Moral Disorder Review

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(More customer reviews)Margaret Attwood has to be the most brilliant writer of our time. Her descriptive brilliance penetrates deep into your soul as her words take wing. Her latest work, Moral Disorder, continues the high standard of her other works such as Cat's Eye, Blind Assassin, Oryx and Crake. No matter what genre she dips into, the results are astounding.
This book of short stories, are all connected through the lives of the women of one family. They could be read separately, but together each story adds to the family portrait giving the reader a panoramic view of the three central characters of the book- mother and two daughters.
The way Margaret Attwood describes a daughter trying to get through to her aging mother, lost in reverie or some other country in her mind, makes you want to weep. Her prose is exquisite.
I have never ever never been disappointed with a Margaret Attwood piece and this one is no exception.

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Labyrinth of Evil (Star Wars, Episode III Prequel Novel) Review

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(More customer reviews)James Luceno, walking EUncyclopedia, returns once more with yet another of the type of novel he's best suited to write. His particular strengths and weaknesses are ill-spent on smaller novels such as Agents of Chaos; however, with his comprehensive grasp of GFFA minutiae, he's very well suited to novels such as Cloak of Deception and this newest, Labyrinth of Evil (and to an extent, The Unifying Force), which exist as much to tie multiple plots together into a comprehensive, coherent whole as to tell stories of their own. Here he manages to take a very impressionistic view of the Clone Wars, told piecemeal in various media and through various relatively unconnected novels, and meld it all into a whole, as well as tying events back to pre-TPM and doing his best to make it look like there actually has been a lot more structure and continuity and causality in the stories we've gotten of the Clone Wars than there really has been.
There's not really much need to talk about his style; by now you already know whether you like it or not. He has an odd mix of typical third-person POV and near-omniscient viewpoint, without a particularly memorable writing style and with a sometimes-annoying but often useful and fun (at least to the more-than-casual Star Wars fans like me) tendency to infodump and show off just how much he knows about what he's writing about.
This novel doesn't stand terribly well on its own, but then it's not supposed to. It's more a summation and drawing-together of what's gone before in anticipation of Revenge of the Sith. To that end, the first two-thirds of the book follow a very straightforward connect-the-dots plot, with the dots being a lot of fun action sequences and the connectors being lots of encyclopedic, almost history-bookish descriptions tying together all that's gone before. Then, for the final third, the book takes a dramatic turn for the better -- and more exciting (especially for me, since I've been keeping myself spoiler free for Revenge of the Sith) -- as the book leads straight into what will prove to be the HUGE opening moments of the final Star Wars film.
Here we see Anakin and Obi-Wan, Mace and Yoda all in fine form. Padmé, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma and other familiar faces also all show up. Dooku, while not quite as fleshed-out as in Dark Rendezvous, is still an interesting character. Palpatine and Sidious are as good as we've ever seen them, if not better (and worse). And finally, finally we get an introduction to the character of General Grievous, whom we've seen in comics and television shows but has been conspicuously absent from the novels. Also in this book we've got some pointed political commentary that those leaning more to the right probably won't particularly appreciate, we've got a fine antecedent for a key moment in ANH, and, in true Star Wars fashion, plenty of dis-arming and other dis-memberment.
In the end, this is for the most part an okay Star Wars novel that blossoms in the end into one of the better ones, and leaves you salivating for Revenge of the Sith.

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Strange Travelers: New Selected Stories Review

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(More customer reviews)Readers familiar with Wolfe's short fiction will be most impressed by this major new collection. Readers who only know his superb "New/Long/Short Sun" novels will be amazed by the breadth and variety of these dark tales.Everyone else will be dazzled. "STRANGE TRAVELERS reads like an artifact of magic--something hidden, stumbled upon, irresistible and dangerous. A book of nightmares too beautiful to be true, too real to be denied, too vivid to be forgotten. Why doesn't everyone know Gene Wolfe is the best writer alive?

