Review: FEVER HOUSE by Keith Rosson.

Release August 15, 2023

At times I am stunned by a novel; at other times I'm metaphorically head-scratching and mouthing, "Whattttt?" I've read a huge number of Weird books over many decades--but this one? I don't know what to say! These two days as I read, I've commented a couple times on social media as to how off-the-wall is Fever House. Reading this novel induced fever in me [as in its characters], thankfully not the same nor to the massive Apocalyptic extent that occurs in the Novel. I feel like I need to go read some simple, mundane, implacable Creature Feature in order to cleanse my stunned and speechless palate.

So here's what I think:

I am constantly shaking my head, because this book is SO bizarre, it's flat-out Weird, it's hard-core Splattery, and it's just so OUT THERE, because the geographical settings are realistic, the cultural background is in tune, Societal stuff resonates, yet beyond,below, and above all that is all-fired Occult Weird! Not that I necessarily think anything Occult is weird, I've been reading such all my life, but this? I think even Aleister Crowley might pale.

I certainly have. Beware before you even open this book: you, and these characters, will NOT emerge the same as you went in. Not at all, and not where.

Review: INTERSTELLAR by Avi Loeb

INTERSTELLAR is a tremendously inspirational, exciting, adventurous, forward-thinking work of Science nonfiction . Dr. Avi Loeb is a genius scientist, in my opinion, and even more importantly, his mind is open. Much of his convictions closely resonate with and encourage my own. (My only point of exception is his thought that Science Fiction as a genre has tended to be utilized as a backdrop to play familiar tropes. I think not, as there are a number of writers, past and present, who diligently explore "the big questions," which creates the most exciting kind of SF, I think.) In all other respects I have intense respect for INTERSTELLAR and I am eager to read his earlier work, EXTRATERRESTRIAL [speaking of mainstream publications rather than Scientific and Academic publications].

Review: RUSTED SYNAPSE by Elwood Stevens

Wow! Packed to the brim with exciting mecha-laden adventure, Near-Future Science Fiction, globetrotting (Future Phoenix, to a tech enclave community in Mexico, to Shanghai, to rural abandoned Japan, and back to Phoenix), this Cyberpunk Thriller is heart-in-throat engrossing! We have "full on borgs," AI, "Sentient Daemons," (basically, the Super-Advanced Supreme AI "everybody" seems to fear, sort of like HAL), partially cybernetic individuals, groups of humans who full-on embrace Cybernetics and prostheses [remember the latter 20th century craze for teeth filed into vampire fangs and drinking blood?]. I learned a lot about Quantum Computers, AI, combat synchronization, and geography and culture. But also I think I have seldom been as heart-touched as I was by Vivi, and her lifelong struggle to be deemed worthy by those who mattered most to her: my heart ❤ broke. What a sad existence in her perception, and yet she is so accomplished. It's amazing how deeply author Elwood Stevens delved into Vivi's character to reach "the heart of the matter," and also engrossing are the arcs and evolution of the other characters (and certain tricky, sneaky, characters I won't spoil by naming, who have a heap of nasty tricks up their sleeve). I could reread again and again. (And since AI and Quantum subjects are a fascination, I probably will.)

Review: EVOLUTION by Stephen Baxter

674 pages. 5 days to read. An incredibly detailed examination of genetics, mutation and adaptation, biology, geology, geography, from back before the Dinosaur Era up into the Near Future [2130 and beyond]. Author Stephen Baxter demonstrates by fictionalizing individually and in groups (tribes and species) various different eras as the planet and life on the planet evolved. I found the utterly detailed description of the destruction wrought by the Comet ending the Dinosaur 🦕 Era horrifying and painful to read; but "watching" the Evolution of Consciousness in humans was intriguing and educational. My other takeaway was how much the human species over all these millenia has to answer for: not just the fossil fuel consumption and thinning of the ozone layer in the 20th and 21st century: also throughout time, wanton wholesale destruction of species, burning entire forests as a routine method of hunting! True that climate change and geological change occurred apart from Humanity, but the human species has repeatedly failed to live in harmony with its only available Planet.

Review: DEVOLUTION by Max Brooks (2020)

I really was ecstatic at the premise of DEVOLUTION [Mount Rainier! Eruption! Covert Cryptids!] (I'm one who spends time pondering a potential Yellowstone eruption, so the quantity of active volcano potential [18] in the Cascades is really exciting--and terrifying! 😳) Anyway, the novel got off to a good start and kept my attention for the most part, although eventually it did seem somewhat overwhelming (this from a person who gleefully devours "Hard Science" Science Fiction). I can actually feature a sequel at some point: there's definitely some threads that could be picked up on, cultural, psychological, and In terms of evolution, both that of the cryptids and that of the human survivors. Also, I wish that the devolution and psychological and moral collapse of certain of the human party could have been expanded on. That would have really impressed me. I think there was a strong thread of that about which we just didn't learn enough. 🤔 In addition, the explication of the Cryptids as descendants of a prehistoric branch of evolution is fascinating. (Inquiring minds want more!)

