“This thing’s armor is too strong for our weapons!”
“I think we know what we need to do.”
“FORM VOLTRON!!”
Last summer, June 2016, Netflix released a reboot of a much-beloved animated show from my childhood: Voltron: Legendary Defender. This reimagined reboot keeps the classic high points—there are five paladins who pilot lion mechas, and their teamwork and bond helps them form the titular Defender of the Universe, Voltron. Season one of the Netflix original series was ...
When I was travelling for the holidays, I stopped by a bookstore to browse for a while. I didn’t have anything in particular that I was looking for, but when I came across a copy of Ursula K. Le Guin’s novella The Word for World is Forest, I immediately picked it up. In part, it’s because it’s a novella by Ursula K. Le Guin, and in part because the story was captivating to me: a piercing, environmentally-minded story that felt ...
We've covered lots of ground in the previous installments to this roundup of science fiction, fantasy, and horror books to look forward to in 2017. Let's see what the rest of the year has in store for hungry readers!
AUGUST
August Science Fiction has something for everyone. Ball Lightning by Chinese author Cixin Liu (and translated by Joel Martinsen) offers readers an intelligent military SF adventure. A scientist obsessed with discovering the secrets behind the natural phenomenon ...
We've only scratched the surface of 2017's science fiction and fantasy lineup. Let's jump right in, shall we?
MAY
Variety is the name of the game in May's science fiction. Rob Reid's savvy Forever On satirizes Silicon Valley culture using relevant technology-based themes in a story revolving around a new social network. Pawn by Timothy Zahn places its human protagonists in the middle of war between alien factions on a massive spaceship. Vanguard by Jack ...
Kayla Reinumon, the pit gladiator formerly known as Shadow Panthe, has done the impossible: she, with the help of a shadowy government agency, has won the Empress Game. A tournament between women vying for the hand of the Emperor Apparent and a voice on the Imperial Council of Seven, the Empress Game is a fight, often to the death. Because of her skills as a fighter—Kayla is a Wyrd ro’haar, sworn protector/bodyguard and psionic shield to her younger brother ...
Just like theatergoers like seeing trailers before a film, many readers like to look ahead at the reading landscape to see what's headed their way. It's not enough that we are entertained, we also want to know how we are going to be entertained next. Fortunately you have my book-peeking ninja skills at your disposal. (Yes, that's a real thing.) I've looked ahead at the books that are slated for a 2017 release…and there are plenty ...
It opens in the 70s with the tragic death of two sisters – Patty, who died first, and Jenna, who followed her beloved sister. Patty’s death came at the correct time and her spirit moved on without lingering. But Jenna? Jenna died too soon and decades later she is still half alive, now “living” in NY.
In this alternate world, every soul has a certain amount of time to live, and ghosts can take time from the living. For ...
Another year of reading begins! What better way to start it off than with books that will stretch your imagination? This month's selection of the best science fiction and fantasy reads offers sword and sorcery, eldritch horrors, a richly-imagined forest world, deals with the Devil in the Old West, espionage across parallel worlds, and a 25th Century whodunit in space.
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
WHAT IT'S ABOUT: In the snowy Russian ...
