The Rule of Law by John Lescroart (Legal Thriller, January 2019). The wily Dismas Hardy heads up a crew of defense attorneys in San Francisco and this is the latest entry in a long-running series about them and their cases. For a legal thriller, this one features almost nothing in the way of courtroom theatrics. The […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: The Rule of Law"Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking (Science Essays, 2018). The most renowned scientist since Einstein, Stephen Hawking had assembled the ten essays on major (and in some ways controversial) science-and-philosophy-related issues facing the world’s people before his death. Now they have been published posthumously, book-ended by thoughtful remembrances of the man by actor […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Brief Answers to the Big Questions"Rewrite by Gregory Benford (SF/Time Travel Novel, 2018). A much-honored and old-school SF writer, Gregory Benford built a considerable reputation for works of a “hard science” nature. As such, some readers and critics were doubtless surprised when, in the 1970s, he produced Timescape. In general, time travel books are considered prime examples of the less-than-realistic sort of […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Rewrite"The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi (SF Novel, October 2018). Scalzi, the reigning master of intelligent space operas, opens a new series with this typically inventive and absorbingly written novel. The Interdependency is a sprawling interstellar empire that was built around a religion created cynically by a super-rich family over a thousand years ago. The Wu […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: The Consuming Fire"Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry (Biography, 2018). Taken by cancer in 1965, Lorraine Hansberry crammed a great deal of living and achievement into 34 years. A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry’s best-known creation, was the first work of an African-American author on Broadway. Decades later, it’s still […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Looking for Lorraine"Outpost: Donovan, Book One by W. Michael Gear (SF Novel, 2018). This action-packed SF novel is based on the planet Donovan (named for the first explorer to die there). It’s the opening book of a trilogy and decently complete unto itself. In any case, the next two in the series are also available by now. Donovan […]
Read more "BOOK REVIEW: Outpost"Severance by Ling Ma (Contemporary SF Novel, 2018). This modern-day apocalypse opens in a slightly alternate version of the year 2011. While only fleetingly mentioned, this is the time of the bank bailouts and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Those protests fizzled out in this alternate history at least as quickly as in our reality. […]
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