Big finish, unfortunately a bit rushed. This is one time a story could actually use more pages. That said, it did resolve the main conflict. The scienBig finish, unfortunately a bit rushed. This is one time a story could actually use more pages. That said, it did resolve the main conflict. The science is more than a little dodgy, but I’ve seen worse in Science Fiction. All in all a decent tale....more
Intriguing start to the story that makes full use of its 49 pages. It manages to introduce the characters, the story, and set the hook without feelingIntriguing start to the story that makes full use of its 49 pages. It manages to introduce the characters, the story, and set the hook without feeling rushed. That’s an impressive skill few writers possess. The art is terrific - not showy or stylized, telling the story cleanly and clearly....more
I like this throwback style of telling 1- and 2-issue stories within the larger frame of the overarching mystery that’s sent the FF to live at Ben GriI like this throwback style of telling 1- and 2-issue stories within the larger frame of the overarching mystery that’s sent the FF to live at Ben Grimm’s Aunt Petunia’s house in Arizona. (The “Fantastic Farmhouse” as Alicia dubs it.) Lots of cosmic one-off stories of great variety, plus appearances from the likes of Doctor Doom....more
What started off as promising quickly devolved into a power fantasy with super-sexy everyone kicking ass easily. Pretty boring overall. Why the woman What started off as promising quickly devolved into a power fantasy with super-sexy everyone kicking ass easily. Pretty boring overall. Why the woman turned into a vampire also got longer legs is a mystery. It was such a weird addition that I was baffled by it for the rest of the book. She’s already a supergenius absolute badass tough as nails ballbuster who has achieved more at age 28 than most people do their entire lives. Why also the odd sex-up? And why don’t her new proportions throw off her super vamp fighting skills? That aspect would’ve been interesting, at least.
I know he’s trying to make this sci-fi with aliens causing the transformations, but it still doesn’t work. I guess most people don’t care since there seems to be like two dozen of these books by him and apparently 232 (yes, 232, not a typo) written by other authors set in this universe published between November 2015 and August 2020. That’s a publishing rate of 4 books a month, FFS....more
This is an almost completely incoherent mishmash of sci-fi movie cliches. This seems pretty clearly a bad screenplay clumsily adapted to comic form. IThis is an almost completely incoherent mishmash of sci-fi movie cliches. This seems pretty clearly a bad screenplay clumsily adapted to comic form. It’s almost as if someone asked, “How can we make Independence Day but stupider?” Throwing in bits from writers like Robert Heinlein (The Puppet Masters) and Jack L. Chalker (A Jungle of Stars) just muddies the story.
There were a few times where characters were suddenly in places completely different from the page before, causing me to flip back to see if I’d missed something. It’s almost as if pages are missing, or that they accidentally included bits from a previous draft. Not that it matters, since these are stock characters saying stock lines, to the point where they are indistinguishable. The art doesn’t help, either. If it weren’t for the fact they have the token child who has blonde hair and the token woman who has red hair, it would be impossible to tell any of the characters apart.
It is so self-consciously striving to be a four quadrants screenplay that it all just feels cobbled together. Guns for the guys, divorced parents for the gals, aliens for the kids, spaceships for the geeks, inane dialogue for the morons… bleh....more
It’s nice to dig into a legit Hard Science Fiction novel after so much goofy Fantasy and over-the-top Space Opera. This feels like a throwback to the It’s nice to dig into a legit Hard Science Fiction novel after so much goofy Fantasy and over-the-top Space Opera. This feels like a throwback to the old school type of sci-fi where the author takes current science and extrapolates it into crazy blue sky stuff. It feels like those books from the 1980s by Arthur C. Clarke and James P. Hogan (before the brain-eater got to him and he started believing nonsense) combined with the 1980s technothrillers by Tom Clancy and his imitators. I hadn’t realized how much I missed that until I discovered this book.