Review: RED MOON by Kim Stanley Robinson. TBR Pile Challenge #9

Kim Stanley Robinson's RED MOON 🌙 [2018] is a complicated, complex, fascinating novel, very politically and scientifically aware. It also reprises some characters from his incredible 1997 novel, ANTARCTICA, including Chinese Feng Shui philosopher and poet (and "Cloudstar" for his Internet travelogue musings) Ta Shu, who is a perfect character: both Wise (intensely), calm, able to see more than one side of a situation, Poetic and accomplished in the study and practice of Feng Shui, a "geomancer." Yet he is also vulnerable and accountable: his age, his attachment to his mother, his physical ailments due to age and extensive travel, his compassion for the book's Feckless Heroes: American Neurodivergent Quantum Mechanic specialist Fred Fredericks and Moon-pregnant [Forbidden] "princessling" Chinese resistance leader Chang Qi. Although laden with political musings and cultural and historical references [China] and Geopolitics [particularly in China and the U.S.], RED MOON is also non-stop adventure...and the cliffhanger! ending left me longing for a sequel! (It's almost 5 years since Release of RED MOON!)

Review: ICEHENGE by Kim Stanley Robinson

An exciting novel, the first Martian novel by Kim Stanley Robinson, which commences and concludes with Space Exploration (Asteroid Belts to Pluto, not quite "A to Z"). Told in three segments, a few centuries separate, ICEHENGE has a strongly political/social foundation, reflecting not only the political/cultural climate on Colonized Mars (the story's baseline) but also that of the U. S. and Soviet Union in the 20th century. ICEHENGE showcases how readily human foibles and frailties persist, even in adventurous new frontiers. It also reflects on the importance of Truth, in the Sciences and in life, despite the human tendency to twist Truth according to greed, political or religious ideology. In some ways it is reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984, as the Powers That Be metaphorically turn themselves upside down to present their version of Truth and to conceal or to destroy all opposing versions.

Review: SUNSTORM by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter

CHALLENGE #7 I am reading the A TIME ODYSSEY Series by Sir Arthur C. Clarke in consecutive order, as the Cosmic foundational revelations unfold throughout the Series. Book One, TIME'S EYE, relates the folding of divergent strips of Time (from differing eras) and the presence of these self-supporting globes the humans term "Eyes." So we have 2037, 1885, astronauts from the International Space Station, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, sharing suddenly the same fold of Time and interacting; not so much on actual Earth, as on a proto-Earth onto to which Time has been folded, changing geography and geology. This world the humans (of 2037 and 1885) term Mir.

Book Two, SUNSTORM, continues to unfold the plans of the Firstborn, a species of Minds from a far distant Galaxy and from Untold Eons ago. Their plan is to stop humanity's energy consumption and was set into place before Homo Sapiens scarcely existed.

The consequence is a Sunstorm of inexplicable and unprecedented proportions, which likely will destroy ALL life on Earth (except heat-seeking extremophiles in the Earth's core) as well as farther distant planets in our Solar System.

Review: JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR [THE AFTERBLIGHT CHRONICLES] 2014

Reading this collection in mid-2023 is a total freakout; published in 2014, the book yet feels like the product, not of a throwback to England's mid-17th century Great Plague, but to Coronavirus, which commenced toward the end of 2019 and shook up civilization globally (and which is still affecting life and economy).

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR collects three stories set during "the Cull," the tremendous pandemic that nearly wipes out humanity and definitely ends "the world as we know it."

"Orbital Decay": Isolation is a recognized psychological factor for the crew of the International Space Station. Worse occurs when all contact with Ground Control is lost, no one can check up on loved ones nor know when a resupply is scheduled. Even worse than that is paranoia and conspiracy and suspicion run rampant: who can be trusted? Then the deaths mount up...

"Dead Kelly": imagine a Mad Max scenario cranked to the max: when civilization collapses, only the soulless will rule.

"Bloody Deluge": And when civilization is gone and survival is all, yet there will be some determined to victimize according to their own skewed views. Why attempt to rebuild civilization when anarchy and murder are so much more exciting?

JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR is an entry in THE AFTERBLIGHT CHRONICLES Series.