Three favourite sci fi stories (amazingly, free!)

Sometimes, you get a really good sci-fi story. Really, really good. Of the 5 star, aka 'I loved it!' variety.

Here are three for any sci-fi fan to enjoy, and you can get them all for free (amazing!) on SmashWords.

Science fiction/Mystery | The Prometheus Incident: A Martian Murder Mystery | Joseph H.J. Líaigh
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sci fi and a cold murder being investigated on another planet, after 20 years. What more could you ask for? Well plotted, with a twist.


Get it here. Amazingly, it's free!





Science fiction | Now and for Always | E. Steven Newby
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A poignant story of a man who gets glimpses of the future, and what results. Beautifully built up, and seems standard enough, which makes the twist at the end startling. Solid characterisation, well realised descriptions. Strongly recommended if you liked The Time Traveller’s Wife.

Wonders never cease. It's free here.



Science fiction | Tribe | Ben Langdon
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

One of the best sci fi stories I've read in a long time. Possibly the best I downloaded in 2017, certainly top 5.

Carlos is caught in an alley by punks who are planning to kill him. Except that he's a super hero/super spy with the ability to take them all on. Or does he really?

There are a few spelling mistakes, but you don't care. This is a story with a great concept, fast pace, sharp descriptions, and very logically concluded, given the super power. Unreservedly recommended.

And what's more, free, here.

A collection of 'It's ok' aka 2-star stories (Part 2 of 2)

I've often wondered what to do about stories that I classify as 'It's ok' (2 stars out of 5) or worse. Should one review them for the sake of the unsuspecting public, or should one veil them in the shadows to spare the authors a severe downrating?

Anyhow, I've decided to review them anyway. Unsuspecting public, take a bow. Please remember, YMMV. You may like different stuff than me. I picked up all these because they were rated at 4 stars or better by at least two reviewers, plus the blurb and/or the cover art looked interesting.

Science fiction | Redeemed | Steve Matthew Benner
⭐⭐

A political story. Other than featuring alien species, not sci fi. And given that those are humanoid to the extent of sharing mistresses with the hero, not all that alien either.

What's with writers who assume future rulers will all be male only and also be so incompetent in relationships as to need to buy the services of prostitutes?

I wasn't too impressed with a hero who apparently established a record of integrity over two decades, was fooled by his boss in the intro scenes and then proceeds to lie and scheme for the duration of the story. It doesn't gel.

The story proceeds smoothly enough if you accept these premises.

You can get it here. Still free.


Horror/science fiction | The Meek | Brian S Wheeler
⭐⭐

It's grim. Four misshapen people push a drill across the desert to attack the fatcats who shifted to virtual reality and left behind flying buzzkills to kill the rest of humanity which was too poor to transition. One of the four is a hacker. Only two stars because I couldn't relate to any of the characters or the ending.


It's no longer available on Smashwords.

A collection of 'It's ok' aka 2-star stories (Part 1 of 2)

I've often wondered what to do about stories that I classify as 'It's ok' (2 stars out of 5) or worse. Should one review them for the sake of the unsuspecting public, or should one veil them in the shadows to spare the authors a severe downrating?

Anyhow, I've decided to review them anyway. Unsuspecting public, take a bow. Please remember, YMMV. You may like different stuff than me. I picked up all these because they were rated at 4 stars or better by at least two reviewers, plus the blurb and/or the cover art looked interesting.


Science fiction | Faster than light: Dobriathar | Macolm Pierce
⭐⭐

Space opera, part 2 of a series. (Wonder why I didn't read part 1 first? Oh, well).

Talking stars and bucolic planets.

The writing isn't too smooth, using, for example, ‘governess’ to mean female governor of the planet instead of someone who minds and tutors children, causing dissonance all along. Some scenes feel like dreams or fantasy, and it's confusing to try to distinguish them from the rest of the story.

I think I have book 1 of the series, but I'm unlikely to read it now. You can get it here. Still free.


Science fiction | Death's Twilight | A.J. Leavens
⭐⭐

I originally rated this as 3 stars, mainly for writing quality.

A fast paced action story, it has ninja organisations, deadly assassins, high tech, chases across the world, secrets that can break the world order.

What is doesn't have is depth. Things are too pat. Like big budget Hollywood where twists are there for shock value, not because they make sense.

If you like popcorn stories that don't tax your brain, this is the first of a series as Slade and Hotaru take on a System that has framed them.

