djwudi's reviews
1048 reviews

Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds

2.0

This is not a good Star Trek book. The Enterprise, with a crew at risk of what’s essentially violent cabin fever, is dispatched to the Horatius system to investigate a distress call. There, they find three planets: one with a stereotypical Native American civilization (“backward savages”, of course), one with a mid-20th century American civilization, and one with space Nazis. Oh, and there’s a “B story” involving a plague-infested rat loose on the ship. So, no, as a Star Trek adventure, there’s not much to recommend it.

However: It’s the _first_ officially licensed Star Trek novel, and therefore gets a bit of leeway…or at least recognition that the treklit landscape was far different (nonexistent, actually) in 1968 than it is today. Not really recommended unless you’re a collector, but if you are and can track it down (especially if you can find an original rather than the 1999 reprint), it’s a quick read and kind of fun to see where the print side of Trek began.

Child of Two Worlds by Greg Cox

3.0

Good Pike-era (shortly post-"The Cage") adventure that has Spock examining his approach to dealing with his mixed heritage while attempting to assist a teenager who as a child had been captured and then raised by Klingons. With a side-order B plot of flu-like virus on the Enterprise, of course. Good insight into Spock that meshes imperfectly, but surprisingly well with the current Strange New Worlds take on his journey.

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 208 by Neil Clarke

3.0

Favorites this month were Chi Hui’s “Stars Don’t Dream” and Marie Vibbert’s “Rail Meat”.

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

4.0

For a book involving drug addicts suffering paranoia and breakdowns and generally being kind of horrid to each other, it was actually quite a bit funnier than I expected it to be. (I'd never seen the film, so had no preconceived notions of what to expect.) It definitely has Dick's touch (not least in how the women are treated, which tends not to be one of Dick's strengths), but there were many of the rambling, somewhat stream-of-consciousness ridiculous conversations among the drug-addled roomies that were perhaps a little too relatable from my less-than-responsible 20s.

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

3.0

About the same as the first in the series; not mindblowing, but entertaining enough. Between that and enough people I know recommending that I keep going, I likely will. Though I do have to say — I like breasts as much as most people who are attracted to breasts do, but even so, Dresden/Butcher mentioning every female character’s breasts (often bare, as this book has a lot of werewolves shifting between wolf and human form) at every opportunity had me rolling my eyes a bit more each time.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 56: January/February 2024 by Monte Lin, Michael Damian Thomas, Lynne M. Thomas

3.0

This issue I really enjoyed Mary Robinette Kowal‘s “Marginalia” and Alex Jennings‘s “Lest We Become Posessed”, a review of Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, co-edited by Jordan Peele and John Joseph Adams, which as been added to my “keep an eye out for” list.

Foreign Foes by Greg Brodeur, Dave Galanter

3.0

It felt rather rushed and busy for a good portion of the book, as there were several different threads going on that the authors switched among rather quickly, and while the details took some time to come to light, the basic mystery as to what was going on wasn’t all that mysterious, being obvious to the reader (if not the characters) within the first couple chapters. Not a stinker, but not a standout, either.

Debtors' Planet by W.R. Thompson

This one surprised me in good ways. I wasn’t optimistic at first, with its focus on Ferengi, who can be annoying (especially in the pre-Quark days), and with it bringing back an (intentionally) annoying character from the show. But it handled both of these elements surprisingly well; the primary Ferengi antagonist is a little more thoughtful than most of the era, and the returning character is actually given some depth and is able to use his traits and quirks in ways that advance the story. Add in some amusing Worf/Riker bits and Wesley actually being treated like a worthwhile character as he forms a friendship with an alien ensign, and this (notwithstanding some confusion over how the Federation handles money and an “offscreen” sexual assault that wasn’t really necessary) is definitely an above average entry in the series.

The Rising by S.M. Stirling, James Doohan

3.0

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to read military SF about a Scotch/Irish former fighter pilot who turned spaceship engineer after being wounded and losing a hand, written by a former soldier and pilot turned actor who played a Scotch spaceship engineer after being wounded and losing a finger, then this is definitely the book for you! Aside from the rather amusing list of similarities between Doohan and his protagonist, and the curiosity of reading SF co-authored by Doohan, it’s fairly standard military SF, combining interstellar war with a “who’s the saboteur” mystery.

Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 207 by Neil Clarke

3.0

Standout stories this month were “Morag’s Boy” by Fiona Moore, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Cyborg” by Samara Auman, and “Kill That Groundhog” by Fu Qiang.