My sister-in-law, who taught high school for far too long, typified Country music as “People make poor life choices and then whining about the results.” A certain level of Police Procedural novel goes about the same way. The detective mystery takes a back seat to the soap opera. Personally, I don’t know why anyone would […]
“The Stark Divide” by J. Scott Coatsworth
This book is in three parts, each a novella on its own, connected together by the characters involved. The first one is a pretty standard spaceship-oriented Hard- Sci-Fi action story. It is structured for the first few chapters with perhaps a bit too many flashbacks: a legitimate was to get backstory in, but it can […]
“Common Source” by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
This book is a police procedural in a Sci-Fi near-future setting, where androids are just starting to be introduced to the general public. Sort of a down-to-earth remake of Asimov’s “I, Robot” Series. It’s a good plotline, with plenty of tension and just enough tech talk to keep us in the picture. However, the story […]
“Selected Poems” by John Brugaletta
This volume is a selection of poems from thirty years of work by an accomplished poet, so there is only room here to give a taste of what it is like to read the whole volume. The book is divided chronologically, but I will comment on the different types of poems it contains. This poet […]
“Special” by Chino Chakanga
This is a Young Adult Sci-Fi novel based on a reversed society where almost everyone has some kind of magical superpower. Most people have two or three. The thematic element focuses on a child who has no power. This allows the author to investigate in a non-threatening way what it looks and feels like to […]