Science Fiction Books - Page 14

Storm from the Shadows

David Weber

Amazon Price: $17.82 List Price: $27.00 Not yet published By: Baen

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Editorial Review:

Rear Admiral Michelle Henke was commanding one of the ships in a force led by Honor Harrington in an all-out space battle. The odds were against the Star Kingdom forces, and they had to run. But Michelle’s ship was crippled, and had to be destroyed to prevent superior Manticoran technology from falling into Havenite hands, and she and her surviving crew were taken prisoner. Much to her surprise, she was repatriated to Manticore, carrying a request for a summit conference between the leaders of the two sides which might end the war. But a condition of her return was that she gave her parole not to fight against the forces of the Republic of Haven until she had been officially exchanged for a Havenite prisoner of war, so she was given a command far away from the war’s battle lines. What she didn’t realize was that she would find herself on a collision course, not with a hostile government, but with the interstellar syndicate of criminals known as Manpower. And Manpower had its own plans for eliminating Manticore as a possible threat to its lucrative slave trade, deadly plans which remain hidden in the shadows.

 

Praise for the Prequel, The Shadow of Saganami:

“These hugely entertaining and clever adventures are the very epitome of space opera. . . . Weber . . . remind[s] the reader that a hero can be anyone who does his or her job with honor, commitment and skill.” —Publishers Weekly

 

“The Shadow of Saganami may be military science fiction great David Weber’s best tale in the Honorverse . . an action packed tale with a fully developed multiple cast. . . .” —The Midwest Book Review

The Dark Tower: v. 1-1v (Dark Tower)

Stephen King

List Price: $62.00 By: New English Library Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $121.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 50 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Amazon Rules!!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I received my purchase on time, even thought i live in Santiago Chile. The package arrived without a scratch and the review of the product on the website helped me a lot when i had to decide whether to buy it or not.

Two Words: Amazon Rules!!!

Editorial Review:

The end is near! Start at the Beginning: Your chance to read the first four volumes of one of the richest most evocative sagas in modern publishing as the epic draws every closer to its soul-shattering conclusion. Monumental in scope and spectacular in vision, "The Dark Tower" series is Stephen King's magnum opus - an exciting, action-packed serial fantasy that confirms King's legendary status as one of the greatest storytellers of all time. Join the quest in "The Gunslinger", where Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, a knight errant, as he embarks on the road to reach the Dark Tower. Follow his adventures as he continues his journey into good and evil in "The Drasing of the Three", The Waste Lands" and "Wizard and Glass". These first four volumes will leave readers eagerly awaiting the new books. And the tower is closer!

Dead Witch Walking

Kim Harrison

Amazon Price: $26.39 List Price: $39.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tantor Media Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $19.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 239 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Loved it 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As a fan of early Anita Blake, I was very happy when I stumbled across this series. It's finally nice to see a female character who can take care of herself, but doesn't have everything figured out. Or who feels the need to have sex with everything that moves... but that's another rant all together. Rachel, with her menagerie of friends, stands out as a very sympathetic character you cant help but like. While I liked the first book in the series, I've liked the others even more. Fans of early L K Hamiltion, Karen Chance, Christopher Golden, and Sherrilyn Kenyon will likely enjoy Rachel and her world.

If you love paranormal, you will love this book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I happened to stumble on this book. I have loved it from the first page. Rachel Morgan is an IS (think FBI) runner. She tracks down misbehaving paranormal creatures and hauls them in for punishment. Unfortunately she is not good at following the rules and putting up with the office politics. But, when her friend, living vampire Ivy, quits so does she. Sadly, no one quits the IS because the put a hit out on you.

She moves in with Ivy and pixie, Jinks, tries to stay alive with the hit out on her, and take odd jobs just to pay her half of the rent. She also is targeting Trent, a multi-millionaire who is not what everyone thinks he is.

There is a good story that keeps you turning the pages, I liked the character development, great humor, and Jinks. This is a definite must read.

Editorial Review:

Rachel Morgan is on the run with a contract on her head. To clear her name, Rachel must evade shape-changing assassins, outwit a powerful businessman/crimelord, and survive a vicious underground fight-to-the-death. Fun, sassy, filled with action, humor, and romance, Dead Witch Walking is perfect for anyone who likes vampires, paranormal fantasy, romance, or just a great beach book.

A Kiss of Shadows (Meredith Gentry, Book 1)

Laurell K. Hamilton

Amazon Price: $89.24 List Price: $122.25 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged Lib Ed Amazon Marketplace: 9 new & used starting at $79.28

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 306 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"All it would take was my true name being mentioned after dark, and it would float back to my aunt. She was the Queen of Air and Darkness, and that meant that anything said in the dark was hers to hear, eventually. The fact that spotting the missing Elven American Princess had become more popular than spotting Elvis helped. Her magic was always chasing blind leads. Princess Meredith skiing in Utah. Princess Meredith dancing in Paris. Princess Meredith gambling in Vegas. After three years I was still a front-page story for the tabloids, though the latest headlines had been speculating that I was as dead as the King of Rock and Roll . . ."

