Category: Books

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Books
Kathryn Adams

Review: Some Desperate Glory

“While Earth’s children live, the enemy shall fear us.” Kyr (Valkyr to, well, not her friends, since she doesn’t actually have any), has been raised to be the perfect soldier. One of the last of the genetically-tailored Warbreed, she’s faster, stronger, and a better fighter than almost everyone else on Gaea Station (the last holdout

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Books
Kathryn Adams

Review: “Life Does Not Allow Us to Meet” and “Seeds of Mercury”

Two of this year’s Hugo-nominated novellas are included in one short story collection, (Adventures in Space (Short stories by Chinese and English Science Fiction Writers). Both stories also feature Earth’s attempt to seed life on another planet, but in completely different ways. Neither attempt goes to plan, and it’s left up to the reader to

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Books
Kathryn Adams

Review: The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

“Men find it easier to believe they have been swindled by a witch than outwitted by a woman.” From the grand storytelling tradition of Sinbad the Sailor comes Shannon Chakraborty’s Medieval-era tale of Amina al-Sirafi. Sailor, adventurer, pirate, witch. Famous and infamous (depending on who you talk to) for her ability to fight, explore, steal,

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Books
Kathryn Adams

Mammoths at the Gates (The Singing Hills Cycle Book 4)

“I’m going home to the Singing Hills abbey…” Nghi Vo’s latest installment in the Singing Hills Cycle is a bit of a departure from the previous novellas. Cleric Chih isn’t travelling to an exotic location to collect new stories. Instead, they’re returning to the Singing Hills abbey to be reunited with their old friend Cleric

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Books
Kathryn Adams

2024 Hugo Awards – Three More Novelettes

The last three of the 2024 Hugo-nominated novelettes go from dystopian to near-utopian (with a lot of work from devoted neighbors), to a fantasy set in the outskirts of the jazz area. I AM AI – Ai Jiang My hands shake at the prospect of finally getting rid of the one thing outside of my

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Books
Kathryn Adams

Review: Starter Villain

John Scalzi’s Hugo-nominated novel Starter Villain is a surprisingly light-hearted look at the section of the population with the kind of power and money that can make changes on a global scale and not bother with pesky little things like rules. And we see all of this through the eyes of former business journalist and

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Books
Kathryn Adams

Review: “Thornhedge” and “Rose/Hall”

It’s the end of April, there’s less than fifteen weeks until this year’s Hugo Award ceremony, and I’ve got nineteen entries in the main fiction categories to read. So what the heck, we’re doing two novellas this week instead of one. And I swear, I didn’t deliberately pick these two based on similar themes in

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Books
Kathryn Adams

Review: Translation State

Ann Leckie expands the universe of the Imperial Radch series (first introduced in the best-selling and Hugo-Award winning Ancillary Justice) in her latest novel Translation State. Three entirely separate lives intersect in a story about finding purpose, finding family, and finding out what it means to be human. We start with Enae Athtur; the book-jacket

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