Eric Brown

Play Dead by Ryan Brown
an audiobook review by Jason R. Godbout
There is a saying that "revenge is a dish best served cold" and here that saying is taken to a whole new level. Set in Killington, Texas, a rural town where the residents fear God and love their high school football team -- the Killington Jackrabbits. The story begins with Killington high school's star quarterback, Cole Logan, being brutally attacked in an effort to prevent Cole from playing in the big playoff game against local rivals.

Revelations of the Dark Mother by Phil Brucato
a gaming module review by Don Bassingthwaite
This is Lilith's story, a counterpoint to Caine (The Book of Nod), and the story of the Bahari, those denizens of the World of Darkness who follow her. If you compare the two books side by side, you'll notice several things right away but other subtleties will become apparent.

The Jagged Orbit by John Brunner
reviewed by Marc Goldstein
It opens sometime in the early 21st century, when the U.S. has become divided into racially separate city-states of blacks and whites. These enclaves clash with each other in a kind of cold civil war. Against this backdrop, Michael Flamen carries on as the last spoolpigeon, a muckraking gossip reporter with his own daily television newsmagazine. For months his show has been interrupted by mysterious static interference. Flamen believes that the network is conspiring to force him off the air (to fill his time slot with infomercials). His investigation into the source of the interference accidentally uncovers a conspiracy within the Gottschalk gun-dealing cartel.

Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
From the misty depths of the late 60s, Brunner gives us the ultimate dysfunctional society, a world of decadence spilling into decay, of high tech advances and the loss of common sense. There's a good bit of cyberpunkish foreshadowing here. The drugs, the mean streets, the ragged suburbs, and Mr and Mrs Everywhere on your TV set, who can be programmed to look just like you; through them you can attend the most exclusive parties, visit the most scenic places on Earth, meet the rich and famous, all at the flick of a remote control.

Steven Brust

Nascence: 17 Stories That Failed and What They Taught Me by Tobias Buckell and Ersatz Wines by Christopher Priest
reviewed by Trent Walters
Both collections deal with the category of literature known as juvenilia: works written before the writer came into his full maturity. Both writers deal with the idea that the point of the book is just to make some money, but they also believe their mistakes may help beginning writers. Buckell is more contemporary and aware of the current speculative scene while Priest's concerns are more literary, yet both give useful insight into the process of maturing as a writer.

The Executioness by Tobias S. Buckell
reviewed by Rich Horton
The world here revealed is a promising setting. Based on the briefish glimpse we see in this novella, the tech level is roughly Middle Ages, with, of course, magic. The kicker is that magic use has terrible consequences: it fosters the growth of a poisonous bramble. There was an "Old Empire" which seems to have mostly collapsed, and the rump of that Empire, apparently city-states, is under attack from the Paikans, who seem to be slavers.

Little Green Men by Christopher Buckley
reviewed by Peter D. Tillman
John Oliver Banion hosts an influential political talking-head show on TV. He has a beautiful house in Georgetown, a permanent spot on the A-list of every Washington hostess of note, and commands lecture fees of $25,000 and up. Life is good -- until he's abducted by aliens at the fourth hole of the Burning Bush golf course.

War Surf by M.M Buckner
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
Nasir Deepra, in his mid-200s—but kept young by nanotechnology and replacement parts—has seen it all. Now a semi-retired hugely wealthy and powerful executive who has survived ecological Armageddon and rebuilt the world economy with a handful of friends, he can and has done pretty much everything that can be done. He is bored silly and out of touch with the greater mass of humanity. Rather than sink into a funk, he and a group of like-bored execs, the Agonists, make an extreme sport of showing up and sauntering through armed conflicts opposing plebes (workers) and commies (giant corporations).

Writers of the Future, Volume XVIII edited by Algis Budrys
reviewed by Stephen M. Davis
This anthology surprises with the quality of the stories, though really, based on some of the names on the selection committee -- Greg Benford, Orson Scott Card, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, et. al. -- no surprise is warranted. Stephen has never read through an anthology that didn't have some unevenness in the story quality, but here the writing talent of those featured is clearly, and consistently, evident.

