Welga Ramirez is nearing her thirty-fifth birthday. She’s a veteran of the Marine Special Forces but a little long in the tooth for a shield—a bodyguard—though the pills increase her strength and the speed of her reflexes. And at thirty-five she’ll hit the limit. Platinum Shield...
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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes In his 2019 techno-thriller Delta-V, Daniel Suarez relates the story of James (J.T.) Tigue and the other seven men and women on a privately financed international team that ventures out to mine resources from the asteroid Ryugu. Now, in Critical Mass, the sequel,...
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When big-name mainstream authors venture into science fiction, watch out. I’ve been hugely disappointed by sci-fi novels penned by the likes of Louise Erdrich, Joyce Carol Oates, Jennifer Egan, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Colson Whitehead. If you’re not familiar with the names, just scan a few...
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A review of Robopocalypse, by Daniel H. Wilson. @@@@ (4 out of 5). This is a science fiction novel, to be sure, and as the title suggests it depicts an apocalyptic future, but it’s a future with a difference. This is a treatment of robots and automation from an entirely different perspective. It’s engaging. And it’s very, very scary.
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To be clear, what follows is not a list of the best science fiction published during the past year. Instead, I’ve chosen not to copy those reviewers who imply they’ve read the many thousands of science fiction novels published in any given year. Nobody, and no team...
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Consider what possibilities might open up—for good or ill—if programmers could code artificial intelligence into nano-scale robots. Just imagine robots so small and so capable that they could burrow into virtually any microscopically small space, operate individually or as a swarm, and broadcast...
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Throughout recorded history, we humans have wondered whether external forces have shaped our destiny. Most have found solace in the belief that a god or gods have been our benefactors. A handful of others have imagined that an extraterrestrial race has guided our ascent through time. In an...
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Estimated reading time: 6 minutes Over the past two centuries, industrial technology has played an increasingly critical role in warfare. From the telegraph, ironclad steamships, and Gatling guns of the 19th century to the supersonic aircraft, computer-directed artillery fire, and drones of the...
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AMS Unit Four wakes fresh from the reconstitution station to the sound of emergency alarms. Aliens are attacking the energy mine in Jovian space that supplies a third of Earth’s energy needs. Forced to rush immediately into action, it soon finds itself confronted with a terrible dilemma. One...
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In the debut of Susan Kaye Quinn’s series of four novels about life after the Singularity, Elijah Brighton and two teenage Frenchwomen won gold medals in the Olympics. The awards made them eligible to transition from legacy humans to ascenders, the god-like immortals who now reign over the...
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Becky Chambers has made a name for herself among the newer crop of science fiction authors with her outstanding Wayfarers series, which won the Hugo Award for Best Series. The four books in that inaugural series introduced readers to a delightful future. Beginning with The Long Way to a Small,...
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He, she, or it, the star of the Murderbot series, doesn’t appear to be gendered. We’ll use the pronoun “it” to be safe, as Martha Wells does. It calls itself Murderbot. It’s a half-human-, half-robot Security Unit, or SecUnit. But Murderbot is an apt name. Because...
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The singularity is history. Afterwards, centuries ago, the superhuman intelligence gained by machines enabled humans to “ascend,” leaving their frail bodies of flesh and bone and uploading into what today we call the cloud. They’re “vastly more intelligent, compassionate,...
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For six years they’ve been in orbit around Epsilon C, a rocky, Earth-like planet that hosts not one but two sentient species. The nine are on a mission of scientific exploration. They’ve devoted their lives to it. And they’ve learned a great deal about the local inhabitants....
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I hated this novel. I simply couldn’t see the point. But the author was a Nobel Prize-winner, so I kept slogging away to the very end. I’d figured there must be something worthy in it. After all, one of the world’s most celebrated authors had turned his attention to the subject...
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In recent years astronomers have speculated about the existence of a ninth planet orbiting the sun somewhere within the vast outer reaches of the Solar System. After all, Planet Nine is said to lie somewhere within the Oort Cloud, circling the inner planets at a hypothetical distance of as much as...
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Four humans and a cleaning robot with a mind of its own are on their way in a stolen spaceship to a newly discovered planet beyond the orbit of Neptune. Amphitrite, the title of this book as well as the new planet’s name, is the entertaining story of why they’re on their way and what...
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Most of the books about artificial intelligence highlight such things as self-driving cars and facial recognition—the brilliant innovations in hardware and software by the engineers and coders who build the stuff and make it work. They dwell variously on the field’s potential and its impact...
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I believe that one day we will create machines that think,” writes AI researcher Toby Walsh in his new book, 2062. “We will invent machines that are superior to us. They will be stronger, faster and more intelligent than us.” However, he notes, they will think in ways very...
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Will artificial intelligence be the death of us? Possibly. There are those who consider AI one of the greatest threats looming in our future. The doomsayers include Bill Gates, Elon Musk, the late Stephen Hawking, and others who can’t be easily dismissed. But the debate centers on how AI...
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Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review,
with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review,
with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.
Mysteries & Thrillers Tuesday includes my latest mystery and thriller book review, with links to other science fiction content.
Nonfiction Wednesday includes my latest nonfiction book review, with links to other nonfiction content.
The Weekly includes summaries and links to all the previous week’s three to five book reviews, including some that don’t appear in any of the other newsletters.