Eclectic and (sometimes aspirationally) avid reader. Currently on a sci-fi kick. Tolkien is my first literary love.
I'm a software developer and whimsical costume maker in Athens, GA. he/him
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A multilayered, locked-room science fiction novella from Paul Cornell in which five digital beings unravel …
"The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects."
This sentence hooked me the moment I heard it. Can't wait to see what this madness is all about!
Lynesse is the lowly Fourth Daughter of the queen, and always getting in the way. …
She is a fourth daughter of royalty with no hope of advancement in station, determined to invoke the promise of aid given to her ancestor generations ago by a powerful wizard when her mother refuses to engage a demon threatening the kingdom.
He is a long-lived exo-socialogist, sent to observe these people but not interfere. He broke that directive once before, many years ago, and now another of them has shown up at his outpost door...
I've never seen a story play with Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.") like this before. Each chapter alternates POV between the two main characters, so it is half science fiction and half fantasy. Sometimes the same events are told both ways. The story is interesting on its own, but told this way it also becomes a lesson on empathy and understanding.
It surprisingly also became a story about …
She is a fourth daughter of royalty with no hope of advancement in station, determined to invoke the promise of aid given to her ancestor generations ago by a powerful wizard when her mother refuses to engage a demon threatening the kingdom.
He is a long-lived exo-socialogist, sent to observe these people but not interfere. He broke that directive once before, many years ago, and now another of them has shown up at his outpost door...
I've never seen a story play with Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.") like this before. Each chapter alternates POV between the two main characters, so it is half science fiction and half fantasy. Sometimes the same events are told both ways. The story is interesting on its own, but told this way it also becomes a lesson on empathy and understanding.
It surprisingly also became a story about severe depression, persevering through grief and trauma, methods of self care, and how mental anguish can appear from the POV of both those suffering and those around them.
And that will always endear this story to me.
If there’s better Space Cloak and Dagger, I haven’t found it.
@dmoren@mastodon.social has assembled his cast of compelling characters (and some new ones) and brought them back to the home world for what could have been a been a grande finale were it not for a cliffhanging ending that tied everything up and still kicks off what is hopefully more story to come.
This book is the best of an already stellar bunch, weaving together old fashioned dead drop spy craft with outer space adventure. I’m excited to see what the future brings, even as I’m sad to have run out of story to read now.
Competing teams of spies on a luxury interstellar cruise ship owned by a mob boss, all trying to possess what might be the first discovered alien artifact. Action, intrigue, believable science fiction elements, and characters I care about. I'm already sad I have only one more book to read in this series!
THE END IS HERE
After surviving adventures in their past, present and future, the Paper …
A fun little time travel story filled with all the usual tropes but also some new weirdness mixed in to keep things interesting, beautifully told and illustrated.
Really enjoyed this! Moved right on to the next book.
The galaxy is mired in a cold war between two superpowers, the Illyrican Empire and …
For a first book by Dan, I can’t find any faults. Maybe, if anything, some of the conversation and setting descriptions are a bit cheesy but not distractingly so. The characters are literal world building are compelling and I’m diving right into the next one. I’m only giving this one four stars to give me room for five stars for the rest of the series.