The reason it lost a star? Too much senseless killing. And I mean senseless. It made no sense from any angle.

You can get it here. Still free.


Science Fiction | Running: The Alien in the Mirror | Lazlo Ferran
⭐⭐

Now this story? Popcorn. Full of corny stuff. Androids who become conscious, humans trodden down by androids, a big rebellion, waving of lasers in sewers. Staple tropes from Hollywood movies.

You can get it here. Still free.



Horror/science fiction | Sunfall: Episode 1 | Tim Meyer
⭐⭐

A yucky-horror story. People start to burn up, screaming all the way. The hero realises instantly it's because they are standing in the sun. It's a series of descriptions of slices of everyday life with people dying gorily. Not for me.

You can get it here. Still free.

Romance and space opera, with spies and aliens

Space opera | Starshine (Series: Aurora Rising #1; Amaranthe #1) | G.S. Jennsen

⭐⭐⭐, aka I liked it

The main characters and their motivations are well done. The galaxy destroying aliens are plausible.

The future tech is high quality soap-opera and almost credible, the right quantity of science terms and jargon are thrown in at appropriate times, while not descending to handwavium and unobtainium (big plus).

The economics, as in all space opera, makes little sense. People zip between planets like they'd zip between cities on Earth, the major population centres on whole planets are as tiny as 30,000. Come on, we have villages in my country which are bigger than that! There are whole planets run by mafias.... but then, that's why it's space opera, right? And this one is quite well done.

There is good character development for the heroine and the hero, and a few of the main characters. I presume the villains will be better fleshed out in the subsequent books. As of now, they are just creepy evil bad guys. This book is for the female gaze, and the romance is overly signalled to start with, but once you get used to the idea, it's quite fun, because the characters are solidly done.

Will I read more in the series? Yup, planning to dish out good money for it.

Pew-pew-pew fun from one end to the other

Military Science Fiction | Scorpion’s Fury (Series: Metal Legion, #1) | C.H. Gideon  

⭐⭐⭐ and a large planet, aka I liked it quite a bit

No wasting time. Our heroine leaps into battle in the prologue itself, and then continues for the rest of the book, winning a field promotion while saving the day and dissing the inept officers around. So far, fairly standard expectations. So what else is there?

Bad language used by soldiers (who are supposedly the dregs anyway)? Check. Sassy and fearless heroine? Check. At least one decent senior officer? Check. Comrade under fire? Check. Bureaucratic own-ass savers? Check. Hand to hand fighting with own side? Uhh..., check. Mystery man? Check. Fancy futuristic battle craft? Check.

Flashes of humour, believable battles (ok, willing suspension of disbelief, but at least there are no infinite ammunition supplies), almost invincible aliens, all check. Political twists and turns, yup, a few.

The characters come to life and you care about them. Hence, an 'I like it' rating. No way to give a partial star, so let me say: this sits at the top of 3 stars, with a large planet.

Futuristic boot camp to fight alien monsters

Military science fiction | Earth Alone (Series: Earthrise, #1) | Daniel Arenson 

⭐⭐⭐ aka I liked it

This book features mandatory drafting of all eighteen year olds, worldwide, to fight alien monsters. Most of the book is about the boot camp that our heroes go to. There is the mandatory bully, the tough sergeants, the unapproachable officers, the teen romances.

But the boot camp went on and on, and the remaining pages got less and less. This was supposed to be a military sf book featuring alien monsters. Now, there was hardly any book left, and the boot camp was still on. I wondered if these teens would ever actually fight a war or, horrors, was I expected to go to book two for that?

Well, if Arenson had done that to us, nobody would buy book two. Fortunately for sales, he did not disappoint regarding battles with the aliens. The book went into high gear, the aliens appeared. And there was still a chapter left to wrap up the whole thing  in case you decided to stop at book one. However, such authorial kindness should be rewarded, and the rest of the series beckons more appealingly as a result.

Shoot the humans first, and why

Science Fiction | Shoot the Humans First | Becky Black
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What starts off as the story of an infantry sergeant realising that the allies are likely to blame the two surviving humans and kill them, and grabbing the opportunity to escape, slowly grows in scope. It starts (only starts, mind you) with treachery on a global scale and redemption on the micro scale. Deftly interwoven scenes build up background, of a species specialising in its USP, warriors for profit. The story remains grounded in the narrator's experience, with wry humour of the type: “No point in wasting time. I started to hate him immediately.”

