Book Review: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold
You and your husband have been at the center of a lot of events in history over the last few decades, especially involving a tricky succession and regency that nearly blew up an entire planet more than a few times. But all that is in the past. Sadly and tragically, your husband is now dead. Your former charge is now a secure Emperor on his throne, and you yourself are Vicereine of a colony. Your son is now firmly in the Ducal seat that your late husband held, and is doing well. More so, thanks to Betan genetic engineering and breeding, you are pretty sure that you have many decades of productive life left. So, what do you do *now* — especially if you are Cordelia Vorkosigan? Not go to Disneyland, that’s for sure. And definitely not fade away.
Book Review: Revisionary by Jim C Hines
After the game-changing events of Unbound, where the existence of magic and magical creatures were revealed to the world at large, what does one do for an encore? Isaac Vainio’s announcement and the blowing open of centuries-old secrets are, as it turns out, the beginning. Even as Isaac works to try and keep paranoid government agencies and a disturbed public from freaking out, elements from within and without the magic community see the revelation of magic to the world as a chance to advance their own agendas. In this new world order where magic exists, it’s going to take fast feet and thinking, as well as book smarts, for Isaac and his companions to keep the world together. Revisionary is the fourth and capstone book in the Magic Ex Libris series.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Tea with the Black Dragon, R.A. MacAvoy
Martha MacMamara has had a strained relationship with her computer programmer of a daughter, Elizabeth. When Elizabeth sends her a plane ticket and a reservation to a hotel in San Francisco, however, Martha is drawn west to find out what is going on in Elizabeth’s life. Martha’s arrival coincides, however, with Elizabeth’s outright disappearance. With Martha unable to find her daughter, the help and aid of a mysterious Chinese gentleman may prove to be a most fortunate and propitious meeting. For, you, see, Mayland Long is far more, and far older, than he appears, and the perspicacious Martha recognizes this right off. And so one of the most interesting and powerful relationships in the history of SFF novels is born. Tea with the Black Dragon is R.A. MacAvoy’s 1983 Nebula and Hugo nominated novel. On the strength of the novel, MacAvoy won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1983. The novel won the Locus Award for best first novel in 1984. It’s a short novel, most especially by modern standards, and aside from the richness of the writing to slow you down, it goes down as a very fast read (or re-read).
Mining the Genre Asteroid: Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle
In our world, the duchy of Burgundy, the Middle Kingdom, has had a fascinating, and often strange history. Wedged in the middle of Europe, from the Mediterranean and up toward the North Sea, parts of which are now France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, the Dukes of Burgundy have often been as powerful or more powerful than some of the full blown kingdoms they have dealt with. Burgundy is a hell of a lot of fun to play in the computer game Crusader Kingdoms 2. By accidents and turns of fortune, Burgundy disappeared from our history in a rather sudden fashion. That sudden disappearance of Burgundy from history is the historical seed for Ash: A Secret History by Mary Gentle. Gentle uses secret history, alternate history, and the moldability of history to explore a 15th century that wasn’t … but perhaps once was.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: The Morgaine cycle of novels by C.J. Cherryh
Imagine a universe where a set of Stargates connect distant worlds. Many of these worlds have a low level of technology, and often fear and distrust those who come through the Stargates. The secret of making the Stargates, and who and why they made them, is only distantly known. Now imagine an expedition of individuals going through the various Stargates, seeing the various worlds that they connect. Meeting the human and not quite so human races to be found on these worlds. So far, you should be thinking of Stargate, the movie and its sequel series Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: Universe. Now imagine that it was determined that the Gates had destroyed a galactic civilization, and could still change and wipe out worlds and polities with a careless bit of travel. And so this expedition’s mission isn’t just to explore the Stargate network — but to destroy it, one gate at a time. The science fantasy Morgaine novels, by C.J. Cherryh, explore the quest of the last member of an expedition to do just that.
Mining the Genre Asteroid: The Argylle Series of Elizabeth Willey
The Kingdom has a problem. A set of problems, really. An untested young prince from a family of long-lived warriors and sorcerers has to deal with magical beasts mucking about in the great Forest near the city. A rather large Dragon has appeared, threatening to cut off a road to a nearby world. A hitherto unknown sister has appeared on the scene. A cousin from an old and still grudge-holding realm has popped up, too, seeking to establish relations, personal and diplomatic. It’s a lot on the plate of the young prince, and his siblings, who are trying to manage the kingdom as best they can. No one has any idea where their father, the ruler, or their uncle, the sorcerer, is. Oh, and the secret to the family power is a magical primal node of power in the Castle basement. Roger Zelazny’s Amber you say? You’d be forgiven for thinking so, but the prince is Gwydion, the power source is a Spring, the Kingdom is Argylle, and the author is Elizabeth Willey.
