Category: Fiction

Written and set in the 1980’s, Footfall is a science fiction novel about the Earth being attacked by aliens from Space. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle do an amazing job of story telling, character development, and language.

A big part of the story is the language used by the aliens; which is something I generally do not like in science fiction books. A bit of foreign language or difficult slang is ok for flavor, but a lot of it just makes a story very hard to read and follow. If I had bought this book as a paperback and tried to read it, there is a good chance I would not have made it all the way through, but as an audiobook it was fantastic.

MacLeod Andrews does an amazing job narrating the story and bringing both the earthlings and aliens to life. He gives them all unique voices and really brings their emotions to life.

I enjoyed this book immensely and look forward to listening to more Niven/Pournelle books.

I bought this book from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

From the publisher:

They first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. Since the ringed planet carries no life, scientists deduce the mysterious ship to be a visitor from another star. The world’s frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered. The first contact is hostile: the invaders blast a Soviet space station, seize the survivors, and then destroy every dam and installation on Earth with a hail of asteriods. Now the conquerors are descending on the American heartland, demanding servile surrender – or death for all humans.

©1986 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

I rate this book a 9 out of 10 and recommend it to any science fiction fan.

For a 39-year-old story this one holds up pretty well and it is fun to see the origin of many of the themes in more modern science fiction stories.

I really enjoyed the idea that every time they get in a ship and head off to war they return hundreds of years later; it is an intriguing idea. So after one battle they return to find earth a very different place and the most experience veterans in the war even though they do not feel like it.

I think any fan of science fiction should take the time to read the classics of the genres and understand more about the origins of the themes and plot elements that we take for granted today. And the Forever War is one of those classics that every fan should take the time to read.

George Wilson’s voice has such a classic storyteller timbre to it; he really brought the story to life for me.

I bought The Forever War audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

From the publisher:

When it was first published over 20 years ago, Joe Haldeman’s novel won the Hugo and Nebula awards and was chosen Best Novel in several countries. Today, it is hailed a classic of science fiction that foreshadowed many of the futuristic themes of the 1990s: bionics, sensory manipulation, and time distortion.

William Mandella is a soldier in Earth’s elite brigade. As the war against the Taurans sends him from galaxy to galaxy, he learns to use protective body shells and sophisticated weapons. He adapts to the cultures and terrains of distant outposts. But with each month in space, years are passing on Earth. Where will he call home when (and if) the Forever War ends?

Narrator George Wilson’s performance conveys all the imaginative technology and human drama of The Forever War. Set against a backdrop of vivid battle scenes, this absorbing work asks provocative questions about the very nature of war.

©1974 Joe W. Haldeman; (P)1999 Recorded Books

I rate this book a 9 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone looking for great classic science fiction.

I want so much more!

Roadside Picnic is a collection of stories, they contain the same characters, but they happen at different times, sometimes decades apart. They are great stories, great beginnings of larger stories…

I would love to read a much longer story about Red Schuhart, he is such a great character and his story in this universe is so appealing to me.

Robert Forster does a great job narrating the audiobook.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

From the publisher:

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a "full empty", something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he’ll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.

©1972 Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (P)2012 Random House

I rate this book a 10 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone who loves science fiction.

This is book 3 of the Gentleman Bastard Sequence books featuring the exploits of Locke and Jean. I really enjoyed the first 2 books, The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies, and have been looking forward to the next in the series.

In this adventure we learn more about Locke and Sabetha’s history, I really enjoyed that part, for me it deepened Locke’s character and gave insight into his motivations and desires. But the Sabetha character felt kind of flat to me, like she was not as well thought out, or maybe that she was a very simple character when I was hoping for a complex character with a lot of depth and complex reasons for her beliefs and actions. In the dialog Sabetha spends a lot of time talking about being complex, but in action she comes across as being very simple and flat.

I also did not appreciate the story being split between 2 different timelines. The jumping back and forth is common to this series, but for some reason in this story I didn’t like it very much.

Michael Page turns in another wonderful performance. I will always think of Locke and Jean when I hear his voice.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

From the publisher:

After their adventures on the high seas, Locke and Jean are brought back to earth with a thump. Jean is mourning the loss of his lover, and Locke must live with the fallout of crossing the all-powerful magical assassins the Bonds Magi. It is a fall-out that will pit both men against Locke’s own long-lost love.

