“Anomaly” by Skip Brittenham and Brian Haberlin (Anomaly Publishing, 2012)

Years spent in the making, Anomaly is a marvel of the graphic novel genre from Skip Brittenham and Brian Haberlin, using a combination of giant, vibrant pages bursting with detail and color, a riveting storyline, multiple fold out sections showing actions scenes and magnificent tableaux.  And there’s even a smartphone or tablet app to heighten the experience.

The year is the distant future, 3717.  Our world has taken to the stars and conquered them.  All nations, corporations and technologies have coalescent into an entity known as the CONGLOMERATE, which uses Enforcer Battalions to conquer alien races and planets to reap their wealth.  Jon has been discharged from the elite Enforcer Corps and jumps at the chance to be part of a first contact mission, along with Samantha, Jasson and others.  But on the planet of Anomaly everything can and does go wrong, stranding the group there.  They find themselves in the midst of a great war between good and evil.

The artwork is breathtaking, the color and detail engrossing, the design and actions scenes pull you in and never let you go.  The slightly weak point is the storyline, which becomes somewhat predictable.  But there is still a great big cast of interesting characters, albeit with stereotypical diversity.

Readers also get the opportunity to use the app on their smartphone or tablet that is used to scan certain pages during the reading of Anomaly and pops up a 3D image of the scene of a creature or character, showing them acting and reacting.  They can be poked and prodded like the seemingly holo-specimens they are, as well as opening up info files on them.  It’s a fun experience that really feels like something out of science fiction.  Overall, Anomaly is well worth the read; a most enjoyable experience, and one not soon to be forgotten.

Originally written on February 11, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Anomaly from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“The Frozen Sky” by Jeff Carlson (JVE, 2013)

The Frozen Sky by Jeff Carlson, bestselling author of the Plague Year trilogy, began as a novelette of the same name that went on to win Carlson the Writers of the Future award.  Carlson knew he had a good story, something deep and complex, and decided to expand it into a full length scifi novel, and the result is well worth the upgrade.

Alexis Vonderach is part of the science team sent to find out what there is exactly on Jupiter’s moon, Europa.  More colonizers and ships are coming from Earth, but they’re the first inspection team and aren’t really sure what they’re going to find.  It’s a couple centuries into the future and humanity has good space travel and great tech.  The crew uses advanced spacesuits that are essentially adaptive machines with intelligent computer systems in them that can be used and controlled by the person in the suit.

As they begin to cut into the ice and go below the harsh outer skin of the moon, they encounter aliens for the first time, first through carvings and pictograms in the stone and ice that seem fairly advanced, and then encountering the actual alien beings: strange, many-tentacled creatures that are incredibly fast and seem to only want to attack when seen by humans.  Before the team knows it, they’re on the run, and then a short while later Von is all who is left, the rest of the team killed.  She continues to flee, going deeper into the ice where it is getting warmer, letting her suit do most of the work, but still sustaining injury as she thwarts the attacking alien creatures.  She discovers the frozen sky of the title to be the roof of the ice, covering the world beneath.

After a long, nail-biting section that lasts for a third of the book, Von eventually makes it back to the ship and her people, where she is healed and repaired in multiple ways.  And the second part of the book begins, as the different people and nations decide what exactly to do with Europa.  It can be used to generate wealth for those back on Earth, but at the expense of killing these alien creatures.  Even after everything that Von has suffered, she is the loudest voice in support of the creatures, claiming they are intelligent and deserve respect and the right to live.

The Frozen Sky is part action-packed chase scene that pushes you to the very edge of your seat, and part political piece on what could possibly happen if and when we find other intelligent life out there: will we come through and kill much like the white man has done in history, or will we try to communicate and connect with it.  The novel does what all good science fiction should, providing some great description and action on an alien world, as well as making the reader contemplate on what it exactly means to be on another planet, especially where there is intelligent life there already.

Originally written on February 21, 2013 ©Alex C. Telander.

