I enjoy the Man-Kzin wars series, but they aren’t on my list of favorites–good, but not exceptional. Thus Destiny’s Forge was an wonderful surprise. Expecting something merely interesting and entertaining, I was presented with something fascinating and challenging yet certainly no less entertaining. To put is simply, this is a great book. The characters are…
When I read the first two books set on Pern by Todd McCaffrey I really was not too impressed. Because they were from Pern, and the stories were OK, I knew I would keep reading them, but I didn’t feel that they had the same charm as Anne McCaffrey’s own work. For the first few…
With an endorsement on the front cover from Elizabeth Peters, and another on the back that said, “She’s hilarious . . .” I had hopes for this mystery novel. After reading it, however, I have to rate it a 3 out of 5. I do find some of the characters engaging and interesting, but the…
Rita Mae Brown and her co-author Sneaky Pie Brown collaborate to produce this delightful new volume in the Mrs. Murphy mystery series. Mrs. Murphy is a cat, of course, whose human is named Mary Minor Haristeen, the village postmistress for Crozet, Virginia. I’m a sucker for all things feline, including feline detectives. If you don’t…
For a literal translation of Daniel 13, “Susanna” see USCCB – NAB – Daniel 13. This is not a translation or even a paraphrase. One might even call it a “transformation.” What I am attempting to do is to rewrite this short story into a modern form. I allow myself to alter the order of…
This little book is the first volume in a series The Twins of Petaybee which continues the story of the planet Petaybee that was told in Powers that Be, Power Play, and Power Lines. Those who really like McCaffrey’s writing will really like these little books. They’re somewhat lighter than the Dragonriders series, but they…
The new arrival joined the crowd in the bar of The Featherless Parrot, one of Shalem’s business inns. What was meant by a “business inn” was simply a place where it was more likely that the patrons were making deals than that they were being entertained. It suited the visitor to be in such a…
Unfortunately I must say that this is my least favorite Pip and Flinx adventure thus far. But considering how much I like the series as a whole, that’s not too bad. This book develops a little bit more culture, though we get too little of the culture of the planet Flinx winds up on. It…
I like military science fiction, and so it was natural to pick up this book, my first by author William C. Dietz. Let me get a couple of things I didn’t really like out of the way first. This is more in the line of an extended history with several story lines followed at the…
OK, having trashed one Terry Pratchett book, with apologies to all his fans including myself, let me just say that this one is up to standard. I actually found it a little less twisted than the average discworld book, but I found the story equally appealing, incredibly funny, and even a bit more suspenseful. Ankh-Morpork…