In fact, Meredith has been posing as a human in Los Angeles, living as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now Doyle, the Queen's chief bodyguard and assassin, has been dispatched to fetch her back - whether she likes it or not. And suddenly Meredith finds herself a pawn in her dreaded aunt's plans . . . plans that affect the future of the entire UnSeelie Court. The requirements of the job: to enjoy the constant company of the most beautiful - and immortal - men in the world. The reward: the crown - and the opportunity to continue to live. The penalty: death.

Armageddon's Children (Genesis of Shannara)

Terry Brooks

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Total reviews: 112 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Terry Brooks is one of a handful of writers whose work defines modern fantasy fiction. His twenty-three international bestsellers have ranged from the beloved Shannara series to stories that tread a much darker path. Armageddon's Children is a new creation - the perfect opportunity for listeners unfamiliar with Brooks's previous work to experience an author at the height of his considerable storytelling powers. It is a gripping chronicle of a once-familiar world now spun shockingly out of control, in which an extraordinary few struggle to salvage hope in the face of terrifying chaos.

Logan Tom is doomed to remember the past and determined to rescue the future. Far behind him lies a boyhood cut violently short by his family's slaughter, when the forces of madness and hate swept our world after decadent excesses led to civilization's downfall. Somewhere ahead of him rests the only chance to beat back the minions of evil that are systematically killing and enslaving the last remnants of humanity. Navigating the scarred and poisoned landscape that once was America and guided by a powerful talisman, Logan has sworn an oath to seek out a remarkable being born of magic, possessed of untold abilities, and destined to lead the final fight against darkness.

Across the country, Angel Perez, herself a survivor of the malevolent death-dealing forces combing the land, has also been chosen for an uncanny mission in the name of her ruined world's salvation. From the devastated streets of Los Angeles, she will journey to find a place - and a people - shrouded in mystery, celebrated in legend, and vital to the cause of humankind . . . even as a relentless foe follows close behind, bent on her extermination. Meanwhile, in the nearly forsaken city of Seattle, a makeshift family of refugees has carved out a tenuous existence among the street gangs, mutants, and marauders fighting to stay alive against mounting odds - and something unspeakable that has come from the shadows in search of prey.

In time, all their paths will cross. Their common purpose will draw them together. Their courage and convictions will be tested and their fates will be decided, as their singular crusade begins: to take back, or lose forever, the only world they have.

In Armageddon's Children, Brooks brings his gifts as a mythmaker to the timeless theme of the unending, essential conflict between darkness and light - and carries his unique imaginative vision to a stunning new level. Prepare for a breathtaking tour de force. To those who are new to Terry Brooks, welcome. And to those who have read him for many years: prepare for a dramatic surprise.

Flatland

Edwin Abbott Abbott

Amazon Price: $18.94 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Buccaneer Books Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $10.98

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 159 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Thinking W A Y Outside the Box 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Yes, many young people have been required to read Flatland against their wills. Yes, many people have missed the real point of the book. This book stretched the mind and imagination in ways that are fun and challenging. The author might not have been entirely serious in writing the book, but nonetheless provided serious food for thought.

I believe Flatland is an excellent (and quick) reading experience for minds in the formative stage, a stage I recommend maintaining throughout life. The book's theological implications were the most important to me. I had always wondered where heaven might be, how God can see inside us, and what the spirit is made of. I do not know if extrapolating the Flatland concepts into a fourth (or fifth) physical dimension reflects ultimate reality, but it provides a sufficiently possible and plausible explanation to remove rationalist objections.

The 3-D sphere that intersects the plane of reality provided the "Aha" moment. The sphere embodied perfection and could mysteriously appear and disappear. Explaining the view from above the plane to a flat square is as difficult as explaining the spiritual realm to a person unable to envision beyond the world seen with the eye. A greater-dimensional being floating above the plane can see inside the geometric shapes, reach inside their skins without intersecting their boundaries, think far more complex thoughts, and take them out of their limited reality to a better place they could not have imagined. If a Flatland person had no thickness, he would have no volume by our reckoning, and therefore no real existence. If there is a spiritual dimension and a person has no thickness in that direction at all, then he may not really exist either.

We have learned to adjust to modern concepts of reality that are no longer Euclidean and Newtonian. Perhaps we need a view of creation that is not limited by unfounded presumptions of limited dimensionality. After you ponder the concepts of Flatland and extrapolate them to your life, I wonder what new thought may form.

