A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers This is charming, and easy to read, but frustratingly short. It’s technically sci-fi, but it’s more philosophy than anything, and a good balm for the dystopia we’re so often saturated with. It doesn’t really have a plot though, and the fact that it’s #1 in a series …
Tag: sci fi
Oct 08
Book Review: Will Save the Galaxy for Food
Will Save the Galaxy for Food by Yahtzee Croshaw Like many, I know the name Yahtzee Croshaw from the “Zero Punctuation” game review videos he did for The Escapist. These were hilarious, manic, irreverent flash animations that appealed even to those of us who don’t much care for video games. Fortunately, this audio book was …
Dec 31
Book Review: The Windup Girl
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi What’s better than futuristic dystopian sci-fi? Futuristic dystopian sci-fi set in Thailand, a country I know very little about. The premise is that agro-conglomerates have engineered the world’s foodstuffs so that anything other than the strains owned and patented by the major corporate overlords will develop a blight that …
Oct 25
Book Review: The Dispatcher
The Dispatcher by John Scalzi If someone wants to make the case that the novella is the perfect length for a sci-fi story, John Scalzi will undoubtedly find his work in the “pro” column. This novella takes a simple premise–murder victims come back to life–and explores it. The main character is a dispatcher, someone hired …
Jul 04
Book Review: Geek Feminist Revolution
The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley This is not the sort of book I generally read–collections of political essays–but I picked it up on a whim while waiting in line at the bookstore and got hooked from a random essay in the middle. It was one of those “right place, right time” kind of …