Hearts as Black as Coal
The Trove — Tobias S. Buckell
Tobias S. Buckell’s 2018 The Trove is a standalone SF adventure novel.
Interstellar travel has not eliminated social stratification. Earth is home to oligarchs whose wealth is hard to measure. In contrast, the wealth of Jane Hawkins and her two mothers, Sadayya and Tia, is very easy to measure: it is the Nelson Inn, located in the unfashionable part of Sargasso Port. Customers are few, the inn is struggling, and Tia is slowly dying of an incurable disease.
A more prosperous inn would have turned away rigger Villem Osteonidus. Not only does the cyborg lacks any personal charm, he’s a drug addict. But the Hawkins Inn needs every customer it can get. Villem gets a room, one his hosts expect him to occupy for only as long as it takes for the drugs to kill him.
Villem has far worse problems than his addiction.
Very definitely a hell below
Sly Mongoose —
Tobias S. Buckell
Xenowealth, book 3
Tobias S. Buckell’s 2008 novel Sly Mongoose is the third book in the Xenowealth sequence. Now, you might ask “why start with the third book?” There is a very straightforward answer: I wanted to read a book that gave me license to gratuitously embed this image:
Also, this specific book and I have some history, which I will get into later on.
Chilo isn’t Venus but it’s a lot like Venus, from the dense atmosphere to the furnace temperatures down on the ground. The good news is that like Venus, Chilo does have a region where the temperatures and pressures won’t immediately kill humans. The bad news is that region is thirty kilometers above the surface.
Which brings us to the balloon-cities of the sort featured in that gratuitously embedded image above.
A Rising Tide
Arctic Rising — Tobias Buckell
Tobias Buckell’s 2012 novel Arctic Rising takes us to a global-warming future in which the arctic is increasingly clear of unsightly ice … as well as the animals that used to live there. Open seas mean access to all the resources of the north; ports are springing up all around the Arctic Ocean. Prosperity abounds in Canada and other, less important, nations!
But someone always has to be a spoilsport. Possibly because Canada’s benefit is the bane of most of the rest of the world, which must cope with rising sea levels and increasingly savage storms.
Review Categories
- Rediscovery Tuesday (42)
- Translation (185)
- Because My Tears Are Delicious To You (271)
- 50 Nortons in 50 Weeks (50)
- The Great Heinlein Juveniles (Plus The Other Two) Reread (14)
- KW Science Fiction and Fantasy (4)
- Special Requests (251)
- Miscellaneous Reviews (252)
- Women of Wonder (6)
- Leigh Brackett's Solar System (7)
- Military Speculative Fiction That Doesn't Suck (33)
- Graveyard Orbits (5)
- James Tiptree, Jr. Award (9)
- A Year of Tanith Lee (61)
- Not Actually A Review (1)
- Space Opera That Doesn't Suck (19)
- A Year of Waterloo Region Speculative Fiction (49)
- The 2017 Prometheus Award Finalists (4)
- Reds Under The Bed (5)
- Twelve by Diana Wynne Jones (12)
- A Dozen by Tchaikovsky (12)
- A Bunch of Bujolds (12)
