City of Wonders

City of Wonders by James A. Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Sa'ba Taalor and their Gods have declared war on the Fellein Empire. People are retreating to Canhoon, also known as the City of Wonders, as the Taalor annihilate everything in their path. Desh Krohan's peers and apprentice search for a way to stop them while a mysterious individual is gathering people and heading for Canhoon.

City of Wonders is truly brutal. The Sa'ba Taalor aren't like normal Invaders who wish to take everything for themselves. They are butchers and the entire Fellein Empire is the fattened calf. The book feels largely hopeless as the Taalor have been forged for battle since birth while those of the Fellein have never experienced anything that could truly be called a war.

No character except perhaps the mysterious Pilgrim stands out in this book. Everyone largely stays the same except perhaps Nachia who appears to have learned fear by the book's end.

There are a few moments that are massively unexpected and I truly appreciated each of those moments. One of which had me whispering no as it was revealed. I'm glad the book didn't stop providing surprises as the fighting began in earnest.

City of Wonders was a devastating book that has me eager to see the conclusion.


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NORSE MYTHOLOGY BY NEIL GAIMAN

Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

”The Norse myths are the myths of a chilly place, with long, long winter nights and endless summer days, myths of a people who did not entirely trust or even like their gods, although they respected and feared them. As best we can tell, the gods of Asgard came from Germany, spread into Scandinavia, and then out into the parts of the world dominated by the Vikings…. In English, the gods have left their names in our days of the week. You can find Tyr the one-handed (Odin’s son), Odin, Thor and Frig, the queen of the gods, in respectively, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.”

Christianity very nearly drove the old gods of the Northmen from the face of the Earth. There was something so tangible about the pagan gods. They had personalities, fallacies, and a sense of humor that didn’t always bode well for their human worshippers. If we learned that Loki, in particular, had taken an interest in our troubles, we felt more trepidation than relief. His cunning intelligence was more often used for creating mayhem than it was providing solutions to dire problems. He was the gasoline that turned a smoldering, warm, ash heap into a raging forest fire.

Loki made enemies of everyone, which was why he had to live in a house with four doors facing each direction. He was the instigator of much of the troubles the gods found themselves facing, but he was also the one who always brilliantly conceived a plan that saved them from those troubles. Was Loki more of an asset or a liability? You will have to decide that for yourself. I do know that finding out he was not on the side of the gods in the final battle, Ragnarok, made me tremble with concern for the gods.

Who didn’t want Thor on their side? He wasn’t the brightness bulb in a chandelier, but once he entered a fight, one side breathed a sigh of relief, and the other side started fleeing for their lives. His magic belt, Megingjord, doubled his strength, but it was his hammer, Mjollnir, that made Giants, Trolls, and other gods tremble. The great, recently departed, Stan Lee mined the Old Norse tales heavily for his writing. These Norse gods were superheroes long before the term ever existed.

What would we give up to have all the wisdom of the world? Odin gave up an eye. He even plucked it from his head with his own fingers. He was the god of the gods and, according to legend, the father of us all. ”Because he was the father of the gods, and because he breathed the breath of life into our grandparents’ grandparents’ grandparents. Whether we are gods or mortals, Odin is the father of us all.”

How about this for creepy? The Death Ship, Naglfar, was made from the untrimmed fingernails of the dead. A friend of mine was once moved into a different office where he worked. He kept finding fingernail clippings in drawers, in between stacks of paper, under the desk legs, wedged behind the computer speakers, snagged in the carpet fibers. Every time he would clean a new section of his office, he would find piles of fingernail clippings to sweep up. This was all very creepy for him, but when I told him that the man those clippings belonged to had recently died, he nearly came out of his skin. Suddenly, those annoying nail clippings became eerie reminders of mortality.

Speaking of mortality: ”When the gods felt age beginning to touch them, to frost their hair or ache their joints, then they would go to Idunn. She would open her box and allow the god or goddess to eat a single apple. As they ate it, their youth and power would return to them. Without Idunn’s apples, the gods would scarcely be gods…” I don’t know about the rest of you, but I could use a bite of those Golden Apples. I’m not even greedy; just a nibble would be great.

Even the mighty Thor could be temporarily flummoxed. ”There was a giantess in the kitchen, cutting up onions as big as boulders and cabbages the size of boats. Thor could not help staring: the old woman had nine hundred heads, each head uglier and more terrifying than the last. He took a step backward.” If you were fighting a monster like this, where would you start and where would you end?

