This week’s free book is Black Onyx (A Superhero Thriller), by Victor Methos. Evidently this involves a relic from a lost civilization, which appears to be a suit of super-powered armor, but I haven’t yet gotten to the point where the armor has actually been found, so I’m sort of guessing. But given that the book description calls it the “Black Onyx” suit, reveals that there are more than one of it lying around under the Antarctic ice, and gives away quite a bit of the villain’s activities in his attempt to get one of the suits for himself, it seems like a pretty good guess.
Tag: science fiction
Teaser Tuesday 8/13/13: “Starliner”
This week’s book, from the Baen free library, is Starliner, by David Drake. This is about an interstellar passenger ship (the “starliner” of the title, natch) that gets dragged into a war between two planets along its route. At least, I assume it’s going to get dragged into the war. Otherwise there’s not going to be much going on, is there?
Teaser Tuesday 7/16/2013: “The Sirens of Titan”
Still reading The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut’s classic from 1959, this week. We’ve just gotten to the point of meeting the members of a new religion whose members handicap themselves by carrying heavy weights, dressing in ugly clothes, wearing bad makeup, etc. Shades of “Harrison Bergeron“! And by “shades” I do not mean “dark glasses worn to impair your eyesight and eliminate any advantage you may enjoy due to your superior vision.”
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 7/16/2013: “The Sirens of Titan””
Teaser Tuesday: “The Sirens of Titan”
This week’s free Prime book is The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut’s classic from 1959. I haven’t picked up any Vonnegut since Hocus Pocus, but now that I’ve discovered that most of his books appear to be available to be borrowed for free via Prime, I’m sure to pick up more of them.
Teaser Tuesday 6/25/2013: “Hal Spacejock”
So this week I’m reading a book called Hal Spacejock, by Simon Haynes. (This is after polishing off the very short post-apocalyptic SF book H2O, by Irving Belateche, which while not making it to Teaser Tuesday, is notable because a central plot point is the remnant of the Internet that still exists in its devastated world. The Internet scrap is called the Line, capitalized, which caused me to draw constant comparisons between it and the Line from The Half-Made World. Needless to say, H2O did not benefit from the comparison. But I digress.)
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 6/25/2013: “Hal Spacejock””
Teaser Tuesday 5/28/2013: “The Dreaming Void”
This week I’m still reading Peter F. Hamilton’s The Dreaming Void, part one of his “Void” trilogy. At 90% through, the faithful still haven’t gotten their ships built yet for launching their pilgrimage to the Void, which will either (1) take them to an Elysian realm of eternal life and happiness or (2) cause the Void to wake up and devour the galaxy. I’m betting it won’t be (1).
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 5/28/2013: “The Dreaming Void””
Teaser Tuesday 5/21/2013: “The Dreaming Void”
This week I’m almost halfway through Peter F. Hamilton’s The Dreaming Void, part one of his “Void” trilogy, in which humanity discovers that what they thought was a black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is, in fact, some sort of ancient, gigantic artifact that periodically wakes up and eats nearby stars. So of course, somebody decides they have to send a ship into it. Readers of Hamilton’s earlier “Commonwealth Sage”, in whose universe the “Void” trilogy is set, will remember how well it turned out the last time humans sent ships poking around such a construct. (Hint: Not well.) Like most of Hamilton’s books, this one is taking a nice long time to get going, but, also like most of Hamilton’s books, I expect that once the plot really kicks in, I won’t want to put it down.
Continue reading “Teaser Tuesday 5/21/2013: “The Dreaming Void””
Teaser Tuesday 3/26/2013: “Wool”
This week I’m still working on Wool: Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey, the dystopian SF novel from last week. This is a big book and well worth the $3.99 Kindle price. It still mostly takes place in that giant silo (“They mostly stay in the silo. Mostly.”), and at this point my speculation last week that the title, which seemed to refer to the wool pads use to scrub sensors, might also refer to the old saw about “pulling the wool over one’s eyes” has been explicitly stated. Five points for me!
Teaser Tuesday 3/19/2013: “Wool”
So having run out of free books, I have shelled out the princely sum of $3.99 for Wool: Omnibus Edition by Hugh Howey, a dystopian SF novel that, so far, takes place entirely in a giant underground silo in which the remnants of humanity eke out an existence, while outside, the earth is a lifeless world beneath a toxic atmospheric stew. At the moment the title appears to refer to the wool pads used by convicts (or the occasional volunteer) who goes out into the poisonous world to scrub the sensors and cameras that allow those within the silo to look out at the wasteland they have left behind, but I’m thinking it also refers to the wool being pulled over everyone’s eyes, perhaps by the silo’s IT Department. We shall see!
Teaser Tuesday 2/5/2013: “Gust Front”
Still reading Gust Front by John Ringo — this is one big book! Since last week’s excerpt was all about running away, I thought it would be appropriate for this week’s excerpt to be about what happens when the invaders reach Washington, D.C., and begin trying to take the Mall and, specifically, the Washington Monument. As a bonus, it’s from the point of view of the same person whose unit was fleeing through Arlington National Cemetery, too.
Viscosity 