- A Variety of Vaughns (12)
- An Expanse of Coreys (3)
- BRP (2)
- Doing What the WFC Cannot Do (33)
- Big Hair, Big Guns! (19)
By Author/Editor
- Aaronovitch, Ben (1)
- Abbas, Ibraheem (1)
- Abrahams, Kyria (1)
- Achebe, Chinua (1)
- Addison, Katherine (1)
- Aldiss, Brian (1)
- Amano, Kozue (14)
- Anderson, Chester (1)
- Anderson, Poul (6)
- Anderson, R. J. (2)
- Andrews, Ilona (1)
- Anthony, Patricia (1)
- Anthony, Piers (2)
- Arakawa, Hiromu (4)
- Archer, Katrina (1)
- Arnason, Eleanor (1)
- Ashby, Madeline (2)
- Ashinano, Hitoshi (20)
- Ashwin, Kate (2)
- Asimov, Isaac (5)
- Atwood, Margaret (1)
- Bahjatt, Yasser (1)
- Bailey, Charles W. (1)
- Bailley, Samantha (1)
- Baker, Mishell (1)
- Banks, Iain M. (1)
- Barnes, Steven (3)
- Barnett, Lisa A. (1)
- Bayley, Barrington J. (1)
- Bear, Elizabeth (1)
- Benford, Gregory (2)
- Bester, Alfred (1)
- Beukes, Lauren (1)
- Binder, Eando (1)
- Blair, Kate (1)
- Blish, James (1)
- Bobet, Leah (1)
- Bois, Jon (1)
- Boucher, Anthony (1)
- Bova, Ben (1)
- Bow, Erin (2)
- Bow, James (2)
- Brackett, Leigh (9)
- Bradbury, Ray (1)
- Bray, Libba (1)
- Brennan, Marie (1)
- Brennan, Sarah Ree (1)
- Bretnor, Reginald (1)
- Brissett, Jennifer Marie (1)
- Broaddus, Maurice (1)
- Brookmyre, Christopher (1)
- Brown, Rosel George (1)
- Brunner, John (5)
- Brust, Steven (2)
- Buckell, Tobias (2)
- Buckley, Bob (1)
- Bujold, Lois McMaster (5)
- Burgess, Anthony (1)
- Busby, F. M. (2)
- Butler, Octavia E. (7)
- Campbell, John W. (1)
- Čapek, Karel (1)
- Capon, Paul (1)
- Card, Melanie (1)
- Card, Orson Scott (1)
- Carey, Jacqueline (2)
- Carr, John F. (1)
- Carter, Raphael (1)
- Castellucci, Cecil (1)
- Chambers, Becky (2)
- Chandler, A. Bertram (1)
- Charnas, Suzy McKee (1)
- Chen, Curtis C. (1)
- Cherryh, C.J. (7)
- Cho, Zen (4)
- Christie, Agatha (1)
- Chu, Wesley (1)
- Church, Suzanne (2)
- Clarke, Arthur C. (2)
- Clarke, Cassandra Rose (1)
- Clarke, Neil (1)
- Clayton, Jo (5)
- Clee, Mona (1)
- Clement, Hal (1)
- Clement, Jermaine (1)
- Cole, Dandridge M. (1)
- Comité Colbert (1)
- Coney, Michael G. (1)
- Connolly, Harry (3)
- Consell, Ryan (1)
- Cook, Glen (1)
- Corey, James S. A. (1)
- Cox, Donald W (1)
- Crain William (1)
- Crewe, Megan (1)
- Ctein (1)
- Czerneda, Julia E. (2)
- Daniel, Tony (1)
- Daniels, April (2)
- Darnay, Arsen (1)
- Daven, Kit (2)
- Davin, Eric Leif (1)
- de Bodard, Aliette (7)
- de Camp, L. Sprague (2)
- Dean, Paul (1)
- Deighton, Len (1)
- Delany, Samuel R. (4)
- Dentinger, Jane (1)
- Dickson, Gordon R. (1)
- Dillon, Diane (1)
- Dillon, Leo (1)
- Doctorow, Corey (1)
- Downum, Amanda (1)
- Doyle, Debra (1)
- Drake, David (1)
- Draper, Terry (1)
- Drye, Paul (1)
- Duane, Diane (1)
- Due, Tananarive (1)
- Dumas, Alexandre (1)
- Dunlop, Eileen (1)
- Dunyach, Jean-Claude (1)
- Duyvis, Corinne (1)
- Dyson, George (1)
- Editor, A.N. (1)
- Edmondson, G.C. (2)
- Eisenstein, Phyllis (2)
- Elliott, Kate (1)
- Engdahl, Sylvia Louise (1)
- Engel, Marian (1)
- Ernst, Paul (1)
- Estes, Eleanor (1)
- Fakhouri, Anne (1)
- Faust, Minister (1)
- Ford, John M. (2)
- Forstchen, William R. (1)
- Foster, Alan Dean (2)