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Contact Imminent Review

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(More customer reviews)Contact Imminent (2003) is the fourth novel in the Jani Kilian series, following Law of Survival. In the previous volume, Jani has solved the mystery of Le Blond, the point man for a semi-legitimate trade association and the man trying to smear the reputation of both Jani and Tsecha. Ceel, the Oligarch of the Vynsharau, and his suborn Shai have managed to ease Tsecha out of his positions as ambassador and Propitiator, but Tsecha regains most of his status as Intercessor for the Haarin; moreover, now he doesn't have to attend any more boring meetings, can sit in comfortable chairs and doesn't have to wear boring clothes. Furthermore, he and Jani have forced Shai to allow the Haarin to sell a much needed water filter to the Elyans.
In this novel, a year later, Jani, Niall and Tsecha are observers for a mine removal operation on the grounds of the Haarin enclave at Chicago. Something goes wrong and the mine explodes, killing a Terran bomb disposal tech and an idomeni security suborn and injuring Lieutenant Pullman. Jani is suspicious of the official explanations for this incident; since she is leaving for the Outer Circle on business for Tsecha, she asks Lucien to join the investigation team to uncover the true situation.
Jani travels to Elyas in a Neoclona ship with John Shroud and Niall. There she is kidnapped and transported to a Haarin colony, where she finds hybrids much like herself. Soon she is in the middle of a political conflict in the Haarin community between the established dominant and a hybrid challenger.
Back on Earth, Lucien singles out Faber, a comtech who had been on the bomb site in the bunker with Jani and who has been acting strangely since the incident. Lucien has Faber followed and keeps showing up in the comtech's life. Among other things, he notices that Faber is checking out the specs of the latest model military exoskeleton armor.
This novel is an investigative procedural on Earth and a character study on Elyas, with various side stories. Although the author tells part of the story from the viewpoint of Faber, she is able to maintain the suspense up until the final climax. You probably will not want to put the book down until the story is done.
In this story, Jani starts taking on some of the responsibilities of Tsecha's suborn. She acts as more that Tsecha's Eyes and Ears on Elyas, stabilizing the hybrid challenge in a very priestly manner and then gathering a cadre to keep the situation under control after she returns to Earth. While the immediate problems are resolved, this story ends with the promise of more excitement to follow.
Highly recommended for Smith fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of suspense and intrigue, with a touch of romance, in a SF setting.
-Arthur W. Jordin

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Former captain Jani Kilian is a genetically altered human-idomeni hybrid who acts as a bridge of communication between two fiercely incompatible races. With intergalactic civil war looming large -- with renegades in the Service secretly plotting extermination -- Jani Kilian is being pulled once more into perilous space. Because a horrific act of terror is about to ignite a long-feared conflictbetween human and alien…and the key to the survival or destruction of human civilization is waiting for her somewhere on the edge of the universe.

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Code of Conduct Review

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(More customer reviews)Code of Conduct tells a fast-paced story that weaves intrigue, politics, and personal honor into a sophisticated tapestry. With well-realized characters, both human and alien, and a plot full of gratifying twists and turns, this book showcases a fine new voice in science fiction.

About twenty years prior to the book's opening scene, Captain Jani Kilian almost died in a civil war among the idomeni, an alien race just enough like humans to make their vast differences disturbing. Framed for treason and then presumed dead in an explosion, she has spent the years since in hiding. After the blast, her doctors put her together with illegal experiments that combined human and idomeni genes. Now it is catching up with her. Is she dying--or changing into a new species that could threaten the existence of both humans and idomeni?

Jani thinks she is safe--until Evan van Reuter, the powerful Interior Minister of the Commonwealth, finds her. He wants her to solve a mystery that could destroy him: why did his wife die? Author Smith sets-up a wonderfully Byzantine scenario, with the dangerous, augmented Jani as an ideal choice of investigator from Evan's point of view, but a terrible choice as far as Jani is concerned.

One pleasure of this novel is the rich cast, both human and idomeni, that tangles the investigation. To snarl matters more, Evan is Jani's former lover. She finds herself in a political maze that could shake the foundations of the Commonwealth. Smith ties this all together in a well-written story that leaves the reader wanting more.