Editorial Review:

A century-old classic of British letters that charmed and fascinated generations of readers with its witty satire of Victorian society and its unique insights, by analogy, into the fourth dimension.

Halo, Books 1-3 (The Flood; First Strike; The Fall of Reach)

Eric Nylund

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Total reviews: 118 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The official novels of the award-winning Xbox game! This set contains The Fall of Reach, First Strike, and The Flood -- the complete chronicles of the bloody Human-Covenant War on Halo.

The Fall of Reach
As the bloody Human-Covenant War rages on Halo, the fate of humankind may rest with one warrior, the lone SPARTAN survivor of another legendary battle . . . the desperate, take-no-prisoners struggle that led humanity to Halo--the fall of the planet Reach. Now, brought to life for the first time, here is the full story of that glorious, doomed conflict.

First Strike
The Human-Covenant war rages on as the alien juggernaut sweeps inexorably toward its final goal: destruction of all human life!

The Flood
The Human-Covenant War, a desperate struggle for humankind’s very survival, has reached its boiling point on the mysterious, ring world called Halo. But the fierce Covenant warriors, the mightiest alien military force known, are not the only peril lying in wait.

Bungie, Halo, Xbox, and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Used under license. (c) 2001-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved

The Eyre Affair

Jasper Fforde

By: Hodder & Stoughton, Limited Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $2.93

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 348 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

This book is even better than you may have heard!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I read this book in 2003 when it first came out and was just mesmerized by such a fresh voice and one so bold and confident in a first time novelist. Suffice it to say that I have read all of Jasper Fforde's works and now, having reread this wonderful book I finally get around to a review!

What you need to know is that you are in the hands of a maestro, a master of the ink and quill. If you are not sure you will like the book's premise or you find it too childlike or unbelievable - read this book anyway and be prepared for Mr. Fforde to take you on a journey into a world that you never knew existed and after having discovered it, you will be in no doubt as to its veracity.

To say that this book is a comedy is to mislabel it for it is so much more. It is a drama and a suspense, a fantasy and a sci-fi. Indeed I would say that The Eyre Affair is genre busting novel and well worth your time and money.

Try it, you can't possibly be disappointed, in all the thousands of books that I have read, Jasper Fforde is the freshest voice that I have read in at least a decade.

Contact Harvest (Halo)

Joseph Staten

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tor Books Amazon Marketplace: 90 new & used starting at $3.39

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Total reviews: 53 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

All Johnson, No Chief 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I didn't expect to see the Master Chief in this novel at all but I was nevertheless disappointed by his absence. Other small details that didn't accurately align with the games made it lack authenticity. A fun read but not near as good as the books by Eric Nylund.

Editorial Review:

This is how it began... It is the year 2524.  Harvest is a peaceful, prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space.  But we have trespassed on holy ground--strayed into the path of an aggressive alien empire known as the Covenant.  What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer and a human freighter catapults mankind into a struggle for its very existence. But humanity is also locked in a bitter civil war known as the Insurrection.  So the survival of Harvest's citizens falls to a squad of battle-weary UNSC Marines and their inexperienced colonial militia trainees.  In this unlikely group of heroes, one stands above the rest...a young Marine staff sergeant named Avery Johnson.

The Dark Tower: Gunslinger

Stephen King

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 534 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Rare Stephen King Misfire 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

While reviewing the first book, "The Gunslinger", of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series, I am trying to not let the brilliance of the subsequent editions cloud my judgment on this one. I am a "late" fan of King (still working my way through all his novels), and I finally decided to begin the journey to the Dark Tower. However, after reading this first installment, it took an editor's note from King himself to get me excited about continuing with Roland on his quest.

The main problem I had with this book is that absolutely no context is given for Roland's world on his travels as the book opens. Roland is wandering through a land that looks like our own but definitely is not, contains mutant monsters, and for some reason a "Man In Black" that Roland is compelled to follow.

As I continued reading, those mysteries were only beginning to be touched on as the novel came to a close. Thus, I spent way too much time trying to figure out just what the heck was going on (a task that is nearly impossible without reading the next few installments anyway) and less time just enjoying the adventure.

At the conclusion of my reading, I wondered exactly how Stephen King was going to make an interesting story out of this. Little did I know that King is actually utilizing a form of background storytelling, where the events in this book are not fully explained for two, three, or even four books down the line. I did not care for this type of narrative, as it creates way too much confusion and too little of the mystery that King likely was gunning for.

So, if you are looking to start your own quest for the Dark Tower, you still need to read this book, but keep firmly in your mind that the series absolutely explodes in the next few books, which is far different from the glacial-like pace of this first try.