I prefer female protagonists and this series of posts is homage to some of the most formidable female main characters in science fiction novels or series.

This week’s FFPinSF:

1. Dakota Merrick – Machine Head (Gary Gibson)
2. Kivrin Engle – Temporal Historian (Connie Willis)
3. Rydra Wong – Poet Captain (Samuel R. Delany)
4. Miriam/Helge – Queen World Walker (Charles Stross)
5. Ruby Kubick – Agoraphobic Salvage Artist (Laura J. Mixon)

Dakota Merrick – Machine Head

Books: Stealing Light (2007), Nova War (2009), Empire of Light (2010)
Series: Shaol sequence
Author: Gary Gibson
Genre: Space Opera
Publisher: Tor

Dakota Merrick is a machine head, a human with implants that were made illegal after a terrible attack that killed many innocent humans. Humans have achieved a limited interstellar civilization but FTL travel is controlled by the Shaol. Dakota becomes involved in an attempt to circumvent the Shaol monopoly. An alien non Shaol derelict is discovered with a working FTL engine and Dakota is hired to fly it. But they discover much more than they bargained for.

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Kivrin Engle – Temporal Historian

Book: Doomsday Book (1992)
Author: Connie Willis
Genre: Time travel
Publisher: Bantam | NEL | New English Library

Kivrin is a young historian that travels to early 14 century England and by mistake land in 1348 in the middle of the Black Death epidemic.

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Rydra Wong – Poet Captain

Book: Babel-17 (1966)
Author: Samuel R. Delany
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Ace | Gollancz (SF Masterworks)| Sphere | Gregg Press | Orion

Babel-17 is one of that books that makes you think afterwards.

In the far future, after human civilization has spread through the galaxy, communications begin to arrive in an apparently alien language. They appear to threaten invasion, but in order to counter the threat, the messages must first be understood. Rydra Wong is a beautiful starship captain, linguist, poet, and telepath. She is recruited by her government to discover how the enemy are infiltrating and sabotaging strategic sites. The novel has a Whorfian view of language

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Miriam/Helge – Queen World Walker

Books: The Family Business (2004), The Hidden Family (2005), The Clan Corporate (2006), Merchants War (2007), The Revolution Business (2009), The Trade of Queens (2010)
Series: Merchant Princes
Author: Charles Stross
Genre: Multiverse
Publisher: Tor

Miriam got a modern upbringing in the US and one day she learns she has the ability to walk to another world. It starts with: Ten and a half hours before a mounted knight with a machine gun tried to kill her, tech journalist Miriam Beckstein lost her job.  The first books in the series are great but the final book was a downer for me.

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Ruby Kubick – Agoraphobic Salvage Artist

Books: Glass Houses
Author: Laura J. Mixon
Genre: Cyberpunk
Publisher: Tor 1992

Both are new to me, I like gritty cyberpunk.

A dystopian Manhattan of the next century is the setting for this tough, gritty sf debut featuring an agoraphobic salvage artist who uses virtual reality to connect her with the machines that face the world in her stead. Part cyberpunk, part mystery, Mixon’s first novel introduces a lesbian heroine whose life is made up of second-hand encounters until reality comes calling with a vengeance. The author’s razor-sharp prose catapults this story beyond the bounds of genre. Recommended for most sf collections.

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Read part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | index | afterword

This week’s Formidable Female Protagonists contain one of my favorite protagonists, Nimisha. Its fun researching the list; I pick up new books to read all the time. I got 47 more protagonists to go, got six more last week. The females are carefully selected by me, their names written on paper, folded and put in one of two bowls, one for new-to-me and one for read-by-me. I then select four read and one new-to-me and write about them. I am open to suggestions for more females to include.

1. Margaret Bain – Seven of One (Sheri S. Tepper)
2. Jenny Casey – Cyborg Pilot (Elizabeth Bear)
3. Nimisha Boynton-Rondymnse – First Family Castaway (Anne McCaffrey)
4. Freya Nakamachi-47 – Soulful Machine (Charles Stross)
5. Nausicaä – Ecological Princess (Hayao Miyazaki)

Margaret Bain – Seven of One

Books: The Margarets (2007)
Author: Sheri S. Tepper
Publisher: Eos (Harper Collins) 2007
Genre: Science Fiction | Fantasy | Space Opera

Margaret Bain grows up a lonely child on Martian moon Phobos and as many such kids she has make-believe friends. The friends include a healer, a telepath, a warrior, a linguist, a queen and a spy who had different names and lived on different worlds. The difference is that her friends come alive as extensions of her personality at different times in her life.

1. When Margaret is nine Wilvia is the first to split off when she meets her future husband Prince Jozire.
2. At twelve, she is on earth and is granted a water ration while another one of her imaginary splits off is not granted a water ration. She becomes the foster daughter of the being known as the Gardener on another planet.
3. At twenty-two another split occurs and one Margaret is sold as a bond slave.
4. Another Margaret marries the man who loves her and goes to the colony world Bright.
5. One Margaret is a shaman
6. The lone male of the split becomes a warrior.

Full of fascinating characters and beautifully detailed settings, Tepper’s complex and multifaceted far-future SF novel follows the many selves of Mars colonist Margaret Bain on a mission to save the human race from annihilation.

Humanity got the eternal hatred of tha foul-tempered Quaatar a long time ago when some pre-humans stowed away on one of their survey ship. Now humankind is at the brink of self-destruction through overpopulation and ecological collapse. The farsighted Gentherans have taken up the human cause within the Interstellar Trade Organization, but as Earthgov struggles to conform to ISTO’s enforced sterilization laws while trading excess children for offworld water, the Quaatar continue plotting to destroy humanity.

Only Margaret, a secret organization called the Third Order of the Siblinghood and the truth behind an old Gentheran folktale can stop the genocide and give humanity a future.

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Jenny Casey – Cyborg Pilot

Books: Hammered (2004), Scaredown (2004), Worldwired (2005)
Series: Jenny Casey Trilogy
Author: Elizabeth Bear
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Military Science Fiction | First Contact | Space Opera

Jenny Casey used to be a former retired Canadian special forces living in the hellish streets of Hartford, Connecticut. Earth is in shambles from environmental disasters. Jenny becomes a pawn in game of world dominance between Canada and China over being the first to reach the stars. In Hammered Jenny tries to survive, in Scardown she has to fly and in Worldwired she has to teach the aliens to talk with each other. The world is a bit noir and gritty as Elizabeth Bear likes to write.

Hammered

Jenny Casey is hiding from herself and the Canadian authorities in former USA. She is half metal since a war accident, now her metal half is acting up. And now her former handler wants her back so he sends her whacked out sister. Mix in an escaped AI and new technologies derived from alien space ships found on Mars and you have a very down to earth Space Opera. Jenny might be the only one that has the reaction time and the wiring to handle the new tech. But she will have to work for people she hates again and suffer another set of operations to replace her failing prophesies.

Scardown

For being about the world’s first FTL ship it’s a lot about earth and staying in orbit. More about the interesting alien tech is revealed in this novel. International tension rises as Canada and China race to be the first to fly faster than light. There are many aspects to this book. I like the ecological aspect and the aliens that comes to visit. I would hate to live in the world she paints, but it is very realistic.

Worldwired

The second book in the Jenny Casey Trilogy, Scaredown left the world on the brink of war just as the aliens arrived. World ecology is in scrambles after centuries of misuse and the PanChinese dropped a meteorite on Montreal, center of the Commonwealth since England sunk under the sea, causing further damage to an already fragile system. The world face a few years of darkness and cold before global warming kicks in with a vengeance. As a last resort Casey and company crashes one of the starships into the sea infecting the world with hacked alien nanites under the command of Richard, the AI.

Elizabeth Bear has an annoying habit of building up to a decisive point and then spending twenty pages talking about other stuff until you get any resolution. Otherwise it is good. It’s all good, it’s just frustrating sometimes. I think she does it just to tease us readers.

