the attraction of places like Bordertown.