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SCIENCE FICTION

Four robots wake up in a restaurant, and they’re in charge

Four robots wake up in a restaurant, and they’re in charge

California's long War of Independence has ended. It's 2064. All of a sudden the new country's many sentient robots, most of them veterans, face an uncertain future. The president has signed legislation declaring them HEEI (pronounced HE-eye), or Human Equivalent Embodied...

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MYSTERIES & THRILLERS

NONFICTION

Popular Fiction

Explore My “BEST OF the category” selections

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BOOK?

When people ask me that question, I never know what to say. In a lifetime of reading, I’ve read many thousands of books. And I’ve reviewed well over 2,000 of them on this site. Picking just one as a “favorite,” or even a handful of them, makes no sense to me.

The problem is, I read for many different reasons. Perhaps you do, too. And I read many different sorts of books. Mysteries and thrillers. Popular fiction, especially historical fiction. Science fiction.

And nonfiction, history in particular. You’ll find hundreds of reviews in every one of those categories on this site.

Look to the right for a rotating random selection culled from throughout this site.

Happy reading!

 

Landfall presents a sympathetic portrait of George W. Bush.

A novelist’s sympathetic portrait of George W. Bush

George W. Bush served in the Oval Office from 2001 to 2009. His two terms in office encompassed 9/11, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and the global financial collapse that set off the Great Recession—surely, the most consequential sequence of events in any eight years in...
Cover image of "The Flicker Men," a novel about quantum mechanics

A novel about quantum mechanics? Believe it!

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes When physicists talk about reality with precision, they do it with formulas; when they discuss it in general, they sound like monks."  Welcome to the strange new world of quantum mechanics! A word of warning, though: stay away from The Flicker Men unless you have...

Join archaeologists at work around the world

To say that Annalee Newitz's interests are eclectic grossly understates the point. They—Newitz's personal pronouns are they/their/theirs—are the author of two science fiction novels and two works of nonfiction that sprawl across a broad swath of issues and preoccupations. Newitz has also edited or...
Children of the Divide

This sci-fi novel isn’t credible, but it’s a lot of fun

Eighteen years ago, the Ark arrived at Gaia, an Earth-like planet circling the star Tau Ceti. The 30,000 humans who survived the 235-year journey from the dying Earth have established the town of Shambhala on Gaia's surface. They're an ocean away from the network of villages and roads where the...
Cover image of "Karla's Choice,"

John le Carré’s son fills in the gap in George Smiley’s story

In the dramatic conclusion to John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, British intelligence officer Alec Leamas and the idealistic American Communist Liz Gold die as they climb the Wall toward freedom in the West, machine-gunned on the orders of the British agent they had entered East...
Three Hours in Paris

A suspenseful World War II espionage thriller set in Paris

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes England shuddered in terror in the summer of 1940. Following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in May, Nazi Germany's U-boat campaign threatened to starve the British people, and an invasion was imminent. Preparations for Operation Sea...
Cover image of "A Spell of Good Things," a novel about life in Nigeria today

Tragedy strikes two families in Nigeria today

Wuraola is the daughter of a wealthy and privileged medical family in a major provincial Nigerian town. She's now in her first year of practice as a physician. Her mother, a physician herself, is pressuring her to marry because she is nearing thirty. And Wuraola is, in fact, in love with Kunle,...
Cover image of "Missionary Stew" by Ross Thomas, a novel about a Central American revolution

Cocaine, the CIA, and a Central American revolution

Start with a hapless French-American journalist imprisoned by the Emperor-President of a small African country. The Emperor is a cannibal, which is admittedly worrisome, but the journalist is rescued by Amnesty International and returned to the United States. He's penniless but makes his way to...
Cover image of "Beyond," a book about a colony on Mars by an astronomy professor

A colony on Mars? Really? An astronomy professor thinks so.

A colony on Mars? Really? Some of us grasp the existential crisis humanity faces today, and fear that global climate change, an asteroid collision, a super volcano, a viral pandemic, or some other easily imaginable catastrophe could put an end to the human project -- if not the human race -- by...
A Tip for the Hangman

This historical spy story ignores history

When historical novelists depart from the recorded facts of history on occasion, it's generally understandable. For example, in her excellent novel of the Wars of the Roses, The Kingmaker's Daughter, Philippa Gregory ignores the six-month interregnum in the reign of King Edward IV, and that...

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Mal Warwick - Book Reviews

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Mal Warwick

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