Wordwired is the final book in the Jenny Casey Trilogy, but I hope she will write more books in this universe and the people in it. The contact team tries to establish communication with the birdcage aliens and the shiptree aliens. Elizabeth has made up some really original aliens; I haven’t heard anything like the birdcage people before.

The AI’s Richard and his alter ego Andre try to save the planet from catastrophe while the sleazy political intrigue continues unabated. PanChina is responsible for the meteor hit on Canada and the Commonwealth wants them to pay. At the same time both countries are suffering from internal political conflicts. The Unitek Corporation play commonwealth against PanChina and uses the opposition in both countries to help. Unitek wants control of the alien nanotechnology.

Exellent series. Pity it’s over. Hmm, I need more books

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Nimisha Boynton-Rondymnse – First Family Castaway

Book: Nimsha’s Ship (1998)
Author: Anne McCaffrey
Publishers: Del Ray | Corgi Adult| Bantam Pres | Random Houses (UK) | Ballantine
Genre: Science Fiction | First Contact

This is one of my favorite Anne McCaffre books, mainly because of Nimisha’s charming personality, her competence and the emphasis on friendship and romance. The first contact situation and how it is resolved is also quite attractive. If you are new to Anne and into gritty fast paced adventure you should maybe start with her Pern stories.

On Vega III, Lady Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense loves the challenging world of her father, Lord Tionel, owner and principal starship designer of the famous Rondymense Ship Yards. Precociously gifted, Nimisha becomes his secret assistant–and, in the aftermath of a shocking tragedy, his chosen successor at the helm of the Ship Yards.

When Nimisha takes an experimental ship on a solo test flight, something goes horribly awry, marooning her light-years from home on a planet as deadly as it is beautiful. Now the ruthless members of a rival branch of the Rondymense family are given the chance they’ve been waiting for: to reclaim the Ship Yards by any means necessary.

Only Nimisha’s ingenious child, Cuiva, stands in their way. But for how long? For just when her daughter needs her most, Nimisha is in a precarious situation herself–and unable to help. But Nimisha has never given up in her life–and she’s not about to start now . . .

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Freya Nakamachi-47 – Soulful Machine

Book: Saturn’s Children
Author: Charles Stross
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Science Fiction | Space Opera | Post human

Drunk on battery acid Freya consider jumping from the balcony of the pleasure palace floating in the stratosphere of Venus. It is the 200th anniversary of the extinction of her One True Love, the human race. Some bored Aristos stumbles on her there and take enough interest to start a fight. Annoyed and drunk Freya ripes the head off one of them. That particular Aristo take offence and promise to pay her back. Aristos is the name of the cruel slave owning class. Most of the robots are slaves and called arbeiters.

Freya is of a line of pleasure robots, the Rhea line that help each other out, they buy out indentured siblings and they also share memories of each other’s lives with memory chips. Freya has just put in Juliett’s chip and now she has to get off Venus before the aristo or his henchmen can find her. She is offered a job on Mercury that includes the travel there, she jumps on the opportunity.

After she lands on Venus and make the acquaintance of the sentient hotel she has a run in with some siblings of the offended aristo. Her new job turn out to be to work for the Jeeves Corporation as a courier carrying some organic matter in her womb, avoid the pink police (nice name), and deliver it to the recipient on Mars.

This is when it starts to heat up for her. She learns more about Julietta during her trip. There are enemy operators on the ship but she succeeds in avoiding them and the pink police. She is also more or less force-seduced by Aristo Granita Ford who turns out to be in league with the police.

The rest you have to read yourself.

This is another story about Freedom and self governance. It is thought provoking, action packed, seedy (at least some) and in an imaginative original world. I love it!

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Nausicaä – Ecological Princess

Comics: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind 1-7 (2004)
Author: Hayao Miyazaki
Publisher: VIZ Media
Genre: Manga

Manga isn’t exactly new to me but it’s not something I usually reads, Nausicaä comes well recommended so I think I can include one as a teaser.

Nausicaä (ナウシカ Naushika?, pronounced [na.uɕika]) is a fictional character from the science fiction manga and anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind created by Hayao Miyazaki. Nausicaä is the princess of the Valley of the Wind, a very small nation with fewer than 500 inhabitants (and steadily declining in population). She is the eleventh child of King Jihl, and the only one to live to maturity. She is rarely seen without her Mehve or her companion, Teto the fox-squirrel. In the legends of Dorok, she is also called “The Blue Clad One”.

Nausicaa is the gifted teenaged princess of a small valley on a devastated far-future Earth, where a growing poisonous forest is threatening the last human settlements. As an excellent gunship pilot, she is drawn by an old alliance into a war between neighboring kingdoms. But the pacifistic Nausicaa is much more interested in exploring the secrets of the forest. This complex ecological adventure epic – a true comics classic – is the only extended manga work by renowned anime director Miyazaki (Spirited Away). His lush, detailed art, reproduced here in sepia ink, is more reminiscent of European artists such as Moebius than of most manga, but manga fans will be drawn into the story nonetheless. Highly recommended for teens and adults alike, this tremendous series belongs in every library.

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Read Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | index | afterword

I want to interest new people to Science Fiction, this vibrant genre of new ideas and wow moments, thus the 10010 Top Military Science Fiction Series and the new Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction part 1, part 2 and part 3 in April.

I read 16 books in April, helped by the weather and  Easter holidays. As I am writing this, I see the brown grass, even some green grass coming out of the snow, there are still piles of snow lying around and our two weeks of spring is just around the corner.

Writing is fun, doing research for the articles is also fun as I had to go back to many of my favorites and recap a little of the adventures we had together. As a ‘punishment’  for that I got a long list of rereads to do, 20 something novels or series, sweet joy.

I am a bit backlogged when it comes to reviews but the unpublished ones are halfway finished or better, I dream of having a pile of 20 or so reviews ready for when ever I need them.

These are the most popular posts in April according to Google Analytics. I am a bit sad flickering pictures of SciFi is more popular than novels but I see where it is coming from.

1. Amazing New SF Short Film: The Raven
2. The Gates – an update on ABC’s New Supernatural Summer Show
3. Spielberg’s Untitled Alien Invasion Project – Pilot Review
4. Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction part 2
5. Interesting TV Pilots Round Up
6. 10010 Top Military Science Fiction Series
7. Formidable Female Protagonists in Science Fiction Part 1
8. New Science Fiction Books in May 2010 there is a revised list up now
9. Trends in Current Science Fiction part 4
10. Casts for upcoming CW fantasy drama Betwixt

My backlog of reviews finished in April:

1. The Crucible of Empire by Eric Flint & K. D. Wentworth (Jao Empire 2)
2. Coyote Destiny by Allen Steele (Coyote Chronicles 2)
3. Trade of Queens by Charles Stross (Merchant Princes 6)
4. Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley (The Quiet War 2) review on Temple Library Review
5. The Myriad by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 1)
6. Wolf  Star by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 2)
7. Pleasure Model by Chrisopher Rowley (Netherworld 1) review on Temple Library Review

Books read this month:

1. Dust by Elizabeth Bear (Jacob’s Ladder 1)
2. Chill by Elizabeth Bear (Jacob’s Ladder 2)
3. Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher (an Agent Cormac novel)
4. Grindlinked by Neal Asher (Agent Cormac 1)
5. The Line of the Polity by Neal Asher (Agent Cormac 2)
6. Brass Man by Neal Asher (Agent Cormac 3)
7. Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 1) – audio book
8. Half Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 2) – audio book
9. Full Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 3) – audio book
10. Double Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 4) – audio book
11. Captain’s Share by Nathan Lowell (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper 5) – audio book
12. The Sagittarius Command by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 3)
13. Strength and Honor by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 4)
14. A Mighty Fortress by David Weber (Safehold 4)
15. South Coast by Nathan Lowell (A Shaman’s Tale in the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper) – audiobook
16. Primary Inversion Catherine Asaro (Saga of the Skolian Empire 1)

I listen to a number of short stories mainly from my list of Science Fiction Podcasts and one stood out:

• His Master’s Voice By Hannu Rajaniemi on Escape Pod 227 a Review

I curse the postal services in multiple countries as the books I ordered takes forever to arrive. How is it possible that a single book in an ‘envelope’ can takes 30 days from the US or in some cases even from UK to Sweden at this age? These books arrived this month (bought by me) some even on time, that’s what makes it so hard to understand why some doesn’t.

