–published 1921
–203 pages, Modern Library
–4/5 stars
I was asked by Chelle, who co-runs a reader’s advisory blog for the public library she works at, the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers, to do a guest book review for their site. I was certainly honored to do so and chose this unique classic to review. I finished the book a few weeks ago and posted my review to them yesterday. It is now up for your perusal. I am turning off the comments here and would ask that you please do me the honor of leaving comments over there. I will be reading them and answering them as if they were right here on my site.
It may just be my internet connection, but the site is a little slow to load. Please be patient if that is the case with you as well. It is a review worth reading, if I say so myself. 🙂
–published 2007
–278 pages, Ace Books
–Pre-nominations list for Nebula Award
–4.75/5 stars
Tripping around the internet I have seen a variety of reviews for Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Joe Haldeman’s latest offering, The Accidental Time Machine. They range from effusive praise to damning criticism and everything in between. What many of them do, without fail, is admit that Joe Haldeman is a singular author with stellar works of science fiction to his credit. I myself have limited experience with the works of Joe Haldeman, and unless this book wins an award this year, I have not read any of his award-winning fiction. What I can unequivocally say is that both of the Joe Haldeman books I have read, Old Twentieth and The Accidental Time Machine, have been a delight.
–published 2008
–303 pages, Eos Books
–4.5/5 stars
Hunter’s Run, a collaboration by multiple-award-winning authors George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois, and relative newcomer Daniel Abraham, is a novel whose journey to existence is every bit as ardous as the journey undertaken by the novel’s protagonist.
The story began life 30 years ago as an idea of Gardner Dozios that he and George RR Martin eventually worked into the novella Shadow Twin for Subterranean Press, knowing full well that there was a novel in there somewhere. The presence of writer Daniel Abraham provided a set of fresh eyes to the project and together they built what eventually became Hunter’s Run.
–published 1953
–282 pages, Del Rey Books
–Hugo Award Winner for Best Series, 1965
–4.5/5 stars
It is difficult to describe the sheer joy of finally being able to read a book whose cover has fascinated me for years. It is even more significant considering that it is part of an original trilogy of books that from my childhood I have viewed as inaccessible. It has been such a pleasure to discover just how unfounded my fears were.
Before we get to Second Foundation, however, allow me to review the second book in the trilogy, Foundation and Empire:
–published 1951
–244 pages, Bantam Books
–(trilogy won Hugo in 1965 for best all-time series)
–5/5 stars
Foundation. Oh how this novel–this series–has haunted me over the years. The Michael Whelan cover of the fourth book in this series, Foundation’s Edge, is one of the earliest books I recall seeing as a young man and becoming lost in the image. Many a time I pulled that book off of my uncle’s bookshelf and stared at it longingly. Something about the book’s description intimidated me, and has all these many years. I read primarily space opera as a kid: action adventure stories set in a futuristic universe. Foundation always seemed like something more, something too grand of scope for me to understand. Through the years as my reading habits evolved and I took on more challenging literature, Foundation has remained a series that in the back of my mind was still intimidating.
Something happened a few years back that began to change my mind. I saw another Michael Whelan image that I liked on a book called Second Foundation (the third in the original trilogy) and just had to have it. Scouring used bookstores and places like ebay finally yielded up a copy. For a year or so I’ve been wanting to read that book just because I like the cover image. But one cannot start with the third book in a series. This year’s emphasis on science fiction and a new goal to read more award-winning science fiction has finally given me the courage to read what is arguably the most well known science fiction series of all time. And it begins with Foundation.