Sabetha is Locke’s childhood sweetheart, the love of Locke’s life, and now it is time for them to meet again. Employed on different sides of a vicious dispute between factions of the Bonds, Sabetha has just one goal-to destroy Locke forever. The Gentleman Bastard sequence has become a literary sensation in fantasy circles, and now, with the third book, Scott Lynch is set to seal that success.

©2008 Scott Lynch (P)2013 Tantor

I rate this book a 7 out of 10 and bet that if you read the first 2 books in the series you will not be able to pass this one up.

Griffin’s Story is NOT the fourth book in the Jumper series, nor is it the novelization of the movie, it is a stand-alone story that takes place in the Jumper universe. To be correct it takes place in the Jumper universe as portrayed by the movie and not the one by the 3 books in the series with Davy.

This story is quite a bit different from the previous 3, to me it feels darker and bolder with more fantasy and drama. That probably has to do with its connection to the movie. That didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, but it is different.

Ted Barker does a great job with the narration and his voice eventually becomes that of Griffin to me, but I miss Macleod Andrews.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

From the publisher:

Griffin has a secret. It’s a secret that he’s sworn to his parents to keep and never tell. Griffin is a Jumper: a person who can teleport to any place he has ever been. The first time was when he was four, and his parents crossed an ocean to protect the secret. The most important time was when he was nine. That was the day that the men came to his house and murdered his parents. Griffin knows that the men were looking for him, and he must never let them find him.

Griffin grows up with only two goals: to survive, and to kill the people who want him dead. And a jumper bent on revenge is not going to let anything stand in his way.

Jumper is a major motion picture released by 20th Century Fox in February 2008.

©2007 Steven C. Gould; (P)2008 Macmillan Audio

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction and superpower stories.

Impulse is the third book in the Jumper series and continues 10 years after Reflex ends.

Davy and Millie have a teenage daughter named Cent who desperately wants to go to a "normal" high school and be around people her own age. She is around the same age Davy was when he first discovered his abilities and fears for his daughter’s safety, and with everything that happened in the Reflex story, who could blame him.

Emily Rankin does a fine job narrating this story, it took me a long time to get used to her voice and cadence, by the end of the book I could only think of her voice as being Cent’s voice. But every time she was reading as Davy or Millie it really hurt my brain.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

From the publisher:

Cent has a secret. She lives in isolation, with her parents, hiding from the people who took her father captive and tortured him to gain control over his ability to teleport, and from the government agencies who want to use his talent. Cent has seen the world, but only from the safety of her parents’ arms. She’s teleported more than anyone on Earth, except for her mother and father, but she’s never been able to do it herself. Her life has never been in danger. Until the day when she went snowboarding without permission and triggered an avalanche. When the snow and ice thundered down on her, she suddenly found herself in her own bedroom. That was the first time.

©2013 Steven Gould (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone who like science fiction and superpower books.

Reflex is the second book in the Jumper series by Steven Gould.

This story has a split focus. One half of the story follows Davy and what he goes through while held captive by the mysterious bad guys and the other half follows his wife Millie and her… Whoops, almost let some major spoilers go there.

This story is as good if not better than the first one. We get to dive more into who Davy has chosen to be as a person and get to know Millie a lot better. A very nice read indeed.

Macleod Andrews does a very fine job narrating the story and I will always think of he voice as being Davy’s.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

From the publisher:

Davy has always been alone. He believes that he’s the only person in the world who can teleport. But what if he isn’t?

A mysterious group of people has taken Davy captive. They don’t want to hire him, and they don’t have any hope of appealing to him to help them. What they want is to own him. They want to use his abilities for their own purposes, whether Davy agrees to it or not. And so they set about brainwashing him and conditioning him. They have even found a way to keep a teleport captive.

But there’s one thing that they don’t know. No one knows it, not even Davy. And it might save his life….

©2004 Steven Gould (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction and superpower books.

I enjoyed the movie Jumper when it came out in 2008, but man did it have some HUGE plot holes. So when I ran out fiction books in my Audible wish list I decided to check the Jumper books out.

Jumper is the first book in a series of 3 by Steven Gould. The story in the movie is similar to the story in the series of books, but is not the same story.

I enjoyed this book, the character Davy is likeable and believable, the narration by Macleod Andrews is good, and the story is good science fiction.

When I was in my teens I spent a lot of time thinking about what it would be like to have superpowers. Most of the time the ability to be invisible was at the top of my list, but now I think that being able to teleport or jump may be an even better power.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

From the publisher:

What if you could go anywhere in the world, in the blink of an eye? Where would you go? What would you do?

