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When I read the second word in the book I couldn’t believe it. It had happened again! Just a couple of weeks ago I reviewed a book that I had liked very much. But, as I mentioned, the author had repeatedly made the odd mistake of placing Murmansk in Siberia. Commenter Trimegistus said: “Murmansk is […]

When I finished reading Red Mercury, I knew I’d read the second book about the adventures of Major David Jones and Captain John Kowalski. Neptune Rising is even better. It tells the story of a previous mission of the duo, but it is not a prequel. You don’t need one to understand the other. This […]

I know there is little hope that a 35,000-word story by “a self-published steampunk writer” could be made into a summer action movie. But Red Mercury should be! Early 20th century Europe seems inevitably headed for a big steampunk war. This is alternative history, so the coming conflict won’t be The Great War or WWII—Soviet […]

Second Amendment supporters, cyborgs, Star Trek references, Heinlein references, aliens that look like Skitters from Falling Skies, some serious action against Iran, a US president quoting Ayn Rand… Sometimes you need some suspended disbelief to enjoy a work of fiction, with books like this one you also need some sense of humor. It all begins […]

You can find many inexpensive indie science fiction books at Kindle store. And that’s always risky, particularly if it’s the author’s first novel. A Sword Into Darkness is well worth the risk. In the near future, 2023—just ten years after the book’s publication—an aerospace tycoon is trying to convince NASA that an alien ship is […]

John Wright does it again. This is the second book of collected stories I’ve read from him, the other being Awake in the Night Lands, and cannot recommend him highly enough. I’ve read, and watched, my fair share of time travel stories and Wright leaves them all in the dust, even Mull’s Grip of the […]

The book opens with a remarkably well-written naval battle. It’s three months after the attack on Pearl Harbor and a flotilla of obsolete WWI-era American destroyers is leaving the Java Sea headed for Perth. But an elite Japanese force intercepts the aging “four-stackers” and the desperate battle ensues. The USS Walker seeks cover in a […]

Set in post-apocalyptic Ontario, the book opens with a very Western feel. A laconic stranger walks into a small isolated town. Village of Blackstock, Population 800. He quickly gets acquainted with the bartender and the town’s mechanic. Nobody knows the armed newcomer but soon there is someone spreading rumors about him. This first part of […]

The first two thirds of this book are odd, because they feel like ‘been there, read that’ and yet it is new and enjoyable. So much had changed in the last two installments and so many new things were introduced that now it feels really strange to find the protagonists in a situation so similar […]