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“2312” by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit, 2012)

From the author of the Mars trilogy, as well as many other bestsellers, comes a science fiction novel that pushes the boundaries of the genre through story and character and writing to keep the reader hooked from start until finish.  2312 is a lengthy book that will stay with you long after you have turned and read the final page.

It is the future of the twenty-fourth century where humanity has come a long way and colonized a number of planets in our solar system, as well as their moons.  Technology is impressive and inter-planetary travel a common event.  In fact, one of the new aesthetic ways to travel is on a moving asteroid that has been colonized and terra-formed, with each of these traveling planetoids representing a unique architectural style.  Swan Er Hong is one of these talented designers, but having lost a close person in her life is now adrift, uncertain what to do.  But after a series of attacks and catastrophic events, beginning with the great protected city of Terminator on Mercury, she realizes there is something going on here much greater than she can conceive.

Robinson has outdone himself with 2312, blending a story of gripping science fiction, a captivating plot, and unique characters that exist in a future world of acceptance and normalcy to them that seems advanced and developed when compared to ours.  A delight to read, 2312 will be keeping you up late.

Originally written on November 10, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of 2312 from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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“Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” by Haruki Murakami (Vintage, 1993)

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World from the incredible Japanese author, Haruki Murakami, ranks as one of the favorites on reader’s lists of his works, and for a relatively short book of around four hundred pages, there is a lot of story going on in what is essentially two separate worlds.  This book is the type that will immediately pique your interest, and before you know it, you’ll be wholeheartedly sucked in and won’t want to put it down until you’re done.  The other fact about this book is that while it is considered contemporary or literary fiction by most, it is in all honesty, a straight-up science fiction novel.

The odd-numbered chapters are told from the viewpoint of an unnamed character in the “hard-boiled wonderland.”  He is a Calcutec, a person who has the ability in his brain to process and encrypt data and to use his subconscious as an encryption key.  In this world there is the System, which is part of the government, and that is who the Calcutecs are allied with; then there are the criminal Semiotects who work for the clandestine Factory.  The Calcutec takes what seems to be a simple job for a mysterious scientist that turns into something much more, and he learns he’s a very special Calcutec.

The even chapters are told from another unnamed narrator in a place referred to as “the end of the world.”  The reader knows the narrator has arrived here recently, a strange place sealed all around by a great wall; there’s a map at the beginning of the book of this place and its various buildings.  The narrator also knows that he has been separated from his shadow, who is getting sick.  He is assigned his new job of “Dreamreader,” where every night he goes to the library and reads dreams from the skulls of strange beasts.  The narrator is very uncertain of this place and knows he needs to escape, the only question is how?

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is a prime example of why so many readers like Murakami, as his sets up an enigmatic world that forces the reader to question, as their curiosity grows and grows.  The elements of this book make it a great work of science fiction that may not have all the answers, but will leave the reader contemplating it long after they’ve finished it.

Originally written on March 17, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

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“A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs (The Library of America, 2012)

For the hundredth anniversary of the original release of A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs in the pages of The All-Story magazine, the Library of America has released a beautiful centennial small hardcover edition of the book.  It features a strong and powerful introduction from bestselling author Junot Diaz, as he discusses the merits as well as the failings and strong racist overtones of the book.

John Carter is a man who has served his time and is looking for gold in the Arizona hills.  In a specific cave he is miraculously transported to the distant planet of Mars where he doesn’t find a barren world, but one that is alive and diverse and complex.  He soon discovers that with the lesser gravity on the planet he possess a sort of super-power in being able to make great leaps and strides in a single bound.  He becomes involved in the political machinations of the planet, and finds himself fighting in a war he is all too familiar with.  Then there is the beautiful Dejah Thoris, the red-skinned Princess of Helium, who he helps in any way he can for he is quite taken with her.