Orphanage by Robert Buettner
reviewed by Michael M Jones
This is the first-person account of Jason Wander, an eighteen-year-old citizen of Indianapolis, orphaned when the first Projectile destroyed his hometown and the vast majority of its residents. At first, everyone thought it was the work of a terrorist. But then more Projectiles fell to Earth, devastating more cities, and the truth was painfully evident: we were under attack from outer space. From a base on Ganymede, aliens of unknown origin and motives were systematically wiping out the human race, bringing objects the size of skyscrapers down in controlled crashes.

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Miles finds himself on Kibou-daini, a planet with a highly unique political organization. The entire planet is controlled by competing cryonics corporations. Kibou-daini culture encourages people to be frozen prior to death, in hopes of a future in which their various illnesses and accidents and ravages of age can be cured. However, since the cryocorp then controls the votes of its patrons -- who are not, after all, technically dead -- cryo-preservation is much more common than cryo-revival.

Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Miles and Ekaterin Vorkosigan deferred their honeymoon for a year after their wedding, but they've spent several months touring the nexus while their first children gestate in uterine replicators back on Barrayar. They're on their way home to be present for the birth when Miles's duties as Imperial Auditor intervene, and they are diverted to Graf Station to handle a budding diplomatic disaster.

Winterfair Gifts by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
This novella, originally published in the anthology, Irresistible Forces, takes place a few months after the events of A Civil Campaign. It's the Winterfair season, and Miles Vorkosigan is only a few days away from his wedding to Ekaterin Vorsoisson. Vorkosigan House is in an uproar with the preparations, only exacerbated by the arrival of a contingent of Galactic guests, including Miles's former comrades from the Dendarii Free Mercenaries.

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
While a lot of, if not most, science fiction has to do with the interplay between culture and technology, A Civil Campaign uses that interplay in service of a romance -- or, as the subtitle puts it, "a comedy of biology and manners." In this case, the manners come in the form of Barrayaran society, which is still clinging to the feudal government and rigid sex roles that it developed during the Time of Isolation. The biology comes primarily in the form of galactic uterine replicators. However, now that this generation of sons has grown up, they're suddenly feeling the dearth of marriageable women rather sharply.

Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
For Miles's first assignment as an official Imperial Auditor, he is sent to investigate the crash of a space freighter into the Komarran Soletta Array -- a giant mirrored satellite that provides much of the light and heat needed to make Komarr habitable. Not to investigate the mechanics of the crash itself -- that much falls to Lord Auditor Vorthys, an engineering specialist -- but to probe the political currents that eddy around the incident. Miles is normally right at home in the waters of politics and intrigue.

Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Miles Vorkosigan has made a lot of mistakes in his thirteen years of military service, but he's always been able to bounce back stronger than before. But at the start of Memory, Miles makes a series of errors in judgment that could cost him everything. After his brush with death in Mirror Dance, Miles's cryo-revival procedure has seemingly gone without a hitch -- except for the fact that he now has unexplained, unpredictable, and uncontrollable seizures.

Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
To the Jackson's Whole geneticists who created him, he's a perfect clone, a work of art. To the Komarran terrorists who raised him, tortured him, and trained him, he's the ideal assassin. To Barrayaran Imperial Security, he's a dangerously unknown quantity and potential threat. And to Miles Vorkosigan, he's a wayward younger brother. But who is Mark Vorkosigan, really?

Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
The Cetagandan Empire may be Barrayar's main military rival, but when the Cetagandan Empress dies, political niceties must still be maintained. In this case, the young officer Miles Vorkosigan, son of the Barrayaran Prime Minister, and his cousin Ivan are sent to Cetaganda to attend the galactic funeral proceedings. However, they've barely made it off their spaceship -- and haven't, to their knowledge, offended anyone yet -- when they're attacked by a servant of the late empress… The same servant who is later found in the middle of the mourning procession with his throat cut.

Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
This is not a novel proper, but rather a collection of Miles Vorkosigan novellas. All three deal with Miles (who was deformed from a prenatal gas attack on his mother) as he must use his considerable intellect to get out of -- and occasionally in to -- trouble.

The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Miles Vorkosigan -- crippled son of Barrayar's Prime Minister -- has just graduated from the Barrayaran Military Academy, and like every graduate is desperately hoping to be assigned to ship duty. But instead of being put aboard the Barrayaran fleet's newest interstellar cruiser, he's assigned instead to the post of meteorology officer at a remote arctic training base. But even in that far-flung outpost, Miles can't stay out of trouble for long.