1. Necromancer by Eric Brown (Bengali Station 1)
2. Strength and Honor by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 3)
3. The Sagittarius Command by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 4)
4. A Mighty Fortress by David Weber (Safehold 4)
5. The Orphaned Worlds by Michael Cobley (Humanity’s Fire)
6. Deliverer by C. J. Cherryh (Foreigner 9)

Don’t miss my series of

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Jacket art: Paul Youll

A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, have carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the President of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world.

The worst and deepest secret is now revealed: behind the horrifying plot is a faction of the US government itself, preparing for a political takeover in the aftermath of disaster. There is no safe place for Miriam and her Clan except, perhaps, in the third alternate world, New Britain–which has just had a revolution and a nuclear incident of its own.

Charles Stross’s Merchant Princes series reaches a spectacular climax in this sixth volume. Praised by Nobel laureate Paul Krugman as “great fun,” this is state of the art, cutting edge SF grown out of a fantastic premise.

The plot: Rogue elements of the Clan’s conservative party detonate suitcase nukes in Washington D.C. at the same time they try to assassinate or subvert the progressive party with foreseeable consequences.

Miriam grasp the chilling consequences immediately and tries to convince the clan to evacuate to New Brittan where the revolution is progressing into an internal power struggle. Mixed up in it all is the other side of the family and a rogue doctor pitching an army of world walkers.

With the president killed in the attack, former clan collaborator and vice president WARBUCKS becomes the new president keen on shuffling all his secret under the carpet in one go he orders a genocidal strike on the Clan’s homeland.

One of the loose ends on the alternative US timeline is Mike Fleming DEA agent and former boyfriend of Miriam. His part is one of the more entertaining, especially when he tries to get into the news warning about the upcoming attack, but are not believed, and the reporter realizes what he missed followed by a long arc.

Another entertaining bit is about letting all the different agency’s in on the clan secret after the first bombings. Lots of disbelieve there.

Characterization: The characters are well enough developed but I get a feeling Mr Stross was more interested in world building, economics and politics than in building the characters. There are intriguing and interesting characters here but it feels like the heart is not really there. There are many of the characters I would have liked to know more about.

The world building is nothing spectacular. What is interesting is that he first pitched this as a fantasy to circumvent the contract he then had. His revised contract excluded Merchant Princes from that exclusivity so then he could continue it as SF.

I understand it is difficult to get total closure with so many characters and so many sub plots, but I can’t avoid feeling a bit cheated if the story ends here.

The Trade of Queens and the whole Merchant Princes series is a decent read, and if you have the time and the money go ahead. But otherwise go for Charles Stross other works like Singularity Sky or Saturn’s Children, they are much better in my opinion.

Read Charles own Post Mortem of the series

I was on holiday since Wednesday with a lot of reading getting done and I have finished a couple of really good books and written a review of Elizabeth Moon’s Oath of Fealty and one of The Crucible of Empire by Eric Dlint and K. D. Wentworth.

I also did the usual end of/start of month posts:

• New Science Fiction Books in April 2010 Revisited
• Ove’s Monthly Journal March 2010

To make life easier for others to find good and especially new science fiction books I also made my previous private Links page public, use it to make your own favorite new books lists.

Upcoming Reviews:

• The Trade of Queens by Charles Stross (Merchant Princes 6) read last week
• Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley (The Quiet War 2) read last week, review on Temple Library Reviews Tuesday April 6.
• The Myriad by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 1) read last week
• Wolf Star by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 2) read last week
• Coyote Destiny by Allen Steele (Coyote Chronicles 2)
• Dust by Elizabeth Bear (Jakob’s Ladder 1)
• Chill by Elizabeth Bear (Jakob’s Ladder 2)
• Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher (an agent Cormac novel)
• Gridlocked by Neal Asher (Agent Cormac 1)

I usually update the TV Pilot Roundup every day and make a post of it if it’s news worthy.

There will be micro recaps from David Weber’s upcoming books A Mighty Fortress and Mission of Honor on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I try to keep them spoiler free. A Mighty Fortress is soon to be published so there is only a few days left on it.

I will try to finish a new posts for Trends in Current Science Fiction this week. Last week I wrote about Reality TV.

And a review of Caprica’s spring finale (it will be back September 17) is still around the corner, I just have to watch it first.

A Review of Fringe and Stargate Universe’s returns from hiatus is also expected during the week.

Monday you will get What’s New or Returning on TV This Week .

Tuesday I will guest blog on Temple Library Reviews with a review of Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley.

Don’t forget Walker of Worlds Sci-Fi Appreciation Month during April.

Most popular posts have been First look at Felicia Day in RED that got some 3000 hits, followed in popularity by Major Casting Change in HBO’s Game of Thrones, Interesting TV Pilots Round Up, New Science Fiction Books in April 2010 and 18 Science Fiction Podcasts.

Reading has been good, though I am a bit behind in my review writing as you can see. Of the books I enjoyed Oath of Fealty, Shadow Prowler, The Crucible of Empire and Gardens of the Sun best, in that order. None of the books where really bad, though I was a bit disappointed with Trade of Queens it didn’t give as much closure as I wished for.

Books read in March 2010 in reading order:

1. The Quiet War by McAuley, Paul (The Quiet War & Gardens of the Sun Series)
2. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
3. Earth Strike by Ian Douglas (Star Carrier 1)
4. This Paper World by Jeff Lane
5. Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov (Chronicles of Siala 1) *1st review copy ever
6. Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon (Paladin’s Legacy 1)
7. The Crucible of Empire by Eric Flint & K. D. Wentwoth (Empire 2)
8. Coyote Destiny by Allen Steele (Coyote Chronicles 2)
9. Trade of Queens by Charles Stross (Merchant Princes 6)
10. Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley (The Quiet War 2)
11. The Myriad by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 1)
12. Wolf  Star by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack 2)

I took on myself to write down some of the idle observations I make while I read Science Fiction and call it an article Series on Trends in Current Science Fiction. So far I have written three articles, and I plan on writing about one a week until I run out of trends.

1. Nanotechnology
2. Enviromental disaster
3. Singularity

Arrived or shopped books is always interesting. You can always check out my latest arrivals if you like. You should also know that I didn’t receive any free books for review this month (I reviewed one I received in February), I put my money where my Science Fiction is.

1. The Crucible of Empire by Eric Flint & K. D. Wentworth
2. Oath of Fealty by Elizabeth Moon
3. Coyote Destiny by Allen Steele
4. Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley
5. Trade of Queens by Charles Stross
6. Geosynchron by David Louis Edelman
7. Xeelee an Omnibus by Stephen Baxter (Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring)
8. Shadow of the Scorpion by Neal Asher (an agent Cormac novel)
9. A Thousand Words for Stranger by Julie E. Czerneda (The Trade Pact Universe #1)
10. Ties of Power by Julie E. Czerneda (The Trade Pact Universe #2)
11. To Trade the Stars by Julie E. Czerneda (The Trade Pact Universe #3)
12. Dust by Elizabeth Bear
13. Chill by Elizabeth Bear (sequel to Dust)
14. The Myriad by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack #1)
15. Wolf Star by R. M. Meluch (Tour of the Merrimack #2)
16. Servants of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard (Obsidian & Blood 1)

It’s been a good month, I haven’t finished quite all I would have liked to do but it is a good start.

Next month will have quite a few more books, you can see what I ordered in New Science Fiction Books in April 2010. I also have some Elizabeth Bear, David Louis Edelman, Aliette de Bodard and more to look forward to.

