Monthly Archives: December 2015

mystery, reviews, SF, strange

Gene Wolfe — Borrowed Man

Talk about weird concepts — E. A. Smithe is a clone of an author from a previous time who lives in a library and can be checked out like a book. Colette Coldbrook’s father died and her brother was murdered. Before being murdered he passed a book (written by Smithe) to Collete that he believed held a secret. So she checked the Smithe clone out of the library to help her discover the secret. Then she disappeared. Smithe sets out to try to find Colette.

It’s a good mystery/SF story. Devious twists and turns and lots of fun along the way.

local authors, reviews, SF

Charles Sobczak — The Year of the Bad Decision

Research, Research, Research… Sobczak must have spent years on research for this book. Even though it is fiction, it is loaded with facts about climate change. The novel is SF/speculative fiction and the year of the bad decision was 2043. The author says he may have compressed events a bit, but I’m not so sure he did. Sometimes I feel climate events are moving faster than anyone predicts.

The Center for Meteorological Controls has plans to send tiny nanomirrors into the atmosphere to mitigate global warming by reflecting sunlight to cool the earth. Dr. Warren Randolph has discovered a flaw in the design that could send the world into a short-term ice age and likely kill a large percentage of its ten billion people. Of course, he is ignored. He moves to a farm in a remote area of Montana and gathers his friends around him to try to live out the coming disaster.

It’s a good story along with much information about our planet and the consequences of climate change.

character, mystery, reviews, setting

Carolyn Baugh — Quick Sand

Ms. Baugh is an excellent writer. She engaged me with her characters and her story to the point where I was dreaming about them at night. This is unusual for me even though I read most every night before falling asleep

Quick Sand is a crime novel featuring a young Muslim woman from the Philadelphia police. She is assigned to a joint task force with the FBI and the sheriff’s department to fight drug trafficking. The job evolves into investigating murder and the human trafficking of young girls.

There are themes running through her writing about prejudice toward Muslims and the treatment of women. The protagonist is struggling with her feelings about her culture and a protective father. Baugh’s writing is very visual. At times I felt as if I was watching a movie or TV program.

I highly recommend this book.