It is week six in the episodic release schedule for The Human Division by John Scalzi. Each week thus far the stories have alternated between an A storyline and a B storyline, with the B stories revealing details that have already begun to become very important for the main characters. It has been interesting to watch this dance.

This week is a B storyline that puts the reader into heart of the Conclave, a political entity made up of 400 races, none of which are “human”. We are made witness to a town-hall meeting conversation that gives us some idea of the various positions the Conclave holds in regards to humanity and their continued existence.

This episode represents roughly the half-way point of the novel and through most of the chapter it feels as if Scalzi is giving us a bit of a breather, yet he manages to put a moment of tension within the episode that encapsulates the knife’s edge upon which humanity is now walking.

I will get into a more detailed discussion after the jump for those of you who are reading along. For those of you waiting for the release of the full novel before you return to the universe of Old Man’s War this is where we part company, at least for now.

Continue reading The Back Channel ~John Scalzi →

Another Tuesday, another episode from John Scalzi’s novel, The Human Division. The day is going to come along when I won’t be able to type that and frankly I’m very saddened by that realization. Had John Scalzi’s novel already been released in its entirely in print form I would have finished it by now, having torn through it with the zeal of a passionate fan. While there is nothing wrong with that I am finding this weekly trip to the Old Man’s War universe satisfying in a manner that I had not suspected.

Episode Five, “Tales from the Clarke”, returns us to the main story line and the crew of the Clarke. It ties in most directly with the first episode while pulling in threads from other episodes. It acts as a recap chapter while at the same time progressing the story further. As I’ve come to expect from Scalzi, things are not exactly what they seem on the surface at the beginning of this episode. This is a very solid and entertaining chapter in what is turning out to be a suspense-filled science fiction thriller.

In an effort to maintain a Non-Spoiler stance I will say no more in this section of the post. If you have not read either this episode or any of the previous episodes I would ask that you do not proceed onward after the jump.

For a more in-depth spoiler-filled discussion of “Tales from the Clarke”, please proceed.

Continue reading Tales from the Clarke ~John Scalzi →

It gives me great pleasure to announce a new weekly feature over at SF Signal: Short Fiction Friday, hosted by me. I entered the year determined to keep current with the short fiction posted in the magazines I subscribe to: Lightspeed, Clarkesworld and Asimov’s. When the offer came to join the SF Signal team I decided that hosting a weekly feature reviewing these magazines as well as other SFF short stories would be a perfect marriage.

Today is the inaugural post and features my review of the latest issue of Clarkesworld magazine. This was especially exciting for me as it is my first ever Clarkesworld read. The magazine features both fiction and nonfiction related to SFF and every work reviewed in this magazine is available for free online. I hope you will take a moment to check out the non-spoiler review. If you find anything of interest then you can follow the link and experience it for yourself.

From this issue I especially recommend Erzebet Yellowboy’s story “Gravity” which called to mind the film Sunshine and Daniel Abraham’s nonfiction essay “Another Word: Reading and Writing and Moral Judgment”.

The review is up now, so please click here to enjoy the review. As always, thank you for your support.