Davy can teleport. To survive, Davy must learn to use and control his power in a world that is more violent and complex than he ever imagined. But mere survival is not enough for him. Davy wants to find others like himself, others who can Jump.

©1992 Steven Gould (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

I rate this book an 8 out of 10 and recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction/superpower books.

I bought this audiobook from Audible.com and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone.

I am not sure why I purchased this book, on the surface it sounds like a book I would enjoy, I guess…

I think if I had read it as a paperback I picked up from somewhere I may have enjoyed it much more, but as an audio book it just didn’t work for me.

The narration by MacLeod Andrews is full of character, maybe too much character. I found his speech patterns and accent distracting and interesting at the same time. It just never clicked for me, I was distracted enough that I never got into the story.

The story itself is pretty good, the plot is anyways, the details are kind of boring though…

From the publisher:

When he was 19, James Stark was considered to be one of the greatest natural magicians, a reputation that got him demon-snatched and sent downtown – to Hell – where he survived as a gladiator, a sideshow freak entertaining Satan’s fallen angels.

That was 11 years ago. Now, the hitman who goes only by Stark has escaped and is back in L.A. Armed with a fortune-telling coin, a black bone knife, and an infernal key, Stark is determined to destroy the magic circle – led by the conniving and powerful Mason Faim – that stole his life.

Though nearly everything has changed, one constant remains: his friend Vidocq, a 200-year-old Frenchman who has been keeping vigil for the young magician’s return. But when Stark’s first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head that belongs to the first of the circle, a sleazy video store owner named Kasabian, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than he counted on, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.

©2009 Richard Kadrey; (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

I rate this book a 5 out of 10 and recommend it only to those who have run out of other books to read.

I bought this audiobook from Audible and listened to it using the Audible app on my iPhone, but it looks like Audible is no longer selling it.

METAtropolis is a collection of stories from multiple authors set in the same universe that they agreed upon before writing. It is a fine idea, but most of the stories are kind of a bore.

John Scalzi and Michael Hogan were the big draw for me, I love those guys, and they both did a fine job for their part, but the book as a whole does not pay off.

My favorite story is John Scalzi’s "Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis" which means something like "Everything but the Squeal" which is about being a slacker and a pig farmer. The rest of the stories spend way to much time explaining everything, sometime in painful and useless detail.

From the publisher:

Five original tales set in a shared urban future—from some of the hottest young writers in modern SF

A strange man comes to an even stranger encampment…a bouncer becomes the linchpin of an unexpected urban movement…a courier on the run has to decide who to trust in a dangerous city…a slacker in a "zero-footprint" town gets a most unusual new job…and a weapons investigator uses his skills to discover a metropolis hidden right in front of his eyes.

Welcome to the future of cities. Welcome to Metatropolis.

More than an anthology, Metatropolis is the brainchild of five of science fiction’s hottest writers—Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder, and project editor John Scalzi—-who combined their talents to build a new urban future, and then wrote their own stories in this collectively-constructed world. The results are individual glimpses of a shared vision, and a reading experience unlike any you’ve had before.

I rate this book a 4 out of 10 while the one story, John Scalzi’s "Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis", is a 9 out of 10. I recommend only if you have run out of other things to read.

I bought this hardcover book used from the Book Nook in Marietta Georgia.

I loved Dirty Jobs so much that I keep hoping that Christopher Moore’s other books would be as good, but sadly the ones I have read are not. Don’t get me wrong, this book is OK, I enjoyed it overall, although some of the narration in supposed gothy-teenage slang really got on my nerves, the story itself is solid.

But it just didn’t have the zing or depth of Dirty Jobs.

From the publisher:

The city of San Francisco is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet, and only I, Abby Normal, and my manga-haired love monkey stand between the ravenous monster and a bloody massacre of the general public.

Whoa. And this is a love story?

Yup. ‘Cept there’s no whining. But there is everybody’s favorite undead couple, Tommy and Jody, who’ve just escaped from imprisonment in a bronze statue. And now that they’re out they’ve joined forces with Abby, her boyfriend Steve, the frozen-turkey-bowling Safeway crew, the Emperor of San Francisco and his trusty dogs Lazarus and Bummer, gay Goth guy Jared, and SF’s finest Cavuto and Rivera to hunt big cat and save the city. Really.

I rate this book a 6 out of 10 and recommend it to Christopher Moore fans.