And yet, it raises profound questions. This is no popcorn story where you can park your brain and heart and read. It's a full meal, though without dessert or salad.

Get it here (still free).

I'm off to read its sequel, The Battle of Hollow Jimmy.

Indian science fiction that is not rehashed mythology (part 5 of 5)

Science Fiction | The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction | Tarun K Saint (editor)

Continuing the ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I really liked it) review... This is part 3 of a post broken up so that I can tag all the authors in a story-by-story review. You can read part 4 here.

Anandna by Rukmini Bhaya Nair

This is in two parts, a story and a short poem. The poem only makes sense if you read the story first. The story doesn’t have quite the impact unless you read the poem at the end. There’s a large helping of brave self-pity in it, but the poem largely mitigates the maudlinism. It’s about a trio of dedicated researchers who make a drug that converts pain into pleasure. Things don’t stay in their control.

We Were Never Here by Nur Nasreen Ibrahim

A creepy story about a sanctuary for women who can’t take their downtrodden place in the world any more. There are costs, and the benefits may not even exist. “Some of us even fear that no one had noticed our departure.”

The Narrative of Naushirwan Shavaksha Sheikh Chilli by Keki N Daruwalla

Sheikh Chilli is one of the prototypical too-clever-for-his-own-good boastful guys of folklore. This story features an insolvent crook who borrows hugely and then flees the country along with his girlfriend (where haven’t we heard something like that in recent times?) to settle on the Moon and make merry. The twists are that he’s the last surviving Parsi. This is not as effervescent a story as you might expect. Decidedly heavy handed satire.

Looking Up by SB Divya

I found this story formulaic. It didn’t touch me in the right way. It’s about a candidate for passenger to Mars, who’s applied for a seat mainly to get as far as possible from the accident in her childhood, and about reconciliation with family. Predictable.

Reunion by Vandana Singh

Mahua has helped to mitigate climate change in Mumbai and its environs by moving to a decentralised village-style economy with rounded huts to withstand the ferocious new cyclones (I roll my eyes at such utopianism, but it’s not too central to the story), and, thankfully making it science fiction, smart connections between all people and things in the village. In flashback, we see how she came to do what she did, the AI and the AR, and what happened to her sister Kalpana and her friend Raghu on the way. The best parts about the story are the looking back to the present day as a sort of golden age, the Age of Kuber, where wealth abounded and resource was wasted.

All in all, a good collection, with some outright gems, and some pieces one just has to grit one’s teeth and plod through. Hopefully, there will be more reviews of collections of Indian science fiction that is not merely rehashed mythology (hint: yes, there will be. Stay tuned).

...End of part 5 and we finally reach the end of the chopped up long post...

Indian science fiction that is not rehashed mythology (part 4 of 5)

Science Fiction | The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction | Tarun K Saint (editor)

Continuing the ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I really liked it) review... This is part 3 of a post broken up so that I can tag all the authors in a story-by-story review. You can read part 3 here.

The Beneficient Brahma by Chandrashekhar Sastry

This is a fantasy, not science fiction. It’s the fairy godmother trope with a just a little twist.

The Goddess Project by Giti Chandra

This is out and out sci fi, and the reveal at the end is a jarring extrapolation of contemporary mobs and their BMKJ cries. The smidgeon of hope is insufficient, though I suppose that may well be the best we can get.

The Last Tiger by Mohammad Salman

This is a satire that is so satirical and pointed that the less attention that is drawn to the fact, the safer the author is. Hats off, man. This is dark humour at its best and most cruel to the target, with laugh out loud slapstick moments and awful puns.

A Night with the Joking Clown by Rimi B Chatterjee

When most of the men die of over sensitive skin from Male Hypertoxic Syndrome, the rest of them rule the world, and the women are slaves, hoping to ‘make it’ to the level of getting a boyfriend instead of just being slaves. This society mashes toxic masculinity, passive femininity and predatory capitalism. Into this evil world comes an underground singer, causing disruption and dreams in the slave pits. The narrator, a New Guy without a lineage, and so lower in the pecking order, is given the job of flushing out this provocateur. I believe a book is forthcoming. But I prefer the simpler viciousness of the slave society in A for Anything (Damon Knight). This is more than I can stomach. It is gamer fantasy gone horribly wrong.