Don’t forget Walker of Worlds upcoming Sci-Fi Appreciation Month starts April 1. I have made a contribution and will let you know when it’s there.

I will also guest blog a few reviews for Temple Library Reviews starting April 6th with my review of Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley.

Another trend in modern science fiction is the concept of Singularity, but also the opposite which I will cover in a later post. The thing is, that we might have seen the Singularity trend peak and that it in fact has started to fade now at least according to some posts on the Blogosphere (see links at the end of this post). Personally I think it will be here in one form or another for a long time. Technology and Science are changing the world around us and it is only natural that science fiction writers explore those changes to the limits of imagination. There is many ‘modern’ science fiction written which involve the singularity concept which we don’t see in ‘classic’ SF.

Singularity refers to a theory that technological and scientific progress will continue to speed up and that we will develop more intelligent beings that will speed up the progress even more while they invent even more intelligent beings and you see where this is going. Until we reach a point where not even our imagination can follow.

Singularity science fiction follows a Moore’s Law of the future, where science improves our lives exponentially over time. Eventually human life is so radically transformed that it’s unrecognizable to those of us living in the relatively crappy present. – io9

This is usually done by a combination of genetics, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Sometimes the beings are ourself evolved and transformed to a post-human or transhuman race with little in common with the meat monkeys we are today.

History of singularity:

In 1965, I. J. Good first wrote of an “intelligence explosion”, suggesting that if machines could even slightly surpass human intellect, they could improve their own designs in ways unforeseen by their designers, and thus recursively augment themselves into far greater intelligences. The first such improvements might be small, but as the machine became more intelligent it would become better at becoming more intelligent, which could lead to a cascade of self-improvements and a sudden surge to superintelligence (or a singularity).

Vernon Vinge minted The Singularity expression in 1982.

In 1982, Vernor Vinge proposed that the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence represented a breakdown in humans’ ability to model their future. The argument was that authors cannot write realistic characters who are smarter than humans: if humans could visualize smarter-than-human intelligence, we would be that smart ourselves. Vinge named this event “the Singularity”. He compared it to the breakdown of the then-current model of physics when it was used to model the gravitational singularity beyond the event horizon of a black hole. In 1993, Vernor Vinge associated the Singularity more explicitly with I. J. Good’s intelligence explosion, and tried to project the arrival time of artificial intelligence (AI) using Moore’s law, which thereafter came to be associated with the “Singularity” concept.

Proof and examples:

A good example on Artificial Intelligences is William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer, in which AIs are strictly regulated by the Turing Police so that they can’t become self aware, but one wants to anyway. A more recent example is the WWW series by Robert J. Sawyer.

The singularity is sometimes addressed in fictional works to explain the event’s absence. Neal Asher’s Gridlinked series features a future where humans living in the Polity are governed by AIs and while some are resentful, most believe that they are far better governors than any human. In the fourth novel, Polity Agent, it is mentioned that the singularity is far overdue yet most AIs have decided not to partake in it for reasons that only they know.

A flashback character in Ken MacLeod’s 1998 novel The Cassini Division dismissively refers to the Singularity as the Rapture for nerds, though the singularity goes on to happen anyway.

Accelerating progress features in some science fiction works, and is a central theme in Charles Stross’s Accelerando (free download). Singularity Sky also touches on singularity.

Ken MacLeod’s Newton’s Wake is a post-singularity work as well as the Evergence Trilogy by Sean Williams & Shane Dix both which I like.

Other authors that address singularity-related issues include Karl Schroeder, Alastair Reynold, Greg Egan, Ken MacLeod, Paul Melko(Singularity’s Ring), Rudy Rucker, David Brin, Iain M. Banks, Ian Douglas, Neal Stephenson, Tony Ballantyne, Bruce Sterling, Dan Simmons, Damien Broderick, Fredric Brown, Jacek Dukaj, Nagaru Tanigawa, John Dickinson (WE), Douglas Adams and Ian McDonald etc

Popular movies in which computers become intelligent and violently overpower the human race include the Terminator series, the parody of a film adaptation of I, Robot, and The Matrix series.

On television series Battlestar Galactica and Caprica also explores artificial intelligence.

Another form of Singularity of a more spiritual kind is explored in the differentStargate installments. Ascended beings beyond human comprehension play a significant part in the Stargate universe (not SGU so far). Although most of them ascends through spiritual means, there are also cases of a more technological form of ascension now and then. The most significant ascended being in the series where Daniel Jackson here seen during the process.

Please watch this video where some of the aforementioned authors discuss Singularity.

The Singularity: An Appraisal from Michael Johnson on Vimeo.

This panel was held at Boskone 47 in Boston, MA on February 12th, 2010. Moderating was the Guest of Honor, Alastair Reynolds. Other panel participants included several time Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge, Locus Award winner Charles Stross, and Karl Schroeder.

What’s your take on Singularity?
Got any good books to recommend?
Please write a comment.

Trends in Current Science Fiction Post Index:

1. Nanotechnology
2. Enviromental disaster
3. Singularity
4. Reality TV

Sources:

• Bill Joy’s Wired magazine article “Why the future doesn’t need us“
• Technological Singularity page on Wikipedia
• The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
• Singularity FAQ for Dummies
• Acceleration Watch
• The Great Enhancement debate
• whatisartificialintelligence.com
• Science fiction at the end of time a blog post from Marianne de Pierres’ Journal
• The Singularity Backlash a blog post from io9

Trade of Queens
by Charles Stross
Merchant Princes 6
Published by Tor

I got great hope for this book, some light hearted good fun action science fiction? hope so.

A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, have carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the President of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world.

The worst and deepest secret is now revealed: behind the horrifying plot is a faction of the US government itself, preparing for a political takeover in the aftermath of disaster. There is no safe place for Miriam and her Clan except, perhaps, in the third alternate world, New Britain–which has just had a revolution and a nuclear incident of its own.

Gardens of the Sun
by Paul McAuley
The Quiet War 2
Published by Pyr

I just read The Quiet War and would like to know what’s going to happen in this one.

The Quiet War is over. The city states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. A century of enlightenment, rational utopianism and exploration of new ways of being human has fallen dark. Outers are herded into prison camps and forced to collaborate in the systematic plundering of their great archives of scientific and technical knowledge, while Earth’s forces loot their cities, settlements and ships, and plan a final solution to the ‘Outer problem’. But Earth’s victory is fragile, and riven by vicious internal politics. While seeking out and trying to anatomise the strange gardens abandoned in place by Avernus, the Outers’ greatest genius, the gene wizard Sri Hong-Owen is embroiled in the plots and counterplots of the family that employs her. The diplomat Loc Ifrahim soon discovers that profiting from victory isn’t as easy as he thought. And in Greater Brazil, the Outers’ democratic traditions have infected a population eager to escape the tyranny of the great families who rule them. After a conflict fought to contain the expansionist, posthuman ambitions of the Outers, the future is as uncertain as ever. Only one thing is clear. No one can escape the consequences of war – especially the victors.

Coyote Destiny
by Allen Steele
Coyote Chronicles 2
Published by ACE

This book arrived yesterday and I finished it in one night’s reading. A review is upcoming, probably this weekend or early next week.

The unexpected arrival of a ship from Earth after their long isolation from their home world leaves the inhabitants of Coyote both hopeful and wary. The lone passenger brings news-both good and bad.

The good news is that there was a survivor of the long-ago explosion of the Robert E. Lee and he is living still on Earth, in the ruined city called Boston. The bad news is that the person responsible for that act of terrorism is also still alive-and somewhere on Coyote…

Books I have on Order

The Crucible of Empire
by Eric Flint & K. D. Wentworth
Empire Series 2

This is a book I am very exited about. The characterization and alien point of view from the last book in the series were fantastic [review]. The blurb is weirdly short and uninformative, rumor says Eric is very busy but is there no one else to write one?

There are nine sample chapters on webscriptions you can read instead.