The stories that Neil Gaiman gathered together here were based on what little was left of the pagan stories of the Norse gods. Fortunately, a 13th century Icelandic saga writer named Snorri Sturluson recorded these tales in his book Prose Edda. Neil Gaiman retold them with his entertaining and illuminating prose. Check out the life of Snorri Sturluson when you get the chance. He might have written about heroes of old, but his life was equally fascinating to read about.

What stories we have were the tip of the iceberg of the stories that were originally told. Wouldn’t it be great if more of them were found? The Norse gods were mere shadows of what they were in the past.

This was a wonderful introduction to Norse Mythology. If you know very little about the old gods, this would be a great place to start. If you have some idea of the Norse legends, you would certainly benefit from reading them in Gaiman’s engaging style. I even found myself chuckling at several points...that Loki kills me every time.

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Armed and Dangerous

Abigail Roux
Dreamspinner Press
Reviewed by Nancy
2 out of 5 stars

Summary

Left alone in Baltimore after his unpredictable lover bails, Special Agent Zane Garrett takes his frustration out on everything in his path until he is ordered to Chicago to back up an undercover operative. When he gets there, though, he finds himself face to face with his wayward partner, Special Agent Ty Grady. They have to deal with the uncertainty lingering between them while they work to retrieve their intended mark, a retired hit man and CIA wet-works operative named Julian Cross.

Ty, once a marine and now an FBI hotshot, has a penchant for being unpredictable, a trait Zane can vouch for. Zane is a man who once lived for his job but has come to realize his heartbreaking past doesn’t have to overshadow his future. They're partners, friends, lovers, and the go-to team for unusual cases. With Cross and his innocuous boyfriend, Cameron Jacobs, in tow, Ty and Zane must navigate the obstacles of a cross-country trek, including TSA pat-downs, blizzards, their uncooperative prisoners, CIA kill teams, a desperate lack of sleep or caffeine, and each other. Ty and Zane are determined to get Julian Cross to DC in one piece, but it’s starting to look like it might be the last thing they do.

My Review

I think I’m done with Ty and Zane.

In this fifth book of the Cut & Run series, it seems that one half of the author duo is now going it alone. And the other half has absconded with the Ty and Zane I loved in the earlier books.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy that Ty and Zane are now at the stage of their relationship where they have found a happy equilibrium. The problem is, their behavior is so out of character, especially after Ty’s sudden departure in the last book. Forgiveness happened a little too quickly for my liking, and the excessive declarations of love, the “oh, baby’s” and humming by most of the male characters made me want to stick a fork in my eye.

Number of hums
Ty Grady – 10
Zane Garrett – 6
Julian Cross – 5
Cameron Jacobs – 2
Nick O’Flaherty – 1
Richard Burns – 1

These guys are supposed to be badass. Instead, they are sitting around talking about feelings! I miss the verbal sparring and the snarky humor of the earlier books. The action scenes, though, are as ridiculous and unrealistic as always. While I was able to overlook that before, I am unable to do so now.

“Julian struck out at him so quickly it was easy to think it was imagined. He grabbed the gun and pulled the slide, his free hand moving in a flash, and the gun fell apart in Leatherface’s hand. Julian swung at him with the slide, hitting him in the temple and dropping him in a heap.”

This scene confuses me. No matter how scrappy Julian may be, I seriously doubt he would be able to disarm a rogue CIA agent, strip the slide off his pistol and knock him unconscious. If Julian grabbed the gun to pull the slide, wouldn’t the gun be in Julian’s hand? And while many guns may be designed to be quick and easy to disassemble, they don’t just “fall apart” in someone’s hand.

Unlike earlier books where the focus was on the main couple, we are introduced to two new characters, Julian Cross (the only witness to a contract killing) who Ty and Zane must bring to DC in one piece, and his milquetoast boyfriend, Cameron Jacobs.

The lengthy road trip undertaken by these four guys while Julian and Cameron were often restrained was excruciatingly slow. I quickly tired of their banter. I skimmed through the sex scenes, which were drawn out and repetitive. Julian’s cats, Smith and Wesson, were a nice touch. I hope Ty and Zane get permanent custody.

Since I have the next book on my Kindle, I’ll probably read it. But I don’t have high expectations.

