Author Archive: PaulineMorgan
The North Beyond Part 3: Haldur by P.M. Scrayfield (book review).
It is not often that all the books in a trilogy or, in this case, a tetralogy are published simultaneously. By issuing books at suitable intervals it gives the author time to reflect and see if any problems arose in the earlier volume and look for ways to correct them. Simultaneous publication doesn’t allow this […]
Aleph by Storm Constantine (book review).
After the recent death of Storm Constantine, it is probably the best time to take stock of her career. Her first books made the statement that she did not intend to follow conventions. Her characters, the Wraeththu, were the inheritors of Earth. They were hermaphrodites transitioned from young male humans by infected blood. The seven […]
Scavenger Blood (Scavenger Exodus book 2) by Janet Edwards (book review).
When Janet Edwards published her first ‘Earth Girl’ trilogy, ‘Earth Girl’, ‘Earth Star’ and ‘Earth Flight’, she set up a future that had great potential for further exploration. The setting for that trilogy is after Portal Technology has been developed and most of Earth’s population have relocated to other worlds. Then, New York in the […]
Vanguard (The Genesis Fleet book 1) by Jack Campbell (book review).
In the early days of Science Fiction, the ‘Pulp’ era, the main concern was action and adventure. There was a conceit that eventually ways would be found for ships to travel faster than light and the communications would be similarly instantaneous. No thought was given to what conditions would be like on board ship and […]
Borderline: Hive Mind 4 by Janet Edwards (book review).
It is important in any series of books, from a trilogy to a long running series, that as the characters age, they continue to develop but not to have too much of a complex backstory that jumping in at any point does not detract from the enjoyment of the plot. Janet Edwards is able to […]
Companions On The Road by Tanith Lee (book review)
With so many fantasy novels and stories around, it is difficult to pick out the best. When the themes of them are so often similar it is as well to remember that someone had that idea first. There is totally new fantasy where the imagination conjures situations and scenarios that seem totally original. Some early […]
Silence Fallen (Mercy Thompson book 10) by Patricia Briggs (book review).
There seem to be two approaches to contemporary urban fantasy. Often there is the need for secrecy, not allowing the mundane human population to become aware of the fact that dangerous supernatural beings live amongst them. The reasons given are prejudice and fear. Proponents of this approach are authors such as Jim Butcher in his […]
The Infinite Library And Other Stories by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo (book review).
For some time it has been a tradition to ask contributors to an anthology to write stories on a particular theme. Since the imagination can head off in any direction, the stories often take varies approaches with only the theme linking them. Single author collections with a theme running through the stories is rarer. Two […]
Concrete Faery by Elizabeth Priest (book review).
There are some writers who set out to produce a ‘funny’ book. The problem is that one person’s sense of humour is somewhere on a very wide graph with childish slapstick at one end and the dry wit of Oscar Wilde at the other. The worst kind of ‘humorous’ novel is when the feeling that […]
Raising The Stones (SF Masterworks) by Sheri S. Tepper (book review).
There is a danger, especially amongst the readers of genre fiction, to forget authors after they have died. Everyone always wants the next book by an author but if there isn’t one, they are not interested. This is understandable with the number of books to choose from, but short-sighted as there are some brilliant books […]