- Foster, M.A. (1)
- Frank, Pat (1)
- Frankel, Jen (1)
- Frey, J. M. (2)
- Frezza, Robert (1)
- Fujii, Taiyo (2)
- Gardner, James Alan (2)
- Gentle, Mary (2)
- Gerrold, David (3)
- Gilliland, Alexis A. (1)
- Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1)
- Gilman, Felix (1)
- Gilman, Laura Anne (1)
- Gladstone, Max (4)
- Goldenberg, Alisse Lee (1)
- Gorodischer, Angélica (1)
- Goto, Hiromi (1)
- Gould, Steven (2)
- Graham, Jo (5)
- Grant, Mira (1)
- Greenberg, Martin H. (1)
- Griffin, Kate (1)
- Griffith, Nicola (5)
- Grossman, Austin (1)
- Ha, Il-Kwon (1)
- Haldeman, Joe (2)
- Hamilton, Virginia (2)
- Hansen, Karl (1)
- Hardinge, Frances (1)
- Harris, Geraldine (1)
- Hawkins, Scott (1)
- Healy, Raymond J. (1)
- Heinlein, Robert A. (20)
- Helgadóttir, Margrét (1)
- Henderson, Zenna (1)
- Heppenheimer, T. A. (1)
- Herbert, Frank (1)
- Hernandez, Jaime (2)
- Hewitt, John (1)
- Heydt, Dorothy (1)
- Higgins, C.A. (1)
- Hiroe, Rei (1)
- Hogan, James P. (1)
- Hogarth, M. C. A. (1)
- Holmqvist, Ninni (1)
- Hoover, H.M. (1)
- Hopkinson, Nalo (1)
- Höst, Andrea K. (1)
- Howard, Kat (1)
- Howe, Grant (1)
- Hoyle, Fred (1)
- Hoyt, Richard (1)
- Huang, S.L. (4)
- Huff, Tanya (2)
- Hughes, Matthew (5)
- Hughes, Monica (1)
- Humphrey, Claire (1)
- Hurley, Kameron (2)
- Ibuse, Masuji (1)
- Ing, Dean (2)
- Ishiguro, Kazuo (1)
- Itäranta, Emmi (1)
- Jablokov, Alexander (1)
- Jackson, Shirley (2)
- Jacobs, Jane (1)
- Jacques, Jeph (1)
- Jemisin, N. K. (5)
- Johnson, Alaya Dawn (3)
- Johnson, Annabel (1)
- Johnson, Edgar (1)
- Johnson, Kij (1)
- Jones, Diana Wynne (2)
- Jones, Gwyneth (1)
- Jones, Heather Rose (2)
- Jones, Raymond F. (1)
- Juster, Norton (1)
- K.B. Wagers (1)
- Kahn, Herman (1)
- Kahn, Sherman (1)
- Kamachi, Kazuma (1)
- Kaplan, Fred (1)
- Kawahara, Reki (1)
- Kerr, Katharine (1)
- Key, Alexander (1)
- Keyes, Daniel (1)
- Khaw, Cassandra (1)
- Kidd, Virginia (1)
- Kiernan, Denise (1)
- Killough, Lee (3)
- King, Jasper MacDonald (1)
- King, Stephen (1)
- Kingfisher, T. (3)
- Kingsbury, Donald (1)
- Kinzie, Becka (2)
- Kirstein, Rosemary (4)
- Kishi, Yusuke (3)
- Knebel, Fletcher (1)
- Kohli, Armon Kishen (1)
- Kooiker, Leonie (1)
- Kornbluth, Cyril (2)
- Kotlan, C. M. (1)
- Krasnostein, Alisa (1)
- Kreider, Anna (2)
- Kuhn, Sarah (2)
- Kurland, Michael (1)
- Kushner, Ellen (1)
- L'Engle, Madeleine (1)
- Lafferty, Mur (1)
- Lagerlöf, Selma (1)
- Lake, David J. (1)
- Larbalestier, Justine (1)
- Laumer, Keith (2)
- Le Guin, Ursula K. (3)
- Leckie, Ann (1)
- Lee, Fonda (1)
- Lee, Sharon (2)
- Lee, Tanith (61)
- Lee, Yoon Ha (2)
- Leiber, Fritz (3)
- Lepore, Jill (1)
- Liang, William Tham Wai (1)
- Lindqvist, John Ajvide (1)
- Liu, Cixin (2)
- Liu, Ken (1)
- Llewellyn, Edward (1)
- Locke, M. J (1)
- Long, Dee (1)
- Lord, Karen (1)
- Lumpkin, John J. (1)
- Lynn, Elizabeth A. (3)
- MacAvoy, R.A. (1)
- MacDonald, James D. (1)
- MacDonald, John D. (1)
- MacGregor, Blair (1)
- MacLean, Katherine (2)
- MacLeod, Ken (1)
- Mahr, Kurt (1)
- Malan, Violette (1)
- Mamatas, Nick (1)
- Mandel, Emily St. John (1)
- Mankell, Henning (1)
