Uranus by Ben Bova (SF Novel, 2020). The latest novel in veteran SF writer Ben Bova’s Grand Tour series allegedly focuses on Uranus, the seventh full-sized planet from the Sun. You’d think this strange and mysterious world’s many oddities would inspire an author of Bova’s stature to produce one of his trademark blends of epic, […]

A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen (SF Novel, 2020). In Mike Chen’s 2nd published novel, a deadly pandemic swept the Earth (beginning in early 2019), killing over two-thirds of the population with remarkable speed and leaving the survivors a traumatized lot stumbling through life. Now, 6 years later, a new mutated form of […]

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis (Classic Satirical Novel, 1920). This classic satire of small-town life turns a century old this year, yet is still fairly widely read (note the very modern look of a recent edition above). It recounts the first two decades of the 20th Century through the eyes of Carol, a lively, idealistic, […]

If It Bleeds by Stephen King (Horror/SF Collection, May 2020). This collection contains 4 brand new (and consistently excellent) novelette- and novella-length from one of the most popular writers of our time. The title piece is also the longest of the bunch. It features troubled but resolute private detective Holly Gibney (from King’s Bill Hodges […]

Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker (Semi-Humorous Nonfiction Book, 2019–1st US publication 2020). Okay, something quite different today. An Aussie-born Brit, Parker has managed to craft a book at once exceptionally funny, sobering, full of all-too-real tragedies and embarrassing missteps, but at the same time making a compelling […]

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (Classic SF novel, 1964). Not all of my favorite SF novels appeared in that odd 1970-75 period that marked my first, massive, post-Star Trek immersion into the wonders of written SF. This groundbreaking epic of alternate history came to my attention around then but I […]