Looks like Phillips has written a whole series set in this universe, so I will be continuing....more
“No-no-no.” A less-funny rewrite of the movie Paul that literally goes in circles and ends mid-conversation, as if Willis hit her deadline and just tu“No-no-no.” A less-funny rewrite of the movie Paul that literally goes in circles and ends mid-conversation, as if Willis hit her deadline and just turned it in. Unsatisfying on every level, frankly, with one of the most annoying aliens I’ve encountered in a while. I was really looking forward to this one, too. It’s not the worst book I’ve read this year (hello, Fourth Wing), but it is the most disappointing.
Solid entry in this Space Opera series, but it does suffer from middle book syndrome in that the larger story doesn’t come to a conclusion even thoughSolid entry in this Space Opera series, but it does suffer from middle book syndrome in that the larger story doesn’t come to a conclusion even though some minor character arcs are wrapped up. Some of them brutally. Powell isn’t shying away from the nastier aspects of war, but that’s to be expected since the series opened with a scene of an entire planet of sentient trees getting glassed.
I listened to the audiobook and it’s very well performed by several readers....more
Uncomplicated MilSF story that reads like a mash-up between Aliens and Titan by John Varley. Space marines are sent to bodyguard scientists investigatUncomplicated MilSF story that reads like a mash-up between Aliens and Titan by John Varley. Space marines are sent to bodyguard scientists investigating a mysterious alien ship, but we never really get any answers, shades of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama, except with shooting when things go wrong. Decent enough story if overly simplistic, feels like a middle book in a trilogy. Mostly I like these characters.
Narration by Marguerite Gavin is well performed....more
This is okay for a first book; the writing is fine but overall it’s disappointingly familiar. It’s just Alien redux, without any interesting wrinkles This is okay for a first book; the writing is fine but overall it’s disappointingly familiar. It’s just Alien redux, without any interesting wrinkles to make it even slightly unique, but it’s competently written. (view spoiler)[Ash the android is turned into Ripley’s Jacklyn’s dad, and it’s a crew of thousands on a generation ship, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same. Adding an android like Data doesn’t change things, especially when everyone treats him exactly the same way Bishop was treated in Aliens: with suspicion until he proves himself a worthy protector and ultra-competent. (hide spoiler)] Personally I would’ve advised her to set it aside once she got it out of her system and start something that wasn’t so obviously influenced by existing IP....more
Really well done colonizing the galaxy story. I liked everything here: the characters, the worldbuilding, the storytelling, the plot… it all hums alonReally well done colonizing the galaxy story. I liked everything here: the characters, the worldbuilding, the storytelling, the plot… it all hums along like clockwork. Despite the dangers and death and dismemberment (which there isn’t a lot of, just being afraid of it), this feels like a lighter story, as if it were something from Larry Niven’s Known Space heyday.
Another one of those reading coincidences - the last book I read, Drunk on All Your Strange New Words, was a Science Fiction Mystery involving aliens,Another one of those reading coincidences - the last book I read, Drunk on All Your Strange New Words, was a Science Fiction Mystery involving aliens, and so is this one. They just coincidently came in to the library at the same time.
This one is even more convoluted, with first contact, corporate shenanigans, rich people weirdness, and political cover-ups, all down to a demoted London cop and his partner unraveling an 80-year-old cold case.
While DonAYSNW has some unique and fresh ideas, this one feels better-constructed. I liked this story a lot, and it doesn’t hurt that one of the main characters, our dogged cop, is basically the same age I am, in his late fifties. (And honestly, it’s weird for me to type that.)
At first I thought this would follow the trope of other noir or police procedurals, but Brown quickly moves on to other POVs as necessary, which expands the scope of the story. We get to see events from multiple perspectives, and he’s able to hide clues in between the shifting viewpoints. Like Drunk, there were a couple times where the answer was blindingly obvious, but it sticks out less here due to the circumstances the characters find themselves in. Plus it shifts scenes so quickly that you can tell it will only be a matter of time before someone figures it out, even if the original person missed the clue. So that works.
But quite good all things considered. I think we have enough evidence now to prove old John W. Campbell wrong when he said Science Fiction Mystery was impossible to pull off because authors needed to impart too much information to readers. Too bad he never got to see all these solid stories....more
Really good mash-up of stuff from other authors that manages to work well together in a crackingly speedy story of epic proportions that doesn’t pull Really good mash-up of stuff from other authors that manages to work well together in a crackingly speedy story of epic proportions that doesn’t pull any punches.