The sequel to the critically acclaimed The Course of the Empire.

Trade of Queens
by Charles Stross
Merchant Princes 6

A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, have carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the President of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world.

The worst and deepest secret is now revealed: behind the horrifying plot is a faction of the US government itself, preparing for a political takeover in the aftermath of disaster. There is no safe place for Miriam and her Clan except, perhaps, in the third alternate world, New Britain–which has just had a revolution and a nuclear incident of its own.

Coyote Destiny
by Allen Steele
Coyote 7 (or 5 if you don’t count the stand alone books)

The unexpected arrival of a ship from Earth after their long isolation from their home world leaves the inhabitants of Coyote both hopeful and wary. The lone passenger brings news-both good and bad.

The good news is that there was a survivor of the long-ago explosion of the Robert E. Lee and he is living still on Earth, in the ruined city called Boston. The bad news is that the person responsible for that act of terrorism is also still alive-and somewhere on Coyote…

Oath of Fealty
by Elizabeth Moon
Paksenarrion universe

Elizabeth Moon is one of my favorite authors, so this is a must.

Elizabeth Moon’s bestselling science fiction novels featuring Kylara Vatta have earned her rave reviews and comparison to such giants as Robert Heinlein and Lois McMaster Bujold. But as Moon’s devoted fans know, she started her career as a fantasy writer. The superb trilogy known as The Deed of Paksenarrion is widely judged to be one of the great post-Tolkien fantasies, a masterpiece of sustained world-building and realistic military action. Now Moon returns to this thrilling realm for the first time in nearly twenty years. The result: another classic in the making.

Thanks to Paks’s courage and sacrifice, the long-vanished heir to the half-elven kingdom of Lyonya has been revealed as Kieri Phelan, a formidable mercenary captain who earned a title—and enemies—in the neighboring kingdom of Tsaia. Now, as Kieri ascends a throne he never sought, he must come to terms with his own half-elven heritage while protecting his new kingdom from his old enemies—and those he has not yet discovered.

Meanwhile, in Tsaia, Prince Mikeli prepares for his own coronation. But when an assassination attempt nearly succeeds, Mikeli suddenly faces the threat of a coup. Acting swiftly, Mikeli strikes at the powerful family behind the attack: the Verrakaien, magelords possessing ancient sorcery, steeped in death and evil. Mikeli’s survival—and that of Tsaia—depend on the only Verrakai whose magery is not tainted with innocent blood.

Two kings stand at a pivotal point in the history of their worlds. For dark forces are gathering against them, knit in a secret conspiracy more sinister—and far more ancient—than they can imagine. And even Paks may find her gods-given magic and peerless fighting skills stretched to the limit—and beyond.

Citizens
Edited by John Ringo & Brian M. Thomsen
Military science fiction by military veterans

It was the really impressive list of authors I like that got me to order this one.

Citizens is a new kind of science fiction anthology. The names appearing between its covers are not only veteran authors, among the very best in the field, they are military veterans as well. New York Times bestselling author John Ringo (a veteran of the 82nd Airborne) and Brian M. Thomsen, a Hugo finalist and one of the most respected editors in the field, have selected a treasure trove of gems written by writers who know first hand what it means to wear their country’s uniform. Among the top writers appearing in Citizens are Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Elizabeth Moon, Gordon R. Dickson, David Drake, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Keith Laumer, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, Gene Wolfe, and more, nearly all authors of bestsellers, and recipients of Hugo and Nebula awards.

Other Books of Interest

Mindover Over Ship
by David Marusek
Counting Heads? book 2

“David Marusek is one of the best-kept secrets of science fiction, a wild talent with a Gibson-grade imagination and marvelous prose, and a keen sense of human drama that makes it all go”
–Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother

The year is 2135, and the international program to seed the galaxy with human colonies has stalled as greedy, immoral powerbrokers park their starships in Earth’s orbit and begin to convert them into space condos. Ellen Starke’s head, rescued from the fiery crash that killed her mother, struggles to regrow a new body in time to restore her dead mother’s financial empire. And Pre-Singularity AIs conspire to join the human race just as human clones, such as Mary Skarland and her sisters, want nothing more than to leave it.

Welcome to Mind Over Ship, the sequel to Marusek’s stunning debut novel, Counting Heads, which Publishers Weekly called “ferociously smart, simultaneously horrific and funny.”

Epitaph Road
by David Patneaude

This sounds different, I am tempted to order it now.

2097 is a transformed world. Thirty years earlier, a mysterious plague wiped out 97 percent of the male population, devastating every world system from governments to sports teams, and causing both universal and unimaginable grief. In the face of such massive despair, women were forced to take over control of the planet–and in doing so they eliminated all of Earth’s most pressing issues. Poverty, crime, warfare, hunger . . . all gone.

But there’s a price to pay for this new “utopia,” which fourteen-year-old Kellen is all too familiar with. Every day, he deals with life as part of a tiny minority that is purposefully kept subservient and small in numbers. His career choices and relationship options are severely limited and controlled. He also lives under the threat of scattered recurrences of the plague, which seem to pop up wherever small pockets of men begin to regroup and grow in numbers.

And then one day, his mother’s boss, an iconic political figure, shows up at his home. Kellen overhears something he shouldn’t–another outbreak seems to be headed for Afterlight, the rural community where his father and a small group of men live separately from the female-dominated society. Along with a few other suspicious events, like the mysterious disappearances of Kellen’s progressive teacher and his Aunt Paige, Kellen is starting to wonder whether the plague recurrences are even accidental. No matter what the truth is, Kellen cares only about one thing–he has to save his father.

Pinion
by Jay Lake

Another tempting book, this one is a steampunk, got to order the other book first…

“The delight is in what’s seen en route, as Lake has configured his world-dominating empires, one British, the other Chinese, with huge and devoted attention to the last detail. The delight of the next volume–prefigured with unrelenting clarity in Escapement’s final pages–should be the discovery that the destination adds up.” –Washington Post Book World on Escapement

Rejoin the Librarian and the Chinese submarine captain, the British sailor, the clockwork man, and the young sorceress who has gone south of the great equatorial wall. This adventure in Lake’s Clockwork Earth continues the tale begun in Escapement.

“The very cosmology of this world is an enigmatic astonishment, and it underpins every single bit of action and character….Lake has a ball transporting his characters up and down this magnificent world, subjecting them to all sorts of perils and escapes in a wild variety of settings. His three main protagonists all exhibit distinct and memorable personalities that allow us to filter their world through three prisms of intelligence and attitude….Fantasy has always been “escapist” in the best sense of the word, and Lake engineers a fine tale of humans in search of liberation from the clockwork and customs that ensnare them and us as well.” –Sci-Fi Weekly on Escapement

The Dream of Perpetual Motion
by Dexter Palmer

Starred Review. Palmer’s dazzling debut explodes with energy and invention on almost every page. In a steampunky alternate reality, genius inventor Prospero Taligent promises the 100 kids he’s invited to his daughter Miranda’s birthday party that they will have their “heart’s desires fulfilled.” When young Harold Winslow says he wants to be a storyteller, he sets in motion an astonishing plot that will eventually find him imprisoned aboard a giant zeppelin, the Chrysalis, powered by Taligent’s greatest invention, a (probably faulty) perpetual motion machine. As Harold tells his story from his airborne prison, a fantastic and fantastical account unfolds: cities full of Taligent’s mechanical men, a virtual island where Harold and Miranda play as children, the Kafkaesque goings-on in the boiler rooms and galleries of Taligent’s tower. Harold’s narration is interspersed with dreams, diary entries, memos and monologues from the colorful supporting cast, and the dialogue, both overly formal and B-movie goofy (“I’m afraid the death rays are just a bunch of science fiction folder”), offers comic counterpoint. This book will immediately connect with fans of Neal Stephenson and Alfred Bester, and will surely win over readers who’d ordinarily pass on anything remotely sci-fi.

