One of the lessons I learned very early in my three-decade-long career writing and editing fundraising appeals was that statistics numb the brain while a gripping tale of one individual can unlock torrents of emotion in the reader. So it was no surprise to me that the story of one young refugee...
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As the conspiracy theorists would have it, an extraterrestrial spaceship crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. Government agents took custody of the aliens who’d survived the crash and rushed them to a secret base in Nevada called Area 51—and covered up the incident for decades...
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Malcolm Gladwell is right. In his introduction to the 2023 reissue of Bomber, Len Deighton’s portrayal of a single RAF Bomber Command mission in World War II, he refers to the book as “one of the greatest British anti-war novels ever written.” I might go further. Surely, Bomber...
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Marketed as a book for young readers, but science fiction at its best for readers of any age. A thrilling, post-apocalyptic story.
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History shows us that true military genius is rare. Some who are credited with it—George Washington, for example—clearly didn’t possess it. Even Napoleon, who blundered into the Russian winter and then compounded the error by overstaying in Moscow, fell short. Perhaps only a handful qualify....
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This is a big book as science fiction novels go, and it doesn’t fit it in any one of the standard categories. First Contact novel? Check. Space opera? Yes. Adventure story? That, too. Travelogue? Even that. Political novel? Oh, yes. But at its hard SF heart, Poul Anderson’s The Avatar...
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Spatial compression had already made unmanned spaceflight obsolete. The stars were now within easy reach for any probe, camera or radio link. Interstellar travel for humans was not yet possible, but one step at a time. Earth was now connected into a vast web of alien civilizations.” So we...
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Yes, there was, indeed, a Soviet female sniper who gained fame in World War II. You may have come across mentions of her if you’ve read a lot about the war. She was Ukrainian, a fourth-year history student at Kiev University, and her name was Lyudmila Mikhailovich Pavlichenko (1916-74). She...
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Alternate history typically answers a what-if question about a single pivotal event or decision. What if Nazi Germany won World War II. What if Japan hadn’t surrendered. And so forth. But Josh Weiss’ unconventional alternate history thriller, Beat the Devils, hinges on a much broader...
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Charles Belfoure’s 2013 novel, The Paris Architect, is the story of a reluctant hero in WWII. The publisher’s own promotional copy for the novel calls him “unlikely and unlikable,” and so he is. Lucien Bernard is a French modernist architect who is manipulated into...
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As you may be aware, I’ve pledged to review here only those books I’ve read from cover to cover. But I’m going to make an exception now. Three times I’ve tried to read Cixin Liu’s celebrated novel, The Three-Body Problem—and three times I failed. On my third attempt,...
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Nearly a century and a half ago, the northern African nation of Sudan was in turmoil. Like much of the Middle East and North Africa, the people of the country were restive under the increasingly weak rule of the Ottoman Empire. The Khedive of Egypt, who administered Sudan for the sultan in...
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Why do some novels win Hugo or Nebula Awards while thousands of others don’t? Is it because they’re the “best?” Of course not. You and I know better than that. Like the Academy Awards or those in any other field, other factors enter the picture. Sometimes, how long the...
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Some three million people of Indian origin live today in the nations of southeast Africa. Although trade and migration between India and Africa reach as far back as the first millennium, much larger numbers arrived there late in the nineteenth century as indentured laborers under the British. One...
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War makes no sense. Yet if any single thing defines the human experience, it may be the tendency of tribes and organized states alike to rush to arms against those they perceive as enemies. For example, the United States has been engaged in military action almost from the day the country gained...
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You probably think this novel is science fiction. After all, that’s how Amazon categorizes it, and I’m following suit. Many of its reviewers have called it that, too. But it’s not science fiction, not really. There’s barely a hint of science in its 350 pages. Try...
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Many of the French authors I’ve read don’t follow the rules. They blithely mix fiction and nonfiction, change perspective and verb tense from one chapter to the next, and leap from present to past without warning. Such a book is author and actress Anne Berest’s award-winning...
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You can generally dismiss any blurb on the cover of a novel as hype. But a quote featured on the Kindle edition of Ice Revelation, the concluding volume of Kevin Tinto’s Ice Trilogy, leaps over the top. “A paragon of speculative fiction” boasts someone named Ed Stacker—who turns...
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No country on Earth can boast a more tumultuous history than Russia. Born in the clash of marauding nomadic tribes nearly 2,000 years ago, this sprawling Euro-Asiatic nation has witnessed repeated bouts of foreign incursions, ethnic conflict, revolution, and a millennium of autocratic, and often...
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Most portrayals on film or in novels of an alien invasion are along the lines of the Will Smith blockbuster Independence Day or H. G. Wells’ 1898 science fiction classic, The War of the Worlds. There are a lot of explosions, and millions die. So, it may come as a pleasant surprise if you...
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Science Fiction Monday includes my latest SF book review, with links to other science fiction content.
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.
Science Fiction Monday includes my latest SF book review, with links to other science fiction content.
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.