(view spoiler)[So we start off with a godlike alien kicking humanity off Earth because we’re wrecking it and about to annihilate everything. The nukes are literally in the air when it intervenes. Shades of John Varley’s Nine Worlds books, where equally powerful aliens have kicked humans off of Earth. It builds 1,000 gargantuan arcs which each hold 15 million people. Humanity becomes migratory, shades of Battlestar Galactica or, more directly, the quarians from Mass Effect, who similarly live on a fleet of giant ships. Each ark has its own distinct personality, influenced by population it houses, and it creates avatars to do odd jobs and interact with the populace, sort of like the ones in Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice. One of the arks is even reduced to a single avatar, just like the Justice, albeit in this case it’s a Fox, not a human. Then a scouting expedition encounters a different powerful godlike alien, which kills them and starts attacking the fleet. But we’ll later find out it’s basically a mentally-damaged child of the earlier entity that has merged with a starship’s automated systems and drones, a sort of combination of Trelaine from Star Trek: TOS and V’ger from Star Trek: TMP, but it acts more like the alien from John Campbell’s story “Who Goes There”, adapted into John Carpenter’s The Thing. Then we get a detective like from The Expanse, because why the hell not at this point, right? All we need is a talking cat and — oh, yeah, there’s Sam the talking cat.
None of this should work together, but Powell manages that, so kudos for that. Usually I get annoyed seeing all these previous elements bundled together, but a sufficiently good author can make the remix work. Powell is that author. It’s not like there’s a ton of new ideas at this late stage, so might as well lean into the tropes and use what’s gone before in new patterns. “Remix” is good; “derivative” is bad. This is a remix.
I also like the fact that there isn’t a happy ending. Our heroes win, but at great cost. Millions die, including the close personal friends, colleagues, and family members of the protagonists. And, best of all, the main character doesn’t get what she wants. She has to pay a price for her part in all of this. That’s not a happy ending where the heroine rides off into the sunset, but it is a satisfying one. (hide spoiler)]...more
This is basically the classic Arthur C. Clarke novel Rendezvous with Rama mashed up with the hit videogame Dead Space, with a couple ideas borrowed frThis is basically the classic Arthur C. Clarke novel Rendezvous with Rama mashed up with the hit videogame Dead Space, with a couple ideas borrowed from John Varley’s Titan.
And if you’re going to tread the same path as an SF Grandmaster as well as one of the best writers in any genre on top of a neo-classic game that’s so well-loved it just had a remake released, you better damn well bring your A game. Sadly, Wellington doesn’t.
I really liked his twist on zombies with Monster Island, and his vampire novel 13 Bullets was legitimately scary. But this? Meh. This was a slog.
Firstly because it is way too much like RwR and secondly because the scary bits aren’t scary. Most importantly, he has assembled the most incompetent crew of dim witted astronauts I’ve seen in a while. I just did not believe that any of these people were professionals. Or had anything other than average IQs. The captain is crippled with self-recrimination over the death of a crew member years before, the military bro is a walking testosterone cliche, the science guy seems to have skipped class the day they taught science in school, the doctor acts like a first-year med student… I wouldn’t trust them to throw a dinner party, nevermind represent humanity in the first contact with an alien ship.
It’s entirely possible that there is an astronaut out there who throws temper tantrums the way Sally Jansen does, but I rather doubt said astronaut would be entrusted with a mission this important. You’d be much better served by watching the terrific alt-history Apple TV+ series For All Mankind. That show gives you plenty of flawed characters who screw up, but at the end of the day they are good at their jobs.