Fledgling
by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
A New Liaden Universe Novel

Theo Waitley has lived all her young life on Delgado, a Safe World that is home to one of the galaxy’s premier institutions of higher learning. Both Theo’s mother, Kamele, and Kamele’s onagrata Jen Sar Kiladi, are professors at the university, and they all live comfortably together, just like they have for all of Theo’s life, in Jen Sar’s house at the outskirts of town.

Suddenly, though, Theo’s life changes. Kamele leaves Jen Sar and moves herself and Theo back into faculty housing, which is not what Theo is used to. Once settled back inside the Wall, Kamele becomes embroiled in faculty politics, and is appointed sub-chair of her department. Meanwhile, Theo, who has a notation in her file indicating that she is “physically challenged” has a series of misadventures, including pulling her best friend down on the belt-ride to class, and hurting a team mate during a scavage game.

With notes piling up in her file, Theo only wants to go “home,” to the house in the suburbs, and have everything just like it used to be.

Then, Kamele uncovers evidence of possible dishonest scholarship inside of her department. In order to clear the department, she and a team of senior professors must go off-world to perform a forensic document search. Theo hopes this will mean that she’ll be left in the care of the man she calls “Father,” Professor Kiladi, and is horrified to learn that Kamele means to bring Theo with her!

What’s on your list?

Books I have on Order

Trade of Queens
by Charles Stross
Merchant Princes 6

A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, have carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the President of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world.

The worst and deepest secret is now revealed: behind the horrifying plot is a faction of the US government itself, preparing for a political takeover in the aftermath of disaster. There is no safe place for Miriam and her Clan except, perhaps, in the third alternate world, New Britain–which has just had a revolution and a nuclear incident of its own.

Coyote Destiny
by Allen Steele
Coyote 7 (or 5 if you don’t count the stand alone books)

The unexpected arrival of a ship from Earth after their long isolation from their home world leaves the inhabitants of Coyote both hopeful and wary. The lone passenger brings news-both good and bad.

The good news is that there was a survivor of the long-ago explosion of the Robert E. Lee and he is living still on Earth, in the ruined city called Boston. The bad news is that the person responsible for that act of terrorism is also still alive-and somewhere on Coyote…

Oath of Fealty
by Elizabeth Moon
Paksenarrion universe

Elizabeth Moon’s bestselling science fiction novels featuring Kylara Vatta have earned her rave reviews and comparison to such giants as Robert Heinlein and Lois McMaster Bujold. But as Moon’s devoted fans know, she started her career as a fantasy writer. The superb trilogy known as The Deed of Paksenarrion is widely judged to be one of the great post-Tolkien fantasies, a masterpiece of sustained world-building and realistic military action. Now Moon returns to this thrilling realm for the first time in nearly twenty years. The result: another classic in the making.

Thanks to Paks’s courage and sacrifice, the long-vanished heir to the half-elven kingdom of Lyonya has been revealed as Kieri Phelan, a formidable mercenary captain who earned a title—and enemies—in the neighboring kingdom of Tsaia. Now, as Kieri ascends a throne he never sought, he must come to terms with his own half-elven heritage while protecting his new kingdom from his old enemies—and those he has not yet discovered.

Meanwhile, in Tsaia, Prince Mikeli prepares for his own coronation. But when an assassination attempt nearly succeeds, Mikeli suddenly faces the threat of a coup. Acting swiftly, Mikeli strikes at the powerful family behind the attack: the Verrakaien, magelords possessing ancient sorcery, steeped in death and evil. Mikeli’s survival—and that of Tsaia—depend on the only Verrakai whose magery is not tainted with innocent blood.

Two kings stand at a pivotal point in the history of their worlds. For dark forces are gathering against them, knit in a secret conspiracy more sinister—and far more ancient—than they can imagine. And even Paks may find her gods-given magic and peerless fighting skills stretched to the limit—and beyond.

Citizens
Edited by John Ringo & Brian M. Thomsen
Military science fiction by military veterans

It was the really impressive  list of authors I like that got me to order this one.

Citizens is a new kind of science fiction anthology. The names appearing between its covers are not only veteran authors, among the very best in the field, they are military veterans as well. New York Times bestselling author John Ringo (a veteran of the 82nd Airborne) and Brian M. Thomsen, a Hugo finalist and one of the most respected editors in the field, have selected a treasure trove of gems written by writers who know first hand what it means to wear their country’s uniform. Among the top writers appearing in Citizens are Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Elizabeth Moon, Gordon R. Dickson, David Drake, Joe Haldeman, Harry Harrison, Keith Laumer, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, Gene Wolfe, and more, nearly all authors of bestsellers, and recipients of Hugo and Nebula awards.

Other Books of Interest

The Dream of Perpetual Motion
by Dexter Palmer

Starred Review. Palmer’s dazzling debut explodes with energy and invention on almost every page. In a steampunky alternate reality, genius inventor Prospero Taligent promises the 100 kids he’s invited to his daughter Miranda’s birthday party that they will have their “heart’s desires fulfilled.” When young Harold Winslow says he wants to be a storyteller, he sets in motion an astonishing plot that will eventually find him imprisoned aboard a giant zeppelin, the Chrysalis, powered by Taligent’s greatest invention, a (probably faulty) perpetual motion machine. As Harold tells his story from his airborne prison, a fantastic and fantastical account unfolds: cities full of Taligent’s mechanical men, a virtual island where Harold and Miranda play as children, the Kafkaesque goings-on in the boiler rooms and galleries of Taligent’s tower. Harold’s narration is interspersed with dreams, diary entries, memos and monologues from the colorful supporting cast, and the dialogue, both overly formal and B-movie goofy (“I’m afraid the death rays are just a bunch of science fiction folder”), offers comic counterpoint. This book will immediately connect with fans of Neal Stephenson and Alfred Bester, and will surely win over readers who’d ordinarily pass on anything remotely sci-fi.

Fledgling
by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
A New Liaden Universe Novel

Theo Waitley has lived all her young life on Delgado, a Safe World that is home to one of the galaxy’s premier institutions of higher learning. Both Theo’s mother, Kamele, and Kamele’s onagrata Jen Sar Kiladi, are professors at the university, and they all live comfortably together, just like they have for all of Theo’s life, in Jen Sar’s house at the outskirts of town.

Suddenly, though, Theo’s life changes. Kamele leaves Jen Sar and moves herself and Theo back into faculty housing, which is not what Theo is used to. Once settled back inside the Wall, Kamele becomes embroiled in faculty politics, and is appointed sub-chair of her department. Meanwhile, Theo, who has a notation in her file indicating that she is “physically challenged” has a series of misadventures, including pulling her best friend down on the belt-ride to class, and hurting a team mate during a scavage game.

With notes piling up in her file, Theo only wants to go “home,” to the house in the suburbs, and have everything just like it used to be.

Then, Kamele uncovers evidence of possible dishonest scholarship inside of her department. In order to clear the department, she and a team of senior professors must go off-world to perform a forensic document search. Theo hopes this will mean that she’ll be left in the care of the man she calls “Father,” Professor Kiladi, and is horrified to learn that Kamele means to bring Theo with her!

I hope to tease you to read the new Miles Vorkosigan novel, the new Safehold and something Pearl Harbory from David Weber, the final book in Jump 225, the continuation of Robot Wars, the new Kris Longknife, Major Ariane Kedros new adventures in Minoan space among others. Preview the covers, details are in the list below.

For books that I have read the titles will link to the articles and reviews here for your convenience. Author names are linked to my author profiles so you can find more to read. I will update this list as I read along it and update the titles to my articles.

A Mighty Fortress

(Safehold 4)
by David Weber
Release: April 2010
This is one book I’m anticipating with more curiosity than most, its only three months until release and there are no snippets, no description and no cover. What’s the matter?
According to the FAQ at David Weber’s homepage snippets (short parts) from A Mighty Fortress will be published at Eric Flint’s homepage as soon as he have time to do it. They are out since the 8th of January 2010.
Order: amazon.com amazon.co.uk

(blurb from forums.davidweber.net by Alistair) The new novel in the New York Times bestselling series that began with Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder, and By Heresies Distressed (my review)

Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He’s smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. Cayleb and Sharleyan have created the Charisian Empire, the greatest naval power in the history of Safehold, and they’ve turned Charis into a place of refuge for all who treasure freedom.

