The SF Site: Featured Reviews Archive

The reviews are sorted alphabetically by authors' last name -- one or more pages for each letter (plus one for Mc). All but some recent reviews are listed here. Links to those reviews appear on the Recent Feature Review Page.

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Star Wars: The Cestus Deception by Steven Barnes
reviewed by David Maddox
Thousands of soldiers, alike in looks, training and drive. Clones of a great warrior, trained in his style of hunting and fighting. But are they truly the same? Is there no difference in how they think, behave... feel? This latest novel in the ongoing Clone Wars saga, approaches a subject left untouched until now. How are the clones of Jango Fett, the Grand Army of the Republic, dealing with the world they have been cloned into? Do they just fight as automatons? Or is there more to them?

Lion's Blood by Steven Barnes
reviewed by Donna McMahon
Turnabout social satires have long been popular in SF and Alternate History. American writers, particularly, love to speculate on the South winning the Civil War or the Native Indians defeating American expansionism. Here, we have a novel where North America was settled by Muslim Africans who imported Northern Europeans as slaves. (Think Gone With the Wind with a regal black Rhett Butler and a cast of kowtowing Irish.)

Zulu Heart by Steven Barnes
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Following up on Lion's Blood, in which Carthage defeated Rome, and Africa has colonized the New World, it is the year A.H. 1294, (aka 1877 A.D.), and the conflict between the Pharoah and the Empress is beginning to boil over in the New World. Kai ibn Rashid, the new Wakil, is still recovering from the psychological aftermath of the battle, but he can see that he and his family will inevitably be drawn into the struggle. Kai faces pressures to ally with various political factions, and also to consummate his arranged second marriage to the niece of Shaka Zulu. Bit by bit, Kai finds himself involved in events that will pit him against the power of the Pharoah, and place his family in jeopardy.

Charisma by Steven Barnes
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Now, we are always looking for ways to improve the odds for the next generation, to give the children a better shot at avoiding our mistakes. Suppose you were to take the template of a phenomenally successful, inspirational person and find a way to imprint that masterpiece of a human being onto young children. Surely, they would grow up to icons just as worthy as their role model. But, right, there is the downside: do we ever really know everything we need to know about another person?

Iron Shadows by Steven Barnes
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
Lisa discovered that Barnes has crafted a private eye tale with many special twists, a case different from any his characters have ever taken. Different from anything they've ever seen, and they've seen plenty. It's gun-toting PIs and aura-sprouting miracle workers.

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