The really weird thing is that at the end of this book it becomes a self-referential meta thing, where “The Last Astronaut” is a story set in this universe. I don’t even know what the point of that was. It’s not clever, it’s just confusing....more
Kinda on the fence about this one. On the one hand, it’s well-written and the first 1/3 or so is really engaging, but then it becomes a bit too clean Kinda on the fence about this one. On the one hand, it’s well-written and the first 1/3 or so is really engaging, but then it becomes a bit too clean and antiseptic to buy into. But like the Elizabeth Bear novel Hammered I also finished today, this is a debut novel, so it’s kind of hard to get angry at it. It’s not bad or anything, rather it’s just too simplistic.
This is very much in the mold of 2009 Star Trek by JJ Abrams, where he took the most unbelievable aspects of classic Trek and said, “Screw turning them up to 11, I’m turning them up to eleven-hundred!” In 1966 Kirk was a wunderkind, a perfect poster boy for Space Opera Superhero. He was the smartest, toughest, strategic-est dude to ever command a starship. In Trek canon, Kirk is the youngest Starfleet member to ever achieve command of his own starship: it took him a mere 12 years. In Abrams’ version he does it in 12 hours. Seriously. Plus he’s now a malcontent supergenius bad boy and everyone wants to get naked with him.
The main character here, Alex Racine, is cut from the Abrams school of ridiculous too-much-ness. He’s misunderstood by his classmates because he’s a supergenius who was homeschooled (on a spaceship), a math prodigy who has the physique of The Rock or Henry Cavill and is handsomer than either of them, who also happens to be aw-shucks humble. He’s also like Kirk in that he’s the youngest space captain in his planet’s history. By the time he gets the brain implant from a high-tech sister civilization, it’s almost a forgone conclusion that he will master it in no time. And he DOES, adopting the unfamiliar tech faster than anyone ever, learning to control it better in a month than the children who grow up with it. Which is seriously edging into Marty Stu territory, but then Jucha steps over the line and says Alex is using the implant at 102%.
Dude. Come on.
But at this point I’m 200 pages in, so I might as well finish. No surprise that Alex has brilliant strategic thinking and is the first person to ever win a space battle. It’s too much.
I mean, spread the wealth around, fer cry. I get it, there are over-achieving supermen among us, like Tom Cruise and supergenius astronaut Story Musgrave, but even they took years to accomplish their feats; they didn’t get it all by the age of 28, which is how old Alex is. Make someone else the best at brain implant games. Make another guy the most handsome. That reins it in from unbelievable to relatable.
One of my all time favorite books is the 1973 novel Protector by Larry Niven. The story is very similar, almost too much so: loner Brennan, on the way back from asteroid mining, spots an extrasolar starship entering the solar system and matches velocity to catch it. This is exactly Alex’s story here; loner, miner, on his way back. Turns out in both books that the ship is carrying a cousin/cousins to humans. In Protector it’s Phssthpok the Pak, a member of our species’ ancestors. In Silver Ships it’s a ship filled with folks from another Earth colony that the New Terrans don’t know about. This changes the course of history, because it turns out there’s an invading wave of extremely xenophobic Pak hot on Phssthpok’s heels, hell-bent on exterminating any and all mutations, which would include us, their human descendants — and in Silver Ships it’s because the Meridiens were attacked by the titular ships who are hell-bent on exterminating humanity, although for reasons unknown.
But the differences become clear in the second part of these books. In Protector, Brennan is kind of a good-natured dick. He’s a smuggler, which lots of asteroid miners are, but he’s a loner by choice due to being fairly antisocial. He’s not a genius. After meeting Phssthpok, Brennan gets his clock cleaned by the aggressive semi-alien, who is in every way smarter and tougher than any human. None of this charming wunderkind poster boy Cap’n Kirk stuff. To tell more would be a spoiler, but suffice it to say that Brennan is later revealed to be… complicated. He’s both a savior and a monster. He saves species and genocides others. But everything he does fits the premise.
Alex is just a real goody-goody who is doing his aw-shucks best by everyone.
The politics in Protector lead to some real complications, while the ones in Silver Ships don’t amount to much. I suspect there will be more said about that in the numerous sequels, but here it feels like a plot thread that’s snipped off and discarded. Jucha is more interested in kitting out the spaceship and getting into the war with the silver aliens.
