The Death Cure, James Dashner (on CD)

Y'know when you spot a glaring error in a TV show or book, but can't believe it's an error because it's SO obvious that the writers must mean to come back and close that loophole?

Well, that's how the end of this book hit me, and not in a good way. The most obvious solution to the problems of the world in this series...is the final scene of this book.

On the other hand, getting there is the fun of the journey, right? And it was a pretty exciting interesting.

An Apple for the Creature, by Charlaine Charlaine

Some nice stories in here about various kinds of "creatures"--not all the stories are scary. Most aren't.

The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner (on CD)

I have recommended this series to multiple people as being excellent for reluctant boy readers because the action pretty much NEVER stops. Personally, I find that exhausting (and rather unbelievable), but it does keep you glued to the story.

As in many other series, this book suffers for being #2. I'm torn between wanting to read the next one and being irritated with having very little forward progress in the overall plot.

The Maze Runner, by James Dashner (on CD)

Well. Great plot, good pacing, especially if you like nonstop action. A little repetitive at times, and somewhat unbelievable at other times. And yet...I can't wait to read the next book. I think the flaws would be much less noticeable were I not listening to it.

Oh, and speaking of which, the narrator is simply wonderful!

Freefall, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

So, I need to get the next book in the series. That's one of the problems with these--you really HAVE to read the next one because they leave off literally with stuff hanging. Will Chester get home? How will the Styx find Will (because you know they will)? Are there native inhabitants of the area of the Second Sun? What's up with Drake? And Celia--is she going to recover?

AAAARGHHHHHHH!

Cyberbooks, by Ben Bova

I tried, I really did; it's a great, forward-thinking concept--electronic book readers FTW, 20 years before they actually appeared on the market. But...the dialogue and plot are way too formulaic-SF and since that's not really my cuppa, I gave up about 50 pages in.

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (on CD)

Wow.
Wow.
WOW. This series is astoundingly good. Not just as a YA series, but as a series of any kind. Wow.

Having listened to the whole thing, however, I'm trying to decide if I want to read it too. Maybe on my Nook?

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, by Charles Yu

Blackout, by Connie Willis

Ooooh, frustrating: it's not until the last page that I realized that this is part one of the story. Now I have to wait six months to read the rest of it! Gah.

Promised Land, by Cynthia Felice and Connie Willis

Interesting little mix of a western potboiler romance set on another planet. Cute, lightweight, easy, nothing here will startle anyone.

Deeper, by Roderick Gordon, and Brian Williams

Sequel to Tunnels.

Where's My Jetpack? A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived, by Daniel H. Wilson, Ph.D.

Cute, fast, poppy book. Covers not just jetpacks but blimps, soldiers who never sleep, rayguns, and robots, among other things.

The future is partway here...and a long way off.

Tunnels, by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams

Started listening to the recording of this in November and ended up checking the book out to finish it this week.

Fun book. Will and his father spend their time together excavating London, making discoveries about the city's past. Then his father disappears after some mysterious tunnels are found, and Will follows him into an underground city built several hundred years ago.

Quite creepy in parts, and the first of a series, so I will have to go find the second book now.

Remake, by Connie Willis

Cheesy. Set in 2016ish in Hollywood when movies are not being made with live actors anymore, but recut scenes from old movies and new people's faces.

Not Willis' best work, not by a long shot!!

The House of Power, by Patrick Carman

The first in a kids' series called Atherton, about a future world created to rescue human beings from Earth by creating a world on a man-made satellite. Mad scientists, cliff-climbing, rabbits-sheep-and-figs, and planned communities. Pretty fun.

Fire Watch, by Connie Willis

I love short stories. This is one of those collections that exemplifies why I love them: there is a general theme of futurism/science fiction, but otherwise all of these tales are quite different. There are a couple set in the (more or less) here and now, but most are elsewhere/elsewhen.

There is a story about life on a mining planet, there is a time-travel story about going back to the London Blitz, there is a post-nuclear story, there's an absolutely hysterical story about a really stupid guy that has a zinger of an ending, and a creepy college-students-of-the-future story.

One of the fun things about the copy of the book I read is that someone has penciled in grades next to the titles in the table of contents. "Fire Watch" is an A. And Come from Miles Around is an A--. "Blued Moon" is a B++. I don't agree 100% with all the ratings, but this is why I like library books. You can't get that sense of anonymous community any other way (including ebooks).

Light Raid, by Connie Willis and Cynthia Felice

This was published in 1989, so it's a little dated in its view of the future. Having said that, it's always wonderful to read about an area of the world you know and this takes place in "Denver Springs" (i.e. the mega-city spanning the entire front range of the Rockies in Colorado). The political entities of North America have rearranged themselves so that Quebec has declared war on what used to be the U.S., while "Victoria" (British Columbia) has been neutral in the war and the rest of what used to be Canada is, I think, allied with the former states.

ANYway, the light raids are laser attacks that Quebec has launched against Denver Springs. And the rest of the story is pretty much boilerplate romantic suspense, but with computers and so forth. Oh, and also...the main characters in Denver Springs are Greek-ish. They all have Hellenic names (Ariadne, Gaea, etc.) and wear chitons and robes.

It sounds bizarre, and it is (I've left out the subplot about the water biots, which is primary to the story, but difficult to explain briefly), but it works. Generally. I like Connie Willis's imagination.

Dark Sins, Dark Dreams : Crime in Science Fiction (edited by Bary N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini)

Weird shit here. Some good, some lame, but all weird. Also, showing its age a bit--about 25 years old.

More Whatdunits (ed. Michael Resnick)

This is kind of an unusual concept, in that the editor sends out story set-ups to selected authors who then write the story to go with the set-up. Here's an example:

A riff on The Demolished Man. A human private eye is hired to retriev an art object that has been stolen by an alien, and--if possible, though it isn't his primary objective--to bring the alien to justice. The catch: the alien, and everyone who works for it, belongs to a race of telepaths.

The story that goes with this set-up is Kristine Kathryn Rusch, whom I've never really heard of, but Jane Yolen and John Gregory Betancourt are familiar names who contributed a story.

Most of the themes are traditional science fiction: space ships, aliens, etc. Kind of fun, a throwback, and entertaining.