The Blasted Lands

The Blasted Lands by James A. Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Emperor is dead. Murdered in his own palace by someone he welcomed as a guest. Desh Krohan, Merros Dulver, and the soon to be named Empress Nachia Krous are preparing for war against the most dangerous force they've ever imagined.

The Blasted Lands is a slow burn of a book. I was expecting war to break out immediately, but instead this book was another build up book. Many secrets are revealed before the book ends and the conclusion is jaw dropping. I wish that conclusion came much sooner as I'm left to imagine the next book will be incredibly intense.

The characters largely remained the same in the book despite many of the main ones being given new roles. The one exception is Andover Lashk. He's been transformed from the beginning of Seven Forges. He was a victim and now he's becoming a predator. His personality itself is changing slower, but the lessons provided by the Sa'ba Taalor and the Daxar Taalor change him.

The Blasted Lands was good, the ending made it intriguing, and I'm looking forward to continuing the series.

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BLACKBIRDS BY CHUCK WENDIG

Blackbirds by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

”Miriam’s been out here for twenty minutes, and she wonders why this isn’t easier. Here she is, tight white T-shirt--a tight, white, wet T-shirt with no bra in sight--and her thumb out for a ride. Prime, Grade-A Road Trash, she thinks. And yet, nobody stops.

A Lexus speeds past.

‘You’re a dick,’ she says.

A white SUV rumbles by.

“You’re a superdick.”

A rust-fucked pickup approaches, and she thinks, this is it. Whoever’s driving this junk-bucket is sure to think he can score with this thin slip of road pussy.”

To say that Miriam Black is living on the edge is almost a laughable understatement. Here she is, standing out by the side of the road, a living breathing woman, in dire circumstances, sporting a she-must-like-it-rough black eye, and she can’t get anyone to even slow down to take a lingering, leering look at the dark smudges of her cold induced erect nipples.

What’s a girl got to do?

The white elephant of a question is, how does a woman find herself in so much trouble that even a potential rapist, stopping to spirit her away, is a relief?

As she will tell you, her body is no temple. There is no vestal virgin lurking behind the zipper of her jeans. The laws of the universe are clear: ass, grass, or gas, no one rides for free.

Her life has always been a kaleidoscope of varying degrees of trouble, but recently somebody turned the fan on high and shit started flying at her faster than she could flutter her eyelashes.

She needs some ”zen and the art of repression.”

Her boyfriend, Ashley Gaynes, who is not her boyfriend, is carrying a suitcase full of stolen meth. He is a real asshole, too.

”’I figured you might be able to push it.’

‘Me? Are you kidding?’

‘You look...like you maybe do meth. Or did.’

‘No,’ she seethes, ‘I look like I do heroin--and I don’t do that either. I have all my teeth and I don’t smell like cat piss, so don’t think I’m some basehead tweaker fuckface.’”

Yeah, he is a gem.

There is also Ingersoll, whom we will just call the Hairless Fucker, well, because he is hairless, and his two hench people, Frankie and Hannah, want and need to hurt Ashley because they want the meth back.

Miriam turns out to be a pleasant surprise. She has something that is much, much more valuable to Hairless Fucker than a suitcase full of meth, even if that meth was blue and made by Walter White. It isn’t, but if it was, it still wouldn’t be more valuable than what Miriam can do.

She can tell you when you are going to die.

Now if you are a unmitigated, unequivocal asshole like the Hairless Fucker, you know your demise is probably going to be heinous, gory, and probably have something to do with fucking somebody over.

If you can know when you are supposed to die, maybe you can avoid the whole damn thing and live to a ripe old age in the Cayman Islands.

In Miriam’s experience, ”Fate is an immovable object.” There is no changing your destiny. Your life has already been woven, and the fates are plucking the strings. ”All of our lives are just a series of events carefully orchestrated to culminate in whatever death fate has planned for us. Every moment. Every act. Every loving whisper and hateful gesture--all just another tiny cog in the clockwork ready to ring the alarm for our ultimate hour.”

There is the possibility that Miriam is wrong. What if we could change our fate by making different decisions? On the day we are supposed to be splattered all over the front of a Greyhound bus, what if we stay home, locked in the bathroom, curled up in the tub, waiting for a new day to dawn? Does the bus crash through our house and splatter us anyway? Or does the Grim Reaper find us, snickering at our feeble attempts to trick him, and we are found in the tub split from head to toe by a weapon that the coroner can’t identify because it hasn’t been used to cut wheat in a hundred years?