- Mardoll, Ana (1)
- Marks, Laurie J (3)
- Martin, George R.R. (1)
- Martinson, Harry (1)
- Matronic, Ana (1)
- Mauméjean, Xavier (1)
- McCaffrey, Anne (1)
- McComas, J. Francis (1)
- McDonald, Ian (1)
- McDuffie, Dwayne (1)
- McGuire, Seanan (1)
- McHugh, Maureen F. (1)
- McIntyre, Vonda N. (3)
- McKillip, Patricia A. (2)
- McLachlan, J. A. (1)
- McMullen, Sean (1)
- McPhee, John (1)
- Meredith, Richard C. (1)
- Merle, Robert (1)
- Merril, Judith (2)
- Mighton, John (1)
- Miller, Mark (1)
- Miller, Steve (2)
- Miller, Walter M., Jr. (1)
- Mitchison, Naomi (1)
- Miyabe, Miyuki (1)
- Moffitt, Donald (1)
- Mohanraj, Mary Anne (1)
- Moon, Elizabeth (1)
- Moorcock, Michael (1)
- Moore, C.L. (5)
- Moore, Moira J (1)
- Moran, Daniel Keyes (3)
- Moreno-Garcia, Silvia (5)
- Morganfield, T.L. (1)
- Mori, Kaoru (5)
- Morinaga, Milk (1)
- Morressy, John (1)
- Mulholland, Tony (1)
- Murphy, Pat (2)
- Nagata, Linda (7)
- Nakazato, Yuka (1)
- Nakazawa, Keiji (1)
- Narita, Ryogho (1)
- Neil Randall (1)
- Newhall, Scott (1)
- Newman, Emma (4)
- Nicholson, Sam (1)
- Nickle, David (1)
- Niven, Larry (8)
- North, Claire (1)
- Norton, Andre (50)
- Nourse, Alan E. (1)
- Novik, Naomi (1)
- O'Donnell, Kevin (1)
- O'Malley, Daniel (1)
- O'Neal, Kathleen M. (1)
- Ogawa, Yoko (1)
- Ohno, Kaoru (1)
- Okorafor, Nnedi (2)
- Ōkouchi, Ichirō (1)
- Ono, Fuyumi (2)
- Ore, Rebecca (1)
- Orwell, George (1)
- Otsuichi (1)
- Palwick, Susan (2)
- Pangborn, Edgar (1)
- Panshin, Alexei (1)
- Paquet, Olivier (1)
- Parker, K.J. (4)
- Patel, Carrie (1)
- Penn, Richard (2)
- Pérez-Reverte, Arturo (1)
- Perrin, Steve (1)
- Phillips, Julie (1)
- Phondke, Bal (1)
- Pierce, Alexandra (1)
- Piper, H. Beam (4)
- Piserchia, Doris (1)
- Pohl-Weary, Emily (1)
- Pohl, Carol (1)
- Pohl, Frederik (5)
- Posey, Jay (1)
- Pournelle, Jerry (4)
- Powers, Tim (1)
- Rakunas, Adam (2)
- Rasmussen, Alis A. (1)
- Rey, Alain (1)
- Reynolds, Alastair (2)
- Rhodes, Richard (1)
- Ricci-Thode, Vanessa (1)
- Rivas, Roque (1)
- Roberts, Adam (1)
- Robinett, Stephen (1)
- Robinson, Frank M. (1)
- Robinson, Kim Stanley (1)
- Rowland, Diana (6)
- Ruff, Matt (1)
- Russ, Joanna (1)
- Russell, Eric Frank (2)
- Ryan, Thomas J. (1)
- Sagan, Carl (1)
- Saito, Chiho (2)
- Sakai, Stan (2)
- Sakuraba, Kazuki (2)
- Samatar, Sofia (1)
- Sanders, B.R. (1)
- Sandford, John (1)
- Sargent, Pamela (9)
- Satifka, Erika L. (1)
- Saunders, Charles R. (1)
- Saunders, Graydon (3)
- Sawyer, Robert J. (1)
- Scalzi, John (3)
- Schoen, Lawrence M. (1)
- Scortia, Thomas N. (1)
- Scott, Melissa (13)
- Shaw, Bob (2)
- Shawl, Nisi (1)
- Sheckley, Robert (1)
- Sheffield, Charles (1)
- Shelby, L. (3)
- Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft (1)
- Shinkai, Makoto (1)
- Shiras, Wilmar H. (1)
- Shirow, Masamune (2)
- Shriver, Lionel (1)
- Shunn, William (1)
- Shusterman, Neal (1)
- Shute, Nevil (1)
- Silverberg, Robert (1)
- Simak, Clifford D. (2)
- Simukka, Salla (3)
- Sinisalo, Johanna (1)
- Slonczewski, Joan (1)
- Smith, E.E. (1)
- Smith, Evelyn E. (1)
- Smith, George O. (1)
- Smith, Kristine (3)
- Smith, L. Neil (3)