The Dream by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (translation)

Julian jerks awake from a dream of being torn by wild dogs. Could this world, too, be a dream? He knows now how to find out. A short and brilliant gem of a story. The world will never be quite real after this.

And on this whimsical note, I once again press Pause, and and start a fresh post for the rest of the stories in this collection.

...End of Part 4...

[Link to Part 5]

Indian science fiction that is not rehashed mythology (part 3 of 5)

Science Fiction | The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction | Tarun K Saint (editor)

Continuing the ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I really liked it) review... This is part 3 of a post broken up so that I can tag all the authors in a story-by-story review. You can read part 2 here.

Mirror-Rorrim by Clark Prasad

I imagine readers from other countries would skip some of the references in some of the stories here, not finding a context they know about, and that’s what I did with the Star Trek references in this story. As Tarun K Saint said in the intro, the irony is that these references need no explanation with most English speaking sci fi readers, while other Indian references that people like me know already get (what is to Indian readers) unnecessary exposition. Having got that gripe out of the way, this is a nice time travel/alternate universe story, well plotted and executed, with nods to both European/American/Australian readers and Indian ones. I really liked this one, too.

Flexi-Time by Manjula Padmanabhan

Nooooo, Manjula Padmanabhan, I expected better from you. Indians have an altered sense of time?? How twee and exotic. That rattling sound you hear is my eyeballs rolling at high rpm.

The Other Side by Payal Dhar

Another gem. This story evokes the Bangladesh refugees of 1970, and the modern dystopia of capitalism, with Corporations owning governments, and propaganda reprogramming human compassion, with casteism in new forms and old shapes. A tense, suspenseful story, with all the ends tied neatly. And the irony of refugee camps across the border in Nepal.

15004 by Sami Ahmad Khan

This is India’s answer to Train to Busan, but more terrifying, more gory, more horrific. Thank goodness for the tiny little ray of hope in the very last 100 words. I would have suffered trauma without that. Really.

Why the War Ended by Premendra Mitra (translation)

Alternative history about the real reason WWII ended. There was a passage in the story reminiscent of The Kraken Wakes (John Wyndham), but the aliens of that book were nothing in front of this story’s alien horror. The quaint League of Nations and other references help to damp it down as something that happened in the middle of the last century. Place it today, and we’d have been creeped out for a long time.

Were it Not For by Arjun Rajendran

This is such a sarcastic gem of poetic satire that I’m including a screen shot. Just for this, I will buy copies of this book and distribute them.

And on this brilliant note, I once again press Pause, and and start a fresh post for the rest of the stories in this collection.

...End of Part 3...

[Link to Part 4]

Indian science fiction that is not rehashed mythology (part 2 of 5)

Science Fiction | The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction | Tarun K Saint (editor)

Continuing the ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I really liked it) review... This is part 2 of a post broken up so that I can tag all the authors in a story-by-story review. You can read part 1 here.

The Twenty-second Century by Rahul Sankrityayan (translation)

Once again, a story/extract included for its historical significance. These are a few extracts from a young man’s imaginative look at the next century, from 1924. Certainly, these are selected because they are so nearly true today, and the editor would have discarded the pieces that imagined things that are not going to come about, but the forecast by Rahul Sankrityayan is startling in how closely truth has followed fiction in these seven early extracts, not just technological, but social. A positive look at the world, full of hope.

Shit Flower by Anil Menon

This story will ring familiar to the Indian and to the European. I wonder if the title (it refers to a lotus, which grows in filth) is unintentionally or deliberately satirical, but the story is a gem. It has everything you could want in terms of cybertech, a near future world that looks familiar (but leaves me feeling skewed at least 35 degrees from horizontal), personal growth, bizarre extrapolation of social trends, and a human dilemma. One of the best in the book.

The Man who Turned into Gandhi by Shovon Chowdhury

Okay, this isn’t science fiction. It’s biting satire. But it is laugh out loud funny. I did. Laugh out loud (and got strange looks, but who cares). A gem to treasure. And, I suspect, it will still be funny years from now. However, whether readers from outside the Subcontinent will find it equally hilarious, I don’t know. My personal favourite in this book, I think. And, like I said, it’s not even science fiction.

Seventy Years after Seventy Years after Partition by Kaiser Haq

A poem. Not my scene. YMMV.

Moksha by Sumita Sharma

A poem. Very sci fi. A bit creepy, too. Worth the read.