Smith does a good job with the idomeni, in particular Tsecha, a political and religious leader among his people and an ambassador to Earth. Watching him exasperate his human hosts with his wry personality and audacious nature is fun. The book creates a strong portrayal of an alien, with the nifty twist that eating is a form of prayer for his people. Another strength of this book is the subtle sensuality in the various relationships of the people, especially Jani's interactions with Evan and another character, Lucien. In fact, in general Smith does character well. The motivations and personalities of these people both surprise and make sense, a blend that isn't easy to achieve.

Code of Conduct is good science fiction, good hard-edged suspense, and an all around good read.

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Cartoon Network: Jam-Packed Action (Jam Packed Action) W/CD Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is really cool. It has cinemanga-ish adaptations of Billy and Mandy: "Tricycle of Terror", KND: "C.O.L.L.E.G.E.", Samurai Jack: "Jack and the Gangsters", and the first episode of Megas XLR.This may be something that I expected from TOKYOPOP, but that's okay.
And to make this book even cooler, they threw in a bonus DVD of that first Megas XLR episode, which is great. (Did you know the original title of that show was "Lowbrow" ?) I hope you'll enjoy this book as much as I did. And if you liked this, then you'll also like "Kids WB Jam-Packed Action", too.

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Roadworks Review

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(More customer reviews)Hugh Ryan's job might not be glamorous, but it is important. In the near future, Brussels has developed a highly sophisticated traffic network. Computers route cars around conjestion. Huge parking elevators keep cars below ground and yet easily accessible. Efficient trains and a subway system move hundreds of thousands of people to their jobs. When roads fill, computers send cars to another route. When too many become congested, the same computers send the cars to the rapid transit centers. And Hugh, along with a small number of fellow workers, controls the entire system.
When things start to go bad, Hugh springs into action--and the system does its best to self-repair. But the system was never designed to deal with simultaneous toxic truck wrecks in every major intersection, power failure in the subway, the collapse of the train system, and malfunctions in the parking elevators that turn the entire city into a stationary parking lot. Hugh isn't surprised with the call comes in--a terrorist organization is holding the entire city, including heads of state from all of Nato, for ransom.
Reading between the lines of the terrorist threat, Hugh realizes that someone in his own transport agency is somehow involved--and sets out to find who did it. What follows is an action-packed adventure with plenty of plot twists and even a touch of romance.
Author Gerard Readett makes his near-future traffic scenario feel real and interesting. Hugh, with his lost wife and anti-establishment tendencies, makes a sympathetic protagonist and Readett mixes in just enough scenes from those caught up in the disaster--and from the point of view of the criminals and terrorists who combine to take the city captive--to make the action seem real. I wish Readett had relied a bit less on coincidence in putting Hugh in just the right place to do so much against the terrorist threat, but that's a minor quibble with a really fascinating story.

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Roadworks is the story of one man's battle to be free of a system that oppresses him while dragging a hijacked city out of absolute gridlock.In a city where all rail, road and underground traffic is computerised, Hugh Ryan, a Transport Authority controller, has to outwit Akila Kama, an African terrorist who has taken the city and many foreign heads of state hostage. His demands are simple, either the greatest humanitarian aid package is sent to Africa by the nations of the West, or their leaders die.Later Hugh realises that while all traffic inside the city is at a standstill, Wellens, a local crimelord who helped the Africans, has embarked on his own traitorous plans which he hatches with a mole in the Transport Authority.

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Jitterbug Jam (New York Times Best Illustrated Books (Awards)) Review

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(More customer reviews)Alexis Deacon's distinctive artwork offers an impressive visual context for Jitterbug Jam, Barbara Jean Hicks' original story about Bobo, a young monster who is afraid of what is under his bed at night. Bobo is sure there is a boy lurking underneath his bed, with "pink skin and orange fur on his head where his horns should be". Bobo's brother chastises him for being a scaredy-cat; Bobo's grandpa, Boo-Dad, knows exactly how to scare the fearful creature away. Yet after being frightened for such a long time, Bobo considers taking matters into his own paws and discovering if the creature under the bed really is that terrible! A charming and wonderful story about how new friends could be just around the corner.


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