Which would be fine if we got to see more than just the opening salvo against one scout ship, but we don’t. In Protector they only confront a few Pak scouts who have no way to alert the following Pak fleet due to the extreme distances involved, but in Silver Ships there seems to be no real reason why a lone scout couldn’t call for backup, really, not when the rest of them are in the same solar system.
I dunno, like I said, I don’t hate this book or anything, it’s just that the story is too pat, the characters too nice, the action too clean. The bad guys, such as they are, get dealt with easily, and the one arrogant character among the new mixed crew of Meridiens and New Terrans isn’t around long enough to be anything other than a trope....more
Every now and again Isaac Asimov would write a silly story that was based on some goofy language-twisting or a spoonerism that he drew out to absurditEvery now and again Isaac Asimov would write a silly story that was based on some goofy language-twisting or a spoonerism that he drew out to absurdity. (view spoiler)[In Death of a Foy, the entire one-pager (read it here: https://michaelhans.com/eclecticism/2...) boils down to a feghoot based on “Give My Regards to Broadway.” In another, a junior spaceman named Sloane picks up a sessile alien that resembles a teddy bear, and the space sailors decide it would be hilarious to have a race between the immobile furball and another alien pet. Only one crewman bets on the teddy. He cleans up because it turns out Sloane’s pet can teleport. Someone asks him how he knew and he replies, “Haven’t you ever heard the phrase ‘Sloane’s teddy wins the race’?” Yes, they’re all groaners. (hide spoiler)]
This story reminds me of that, except with a Christmas twist. It’s basically your standard Christmas movie with a space alien first contact wrinkle. Aliens come to Earth and then just glare at us, unimpressed with the human race. Hijinks ensue as humans attempt to communicate with them.
Eventually it all comes down to Christmas carols, which is a silly idea, but that’s the premise. This is just a feel-good tale about disapproving aliens and fusty officials. In fact, given the sheer number of songs referenced, this would be a good story to adapt. It would almost be a musical. Or at least a musicale.
I did go down a YouTube rabbit hole listening to various choirs singing the songs, so it took me 3 times as long to finish this relatively short novella. I did, however, encounter this, which is amazing: https://youtu.be/mulxxoAKf20 There are lots of similar videos of choirs gathering together on hotel balconies to sing a single song. The one in Kentucky where the teenagers sing the Star Spangled Banner inexplicably brought me to tears: https://youtu.be/y49Omj1onuI Apparently this is a tradition for the high school choirs going back years.
And this, THIS, is one area where we can impress aliens....more
This is twice as long as it should be. A tight 270 pages would’ve made this a ton better, because it really drags in parts.
So basically Tchaikovsky stThis is twice as long as it should be. A tight 270 pages would’ve made this a ton better, because it really drags in parts.
So basically Tchaikovsky stuck Firefly into Mass Effect and shoehorned 343 Guilty Spark from Halo into the crew. We get it, Adrian, you play video games. That description sounds like there would be a lot of moving parts, but there’s really not. This is as complex as Space Invaders, without any of the inventive worldbuilding of his sentient spiders and uplifted octopus novels, Children of Time and Children of Ruin.
There’s also a character who acts like the Silver Surfer from Marvel comics, heralding the arrival of Galactus the World-Eater, but he has like two lines and then goes away. I mean, it seems like you could get at least three chapters delving into that apparently immortal alien warning thingy/person, but it’s a throw-away character. Weird.
And the climax is bizarrely bifurcated because he inexplicably pauses for like 150 pages. It’s as if Star Wars has the rebels approaching the Death Star and you hear, “Lock S-foils into attack position,” and then we cut to a whole different movie and watch that before continuing with the story.
I also don’t know why he called his version of the Reapers (https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Re...) “Architects” since they’re more akin to Death Star-shaped kaiju who use gravity to twist spaceships and whole planets into crazy shapes. Architects design things, not reduce them to wreckage. Call them Bulldozers, maybe, or, if you’re generous, Sculptors. I dunno, it’s just one of the many disconnects I had with this book, which feels like it was churned out in a hurry.
I listened to the audiobook, which I don’t recommend. It reads better than the performance....more
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