A Visit to Partition World by Tarun K Saint

Augmented reality meets psychology. At the end, I’m left wondering if the trauma of Partition can be solaced by museums, or whether they will exacerbate the wounds and lead to further hate and violence. Is it catharsis, or will it refresh the experiences? This story is timely, as the last of the people who actually lived through that ghastly time and have first hand memories are dying out. We have people with second-hand hate who believe they know what Partition was all about. Those who actually lived then want no repeats. It’s the third generation ones that love to pound their chests and howl. And it was only several months ago that an actual Partition museum was set up (I think, in Chandigarh), with crowd-sourced funding.

Dreaming of the Cool Green River by Priya Sarukkai Chabria

A story of the (hopefully) far future, when any Art that is found Objectionable by any Mob is summarily removed and placed in a vault, never to be seen again. Or is it? I liked the concept of this story, but not the actual treatment.

And at this point, I press Pause again, and start a fresh post for the rest of the stories in this collection.

...End of Part 2...

[Link to Part 3]

Indian science fiction that is not rehashed mythology (part 1 of 5)

Science Fiction | The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction | Tarun K Saint (editor)

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I really liked it)

I have mixed feelings about this collection. To start with, I had high expectations. After all, stories set in the Subcontinent would be set in my daily milieu. Plus, they were science fiction. This is a genre that does not have much of a dedicated market in India, especially in English. So people like me have to cast a world-wide net, and rely on translations or English language publications. That is a separate essay, which I am not writing here.

The collection itself has different levels of writing. Some of them are such gems, I want to buy copies of the book and gift them around. Hence, overall, 4 stars (I really liked it). There are poems, also, and poetry is in the eye of the beholder, but again, some left me cold and some were my beamish boys.

But some of it is eye-rollingly disappointing. Especially the old historical stories in translation. Some of it is not science fiction. Sorry, Tarun K Saint and Manjula Padmanabhan, you included some stories because you liked them and because the writers perhaps write science fiction, but these were not the stories that are science fiction. I was forcibly reminded of a hoity-toity reviewer of a Terry Pratchett book (which the publisher’s found fit for weird reasons to add as a blurb) which described him as ‘one of the premier satirists’ of the day. I remember reading that, curling my lip and muttering, No, no, and again no, buddy, you’ve missed the whole point. Certainly, some science fiction makes satirical points. But if that’s the primary aim, it dates fast and horribly, and the gruesome remains are turned over by foresters while holding their noses and poking about in the ruins. And there are usually not too many arguments about which animal’s scat and/or remains are being turned over, though some may recall seeing the beast in the wild with fond nostalgia. And yet, I feel reluctant to dismiss some of the pieces just because they are not science fiction, because some of these pieces are such extremely good satire. I guess the editors felt the same tug, so I’ll provisionally forgive them.

So, to the story-by-story. (Only because there is a limit on the number of tags I can put on a post, shall I split this into two or more posts).

Foreword: Spice-ship to Infinity by Manjula Padmanabhan

In which one of the most famous names in this collection brings us fascinating historical tidbits,  ponders inclusivity, voice and cultural references, and reaches unhappy conclusions on the perils of compromise and marketing pressures.

Introduction: SF Matters: South Asian Futures to Come by Tarun K Saint

This is almost a literary thesis, with no less than 91 footnotes, and brings us a doubtless difficult-to-write yet concise summary of South Asian sci fi, set in context both in time and space (the whole world).

Planet of Terror by Adrish Bardhan (translation)

One of the mistakes that anthology planners make is to start with a historical piece, the oldest one they can get hold of. This is a very light piece, it reminds me of sci fi that I used to read in Children’s World when I was a kid (I’m not knocking the magazine; it’s still the best kids’ magazine in the world; their monthly round-up of current affairs is the utmost neutral and accurate news summary on the planet, that alone is worth the subscription price). But this kind of fantastic story is now a done-to-death trope, and has no freshness any more.

Inspector Matadeen on the Moon by Harishankar Parsai (translation)

This is one of the prime examples of satire that has dated badly. In 1985, the angst and black humour of Jane Bhi Do Yaaro (the movie) was still fresh and the flavour of the month. This Inspector Matadeen story is a walk down that dystopian lane, harsh, cruel almost, satirical and over the top.

Stealing the Sea by Asif Aslam Farrukhi

This is a mood piece, a slice-of-life look at instant crowds in urban India and the stereotypical people who populate them. Withal, it’s slightly cli-fi (climate change fiction) which is the token sci fi theme making an appearance, a take on present day urban systems, and has a sad ending. 