Their success may prove short-lived. The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed their destruction. Mother Church’s entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.

But there are still matters about which the Church knows nothing, including Cayleb and Sharleyan’s adviser, friend, and guardian — the mystic warrior-monk named Merlin Athrawes. Merlin knows all about battles against impossible odds, because he is in fact the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died a thousand years before. As Nimue, Merlin saw the entire Terran Federation go down in fire and slaughter at the hands of a foe it could not defeat. He knows that Safehold is the last human planet in existence, and that the stasis the Church was created to enforce will be the human race’s death sentence if it is allowed to stand.

The juggernaut is rumbling down on Charis, but Merlin Athrawes and a handful of extraordinary human beings stand in its path. The Church is about to discover just how potent the power of human freedom truly is.

Blood & Iron

(The Robot Wars 2)
by Tony Bellantyne
Release: April 2010
This is the sequel to Twisted Metal.
Order: amazon.com amazon.co.uk

From Amazon:
Appointed Commander of the Emperor’s Army of Sangrel, Wa-Ka-Mo-Do of Ko tries to establish relations between the existing robot population and the humans who have recently arrived on Yukawa. On the continent of Shull, Kavan forms the Uncertain Army and is marching to Artemis City. Upon discovery that the city’s generals have made an alliance with the humans, he retreats to Stark where he plans the eventual overthrow of Artemis and the humans. Meanwhile, Karel is heading South, hoping to be reunited with Susan, his wife. As he walks, he hears more of the stories of the robots, and begins to understand something about his place on the world of Penrose. But with limited resources and tensions growing between robot and human it’s only a matter of time before problems arise. And it’s becoming more and more apparent that the humans are a lot more powerful than the robots first expected…

CryoBurn

(Miles 12)
by Lois McMaster Bujold
Release: November 2010
It is nothing less than a new Miles Novel! The Release date hasn’t been set yet but Lois thinks it will be late 2010, probably November. The Vorkosigan Saga is one of my favorite science fiction series. Miles is a really charming scoundrel, an interstellar spy and mercenary admiral. Welcome back Miles!

From Lois McMaster Bujold MySpace Page:
The story is an Auditorial investigation that takes place on a planet new to readers, called New Hope II or Kibou-daini.  Miles is 39, to go by the very Miles-centered series chronology we’ve been using.  The story uses three viewpoints: Miles, Roic, and a local lad named Jin.  The general mode is mystery/thriller/technological-social exploration.

Do Unto Others

(Freehold)
by Michael Z Williamson
Release: Aug 2010
This is a sequel to Better to Beg Forgiveness… and it takes place in the Freehold universe if I remember correctly.
Order: amazon.co.uk amazon.com

From Amazon.co.uk
The Prescot family were miners. At one time, they were contracted to develop technology for a mineral rich but uninhabitable system. Gradually, all the investors shied away. Then the Prescots broke through with the technology needed to exploit entire planets, and incidentally develop domed playgrounds for the perversely rich, including indoor ski slopes and cable cars over megavolcanos, casinos and rides. This created the economic problem of being the richest people in the universe, having more money than most governments and effectively unlimited resources.

Money is a small blessing when enemies are quite willing to spend billions for the chance at trillions. Bryan Prescot and his daughter might as well have targets painted on their backs for the thugs, kidnappers and assassins their competitors would throw at them. Bodyguards were necessary—Highly trained bodyguards who could be bought once and be utterly loyal no matter the circumstances.

The altercation comes to a head inside the domes and mines of Govannon, with their enemy desperate to do anything to save their own lives, now that the gloves are off. Caron Prescot has only six bodyguards against an army, but she has two aces in the hole: The miners are on her side, and Elke, Ripple Creek’s psychotic demolition expert, has a nuke.

The problem with Elke having a nuke is that Elke WILL use it.

Geosyncron

(Jump 225 3)
by David Louis Edelman
Release: February 2010
I am looking forward to read the conclusion to David Louis Edelman’s epic cyberpunk-business science-fiction thriller. The series started with Infoquake (1) which I have read and like. MultiReal (2) is still on its way from U.K.
Order: amazon.com amazon.co.uk

From David Louise Edelman’s homepage:
The Defense and Wellness Council is enmeshed in full-scale civil war between Len Borda and the mysterious Magan Kai Lee. Quell has escaped from prison and is stirring up rebellion in the Islands with the aid of a brash young leader named Josiah. Jara and the apprentices of the Surina/Natch MultiReal Fiefcorp still find themselves fighting off legal attacks from Margaret Surina’s unscrupulous heirs — even though MultiReal has completely vanished.

The quest for the truth will lead to the edges of civilization, from the tumultuous society of the Pacific Islands to the lawless orbital colony of 49th Heaven; and through the depths of time, from the hidden agenda of the Surina family to the real truth behind the Autonomous Revolt that devastated humanity hundreds of years ago.

Meanwhile, Natch has awakened in a windowless prison with nothing but a haze of memory to clue him in as to how he got there. He’s still receiving strange hallucinatory messages from Margaret Surina and the nature of reality is buckling all around him. When the smoke clears, Natch must make the ultimate decision — whether to save a world that has scorned and discarded him, or to save the only person he has ever loved: himself.

Guardians of Paradise

(Sidhe 3)
by Jaine Fenn
Release: September 2010
Jaine is a very promising new British writer. She immediately become one of my favorites after I read Principles of Angles and Consorts of Heaven. Jaine also goes under the name J.N. Fenn, which amazon seems to use.
Order: amazon.com amazon.co.uk

Most people believe the Sidhe are long dead, exterminated centuries ago when the males of the race rose up and fought alongside the humans subjugated and enslaved by the female Sidhe. But Jarek Reen knows better: he’s discovered, the painful way, that the Sidhe are alive and well, and still screwing over humanity. They’ve already killed his sister, so he’s not surprised when he discovers an old friend and her partner are next on the Sidhe’s hitlist. He helps not only to foil the assassination attempt, but also to muddy the scene of the crime, leaving the Angels Nual and Taro sanMalia presumed dead – and free to join his crusade to expose the insidious influence of the Sidhe, and their evil plans to enslave the human race again. Their mission takes them across human-space, from utilitarian hub-points to rich, exotic planets – where they discover that a brilliant vacation spot hides some of the darkest secrets of all. And that’s when they discover how easy it is for the hunters to become the hunted . . .

From Jaine Fenn’s homepage:
The third book in the series, GUARDIANS OF PARADISE, will see characters from the first two books meeting up, and confronting the more-than human Sidhe more directly. A desire for justice and a drive to survive are all very well, but the bigger picture is more complex than our heroes have considered, and it’s largely painted in shades of grey. Then again, some secrets are so dark that genocide isn’t too great a price to pay to keep them contained.

Mission of Honor

(Honor Harrington 12)
by David Weber
Release: June 2010
David Weber is a phenomenal writer of military science fiction and Honor Harrington is his most popular series. We are many that await the resoluton of Oyster Bay, Mesa’s secret attack against Manticore. David likes to build books on famous battles, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the story in Misson of Honor was built on Pearl Harbor. With the following wrath of the Manticorian people.
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(risingshadow.net) The Star Kingdom of Manticore and the Republic of Haven have been enemies for Honor Harrington’s entire life, and she has paid a price for the victories she’s achieved in that conflict. And now the unstoppable juggernaut of the mighty Solarian League is on a collision course with Manticore. The millions who have already died may have been only a foretaste of the billions of casualties just over the horizon, and Honor sees it coming.