The story very much feels one that was written a hundred years ago with skin color being so important and how women serve simple roles in these societies, but if one is able to ignore this and get past it, there is a great adventure story at the heart in the style of Indiana Jones and Errol Flynn.

Originally written on July 17, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of A Princess of Mars from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“A Bridge of Years” by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor, 2011)

Bestselling author Robert Charles Wilson’s book, A Bridge of Years, recently re-released in paperback, has an interesting play on the idea of time travel, but remains true to its “rule” that there are always repercussions when one plays around with time travel, even when someone thinks they’ve been given a second chance.

Tom Winter has made a right old mess of things, now without a job and a wife who’s left him; he’s hit rock bottom.  With some leftover inheritance money he buys a simple little house in the secluded Pacific Northwest, looking to just get away from things for a while, and try to figure his life out.  The only problem is the simple house he bought turns out to be a prime example of real estate where everything isn’t as it seems or should be.  It begins minutely with his unclean plate with a few leftovers that he leaves by the sink overnight; in the morning it has been licked clean by something.

At first he thinks it’s nothing, but it keeps on happening and he tries to film it but the camera mysteriously shuts off during the filming.  Then there’s the weird sounds he keeps hearing, like little machines zooming around his house; a flickers of minute movement out of the corner of his eye.  Then in the basement he discovers an extra room that leads to a tunnel that takes him back to another time and another place: 1963, New York City.

Wilson has fun playing around with time travel in this short novel, building the mystery and setting up a far more complex story than readers will be expecting.  As to the answer of what is eating the leftover food and why, it is both gruesome and shocking, but at the same time makes perfect sense.

Originally written on April 9, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of A Bridge of Years from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall” by Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications, 2012)

In Nancy Kress’ short, new science fiction novel she combines two very interesting subjects for the genre – time travel and ecological disaster – weaving the story together from three different timelines.  After the fall takes place in 2035 when the world is in a very different place environmentally; before the fall is 2013 when the minor events that will become devastating are just beginning; and during the fall is in 2014 as the events are happening beneath the surface of the planet.

The future is told from the viewpoint of 15 year-old Pete, who is living in the Shell with the others of the Six.  Each of them will eventually get sick and die in this ravaged world.  They aren’t allowed outside and their anger for the Tesselies who created all this grows daily.  Their only hope is passing through a time portal into the past where they kidnap children to keep their population alive.

Meanwhile, in 2013 things are just starting to turn bad for the planet, though no one really knows or comprehends this yet, except for one brilliant mathematician, Julie Kahn, who has been working on her algorithms for the FBI, charting these recent strange child kidnappings and trying to predict when and where the next one will occur.  She is also pregnant herself and can imagine how terrible this would be for the parents.

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall seems like an experimental book that doesn’t quite reach the correct solution in what it was trying to do.  The separate timelines are interesting, but feel rushed and limited in the confines of the short book, making Kress’ original intention with the book not completely clear.  Nevertheless, the story is definitely an interesting one that makes the reader think and wonder.

Originally written on May 14, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“The Illustrated Man” by Ray Bradbury (Doubleday, 1951)

The recent passing of Ray Bradbury was a very sad loss for the writing world, as we lost not just one of the foremost science fiction writers of our time, but one of our greatest storytellers and writers period.  But even with his loss, Ray Bradbury will continue to be read and enjoyed by many fans, as well as be discovered by new readers for the first time.  The Illustrated Man is an excellent example for those looking to give Ray Bradbury a try and find out just how good he is.

The book is told with the framing story of the illustrated man – a man covered in tattoos that when stared at by others come to life and tell their own stories.  Stories of a future high-tech nursery where children play amongst real animals, but when their parents threaten to take this supreme toy away, they have a plan to take care of them once and for all.  A story of a future Mars colonized by black people, but now Earth is on the brink of obliteration and the white man needs a new place to live; will the colonists of Mars allow this immigration?  There is the moving story of “The Rocket Man” who loves his wife and son ever so much, but continues to feel the yearning  pull of space and can never remain on Earth too long.  In “The City” some space travelers discover an abandoned city on a planet, but as they search through it, it seems the city is not uninhabited after all.

