When I first heard that Orson Scott Card was doing another series in the Ender universe that takes place before the events of Ender’s War I was not much enthused. My first reaction to the announcement of Earth Unaware (Formic Wars) is that he was really milking the success of the series by detailing the events of the Formic War and the first contact with the insect-like alien race. One series of books branched off to tell the story of Ender and... Read more
The Telmaj is a juvenile science fiction novel, aimed at 8-12 year-olds, just recently self-published by Catholic blogger Erin Manning. I’ve been reading Erin’s blog for years (though I comment only very occasionally), and I’ve got a novel in the works that I’m planning on self-publishing, and all things taken together I thought I should take a look at Erin’s. Usually I read things that trusted readers have recommended, or that I happened to run into that look interesting. When... Read more
Redshirts, by John Scalzi, is a hoot. Is there anyone on the web who doesn’t know what a redshirt is? Back in the day, when you didn’t need to suffix “Star Trek” with “The Original Series” to mean that ’60’s show with Kirk, Spock, and the gang, and our heroes sallied forth onto a planet’s surface, they always took along a crew member or two in red shirts. You only saw them once, because their sole purpose was to die... Read more
Around 18 months ago, my husband asked me what Catholic business books there were. I found seven to recommend but I felt like there was something missing. The two books I’m sharing with you today fill that gap I felt before, but they do more than that: they apply to those of us who maybe don’t fit into the category of “business book buyers.” In the wonderful tradition of our Catholic faith, these authors don’t limit themselves to company executives, but... Read more
Being part of the Amazon Vine program I eagerly scan through the books and other merchandise available for review when they send out their emails. Recently one book I saw was called Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves. Seeing that title the thought that came to me was if there was one book that had about zero chance of catching my interest this was one. Sounds just like a title given to a typical Catholic dissent-fest. Later the same... Read more
Fire and Hemlock, by Diana Wynne Jones, is not the book I was looking for. What it is, pretty clearly, is a reworking of the legends of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin in present day England (remembering always that the book was written in the mid-1980’s; “present day” has changed quite a lot since then). So we’ve got a Faerie Queen, and a man bound by her, and the plucky girl who is going to free him. (This isn’t... Read more
Michael Flynn discusses the recent World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago. Makes for some quite interesting reading concerning some of the panels such as “Faith in SF” and Br. Guy Consolmagno being involved. Read more
Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone, by Dene Low, is a somewhat funny juvenile that reads like an odd cross between P.G. Wodehouse and Georgette Heyer. Petronella Arbuthnot, a young English lady of substance, is celebrating her sweet sixteenth in the opening years of the 20th century when her guardian, her Uncle Augustus, swallows a beetle from Tou-Eh-Mah-Mah Island and is immediately consumed with the desire to eat insects and other creepy crawlies of all kinds. Horrors are likely to ensue; Petronella... Read more
Mercury Rests is the final volume of a trilogy of novels written by humorist Robert Kroese. These novels follow the adventure of Mercury an Angel who unintentionally gets wrapped up in a plan to prevent the Apocalypse from occurring earlier than scheduled. Mercury is not a goody-two-shoes angel, but neither is he a cigarette smoking fornication John Travolta type. Mostly Mercury just wants to be left alone and do his own thing. Instead he gets wrapped up with a range... Read more
Note: I am posting this previous review for archive sake since I am also posting a review for the final volume of this trilogy. Some time ago The Ironic Catholic recommended Mercury Falls by Robert Kroese. There are not too many books in the genre of hilarious novels involving the Apocalypse. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman certainly set the standard for this small genre and setting a very high bar being laugh-out-loud funny... Read more
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