By this point, I was seriously wondering what I’d got myself into.

Chernobyl by Somendra Singh Kharola

A long poem or a short opinion with its starting point as Chernobyl, a trek across cultures, and an end that is a question mark. I’m not sure I like it, or that I will remember it years from now, though some lines have great power. YMMV.

The Sea Sings at Night by Mimi Mondal

Thank goodness for this story, otherwise, I would have shut the book and missed some of the wonders to come. This is about a narrator who loves one of the sea folk (that hunt for the sea fauna that “Mumbai is teeming with”). A compassionate look at holding on and letting go, at assimilation and maintaining one’s culture in the face of immense social pressure, at love and the residue of loss, at being an alien in the Big City.

And at this point, I press Pause, and start a fresh post for the rest of the stories in this collection.

...End of Part 1...

[Link to Part 2]

Advertising will make consumerist zombies out of us all. Halp! Yawn.

Science Fiction | The Space Merchants | Frederik Pohl and C Kornbluth

⭐⭐

This is one of the books based on the 50's worry that advertising would make consumerist zombies of us all that hasn't dated very well.

Capitalism has run amok. Great corporations own the world and the people are slaves. They think they are not, because they get paid, but the Companies supply all their needs, at increasingly exhorbitant rates, so they’re always in debt. Sounds a bit like the USA today, doesn’t it?

Except that it’s all so over the top that it’s dated. And not well.

2 stars = It’s ok

Edit: This was first published in Galaxy Science Fiction as Gravy Planet, in serialised form. All the issues are now available as free download from several websites.

Hard sci fi that bends reality very convincingly

Science fiction | Ball Lightning | Cixin Liu

⭐⭐⭐

Good, but not as good as the Three Body series or Wandering Earth.

I like Joel Martinson's translations better than Ken Liu's. Let's get that out of the way directly. Ken Liu's are more faithful, Joel Martinson's flow.

Chen sees his parents incinerated by ball lightning on his 14th birthday, and therefore grows up to be a ball lightning researcher. The only way something as rare as this gets funded for research is military applications. He meets and works with Major Yun Lin, who is a reckless but influential person with a searing interest in new weapons of all types, the more quixotic, the better. They are joined by the cantankerous genius theorist Ding Yi (who also shows up in the Three Body series).

What eventually happens to Yun Lin is an outcome of her psychology, quite fascinating and heh heh, quantum. And I have never, ever, come across such a way of concluding a war as in this book. Trust you me, MAD is nothing.

Ball lightning turns out to be something that Cixin Liu specialises in inventing: strange forms of matter that seem superbly convincing while you read the book. You have to finish the book, roam around outside, touch a few solid things, and check on the Internet that, since the book was published, scientists have actually found out what it is (and it's not what's said in the book, thank goodness for that!), and then return to the normal world after the mad roller coaster ride of imagination.

This book has a slower pace and not as large a sweep as the Three Body series. But it is a prequel. Fans of the series should read it; they will not be disappointed.

3 stars = I liked it

Human scale wars fought by god scale AIs

Burning Eagle | Navin Weeraratne | military science fiction

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Navin Weeraratne has a winner here. 693 pages of action packed high tech military sci fi. The best word for what I did with the book is probably 'inhaled'. I was reading 5 pages every morning before my eyes were fully unglued. 

It has 3D printers, railguns, FTL, alien invasions, von Neumann catastrophes, nanotech, personal backup and posthumans. What more do you want? Characterisation, plotting, good editing, mystery and closure, intelligent economics, a hint of a sequel? Fussy, aren't you. You don't want romance and humour while you're at it? Ooh, aren't you the lucky thing?

The only thing that made me go nuh uh was manufacturing antimatter for fuel en route on a generation ship. Thermodynamics doesn't work like that, sorry. On the other hand, Arabs are Asians, bingo. I really liked that people in the book come from diverse ethnicites, without much more than a name to indicate it; no stereotypes, no token characters. 

I'll think of some more negatives when I come down from the high I'm on right now. Like the motivations of Sarasvati and what happened to her. But those are minor. 

Am I going to go hunt down The Hundred Gram Mission? Tautology.

And what you should be doing is going to your favourite online bookstore and buying this one right away.

Single-handedly taking on the aliens, with trusty AI sidekick in tow.

The Phantom Fleet | Julien Boyer

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (I really liked it and recommend it!)