*Sigh*

Would you want to know?

Me, you’re asking me?

No way, no how. I want to be the most surprised person on the planet when my heart explodes in my chest, or a burst vessel sprays hard pumping blood all over my brain pan, or a meteorite blows through my head at a thousand miles an hour. Knowing the ending would certainly screw up the middle pages of my autobiography.

Miriam needs to get away, as far as she can, from the Hairless Fucker and from Ashley Gaynes. The only problem is, she can’t ever run far enough or fast enough to outrun herself. The same old face will still be staring her in the face in Milwaukee as it was in Phoenix.

You will cringe. You will laugh. Your sphincter will pucker. Your stomach will churn. Your head will ache. You will emerge from the pages of this book a different person, tasting tarnished pennies in your mouth and needing to spend the rest of the day with the shades drawn, Tom Waits on the turntable, and slowly working your way through a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Wait! Miriam?!?! Is this how I croak? Shit! No, no, for the love of Odin, don’t tell me.

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A Policy of Lies

Astrid Amara
Horns Press
Reviewed by Nancy
4 out of 4 stars

Summary

Twenty years ago, Levi Kaszeri survived a brutal rebellion on the mining colony of Tarus 9. Now as an aspiring reporter, Levi has a mission: to expose the massacre to the public, and bring the men responsible to justice.

But after a violent attack, he is rescued—then seduced—by Tiergan Seoras, a young doctor with a dangerous past and a slave tattoo.

Soon Levi finds all of his investigations leading him back to Tiergan. And he begins to fear that the best lover he's ever had may also be his worst enemy.

My Review

I bought this title because I so thoroughly enjoyed Astrid Amara’s fun, sweet, humorous and romantic stories in Tangle.

The fun begins when investigative reporter Levi Kaszeri is walking through the worst district in the city to collect a piece of evidence, a memory implant he needs to complete his story of a massacre that took place on Tarus 9, a mining colony where Levi spent his childhood and where his family was brutally murdered. He is attacked by a mugger and promptly rescued by Tiergen Seoras, a gorgeous doctor with many secrets, who runs a free clinic nearby. Their attraction is instant, and Levi finds his growing relationship with the doctor is complicated by what his investigations reveal.

There is much to like about this story. I loved the future setting and independent space colonies with domed biospheres and simulated seasons. I loved the exploration of corporate crime and abuse. I loved the fast pace and suspenseful scenes and the well-drawn secondary characters.

What frustrated me most was the character of Levi. I expected a bit more “street sense” from someone who managed to survive a brutal massacre as a child and is now working as a reporter which requires a certain amount of discretion and common sense. I was able to figure out who the bad guys were long before Levi did and I really wanted to strangle him for his stupidity. He was so obsessed with revenge for his family’s murder and his sex life that he failed to see there was another side to the story at Tiergan’s peril.

Despite its flaws, I found this story difficult to put down and look forward to more of Astrid Amara’s work.

From the Mounds

From the Mounds by James A. Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From the Mounds can be downloaded from here for free.

Tusk is a fierce warrior and a king. This is the story of how he became king.

This story was intense. Learning more detail of Tusk's story just shows how insane life is for the people of the Seven Forges and how dedicated they are to their gods. Tusk is terrifying to say it nicely.

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AMERICAN GODS BY NEIL GAIMAN

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

***Now a celebrated TV series on Starz.***

“‘I read some book about brains,’ she said. ‘My roommate had it and she kept waving it around. It was like, how five thousand years ago the lobes of the brain fused and before that people thought when the right lobe of the brain said anything it was the voice of some god telling them what to do. It’s just brains.’

‘I like my theory better,’ said Shadow.

‘What’s your theory?’

‘That back then people used to run into the gods from time to time.’”


Shadow Moon is played by Ricky Whittle. Excellent casting.

There are few experiences that will teach someone more about himself better than going to prison. It is a microcosm. It is like shoving the world into a shoebox. There are rules, not prison rules, but prisoner rules, and you better get them figured out in a hurry. It is one of the few places remaining where people really have to interact and deal with other people. Inmates learn how to cooperate, or really bad things happen.

Plenty of bad things happen anyway.

