Review

Review | Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

By Aidan Moher June 18th, 2008
Old Man's War by John Scalzi

Old Man’s War

Author – John Scalzi

Paperback
Pages: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
Release Date: December 9 2004
ISBN-10: 0765348276
ISBN-13: 978-0765348272

“I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife’s grave. Then I joined the Army.”

Hooks, perhaps more than anything, are key to a debut novel’s success and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War has a great one. A really great one. Old people joining an intergalactic war? Count me intrigued. In the tradition of such Science Fiction classics as Heinlien’s Starship Troopers and Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War, Old Man’s War follows the journey of one young old recruit as he enlists in the army and, at the ripe old age of 75, begins life anew.

If you’ve read and enjoyed those aforementioned novels, you’re sure to enjoy Scalzi’s attempt. In fact, I’d be willing to say that it stands up to those two classics in terms of quality. The thing that sets Old Man’s War apart, in my opinion, is simply the fact that it’s the most recently written. Where most of the technology in Starship Troopers and some of the technology in The Forever War feels dated, Scalzi’s vision of the future feels bleeding edge and a natural evolution of the world we live in now, 50 years after Starship Troopers was first written.
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News

An Aside | SFX’s Top 100 Authors

By Aidan Moher June 17th, 2008

SFX Magazine, a well known UK publication focused on Science Fiction and Fantasy literature, recently published a list of the top 100 authors, as voted on by their readers. Thanks to Adam from The Wertzone for the heads-up!

The top ten looks like this:

  • 10. Robert Rankin
  • 9. HG Wells
  • 8. Philip K. Dick
  • 7. Iain M. Banks
  • 6. Isaac Asimov
  • 5. George RR Martin
  • 4. Douglas Adams
  • 3. Neil Gaiman
  • 2. JRR Tolkien
  • 1. Terry Pratchett

I think this is the first mass-market list that doesn’t have Tolkien at number one, which is interesting itself. I’m glad to see Neil Gaiman so high, and it’s quite impressive to see George R.R. Martin topping the list as the highest non-British author. It’s also interesting to see how many of those authors don’t write epic fantasy; those types of authors usually tend to top lists like this.

The full list is found after the jump.
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News

An Aside | Tobias Buckell Working on Halo?

By Aidan Moher June 17th, 2008

Hmm, this is an interesting turn of events. Tobias Buckell, author of the upcoming Sly Mongoose, has been hinting at his current project for a while now, reffering to it as the ubiquitous ‘Project X.’ Well, thanks to Luke Smith over at bungie.net (the official web site for Halo developers Bungie) the beans have been spilled.

Halo: The Cole Protocol will be the sixth novel set in the Halo Universe. Tobias S. Buckell, author of Crystal Rain and Ragamuffin will pen the novel, which reveals the location of the Spartan Gray Team and “takes readers into an unexplored conflict of the Human-Covenant War where unlikely alliances are formed and shattered…”

Bungie expatriate and Microsoft’s Franchise Development Director Frank O’Connor had this to say on the upcoming book, which is slated for a Fall 2008 release, ” Buckell continues an excellent tradition that’s now a solid aspect of the Halo novels, bringing a fresh new perspective to a limitless universe and bringing his prodigious writing talents to bear in ways that will surprise and engage fans of the series and newcomers alike.”

I’m not really one for tie-in novels, and I’m not even really all that familiar with Halo (despite being an avid videogamer), but Buckell’s writing is so damn good that I’m at least intrigued by this.

Buckell himself comments on the news HERE.

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News

An Aside | What’s Next for Erikson?

By Aidan Moher June 13th, 2008

Steve Erikson and IRobert, over at Fantasy Book Critic, just posted an interesting interview with Steven Erikson, author of the mighty Malazan Book of the Fallen. Among general questions about the series and tidbits about the upcoming novel, Toll the Hounds, Robert asks Erikson about what’s coming after he’s done with the ten volume Malazan series. Here’s what he had to say:

Release dates remain unknown. I am into the ninth chapter of Dust of Dreams/strong> right now and things proceed apace. I anticipate completing the manuscript some time in the autumn of this year. I normally roll straight into the next novel with not much of a breather between the two, then get slowed up doing the edited version (of the previous one) that comes back from the publisher. With a novella or two thrown in as well.

…

I don’t think it’s a secret any more that I’ve signed with Bantam UK for six more fantasy novels. Two trilogies, in fact. But not one a year – that pace (with novellas thrown in) is wearing me out. I won’t get into any details on the books, or whatever stand-alone works I may squeeze in here and there. Not yet. Too early.

Hmm… two trilogies? Could one of those be an exploration of the Ascendants’ pasts that I hinted about a few months ago?

Review

Review | Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell

By Aidan Moher June 12th, 2008
Ragamuffin by Tobias Buckell

Ragamuffin

Author – Tobias Buckell

Paperback
Pages: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: June 12 2007
ISBN-10: 0765315076
ISBN-13: 978-0765315076

Buckell manages to fit more into this lean novel than most authors do into novels twice as long. I don’t know how he does it, but other authors (and editors) need to take note; this is how you tell a lean, fast paced and frenetic story without any wasted words. Each and every one of Crystal Rain’s 384 pages burst at the seams with creativity: a vivid world inhabited by real people all wrapped up in a plot that races towards the finish line at full steam ahead.

So began my review of Tobias Buckell’s debut novel, Crystal Rain and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t hold true for the sequel. A novel under his belt and another candle on his birthday cake means Buckell only improved as a writer and that shows clearly in Ragamuffin, which is without a doubt a better novel in every sense than Crystal Rain – which was a damn fine novel in its own right.
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