Category Archives: Science Fiction

Star Trek Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game ~David Mack

Star Trek Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game ~David Mack

–published 2010
–Pocket Books
–336 pages
–4/5 stars

You know how it is–a friend comes over and starts telling you about a book they started reading, their excitement becomes infectious, and before you have had time to weigh the consequences you find yourself at the bookstore counter, exchanging cash for adventure between the covers of a brand new book. The consequences being that said adventure could be grand, or could be a complete bust. In this case it was nearly a foregone conclusion that I would have a good time, especially given the fact that a few days prior I had been contemplating revisiting Deep Space Nine beginning with episode one.

Zero Sum Game is the first book in a four book series that will be released the last week of four consecutive months, October 2010 through January 2011. I am given to understand that this series picks up after the events of the last Borg conflict, a series of books that brought the Deep Space Nine storyline up to the current storyline with Next Generation and Voyager. A group of races hostile to the Federation has formed the Typhon Pact. One of those races,the Breen–featured on the DS9 television series–has stolen the plans for Starfleet’s latest technological advantage, the slipstream drive. Dr. Bashir and his fellow genetically engineered “one that got away”, Sarina Douglas, are tapped by Starfleet Intelligence to conduct a covert search and destroy mission in Breen space. It is a race against the clock, and impossible odds, to stop the Breen before they develop their own slipstream drive and tip the balance of power.

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When You Reach Me ~Rebecca Stead

When You Reach Me ~Rebecca Stead

–published 2009
–Listening Library, unabridged audio (4 hours, 20 minutes)
–book: Wendy Lamb Books (208 pages)
–2010 Newbery Medal Winner
–4.25/5 stars

The year is 1979; Dick Clark’s $20,000 Pyramid is captivating viewers; a sense of innocence is in the air; and 6th grade Manhattan native Miranda, a latch-key child of a single mother, sees her days revolve around a special book and spending time with her friend Sal. A series of seemingly random events, accompanied by enigmatic notes left in peculiar places, seem to indicate that something bad is going to happen and that this unknown scribe may be her only hope.

Rebecca Stead’s novel is a rare exception among the many young adult books I have read lately, in that the protagonist actually feels like the twelve year old girl she is written to be, and yet her story is equally captivating for adults as well as younger children. Miranda tells the story of that fateful 6th grade year from the perspective of having passed through the events, reminiscing to her mysterious note writer about the events that have transpired.

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Ministry of Space ~Warren Ellis, Chris Weston

Ministry of Space ~Warren Ellis, Chris Weston

–published in graphic novel format December 2004
–Image Comics
–96 pages
–4.5/5 stars

Warren Ellis is something of a phenomenon in the comic book industry, consistently putting together series that garner well deserved attention. That being said, I hadn’t read any of his work until a year or so ago when I got caught up in his excellent series, Freakangels. His more well known work, Planetary and Transmetropolitan, are works that I had never gotten into when they began and have yet to read. More and more, however, I am discovering that Warren Ellis is a name synonymous with quality storytelling, and he seems to have a particular talent for being able to tell a good story in a very brief amount of space.

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Remembrances of A Long Time Ago…

This past Saturday evening the combination of anticipation for the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society’s Conquest 41 coupled with the sounds of my daughter and her boyfriend playing Lego Star Wars on the Playstation 2 reminded me that I hadn’t indulged in any celebration of the 30th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. I wasn’t about to let May get away without my own personal acknowledgment of a series, and most especially a film, that has had such a profound effect on me.

I quickly visited the basement library to bring up a few goodies to help me celebrate, one being the Roger Kastel autographed print of my favorite piece of Star Wars art, the post image for The Empire Strikes Back. This was a lovely surprise gift given to me a few years ago by Deslily.

Over the next 24 hours I would re-read a beloved Star Wars novel, watch The Empire Strikes Back, and travel back in time down a road littered with memories so palpable that they could have happened yesterday.

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Finch ~Jeff Vandermeer

Finch ~Jeff Vandermeer

–published 2009
–Underland Press
–334 pages
–Nominated for 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novel
–4/5 stars

Imagine a decaying, fungus-ridden seaport where humanity lives in varying degrees of subservience to sentient fungal-based creatures whose descriptions could easily be the stuff of nightmares. A wet, moldy, drab and dismal place. Not exactly an atmosphere that one would call home, but that is exactly what the city of Ambergris is to detective John Finch, who finds himself wrapped up in a seemingly impossible case when a mysterious human and a virtually unstoppable gray cap are found murdered in a run-down apartment. The case becomes even more mysterious when it appears that the cause of death just couldn’t be possible.

Finch is Jeff Vandermeer’s third stand alone novel in the Ambergris Cycle. The buzz surrounding the book, its awesome cover, and the recent Nebula nomination in the Best Novel category…combined with a strong urge to read some detective fiction after gorging myself on science fiction for the past two months…meant that I found myself in the local Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago, picking up a copy. I went home that afternoon and immediately started reading, and what I found was a unique and imaginative world in which Vandermeer unveils a solid, page-turning noir detective adventure.

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