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
reviewed by Rich Horton
The novel is set on the planet Kibou-daini. Miles Vorkosigan has come there ostensibly to attend on conference on cryogenic technology, but in reality to untangle some suspicious business dealings between the planet's companies and interests on Komarr. But things go a bit pear-shaped when Miles and others are kidnapped. Miles ends up escaping and meeting an 11-year-old boy, Jin, a runaway, who has settled in a sort of squat. But this place also hides a secret cryogenic facility

Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is used to living a double life. On his home planet of Barrayar, he's Lord Miles Vorkosigan, a member of the elite ruling and military class, and son to the second-most powerful man on the planet. Off-world, however, he's Admiral Miles Naismith, commander of the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet. It's critical that Miles keep his two identities separate -- not always the easiest thing when a prenatal gas attack left him with a crippled physical appearance and brittle bones that are distinctly memorable.

Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobbok review by Nicki Gerlach
Athos is one of the most isolated planets in the galactic community, which is exactly how the inhabitants like it. It’s a planet entirely of men, where contact with off-planet sources is strictly limited, and each next generation is conceived in vitro and incubated in uterine replicators. This system has worked for hundreds of years, but now Athos is facing a serious problem: their carefully cultured lines of ovarian tissue, the same cell lines that have provided half of the genetic material of every Athosian for centuries, are failing.

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Leo Graf would be one of the first people to tell you that he's just an engineer. A very skilled and accomplished engineer, for sure, but otherwise just an ordinary middle-aged man. He has been summoned by his employer, GalacTech, to travel to the remote space station known as the Cay Habitat, and to teach safety inspection and welding to a new bunch of workers there. When he arrives, he's shocked to discover that the workers are not your average students.

The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Miles Naismith Vorkosigan was left crippled after a poison gas attack on his mother when he was still in the womb. In reality, he's lucky to be alive at all, but gratitude doesn't always come easy when one's bones might break from a hard push, especially when growing up in a culture that places a high premium on physical prowess in boys. Add onto that a father who is a Count, a high-ranking military officer and former Regent to the Emperor, and you have one young man eager to prove himself.

The Sharing Knife: Beguilement and The Sharing Knife: Legacy by Lois McMaster Bujold
reviewed by Sherwood Smith
The story is set on a pastoral world near water, where we are introduced to two cultures living in uneasy coexistence: the Farmers and the Lakewalkers, who patrol everywhere looking for malices (bogles to the Farm people) that suck all the life and energy out of people, animals, land. The resultant blight can last a century or more, and affected are not just the living, but the environment such as rocks and soil. The Lakewalkers aren't particularly trusted by the Farm folk, who own and farm land, but are protected by them.

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
an audiobook review by Nicki Gerlach
Cordelia Naismith, like all inhabitants of Beta Colony, has heard of the reputation of the Barrayaran military: efficient, soulless, and ruthlessly brutal. So when the base camp of her Astronomical Survey team is destroyed, and she is taken prisoner by Barrayaran Captain Aral Vorkosigan, the Butcher of Komarr, she has more than a little reason to worry.

The Miles Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold
reviewed by Regina Lynn Preciado
The author has created a living, breathing universe in which well-rounded characters live out lives of unusual danger, passion, and intellect. Miles Vorkosigan himself is a charismatic leader with physical disabilities that make him an outcast at best -- and an abomination at worst -- on his home planet. His overwhelming need to prove himself is at the root of his intense, suspenseful adventures, whether in the military, the security service, the mercenary fleet, or the diplomatic corps.

Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
reviewed by Sherwood Smith
The Royina Ista, a middle-aged widow, decides to go on pilgrimage through the land of Chalion, which feels a lot like a Renaissance alternate-Spain, one that is overseen from the other-worldly realm by five gods, so there are five religious traditions going on here. On the way, she and the divine leading her entourage discover that demons have been appearing in the world with disturbing frequency, having escaped from the fifth god's hell. The pilgrimage is then waylaid by a lost contingent of Roknari warriors from the neighboring kingdom; she is rescued by a swashbuckling horseman who attacks a troop single-handedly.

