Science Fiction Reviews

After The Snow

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Rating: ★★★★☆

Fifteen-year-old Willo was out hunting when the trucks came and took his family away. Left alone in the snow, Willo becomes determined to find and rescue his family, and he knows just who to talk with to learn where they are. He plans to head across the mountains and make Farmer Geraint tell him where his family has gone.

But on the way across the mountain, he finds Mary, a refugee from the city, whose father is lost and who is starving to death. The smart thing to do would be to leave her alone — he doesn’t have enough supplies for two or the time to take care of a girl — but Willo just can’t do it. However, with the world trapped in an ice age, the odds of them surviving on their own are not good. And even if he does manage to keep Mary safe, what about finding his family?

In a post-apocalyptic world plunged into an ice age after a period of dramatically shifting climate society is coming unglued. On the outskirts of this society, independent and surviving on their own, lives Willo and his family. They eke out an existence in a world turned cold by hunting, trapping and working what little farm land there is in the very brief spring and summer. Willo has gone half-savage in many ways. He wears the skull of a dog on his head, doesn’t read very much or very well, and spends most of his days out setting traps in the freezing, driving snow with an instinct for hunting honed from growing up in the midst of an ice age. It’s the only world he has ever known.

Robopocalypse

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Rating: ★★★★★

In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense, and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a “pacification unit” go haywire – but more are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

When the Robot War ignites – at a moment later known as Zero Hour – humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us… and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.

At first the idea seemed too far fetched and a little hokey. In the style of 1950′s science fiction the by-line on the back read: “They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies… Now they’re coming for you.” But when I cracked open the cover I was immediately sucked into a post-robopocalyptic world where humans and robots were fighting a final battle to determine who would have dominion over the earth. The story from start to finish was intense, horrifying, and kept me turning pages needing to find out what happened next. Robopocalypse is a thriller that keeps an incredibly tight and fast paced plot while managing to span several human resistance groups around the globe. It also manages to both be bone chillingly horrifying in this fight against impossible odds and yet still display rays of hope in the fight for humanity.

Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 24

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Rating: ★★★★★

In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies… the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.

Hohenheim finally get his chance to stop the mysterious homunculus “father” who rules over Central City. Will Hohenheim’s surprise be enough to defeat the most powerful homunculus of them all? And when King Bradley makes a triumphant return, will the battle turn in the military’s favor…?

The finale continues in Volume 24 as Hohenheim confronts the dwarf in the flask, now a powerful homunculus striving for more, hoping to end this last battle before it has a chance to truly begin. The surprise Hohenheim has up his sleeve is both awe inspiring amazing and completely heartbreaking. What the dwarf in the flask has up his sleeve though might prove too much for Hohenheim to face alone.

Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 23

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Rating: ★★★★★

In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies… the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.

As the battle for Central City rages on, Alphonse faces off against Pride and Kimblee with the aid of a Philosopher’s Stone. Can he come up with a plan to take down these two dangerous foes? Meanwhile, Ed and his friends run into Envy below the city. When Roy Mustang learns the truth about Hughes’s murder, will he be consumed by hatred and do the unthinkable…?

Everyone is in the thick of battle now and all of the characters are really showing what they are capable of under pressure. Alphonse has to face a difficult moral decision in his battle against Pride. Various others in this city either face off against the zombie army within or wage an information campaign without to get the people of Central city to understand they are under attack from their own government. But the main focus of this volume is the showdown between Mustang and Hughes’s murderer Envy.

Caliban’s Hour

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Rating: ★★★½☆

Are magic and romance really so separate? In this rich fantasy novel, Tad Williams–New York Times bestselling author of To Green Angel Tower–explores the tangled roots of sorcery and passion, and gives us an astonishing answer. Caliban is the Beast who finds in Prospero’s daughter, Miranda, the Beauty to whom he tells his incredible story–an extraordinary tale of dark desires and shining wizardry.

I’ve been on a bit of a Shakespeare kick recently and so I was surprised to stumble across this book, Caliban’s Hour by one of my favorite authors Tad Williams. It is a short novella written from the point of view of Caliban giving his history and version of events from the play The Tempest. For those familiar with his work his novels tend to be on the longish side, and so to read a book only 200 pages long was interesting to say the least. Especially since the entire book is just a single night with Caliban cornering Prospero’s daughter Miranda and pouring out his whole life story with the intent of killing her at the end, but first making her understand why.