The Gift of Sci-Fi

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Death Star

Not a Storm Trooper was stirring not even a bounty hunter

The stockings were hung by the chimney with fear,

In the hopes that Darth Vadar soon would be there.

Welcome to the first annual how to turn your loved ones into sci-fi nerds this Christmas.

For the wee ones:  Have a little one who finds the dark scary?  Pick up The Woods by Paul Hope , cuddle up together and learn that as long as you have someone to hold your hand, there is no reason to be afraid of the unknown.

The Safe Bet:  Buying for someone who likes adventure books but not adventurous enough to go full Vernor Vinge, spiders that drive, adventurous?  Grab  Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, wrap it up, chuck it under the tree and be confident in your choice.  Why?  Well, you just happened to gift  one of the hottest books of the year jammed  with 80's nostalgia that takes the reader on one hell of ride.  Bonus points to you if your loved one is a fan of RPG (role player games!).

For the tortured soul:  Have a tween girl in your life lying around the house like a sack of sad goo willing to venture beyond zombie/vampire love?  The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth is a must.  These books are similar in theme to the Apocalyptic violent blood bath found in The Hunger Games but in my humble opinion better written with a more swoon worthy love story.  Your tween can spend the holidays lost in a land of violence and gore pining over Tobias while you can spend it lost in rum. 


For the reader:  This is for The Reader in the family.  You know that person who is most often identified because of the book they are nose deep in than there facial features.  Time to impress this reader in your life and introduce them to time travel.   Black Out/All Clear by Connie Willis are on my personal top ten books of all time. (holy shit balls) Bonus points if The Reader is WWII nerd.  And no I do not think these books are too long.  The longer the better. 

For the nut job:  Have someone willing to read anything, not judge and likes to get nuts? A couple of holidays ago, my hubby gifted me the Gaea Trilogy by John Varley and it was the best Christmas ever as far as reading crazy ass, what the crap is going on kind of holiday.  All I remember is drinking rum and cokes, and living in a world where an orbital satellite is sentient and manifests itself into an image of Marilyn Monroe.  Honestly people, this shit is crazy!  

Deck the halls already: A rant

Never in the history of me being me have I ever consider decorating for the holidays until about 2 weeks before the blessed event.  Never. Ever. Until today....

Not sure why, well who is kidding who, thanks to the overwhelming pressure by stores to make this holiday a year to remember (dollar wise) we, the general public have been sucking on the candy stick of Christmas consumerism since November 1st.  Yes, that is right, November 1st, the day after Halloween.  I kid you not, stores in the city were pumping carols the same day they were trying to unload 55 million bags of Halloween treats.  For once I would like November to be November.  You know the month that Dune Girl was born. (obviously)  Yes, I turn older Tuesday.  It is pretty sweet.  To make it sweeter,  the hubby  turns 5 years younger than I but one year older for him one week later.  With two birthdays to bathe in booze, Christmas has always been on the back burner for us.

This year though we are ready to break the unwritten family rule and deck the house out like a hussy Santa.  Things are getting nuts.  

I never did finish it

You might be wondering if this internal struggle has gotten in my way of reading books and then oh, I don't know blogging about them on this blog for books.  Not really, I am actually reading something right now, it is just taking me forever.  After the third serious attempt to read Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (I KNOW) I am finally into it. Finally...To be frank this book bugs me.  I don't know how many years I have been hearing the merits of this thing.  Every time I have heard an incredible review I am running up to my bookcase and pulling the dam thing out to then very quickly  shove it  back on the shelf.  This may officially showcase my level of average intelligence but the first 60 pages of this book MAKES NO SENSE.  Someone seriously needs to sit down with me and talk me through it.  I am not joking. The only way that I have managed to get anywhere in it is because I skipped the first part.  You read that right, I skipped something and am proud of it.

Anyway I am not far enough in to review the book. My hope is that once finished I can return to the first part and suddenly all will be revealed to me.  This is my hope...I am not holding my breath.  And no, I haven't watched the movie. GAWD, give me a little credit.

Beside this epic struggle of Santa or not to Santa  I was handed the new book by Lois McMaster Bujold:  Captain Vorpatril's Alliance yesterday  and subsequently have stopped all communications with my family.  For those of you in the know this is a book from the Vorkosigan Series which just happens to be one of my fave's.    It's like the world knows it's my birthday!

Kitchen Sink: A Review of the The Unincorporated Woman

I read by default. Whatever is around I read. As a kid I used to pour over the milk carton during breakfast desperate to read something, anything. To avoid reading milk (not a page turner at all, do not recommend) I got into the habit of stockpiling books like Skyscrapers on my bedside table.  As I finish something all I have to do is lean over and grab something new. I really don't read up on what's coming or who is about to release the next big sensation either.   So it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the third in the Unincorporated series, The Unincorporated Woman by Dani Kollin and  Eytan Kollin was out and sitting on my kitchen table. (kudos to my father-in-law, my very own book fairy)  Is it odd to review book three in a series having not spent much time raving about the previous two? More still is it odder that my recommendation to read the entire series is based on the merits of the third book? 

Don't mistake me, all three books are stellar. In fact the first, The Unincorporated Man won the Prometheus Award (according to their bio) and more importantly this girl's heart. I don't want to ruin the books for you as there are a lot of " what the hell is going to happen" next moments. Simply put the human race has incorporated itself.   Upon birth you  own a small  percentage of shares in yourself. Life is spent raising your self interest so others will buy into you so you can raise money to gradually buy more shares of yourself in the hopes of attaining majority. Holding majority allows for freedom to do what you like and it is this rainbow of hope that people strive for but also keeps them bound to corporations. Fascinating universe, now take this perfect world, plop the only unincorporated man into it by way of cryogenics and voilà you have on your hands a story, no wait, A Revolution, no wait, a war.   

Of all the books I've read this year, these win the Dune Girl's award for guts. I swear the Kollin brothers before they sat down to pen these stories must have made a pact. If we are going to write SF then WE ARE GOING TO WRITE SF. There is every possible form of sub-genre found in these books including the proverbial kitchen sink. That, in my books takes guts especially since the books are not muddled.

Let's review shall we. First off, there are asteroids. Billions of people call asteroids home in this universe. In fact, most have never been planet side, and do not find it odd that their horizons bend upwards.  (Living in huge rocks, curved...look it up). Then there is AI.    What was once the world wide web has evolved into something so all encompassing that avatars have become sentient unbeknownst  to the human race. Looking for some romance. Check. Love stories a-plenty. Too sappy for you, do not worry, the Kollin brothers make sure the realities of war effect all in a most tragic way. Like a good War with guns and shit.  Covered. Most  surprising to me  is how much I am enjoying reading about battles. SF is not my favourite genre so The Unincorporated Woman is expanding my reading world and may result in me trying out some other military inspired stories. Into space opera?, well congratulations you are about to read a roller-coaster of emotions as dramatic as anything that Lois McMaster Bujold has weaved.

To be brief, The Unincorporated Woman does wane a bit. The WAR is long and does take up the majority of the drama. But the characters new and old are so addicting that it is one of those series that you hope for more to come.