The stories in The Illustrated Man will move you, they’ll make you laugh, they’ll make you cry; they’ll make you terrified and also make you think about the way your world is and about the way it might one day be.  This is Bradbury at his best and no fan of the short story – no matter the genre – will want to skip this one.

Originally written on July 17, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The Illustrated Man from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“The October Country” by Ray Bradbury (Ballantine Books, 1955)

Ray Bradbury is undoubtedly one of our greatest short stories writers of our time, and perhaps of all time.  Whichever collection of his you find yourself picking up, you will instantly be delighted with his magical worlds and lyrical prose.  A lot of his stories go one step further, leaving you with a sense of wonder and contemplation.  Bradbury shouldn’t be simply considered and categorized as a science fiction or fantasy writer; he ultimately writes about people and their interactions with each other and with reality, albeit true or made up.  The October Country is a perfect example of this, with a most unique anthology of stories.

In the opening tale, “The Dwarf,” we get to meet a most unusual character of short stature who spends his days paying what little money he has at the carnival to visit the Hall of Mirrors where he stares at himself, taller than life.  In “Skeleton,” true horrors are revealed in this brilliant story where a man becomes convinced that his bone structure is trying to escape his body, until he meets a doctor who agrees with him and apparently has a penchant for one’s marrow.  In “The Small Assassin,” a child is a precious thing, but this newborn seems to have a vengeful urge to kill the one who gave birth to it.  “The Scythe” is a story about a poor family discovering an abandoned farmstead; they move in and live off the land, enjoying the food and life it provides, but the father knows there is a cost to bear each day he goes out and scythes the field that was clear the day before.  In perhaps the most haunting tale of the collection, “The Wind,” we pay witness to an invisible force that wants to kill.

The October Country is a powerful collection featuring many of Bradbury’s best stories and revealing his excellence as both a storyteller and a skilled writer.  Readers looking to try Bradbury for the first time would do well to start with this collection.

Originally written on May 18, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of The October Country from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.

“Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas” by John Scalzi (Tor, 2012)

Most scifi fans are familiar with the curse of the “redshirts.”  For those who are not, it applies to the original Star Trek show where any minor character in an episode wearing a red shirt ultimately ended up getting killed on an away mission before the end of the episode.  Bestselling author John Scalzi takes this humorous concept to a whole new level in his appropriately titled novel Redshirts.

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the flagship Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, to begin work in the ship’s xenobiology lab.  It’s a dream come true he thinks, but this soon changes.  He quickly discovers there’s something very strange going on aboard the Intrepid.  First there’s how strange the senior officers act around everyone, and how every time one of them shows up at the lab, Dahl finds himself suddenly alone.  Then there’s the fact that the most unlikely ensigns end up going on away missions, even if they have no experience or skills for said away mission.  Then there’s Lieutenant Kerensky who often seems to end up on these away missions and almost gets killed or mauled or poisoned every time and just when it seems like he’s going to die, the miracle cure is found.  And then there’s the “black box,” a special device that spits out gibberish which the senior officers are always able to understand.  And finally there’s the terrifying fact that an astonishing number of ensigns sent on these away missions end up getting killed.  Dahl needs to put the pieces and clues together to figure this out, but he’s not sure he wants to know the answer.

Scalzi clearly had a lot of fun writing this book, playing with the tropes and stereotypes that scifi show fans know all too well, as well as pushing it to an all new level.  When the climax of the book is reached, Scalzi begins his three codas which serve a purpose but lack the drive and enjoyment of the earlier parts of the book.  Overall, Redshirts is a fun read that any scifi nerd will eagerly gobble up.

Originally written on July 17, 2012 ©Alex C. Telander.

To purchase a copy of Redshirts from Amazon, and help support BookBanter, click HERE.