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
The first thing to strike you about her work is the warm, welcoming feeling to her narrative. From the first word, she invites you into another world and holds you safely there. This time, the setting is Chalion, a diverse and arresting area of many domains, more potential rulers, and endless machinations. It is a time of chivalrous suffering and cowardly betrayal with a backdrop of courtly manners and wills of iron.

Bull Spec: A Magazine of Speculative Fiction #6
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
This issue has all the features the reader needs to get into during the weekend when they are ready to let their hair down. Muir Lafferty reviews "The Wolf Tree," by John Claude Bemis, with an interview conducted by Don Campbell with the author and, at five pages, it is very in depth and gives enough of an idea to readers of what kind of writer he is. There are a good number of short stories, some shorter than others, and yet have very powerful endings.

Bull Spec, #4
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
Of all the work in this magazine, the fiction stands out most of all. First up is "Freedom Acres" by Andrew Magowan where Carolyn, a neighbour in Freedom Acres notices a new man moving in over the road from her, and, from the moment she sees him she has a deep sense of unease. She does not know why she feels this way, but she fears for herself, her husband and their child while he continues to move in. Up until now, the place has been quiet, and uneventful, but a dark cloud has come over Freedom Acres.

The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
reviewed by Nathan Brazil
The book tells the story of an English gentleman who undertakes a private exploration with a friend below a deep mineshaft, and accidentally falls into a subterranean world. This is a place inhabited by communities of an advanced race named the Vril-ya, various monsters, and sub-races of savages. How the Vril-ya react to their visitor from the surface, and what he learns from them is presented using language, forms of expression and perspectives which, from a modern day viewpoint can seem rather quaint. However, it's always worth persevering.

Chris Bunch

The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett
reviewed by Jason Erik Lundberg
For Thai police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, our humble narrator, release from samsara is urgent: his six-year-old son Pichai has been killed in a traffic accident, and his wife Chanya has fled to a nunnery in her grief. The beginning of the novel sees Sonchai as a broken man, surviving his despair through liberal consumption of marijuana and the recitation of an ego-annihilating mantra given to him by a Tibetan yogin in Nepal.

Bloodlines by William R. Burkett, Jr.
reviewed by Todd Richmond
Keith Ramsey -- poet, journalist, historian and hunter -- is looking forward to using all of those skills on a visit to Ptolemy to research the famous Renga poetry competition. He also intends to look up his old friend Ball, a human brain encased in a floating shell, a former covert Terran Services operative and a terrific source of stories. It'd almost be a vacation, if someone wasn't so intent on killing him...

Flesh and Silver by Stephen L. Burns
reviewed by Jeri Wright
Bergmann Surgeons use abilities that seem more magic than science. They can use the power of their brains to reach into the human body and heal with a precision that surgical tools cannot come close to matching. They can literally perform miracles, but at a price; they gave up hands for replacements of silver, and with that they gave up part of themselves.

A Princess of Mars: The Annotated Edition & New Tales of the Red Planet by Edgar Rice Burroughs, annotations by Aaron Parrett
reviewed by David Maddox
John Carter's multiple world spanning adventures have become legend in the annals of heroic, action literature. Battling hordes of enemies on the mysterious world of Barsoom, the Warlord of Mars has left his mark on classic literature that has inspired the stories and adventures that we enjoy today.

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
an audiobook review by Ivy Reisner
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote his first novel, A Princess of Mars, in 1911, publishing it in All-Story magazine as a serialized novel between February and July of 1912. This was 14 years before Hugo Gernsback founded the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, and coined the term "scientificion," which was later changed to "science fiction." Science fiction, as a recognized publishing genre, was not established while Burroughs was writing his earlier novels.

Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
In a previous book, At The Earth's Core, David Innes has been tricked. He ends up back on the surface of our own world, his beloved wife Dian replaced by a vile, winged-crocodile like Mahar. Determined to once again return to the underground world of Pellucidar and get his wife back, he turns his digging machine downward, to dig back through the hundred miles of Earth's crust, to land once more in Pellucidar. He finds himself lost, miles away from any recognizable landmark.

The Moon Maid by Edgar Rice Burroughs
reviewed by Alma A. Hromic
It's both exhilarating and disconcerting to find this edition. Exhilaration, because it's all out here again, laid out for yet another generation -- it is immortal and everlasting. The other, because this edition comes accompanied by an Introduction, scholarly essays, a glossary, etc. It is startling to see to what extent the wonderful stuff printed in magazines of science fiction's Golden Age has transmigrated into the realm of the University presses.

Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs
reviewed by Steven H Silver
In the wake of the rise of Soviet Russia, the 1920s saw a rise in a Communist movement in the United States. The author saw Communism as a threat and responded by writing up the adventures of Carson Napier, a man who has found himself caught in the struggle between conflicting social orders on a fanciful Venus in Pirates of Venus, the opening novel in a short and incomplete series.

Surviving Demon Island by Jaci Burton
reviewed by Charlene Brusso
Gina Bliss is the top female action film star in the world (think Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft), a black belt with a killer body, a face with a regular role in a million male fantasies, and an attitude the size of Hollywood itself. Just off a demanding film schedule, Gina's ready for a vacation, and what better way to kick back than by accepting a role on the latest Survivor clone, 'Surviving Demon Island'? Little does she know (cue spooky music) the demons on the island are real.

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories by Tim Burton
reviewed by Margo MacDonald
Open the cover and enter, if you dare, the dark twisted world of Tim Burton. Margo's been there and confesses that there is no one like him for his ability to make you laugh in spite of your cringing.

Stephen Bury

The Knight, the Harp, and the Maiden by Anne Kelleher Bush
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
This is a pleasant novel -- the pseudo-mediaeval atmosphere is well recreated, although the setting more often has a feel of modern fast-paced action and realistic inter-gender relationships.

Conan: The Frost-Giant's Daughter and Other Stories by Kurt Busiek
reviewed by Rick Klaw
Most readers of Rick's generation first learned of Conan and Robert E. Howard from the popular 70s Marvel comic book Conan the Barbarian and its companion magazine The Savage Sword of Conan. Initially written by Roy Thomas with elaborate art by Barry Windsor-Smith (and later John Buscema), the series ran until the mid-90s, when Marvel dropped the property due to lagging sales.

The Ogre's Laboratory by Louis Buss
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
The author's style harkens back to the rich tradition of atmospheric British horror by authors such as Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, and more recently Robert Aickman. Unlike the graphic presentation of many of today's American horror writers, nothing happens in plain sight -- and horror is left to suggestion and innuendo.

Jim Butcher

Triangulation: Dark Glass edited by Pete Butler
reviewed by John Enzinas
John is always anxious about reading short story collections as they often leave me unsatisfied and unhappy like a carbohydrate-heavy buffet breakfast. This was not the case here. The editor has managed to put together a anthology in which every single story was innovative, well-crafted and unique while still touching on the theme.

Horses Blow Up Dog City & Other Stories by Richard Butner
reviewed by Matthew Cheney
Let's say you have a cousin, a cousin who is a writer, a snobby writer, a writer who claims science fiction and fantasy "can't be literature" (whatever that means) and spends all his time rereading Proust. You -- being ornery, being combative, being mischievous -- want to prove to your cousin that, though there may not be an SF equivalent to Proust, there are, at least, a few writers digging for grub in the streets of the genre-fiction ghetto who are as skilled and serious about their art as any other contemporary writer.

The Immortals by Marilynn Byerly
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
In the future when the people of Earth reach out to the stars, what realities will they create? When we meet up with other sentient life forms, what will they think of us? It's not all beer and skittles out there and we're probably not the easiest humanoids to get along with. Maybe it's easier to get along without us.

Children of Gaia by Richard Lee Byers and Uktena by Stefan Petrucha
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
For gamers, this double novel is no doubt a special treat to accompany their role-playing, but, for those of us who don't fall into that category, both offer equal charms. True, the many forms and guises of the Tribe may become one unfocussed blur, but there is great pleasure in the characters themselves. The array of backgrounds that come together to form a clan is a constant surprise, and the Garou are quite capable of catching readers off guard as well.

Things Unborn by Eugene Byrne
reviewed by Steven H Silver
The author has postulated a world in which an atomic war in 1962 has caused the decline in population and civilization in much of the Western World. Rather than a post-apocalyptic tale, however, it tells the story of an England which is rebuilding its position in the world, aided by a strange phenomenon, left unexplained. In this post-nuclear world, those who have been killed before their time (and before the war) are being re-born in seemingly random circumstances.