Dust is the first book in the Jacob’s Ladder trilogy by Elizabeth Bear.  The second book in this science fiction series is called Chill, and both books are available in mass market paperback and as e-books.  Grail, the final volume, will be released on February 22.  The imminent conclusion combined with the fact that this book was the January selection for the Women of Science Fiction Book Club made this the perfect time to read Dust (which has unfortunately been […]

The Sea Thy Mistress, released in hardcover and as an e-book the beginning of this month, is the conclusion to Elizabeth Bear’s Edda of Burdens trilogy.  It is a direct sequel to All the Windwracked Stars, the first book in this series.  By the Mountain Bound, the second book, is actually a prequel that covers events leading up to the beginning of the first published installment.  In spite of the fact that The Sea Thy Mistress is the second part […]

A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge tied with Doomsday Book by Connie Willis as the winner of the Hugo Award in 1993.  (Coincidentally, The Book Smugglers just reviewed Doomsday Book today if you want to read about the other Hugo winner for the year.) It was also nominated for several other awards such as the Nebula Award, the Campbell Award, and the Locus SF Award.  There is a prequel to this science fiction novel called A Deepness in […]

A brief note on the Vorkosigan books before I get into Memory: Memory is the tenth book out of fourteen total in the Miles Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold.  That is, it’s tenth in chronological order beginning with the prequels about Miles’s parents and including the books that do not feature Miles.  It may seem odd to include the latter two, but they are still in the series omnibus editions along with the other books so I’ve been reading […]

The Folding Knife is a stand alone novel by K. J. Parker, although it is supposed to be set in the same world as some of the author’s other works.  K. J. Parker has also written the Engineer trilogy, the Fencer trilogy, the Scavenger trilogy, The Company, and The Hammer (which just came out earlier this month).  He/she is also known for his/her mysterious identity, as there is very little information about the author and speculation on just who he/she […]

Spin, the first book in an eponymous trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson, was published in 2005 and won the Hugo award for best novel shortly thereafter.  The second book in the series, Axis, came out in 2007 and the final book, Vortex, is scheduled to be released in May of this year.  My understanding is that this is a very good thing as I’ve read that Axis suffers from a strong case of middle book syndrome and Spin, despite some […]