Time keeps traveling at a normal rate outside, but inside the box, this minute is the same as the last minute, and when a person emerges from prison, it is like being dropped into a different world because his brain is still shackled in place, in whatever decade he first went into prison. A person spends a lot of time with himself in lockup. They become either a better version of themselves or a horrible twisted version of who they were supposed to be.

Shadow lost his temper and lost three years. He came out of prison probably a better person than who he was going to be. He learned to ignore the bullshit and focus on what was most important...living.

The universe is not done fucking with Shadow, not by a long shot. Prison is just the beginning, the burnishing of his character. He barely has made footprints in the dusty highway of his new life when he meets a god. Like it would with any of us, it takes a while for him to really believe he has met a god. This supposed god doesn’t glow or have a thunderous voice. He is abnormal, but in a kooky uncle sort of way, who besides being weird also happens to be a con man. He is frankly...kind...of...annoying.

Gods have fallen on hard times in America.

This god needs Shadow to work for him.

“The land is vast. Soon enough, our people abandoned us, remembered us only as creatures of the old land, as things that had not come with them to the new. Our true believers passed on, or stopped believing, and we were left, lost and scared and dispossessed, to get by on what little smidgens of worship or belief we could find. And to get by as best we could.”

Christianity commits deicide. The whole convert or die thing sort of makes pagans and what would be considered alternative religion types to quickly reevaluate their level of faith in the old gods. It is easier, after all, to focus on one god than figuring out the pantheon of gods they were trying to please before the first bedraggled priest washed up on the shores of their community. Christianity simplified faith. This left all the old gods, used to receiving tasty animal sacrifices, fresh fruits, virgins, bereft of not only sustenance but also...love.

We brought these gods to America with us and then abandoned them.

The new gods who are putting the final nail in their celestial coffins are the new deities, such as internet, media, and cell phones. They hurl insults like these: “You-you’re a fucking illuminated gothic black-letter manuscript. You couldn’t be hypertext if you tried. I’m…I’m synaptic, while, while you’re synoptic…” It is hard to be insulted by a compliment, isn’t it? These new gods are even starting to chip away at the strong foothold that Christianity has on the minds of the American people. If he doesn’t watch out, JC is going to be bumming rides from truckers on the interstate and hoping for the kindness of his former people, eyes focused like zombies on the screens before them, for a handout.

Not to mention the fact that Shadow has televisions asking him, ”Do you want to see Lucy’s tits?”

I’d explain that, but it is more fun for you to find out for yourself.

Needless to say, things are dire.


Ian McShane plays Mr. Wednesday, brilliantly of course.

Shadow’s boss, Mr. Wednesday, you can probably figure out who he is, decides it is time to wipe the new kids off the block (a version of Titan vs Olympian) and seize the power the old gods so passively let slide through their fingers. Shadow is caught right in the damn middle of it. He is Odysseus in the midst of the Trojan War.

Shadow naturally asks himself, why me?

When Neil Gaiman first submitted this book for publication, his editor/publisher suggested that he cut 12,000 words out of the manuscript. If you are having deja vu feelings of The Stand by Stephen King, you are on the right fright frequency. Gaiman won a plethora of awards for American Gods, so how can you argue that the cuts weren’t a good idea? The thing is, those orphaned 12,000 words were still whispering to Gaiman, and when the decision was made to put out a tenth anniversary edition, he decided it was time to put the kids back with their parents. I would highly suggest reading the 10th anniversary edition. I do not feel the book is bloated. All the scenes are relevant to the larger arc of the plot. I would be nervous to lose the experience of reading any part of this book.

I was skeptical when I began reading this book. Gaiman introduces these gods from different cultures and does not exactly explain who any of them are, or at times he is even being cagey with their names. He is expecting a certain sophistication from his readers that is not only refreshing, but startlingly bold. I thought, in the beginning, that he has the Stephen King magic figured out with the easy accessibility of the writing and enough interesting factoids to make people feel like they are learning something as they work their way through the plot. He has those things, but he doesn’t just let us dog paddle on the surface of the water. He snags our ankles and thrusts us deeper beneath the waves to where things get dark, and we have no choice but to examine ourselves in the context of this story.

And what a pleasant surprise it has been.

”Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives.”

With books like this, we resume a richer life.