This is a cute piece of space opera, fast paced, with humour and a sly take on all kinds of tropes. The protagonist emerges as an... unexpected... person, very delightful. The trusty AI sidekick is well done, too. The end is deadpan not-so-happy-ending that made me laugh.

I was fully prepared to roll my eyes at laser beams lighting up the interstellar medium, spaceships that whiz between Mars, Earth and Moon within hours, but the author thankfully assures us these are artistic liberties. As long as there is no dodging between asteroids, I'm good.

Read it. It's fun.

Free on Smashwords.

4 and 5 star (or better) science fiction and fantasy stories

These are reviews of books I read in 2018 (mostly the second half of the year). As I went along, I’d write a quick review, always with the pious intention of posting the review very promptly. Alas for good intentions.

So, while each of these deserves a whole separate write up, some of them just got clubbed together here simply because the review is so short. Onward!

4 stars means I really, really liked it. 5 stars means I loved it. Read them all. You won't regret any one.

Tessili Academy | Robin Stephen

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Excellent fantasy, thoughtful, well executed. I want more, and fortunately, sequels exist.

 

Edit: It's about an academy for turning normal girls into ninja assassins, while not letting them know what's going on.

 

Read it. Trust me, it's good.

Get it here, free(!), on Smashwords.

Elysian | Livian Grey

⭐⭐⭐⭐ [Note: adult content]

A short, sharp love story. Isla has a strange artistic talent, which others will kill for. Josh will protect her at all cost. Happy endings do exist, of sorts.

Find it here, free(!), on Smashwords.

Palimpsest | Tais Teng

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A new concept in fantasy is rare enough. This well written gem, set in the far future, shows us an elf-human conflict with stubborn heroes and a subtly built up denouement that thrills and horrifies in equal measure.

Find it here (it's free! unbelievable) on Smashwords.

Pest control (a short story) | Jameson Kowalczyk

⭐⭐⭐⭐

A creepy little horror piece. You can guess what's coming fairly early, but it still manages to be creepy, because it's so well-written.

Find it here (free!) on Smashwords.

Tears | C. Price

⭐⭐⭐⭐

A well written short. It begins: “He was four the first time he saw his grandmother cry.” The end sneaks up on you, unexpected till almost the last two words.

Read it.

Oh, right. Here's where you get it. Part of the Killgrace series.

Even more 3 to 3.5 star science fiction stories

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, before going to the 4 star or better stories, I dug around to check if there were more in the 3 to 3-1/2 star stories, and surprise surprise, there are more books which I read in 2018, each of which is rated around 3 stars, meaning I liked it well enough to write reviews and hope it gets good sales. So here are the last of the posts (hopefully!) with short reviews and links to find the books.

This is part 5 () of what is actually the same post, but broken up so that (a) it’s not too long and (b) I can label the post without losing any of the book or author names. This should (finally!) be the last lot of the averagely good lot before I rub my hands and get to the really good stuff.

The Interdimensional Dilemma of IAN and Betty | D R Brooks

⭐⭐⭐

An adventure story that includes: a librarian studying the phenomena (plural) of interdimensional bleeds, an interdimensional traveller, a bigfoot, Ancient Ones, vampires, werewolves, dhampirs, vampire hunters, Dr Frankenstein in an off scene role, a vampiric power struggle, blood and confusion, spelling and grammar mistakes, in order of importance.

All within a faux 19-century culture that charms and irritates in equal measure.

Find it here, free, on Smashwords.

Divergen Dreams | Tony Evans

⭐⭐⭐

A collection of short stories that ranges from slightly creepy to very creepy.

What can I say about a book the very first word of whose title is misspelled on the inside page? (I retained that spelling here.) All I can say is, it gets better than that. A lot.

Find it here on Smashwords. It's still free, last I checked.

The Sapphiran Agenda | Marcha Fox

⭐⭐⭐

A gentle look at sentient telepathic mobile plants that find herbivores horrifying, and carnivores that eat anything (including humans) easy to get on with and even control. Now, what happens when one meets a human it can deal with?

Yes, I call it a gentle story despite its being gory and displaying sneaky cunning in equal parts. 

Free, here, on Smashwords.

Residential Aliens | ResAliens Press

⭐⭐⭐

I liked two out of the five stories, Petition and Plague Ship. The other 3 were weak at best. Hence, overall 3 stars.