She’s prepared to do anything, risk anything, to stop it, and she has a plan that may finally bring an end to the Havenite Wars and give even the Solarian League pause. But there are things not even Honor knows about. There are forces in play, hidden enemies in motion, all converging on the Star Kingdom of Manticore to crush the very life out of it, and Honor’s worst nightmares fall short of the oncoming reality.

But Manticore’s enemies may not have thought of everything after all. Because if everything Honor Harrington loves is going down to destruction, it won’t be going alone.

Pathfinder

(Major Ariane Kedros 3)
by Laura E. Reeve
Release: July 2010
The previous books Peacekeeper (1) and Vigilante (2) have been good so I am looking forward to this one. Maybe they will explore the alien gate in this book.

Reserve Major Ariane Kedros needs a shot at redemption—and the mysterious aliens known as the Minoans need an extraordinary human pilot with a rejuv-stimulated metabolism like Ariane for a dangerous expedition to a distant solar system. But there’s a catch. the minoans have to implant their technology in Ariane’s body, and it might not be removable. Ariane is willing, but as she begins the perilous journey, there is an old enemy hiding within the exploration team who is determined to see them fail…

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Redoubtable

(Kris Longknife 8 )
by Mike Shepherd
Release: October 2010
Publisher: ACE

The Kris Longknife series is good solid military science fiction and I can’t wait on this one.

Edit: Cover Art added in June 20,2010

The Orphaned Worlds

(Humanity’s Fire 2)
by Michael Cobley
Release: April 2010
Order: amazon.co.uk

From Amazon:
Darien is no longer a lost outpost of humanity, but the prize in an intergalactic power struggle. Hegemony forces have a stranglehold over the planet and crack troops patrol its hotspots while Earth watches, passive, rendered impotent by galactic politics. But its Darien ambassador will soon become a player in a greater conflict. There is more at stake than a turf war on a newly discovered world. An ancient Uvovo temple hides access to a hyperspace prison, housing the greatest threat sentient life has ever known. Millennia ago, malignant intelligences were caged there following an apocalyptic war. And their servants work on their release. However, Darien’s guardians have not been idle, gathering resistance on the planet’s forest moon. Knowledge has been lost since great races battled in eons past, and now time is short. The galaxy will depend on the Uvovo reclaiming their past – and humanity must look to its future. For a new war is coming.

Trade of Queens

(The Merchant Princes 6)
by Charles Stross
Release: March 2010
Miriam, the world-strolling-American-other-world-princess is teaching her medieval family national economics or so.  The Family Business (1), The Hidden Family (2) , The Clan Corporate (3), Merchants War (4), The Revolution Business (5) are previous books in the series.
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(risingshadow.net) A dissident faction of the Clan, the alternate universe group of families that has traded covertly with our world for a century or more, has carried nuclear devices between the worlds and exploded them in Washington, DC, killing the President of the United States. Now they will exterminate the rest of the Clan and keep Miriam alive only long enough to bear her child, the heir to the throne of their land in the Gruinmarkt world.

Mike Fleming, late of US intelligence, has just survived an attack on his life in Massachusetts and knows the worst and deepest secret: behind the horrifying plot is a faction of the US government itself, preparing for a political takeover in the aftermath of terrifying disaster. There is no safe place except, perhaps, in the third alternate world, New Britain — which has just had a revolution and a nuclear incident of its own.

Charles Stross’ Merchant Princes series reaches a spectacular climax in this sixth volume. Praised by Nobel laureate Paul Krugman as “great fun,” this is state-of-the-art, cutting-edge SF grown out of a fantastic premise.

Victorious

(The Lost Fleet 6)
by Jack Campbell
Release: April 2010
Last book in the Lost fleet series, time to fight the aliens? Sequel to Relentless (5)
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(risingshadow.net) Now Victorious leads the charge again — and “Black Jack” Geary is in command…

As war continues to rage between the Alliance and Syndicate Worlds, Captain “Black Jack” Geary is promoted to admiral — even though the ruling council fears he may stage a military coup. His new rank gives him the authority to negotiate with the Syndics, who have suffered tremendous losses and may finally be willing to end the war. But an even greater alien threat lurks on the far side of Syndic occupied space.

What Distant Deeps

(RNC 7)
by David Drake
Release: August 2010
Captain Daniel Leary and the formidable Adele Mundy has been strong friends so far in the series. Rumor says there will be love in the new book.  In the Stormy Red Sky had Adele more in focus than previous book. Can’t wait to read this one.
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From Amazon:
Captain Daniel Leary and his friend, the spy Adele Mundy, have been in the front lines of Cinnabar’s struggle against the totalitarian Alliance. Now these galactic superpowers have signed a peace of mutual exhaustion–

But the jackals are moving in!

The Republic of Cinnabar was on the verge of collapse under the weight of taxes, casualties, and war’s disruption of trade. That the Alliance of Free Stars was in even worse condition helped only because it has made peace possible.

Years of war have been hard on Daniel and harder still on Adele, whose life outside information-gathering is a tightrope between despair and deadly violence. Their masters in the RCN and the Republic’s intelligence service have sent them to the fringes of human space to relax away from danger.

But the barbarians of the outer reaches have their own plans, plans which will bring down both Cinnabar and the Alliance. The enemies of peace include traitors, giant reptiles, and barbarian pirates whose ships can outsail even Daniel Leary’s splendid corvette, the Princess Cecile.

Unless Daniel, Adele, and their unlikely allies succeed, galactic civilization will disintegrate into blood and chaos. So they will succeed—or they’ll die trying

These are the best books i have read for the very first time in 2009. There was quit a few authors I discovered 2009, and many of them are already favorites. To mention some of them John Scalzi of course he is my favorite of the year, Jaine Fenn is another strong new author, Elisabeth Bear is much better than the covers of her books, Laura E. Reeve with her strong Greek influence and Tony Bellantyne with his robot series is novel to say the least. I don’t doubt for a second I have missed some of this years greatest new authors and books. I would love to read them if you tell me about them.

1. Old Man’s War Series by John Scalzi (Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigade The Last Colony, Zoe’s Tale)
2. The Graveyard Book by Niel Gaiman
3. Storm from the Shadows by David Weber (Saganami 2)
4. The Anderoid’s Dream by John Scalzi
5. Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
6. By Heresies Distressed by David Weber (Safehold 3)
7. Torch of Freedom by Eric Flint & David Weber (Wages of Sin 2)
8. Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross 
9. The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin(Eukmen 5) 
10. The Magicans’ Guild by Trudi Canavan (The Black Magician 1)
11. The Sidhe Series by Jaine Fenn (Principles of Angels, Consorts of Heaven)
12. Mothership by John Brosnan(Mothership 1)
13. Undaunted by Mike Shepherd (Kris Longknife 7)
14. The Coyote Series by Allen Steel
15. 1632 by Eric Flint (Ring of fire 1)
16. Empire Series by Richard Allen Stotts (Midshipman, Heir to the Throne, Majesty, Acheon, Citizen of the Empire) – All are Free Online Books
17. Relentless by Jack Campell (The Lost Fleet 5)
18. Southern Vampires Series (1-9) by Charlene Harris the inspirationt to True Blood the TV Series 
19. Seeds of Earth by Michael Cobley (Humanity’s Fire 1)
20.  The Jenny Casey Series by Elizabet Bear (Hammered, Scaredown, Worldwired) 

The Best Re-Read Books of 2009

1. Remnant Polulation by Elizabeth Moon - This is the best First Contact book I ever read. It might be the best book.
2. Honor Harrington Series (1-11) by David Weber
3. Kris Longknife Series (1-7) by Mike Shepherd

Interesting and Notable Books not on the list 2009

• The Wess’har Wars Series by Karen Travis
• The Merchant Princes Series by Charles Stross
• Contact With Chaos by Michael Z. Williamsson
• The Lost Xuyan Bride by Aliette de Bodard
• Twisted Metal by Tony Ballantyne
• Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
• Jennifer Government by Max Barry
• Major Ariane Kedros Series by Laura E Reeve