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Futureshocks

Edited by Lou Anders
Roc Books
Reviewed by Nancy
3 out of 5 stars

Summary

In this stunning collection of short fiction, 16 of today's masters of speculative fiction reveal the terrors, triumphs, and seeming impossibilities awaiting humanity in the years to come. Featuring never-before-published stories by Kevin J. Anderson, Paul Di Filippo, Alan Dean Foster, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Louise Marley, Sean McMullen, John Meaney, Paul Melko, Robert A. Metzger, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts,Mike Resnick & Harry Turtledove, Robert J. Sawyer, and Robert Charles Wilson.

My Review

Overall, an enjoyable collection of stories that offers diverse visions of the future.

★★★★★ Shuteye for the Timebroker by Paul DiFilippo – One of my favorites in this collection. An exploration of the effects of anti-somnolence drugs on a near-future society. Sure, people can increase their effectiveness and accomplish more, but there is always a price to pay.

★★ Looking Through Mother’s Eyes by John Meaney – Told from the perspective of a newborn who is aware of its own birth and the effects on both parents. Nicely written, but kind of icky. I don’t enjoy stories about pregnancy.

★★★★ The Man Who Knew Too Much by Alan Dean Foster – In the future, acquiring knowledge is as simple as downloading data directly to your brain. There is a limit, however, to how much information one’s brain can process at once. In the hands of specialists, knowledge is disseminated gradually without danger to the recipient. Some people, however, are just not satisfied and crave all the world’s knowledge much as an addict craves drugs.

★★★ The Engines of Arcadia by Sean McMullen – A man builds a time machine to escape his dull, safe life only to find that millions of years later, some things never change.

★★★★ The Pearl Diver by Caitlin R. Kiernan – Recurring dreams, the consequences of deleting unread company correspondence, and transformation. A sad and lovely story.

★★★ Before the Beginning by Mike Resnick & Harry Turtledove – A humorous story that shows why God’s chosen people have lasted so long.

★★★★ Man You Gotta Go by Adam Roberts – An AI is enlisted to help solve the problem of FTL travel. Human consciousness becomes obsolete. A little long and drawn out, but interesting and thought provoking.

★★ Homosexuals Damned, Film at Eleven by Alex Irvine – A bleak and sad story that portrays the downside of living in a theocracy. A geneticist who attempted to save the life of his son fears he may have caused his death. I may have liked this story better if it was longer and the characters more developed.

★★★★Contagion by Chris Roberson – Jaidev Hark is a Vector employed to carry data-encoded retroviruses in his blood. He lives in a society divided by castes; the higher the caste, the more they can afford protection from disease. Pursued by data-thieves, he reveals to his employer that they are looking for Panacea, the mythical (or is it?) cure of every human infirmity. In order to survive, he goes to work for the other side. This is a thought-provoking story that makes me wonder about the dreadful state of our health care system and if we will ever achieve affordability and equity.

★★★★Absalom’s Mother by Louise Marley – This hard-hitting and powerful story moved me to tears. In a society where children as young as 11 are drafted for service, a group of mothers hides their children and volunteers to go in their place. The characters are strong, rich, and vibrant.

★★★Job Qualifications by Kevin J. Anderson – Politicians have to work hard to be all things to all people. In the distant future, Berthold Ossequin’s clones help to make him a more suitable candidate for grand chancellor of the United Cultures of Earth.

★★★★The Teosinte War by Paul Melko – After reading Melko’s novel, The Walls of the Universe, I knew I could count on him to write a fun and thought-provoking story about the bad things that could happen when an ambitious professor uses an MWD to mess around in other universes and involves his TA, Ryan Greene. Though Ryan is kind of a jerk, he is ultimately a sympathetic character as he witnesses one disaster after another and learns that one can’t play God.

★★Slip by Robert A. Metzger – Getting what you ask for doesn’t always result in a positive outcome.

★★All’s Well at World’s End by Howard V. Hendrix – Memory erasure, annihilation. It would have been more interesting if too many scientific terms hadn’t made my eyes glaze over.

★★★★Flashes by Robert J. Sawyer – Unlimited information from a technically advanced alien planet renders human knowledge and theories obsolete. This gripping and sad little story explores the dire consequences of information overload.

★★★★The Cartesian Theater by Robert Charles Wilson – A performance artist uses advanced technology to duplicate living creatures. This chilling story explores life, death, and the question of the soul’s existence.

Scars

Scars by James A. Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Read Scars here for free

While Wollis March escorted the people of the Seven Forges to the Empire, they discussed their scars. I wish I could write more, but that's basically all that happened.

2.5 out of 5 stars

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