- Smith, Sherwood (2)
- Smith, Thorne (1)
- Snyder, Zilpha Keatley (1)
- Solnit, Rebecca (1)
- Spangler, K.B. (6)
- Spencer, Wen (2)
- Spinrad, Norman (1)
- Sprange, Matthew (1)
- Springer, Nancy (1)
- St. Clair, Margaret (2)
- Steinmetz, Ferrett (3)
- Stephenson, Neal (1)
- Sterzinger, Ann (1)
- Stiles, Paula R. (1)
- Stine, G. Harry (1)
- Strugatsky, Arkady (2)
- Strugatsky, Boris (2)
- Sucharitkul, Somtow (1)
- Sullivan, Tricia (2)
- Sutcliff, Rosemary (1)
- Tan, Charles (1)
- Tanaka, Yoshiki (3)
- Tanigawa, Nagaru (3)
- Taniguchi, Gorō (1)
- Tanzer, Molly (1)
- Tarr, Judith (1)
- Tchaikovsky, Adrian (1)
- Teitel, Amy Shira (1)
- Tepper, Sheri S. (1)
- Thomas, Jo (1)
- Thomas, Sheree R. (1)
- Thompson, Tade (1)
- Tiptree, James (3)
- Tolmie, Sarah (3)
- Touno, Mamare (1)
- Trowbridge, Dave (1)
- Turner, Megan Whalen (5)
- Turney, Ray (1)
- Valentine, Genevieve (1)
- van de Wetering, Janwillem (1)
- Varley, John (2)
- Vaughn, Carrie (2)
- Vinge, Joan D. (5)
- Vinge, Vernor (1)
- Volsky, Paula (3)
- Vonarburg, Élisabeth (1)
- Wachowski, Andy (1)
- Wachowski, Lana (1)
- Wagers, K. B. (1)
- Waititi, Taika (1)
- Waldrop, Howard (1)
- Walkingnorth (1)
- Wallis, James (1)
- Walton, Jo (1)
- Warren, Adam (1)
- Washington, Masumi (1)
- Watkins, Peter (1)
- Wayne, Jeff (1)
- Weir, Andy (1)
- Wells, Alex (1)
- Wells, Jeffrey (1)
- Wells, Martha (9)
- White, James (4)
- Wilde, Fran (1)
- Wilhelm, Kate (1)
- Williams, Kass (1)
- Williams, Liz (2)
- Williams, Walter Jon (1)
- Williamson, Jack (2)
- Willis. Connie (1)
- Wilson, F. Paul (1)
- WIlson, Kai Ashante (2)
- Wintrebert, Joëlle (1)
- Wolfrom, Regan (1)
- Wollheim, Donald A. (1)
- Woloschuk, John (1)
- Wren, M.K. (3)
- Yakimura, Makoto (1)
- Yang, JY (3)
- Yatsuhashi, Keith (1)
- Yoshiura, Yasuhiro (1)
- Yuki, Hiroshi (1)
- Zelazny, Roger (3)
Reviews by Date
2019
- August 2019 (19)
- July 2019 (20)
- June 2019 (21)
- May 2019 (21)
- April 2019 (20)
- March 2019 (21)
- February 2019 (21)
- January 2019 (20)
2018
- December 2018 (21)
- November 2018 (21)
- October 2018 (22)
- September 2018 (22)
- August 2018 (22)
- July 2018 (22)
- June 2018 (21)
- May 2018 (22)
- April 2018 (22)
- March 2018 (21)
- February 2018 (20)
- January 2018 (23)
2017
- December 2017 (21)
- November 2017 (22)
- October 2017 (22)
- September 2017 (22)
- August 2017 (23)
- July 2017 (21)
- June 2017 (21)
- May 2017 (22)
- April 2017 (21)
- March 2017 (21)
- February 2017 (19)
- January 2017 (23)
2016
- December 2016 (21)
- November 2016 (21)
- October 2016 (22)
- September 2016 (22)
- August 2016 (22)
- July 2016 (22)
- June 2016 (20)
- May 2016 (23)
- April 2016 (21)
- March 2016 (21)
- February 2016 (18)
- January 2016 (22)
2015
- December 2015 (28)
- November 2015 (29)
- October 2015 (29)
- September 2015 (29)
- August 2015 (28)
- July 2015 (28)
- June 2015 (28)
- May 2015 (28)
- April 2015 (26)
- March 2015 (29)
- February 2015 (24)
- January 2015 (25)
2014
- December 2014 (25)
- November 2014 (26)
- October 2014 (27)
- September 2014 (24)
- August 2014 (23)
- July 2014 (11)
- June 2014 (8)
- May 2014 (4)
- April 2014 (2)