The Times is wrong about this book. Its not “cruel, cynical and very funny”, its cruel and cynical for sure, but it lacks hope and is overall just depressing. I certainly didn’t feel it was funny. Its strange, I loved the Red Dwarf series, and this book is very similar. I think the problem is…
Category: Book
The Robot City, Robots and Aliens Series
This series follows on from the Robot City series set in Asimov’s Foundation Universe but written by other authors. Overall that first series was weak, and I think the same is true for this series as well. There are a few here that are better than the others, but I’d only recommend this series for…
Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Humanity
This book is actually the best one of the two robot city series (Robot City and Robots and Aliens). Unfortunately I had to wade through 12 not very good books to find it, and its still not stellar. I’d recommend giving both these series a miss unless you’re obsessed with completeness in Asimov’s Robot universe….
Caliban Series
These are books written in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Universe by Roger MacBride Allen. These books are actually better than the Robot City Series, in that they at least explore issues that Asimov himself touched upon. 1997: Caliban 1998: Inferno 1999: Utopia
The Robot City Series
These are books written in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Universe by other authors. They don’t progress the overall plot of the Foundation series, they just use some of the concepts and characters to tell similar stories. The books in the series are: 1987: Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Odyssey by Michael P Kube-McDowell 1987: Isaac Asimov’s Robot…
Foundation’s Friends
I was excited when I found Foundation’s Friends the other day, because I thought I’d read all the Foundation books and did not know that this one existed. It is an anthology which celebrates Asimov’s 50 years as a science fiction author, and each author takes their own approach to the Foundation universe. The stories…
Saturn’s Children
I had trouble getting really into this book, although the story was interesting. I guess its mostly the Gibson-esque descriptions of a future world with plenty of assumed knowledge. However, I found the descriptions of the failed Mars missions deeply satisfying, and would love to see those covered in more detail. However, the story gets…
Bolo!
This book is a return to the short story collection style of Bolo book, with all of these short stories being written by David Webber. Unfortunately, most of these stories are not new: “Miles to Go” and “A brief technical history of the Bolo” appeared in Bolos 3: The Triumphant, and “The Traitor” and “A…
Last Human
This is Doug Naylor’s first solo book, after the breakup of his Red Dwarf partnership with Rob Grant. This book deviates pretty wildly from the plot line developed by the TV series, although it does use some of the ideas from the series. Often these ideas are used in such a different way that it…
The Dragonlover’s Guide to Pern
I bought and read this book for the short story “the impression”, which is ok but not fantastic. Overall the book isn’t really my thing — its mostly a potted history of Pern and a nearly exhaustive coverage of the various weyrs, holds and craft halls that inhabit the planet. To be honest, I’d rather…