Science Fiction Writers Workshop

This was a fun read.  Not your utopian view of the universe where all advanced races work together but the opposite, where how to serve your fellow beings is a cook book.  Yeah, there is a lot of interspecies barbequeing going on but they do have an interesting FTL drive and medical technology.  There is also very little description going on.  Just the plot.  I like that.  There are three more books in the same universe and I will have to try them.

Dave K

So far I've read the first three books in the series, a graphic novel, and a novella set in the same universe.  I suppose that says a lot about what I think of the writing.  I found the novella in the new books section of the library, read it, liked Butcher's style so started the series.  I'm getting book four in a few days.

If another author has thrown more obstacles at his protag I haven't read it.  Every page is a new problem for Harry, often of his own making.  So if you want an example of how to do that read one of these.

The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss

Winner of the Quill Award

This is a collection of Man-Kzin war short stories set in the Known Universe created by Larry Niven but written by different authors. OK, there is one short story by Niven but that's all.

This is a Man-Kzin war novel in the Known Universe created by Larry Niven but written by a different author. From an interview I heard Niven doesn't like writing war stories so he opened the Man-Kzin era to other writers. I think he has to OK the concept of the story before it can be published.

For those who don't know this is an anthology of the winners of the past years quarterly winners. It is free to enter and the author has to not have been professionally published. Check the web site - http://www.writersofthefuture.com/ for more details. On to the review.

It is not a bad collection, I read almost all the stories (I skipped one). A few ended before I understood what was happening but I did finish most of them. A few were good. I liked about half which is a good hit rate for me.

You would think I would learn by now that Dozois and I have very different tastes but NOOOO.

I've read 13 of the 18 stories so far. I liked two. I will read he rest so stay tuned for an update. Most are of the category - did anything happen in the story? I checked the reviews on Amazon and they are split between my opinion and liking it.

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I finished the stories, maybe two or three more that I liked.

Bottom line: if you like Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction: you will probably like this. I don't.

This is not SF. It is a story to be used as a basis for a video game. This is OSC's first techno-thriller.

It's a fast read. It's fairly well written but a bit preachy in parts. The idea - a civil war in modern America- is interesting. It's just not executed well. Either OSC is a big enough author that he doesn't get edited any more or they wanted to work on the game and he had a tight deadline. For those who think it right wing propaganda, it's hero is a military officer but so is one of the bad guys. I don't think it is any more right than the Forever War series by Halderman.

This was a book by a Brit; "Simon" was the last name if I recall correctly. It's fantasy done private eye style. Two city guard captains (Hawk and Fisher, married) investigate fantastical crime scenes by using standard detective methods (clues, interrogation, logic, etc). It's a clever tweak on the traditional fantasy.

However, most of the time the characters just aren't very smart about their methods. I think this reflects more on the author not being very good writing detective fiction (characters are only as smart as their authors, thus why authors need to do significant study and research). I wanted to kick the characters for being slow and thinking like 14 year olds sometimes.

This is Mario Acevedo's first book and it is set in Denver so I had to get it. Overall I enjoyed it. It's a quick read. The MC is a recently converted vampire who now works as a Private Investigator. He relies on his vampire powers to get his job done but things go bad on this job. There is a major twist at the end but who doesn't do that these days. So if you need a quick fun read this qualifies.