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Gate Crashers by Patrick S. Tomlinson

Review by Ernest Lilley
Originally published on SFRevu 5/1/21019:
Gate Crashers by Patrick S. Tomlinson

Tor Books 06/26/2018

400 years from now, mankind has reached out into interstellar space, established a few colonies, and has harnessed both fusion and gravity. But when the starship Magellan, ‘Maggie’ to her captain and friends, crosses an imaginary line in space 30 light years from home, only to find an alien artifact floating in space, humanity is about to enter the big time. Continue reading →

Science Fiction Films 1950-59

If you didn’t grow up when Saturday TV was flooded with grainy black and white science fiction from the 1950s you may not know just how rich a decade it was. There were amazing stories about our future in space, like Destination Moon!  tales of warning about the danger of giant mutant bugs in Them! (or leeches, as it turns out), tales of the end of the world (When World’s Collide) and time travel stories (World Without End) and the retelling of classic tales in new media, with robots (Forbidden Planet, 1956). Continue reading →

SFRevu 2019 Hugo Short List for Short Fiction and John W. Campbell Award

My friend Sam Tomaino, who I long ago tapped to do short fiction reviews for SFRevu, has come up with a 2019 Shortlist for Short Fiction and the John C. Campbell award. It’s up at SFRevu.com with his reviews of each at: 2019 Hugo Short List for Short Fiction and John W. Campbell Award by Sam Tomaino

I was pleased to see several from authors I like on the list, including Geoff Ryman for his “The Constant Narrowing” and Aliette de Bodard for her The Tea Master and the Detective. Much as I liked the Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (a Hugo winner and at the time of this writing, #1 Best Seller in Chinese Literature), I can’t help but wonder how much Chinese SF is enough? Strike that. Good SF is good SF and I’ve enjoyed a number of the stories Sam came up with, including Luo Longxiang’s “The Foodie Federation’s Dinosaur Farm”.

For those of you who can’t wait, Here’s the list with just titles, pub, and author (but I urge you to check out Sam’s full piece here with his comments): Continue reading →

Veracity by Douglas E. Richards

Brave New Truthful World – Douglas E. Richards latest novel wonders “What if you could pop in a contact lens that told you if someone was lying?” What if everyone did?

The world isn’t as bad as they say, author Douglas E. Richards tells us. Sure, there’s a lot worth worrying about, but with all the spin doctoring on both sides of any issue, it’s nearly impossible to make an informed decision about what to do to fix what’s actually broken.
But what if you couldn’t get away with lying? What if everyone saw the world through truth colored (contact) lenses? Wouldn’t that be great? Veracity is the author’s attempt to make that case, hung on an action plot where the bad guys are trying to suppress lie detectors that are ubiquitous, infallable, and so easy to use that they drop below your conscious awareness, leaving you with the sure knowledge that you can tell if someone is truthing (green flash), lying (red flash), or carefully walking the line (yellow flash). Continue reading →

Terminal Alliance (Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse Book 1) Kindle Edition by Jim C. Hines (Author)

When the alien commanders and human military crew of Earth Mercenary Corps Pufferfish succumb to a bioweapon that reverts (reverted, because, after the apocalypse, humanity was reduced to shambling ferals, until an alien race cured a few to fight for them) the humans to their feral state, only Mops and her crew of cleaners stand in the way of galactic genocide. Billed as a “hilarious sci-fi” adventure, Terminal Alliance does have a lot of humor built into the setup, but there’s also a savvy piece of space opera in here, along with a cast of engaging characters, and a hero worth following In Marion/Mops Adamopolulos.

Continue reading →