Science Fiction Books > B Science Fiction Books

Meagre Offerings...?

Advantages: Goes along at a cracking pace with excellent side characters
Disadvantages: Involnurability and losing it's detective inclination

Being the seventh in a series, I firstly must strongly suggest that the previous volumes are read prior to this one, as it will give you more depth to the characters. As many serialisations do, there are sections in the book that refresh the memory, but these are often brief, and not as fullling! Anita Blakes world is filled with all the things that go bump in the night, vampires, zombie, werewolves, wererats and so on. From what I took from the ...
...roots, supporting the RIP Team to discover the source of the fires that seem to be directed towards vampire owned businesses, and I have to admit, the fact that Anita now fraternises with the beasts more than the humans did make for an interesting take, particularly in how the human RIP Team now deals with her. However, it ended up being more about Anita's relationship with her current and past boyfriend, and how Anita is increasingly becoming superwoman. ...

Sa1sysoo 29.03.2007 · Read Full Review
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Review of Burnt Offerings - Laurell K. Hamilton

Behold the book

Advantages: Fantastic story
Disadvantages: Could upset the devoutly religious

Behold the Man is one of the hardest books to put down I have ever come across. You pick it up thinking "one chapter before dinner" and end up delaying dinner so you can read more, it is that compelling. Basically the book tells the story of Karl Glogauer. Bullied at school, as an adult he is looking for some meaning in life, both romantic and spiritual, and often one gets in the way of the other. Given the chance to travel back in time (a one ...
...try to discover the truth about the crucixion and Christ. Story alternates between Karls' life in our present, and his current life (the past) in Roman occupied Judea. His miserable school life, his failed relationships and his quest for the truth all intwine to make for a compelling and original tale, which climaxes in a shocking (but inevitable) conclusion. Apparently when the book came out, it was denounced in certain quarters as blasfamous, ...

dalg 07.11.2002 · Read Full Review
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Review of Behold the Man - Michael Moorcock

Black Man - A real page turner

Advantages: GREAT READ
Disadvantages: NOTHING

Black Man. = This book has a feel of Bladerunner meets Jason Bourne meets Hitman. Carl Marsalis was created. Carl is a variant Thirteen. He was made to genetically be the best, the most perfect super soldier there had ever been. But something has gone wrong after his last mission Carl has lost his willingness to kill. His superiors refuse to believe and instead use him as a Hitman for the UN. However this failure to kill gets him into trouble ...
...Carl thinks that now it must truly all be over with but then another Thirteen has just returned from Mars and is running around killing people. It is also killing off other Thirteens. Carl must find and kill it or wait for it to come for him. But as usual not everything is as it seems and soon there are twists and turns along the way and the conclusion is a superb ending to the book. The writing is crisp and fresh. Whilst the book races along and ...

MaldivesHoliday 16.02.2009 · Read Full Review
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Review of Black Man (Gollancz) - Richard Morgan

Short stories

Advantages: Lots of great stories
Disadvantages: Some not so great ones

This is collection of short stories by William Gibson. Most of these stories are along the same vein as the necromancer series, with 'Burning Chrome' being very reminiscent of 'Count Zero' (Burning Chrome was published in Omni 1982) and 'Johnny Mnemonic' not only getting a mention in 'Mona Lisa Over Drive', but also it an extended version was released as a separate book. Some of the stories are in a completely new directions, for example 'The Belonging ...
...and would probably come under the heading on contemporary fantasy. Two of the other stories were also written with other authors. "Dogfight" (with Michael Swanwick) originally published in Omni 1985 "Red Star, Winter Orbit" (with Bruce Stirling) originally published in Omni; also in Mirrorshades This is great collection of short stories that I recommend that every one reads. ...

BenC 19.07.2000 · Read Full Review
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Review of Burning Chrome - William Gibson

Halo: The Flood

Advantages: A great storyline - follows the game well
Disadvantages: A long storyline - follows the game in which we know

...get this book, after reading Halo: The Fall of Reach. It was not being sold anywhere in the UK. Its excitement had died out after me being two years late. So I brought it of eBay. Having read the actual book, I thought it was quite good... but... when I was reading it, I kept on thinking to myself: "Couldn't anyone just play a game and write a book about the game and become a millionaire easily?" Yes, they could. It was annoyed me that the fact that ...
...by its self. So, could Halo: The Flood be useful to Bungie? I think so. Bungie copied some things on Halo: The Flood as well as The Fall of Reach. Like, take the Helljumpers, ODST's, the ability that the Covenant can talk! Their own storyline, which was featured in Halo 2. So I think that Halo: The Flood proved itself useful to Bungie and us. ...

UKJaguar 05.07.2009 · Read Full Review
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Review of Halo: The Flood - William C. Dietz