The collection seems to be strongly religion-themed. If that’s not your scene (and it’s not mine), the intrusive presence of Christian mythos and themes does detract from the stories.

Find it here on Smashwords.

Yet more 3 to 3.5 star science fiction/fantasy stories

So, before going to the 4 star or better stories, I dug around to check if there were more in the 3 to 3-1/2 star stories, and behold, there are more books which I read in 2018, each of which is rated around 3 stars, meaning I liked it well enough to write reviews and hope it gets good sales. So here are, in two more posts (hopefully the last lot of) short reviews and links to find the books.

This is part 4 of what is actually the same post (previous post here), but broken up so that (a) it’s not too long and (b) I can label the post without losing any of the book or author names.

Three very short stories | A.S. Morrison

⭐⭐⭐

They have a very 70s feel, hallucinogenic almost.

The first one starts hinting the conclusion, but by then it's almost over so no spoilers after all. Classic sci fi.

The second one is disturbing in its implications.

The third one is mystical, a parable, almost.

It's on Smashwords, here, free.

Viridian System Sampler 8 Short Stories | Jemima Pett

⭐⭐⭐

This is a sampler from the ‘Viridian star system’, where asteroids are mined for orichalcum, no less, and the miners go for recreation to a planet with a double fast rotation, two suns and three moons.

Far in the future, yet it has male miners hiring female 'miner-suppliers' for company, sex and service, from what can only be a pimp. Eyeroll and loss of stars!

Well written shorts despite that major drawback, they do draw you in, and you may be tempted to read more about the system in the rest of the books in the same world.

It's free on Smashwords, here.

The Mighty Peculiar Incident at Muddy Creek | Ian Thomas Healy

⭐⭐⭐

A mashup of western and sci fi, featuring train robbery and time travel. Not bad at all. We find that the guys with the technology indistinguishable from magic need not necessarily be smart enough to use it to best effect.

The first in the Muddy Creek Tales series, it is free on Smashwords, here.

Tempus non fugit | Alex Drinkwater, Jr.

⭐⭐⭐

What would happen if ageing slowed, to say, 1 in 10? 

Great North Road by Peter Hamilton takes one view, Tempus Non Fugit takes another.

A cautionary tale, which makes it a bit grim, but overall satisfactory.

Free on Smashwords, here.

Still more 3 to 3.5 star science fiction stories

These are more books which I read in 2018 (even though I downloaded some the previous year; yes, my backlog is not funny). Each is rated around 3 stars, meaning I liked it well enough to write reviews and hope it gets good sales. So here are short reviews and links to find the books.

This is part 3 of what is actually the same post (previous post here), but broken up so that (a) it’s not too long and (b) I can label the post without losing any of the book or author names. So it might extend to one or two more posts. Please continue to bear with me.

The Crack | Lee S King

⭐⭐⭐

What if her occult-seeming pickup line really is true? Are there really rifts between dimensions? 

Unfortunately, I can't seem to locate the book on Smashwords any more; the author may have taken it off.

The Licence | Myfanwy Tilley

⭐⭐⭐ and 1/2

Corruption is possible in the Bureau of Parenting, Marriages and Dying. So what if you're not really qualified to be a parent?

A very clever if not exactly ... edifying piece! Plenty of twists and turns.

Find it here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/492062

The Eye of Renithi | Aaron Clausen

⭐⭐⭐ and 1/2

This is a story of Mars. Not the real one, but the mythical one of Burroughs. Which is probably why the cover is a black and white image of Mars itself. A dying planet with hot deserts, barbaric Martian worshippers of a horrific goddess of death, and greedy colonial Earthmen tomb raiders.

In the tradition of King Solomon's Mines or Indiana Jones. For which I have less patience from the 21st century.

Withal, well written and atmospheric. 

Get it here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/126115

The Intervention | David Horn

⭐⭐⭐ and 1/2

The parents of an addict in a dystopic future stage an intervention, which results in his being committed to an institution. You can guess he's addicted to something mild that creates frissons in a conformist society, but the end is still a wry surprise.

Find it here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/364100

The Implant | Troy Dennison

⭐⭐⭐ and 1/2

A funny take on unearned, instant knowledge. The narrator keeps getting implants that give him instant knowledge, like language or karate, but without the skills. The whole thing is an eye-rolling sitcom till the bleak end, whereupon it becomes face-palming sitcom.

Get it here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/137797

Next time, a few 4 star stories!