Dark Fire (book one) Whispers, secrets, and tales of ghosts abound in Pine Forest, but new librarian Erin Greenway doesn't believe in goblins. Yet the Victorian monstrosity she works in creaks and groans and speaks of horrible secrets she cannot deny. When the mysterious Scot, Lachlan Tavish claims to be chasing a thousand year old vampire, his dark, dangerous looks make her wonder if he's the hunter or the hunted. Views: 31
Something exciting has been happening in modern SF. After decades of confusion, many of the field's best writers have been returning to the subgenre called, roughly, "hard SF"-science fiction focused on science and technology, often with strong adventure plots. Now, World Fantasy Award-winning editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer present an immense, authoritative anthology that maps the development and modern-day resurgence of this form, argues for its special virtues and present preeminence-and entertains us with some spectacular storytelling along the way.
Included are major stories by contemporary and classic names such as Poul Anderson, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, Ben Bova, David Brin, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Greg Egan, Joe Haldeman, Nancy Kress, Paul Levinson, Paul McAuley, Frederik Pohl, Alastair Reynolds, Kim Stanley Robinson, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder, Charles Sheffield, Brian Stableford, Allen Steele, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, and Vernor Vinge.
The Hard SF Renaissance will be an anthology that SF readers return to for years to come.
**Amazon.com Review
Edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer, The Hard SF Renaissance (2002) is a thematic sequel to their 1994 anthology The Ascent of Wonder. The first anthology argued that "[t]here has been a persistent viewpoint that hard [science fiction] is somehow the core and the center of the SF field." The Hard SF Renaissance asserts that hard SF has truly become the heart of the genre and supports its assertion by assembling nearly a thousand pages of short stories, novelettes, and novellas originally published between the late 1980s and early 2000s. A different theory says hard SF stories are engineering puzzles disguised as fiction; The Hard SF Renaissance repudiates this theory in regard to modern hard SF. Most of the selections have strong prose and rounded characters, several are classics, and gadget-driven clunkers are mercifully few.
Contributors to The Hard SF Renaissance range from SF gods like Poul Anderson, Arthur C. Clarke, and Frederik Pohl; to promising newcomers like Alastair Reynolds, Karl Schroeder, and Peter Watts; and to acclaimed SF writers not usually associated with hard SF, like James Patrick Kelley, Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, and Michael Swanwick.
You may have noticed the lack of women in that list. It reflects the book: the 30-odd contributors (some with two stories) include only three women (Nancy Kress, Joan Slonczewski, and Sarah Zettel, with one story each). Some eyebrow-elevating omissions are Eleanor Arnason, Catherine Asaro, Nicola Griffith, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Connie Willis, all of whom have written hard SF stories in the period covered by The Hard SF Renaissance. They've certainly written SF harder than the book's implicit definition (the book reprints Kim Stanley Robinson's fine story "Sexual Dimorphism," in which fossil DNA serves as a metaphor for the protagonist's failing relationship; a few cosmetic changes and this SF story would be mainstream). The absence of several crucial authors makes The Hard SF Renaissance a less-than-definitive anthology of late-20th-century hard SF. --Cynthia Ward
From Library Journal
From Paul McAuley's tale of runaway technology ("Gene Wars") to Gregory Benford's story of evolution and murder ("Immersion"), the 41 stories in this annotated anthology provide a strong argument for the revival of hard sf as a major force in the genre in the 1990s. Showcasing short fiction by veteran sf authors like Kim Stanley Robinson, Joe Haldeman, Bruce Sterling, Nancy Kress, Ben Bova, and Arthur C. Clarke, the collection charts the emergence of trends in the genre. Primary among them are the movement away from a conservative, pro-military route and toward a more liberal-minded science, as well as the rising prominence of British and Australian authors. Each story is prefaced by brief commentaries that continue the arguments posited in the general introduction. For libraries wanting a definitive collection of hard sf written since 1990, this is a priority purchase. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 31
My aunt says if you smell butter on a foggy night you're getting ready to fall in love.For the last twenty years, the beautiful Verdi Mae has led a comfortable life with Rowe, the conservative professor who rescued her from addiction when she was an undergrad. But her world is about to shift when the smell of butter lingers in the air and Johnson -- the boy from the back streets of Philadelphia who pulled her into the fire of passion and all the shadows cast from it -- returns to town.In "this story of self-discovery that moves seamlessly between the early 1970s and early 1990s" (Publishers Weekly starred review), acclaimed writer Diane McKinney-Whetstone takes readers into a world of erotic love, drugs, and political activism, and beautifully illustrates the struggle to reconcile passion with accountability and the redemptive powers of love's rediscovery. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into... Views: 31
Author's Note: This book is written in the style of an oral history, a form which requires interviewing a wide variety of witnesses and compiling their testimony. Anytime multiple sources are questioned about a shared experience, it's inevitable for them occasionally to contradict each other. For additional biographies written in this style, please see Capote by George Plimpton, Edie by Jean Stein, and Lexicon Devil by Brendan Mullen. Views: 31
E.R. nurse Ella Majors has seen all the misery that she can handle. Burned-out and unsure of her next step, she accepts the temporary position as caregiver to Marion Henderson, a frightened five-year-old who suffers from juvenile diabetes.But Ella soon realizes there is more sorrow in the isolated home than the little girl's illness can account for. Harris Henderson, a single father, seems better able to deal with the wild birds he rehabilitates in his birds-of-prey sanctuary than with his own daughter.Then something magical begins to happen: the timeless beauty of the South Carolina coast and the majestic grace of the wild birds weave a healing spell on the injured hearts at the sanctuary. But a troubled mother's unexpected return will test the fragile bonds of trust and new love, and reveal the inherent risks and exhilarating beauty of flying free. Views: 31
Inspired by Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, this book, which Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum wrote under the pen name Edith Van Dyne, is much in the same vein as Alcott's cozy coming-of-age tale. The first in a series, the story of this novel follows three nieces who are summoned to their wealthy aunt's estate so she can decide to whom she will bequeath her sizable inheritance. Although the girls couldn't be more different personality-wise, a series of calamities brings them closer together. Aunt Hane's Nieces is a delightful read for fans of classic young adult fiction. Views: 30
Giving up my socialite life to get a real job writing a society column for a Philadelphia paper hasn't worked out as well as I hoped. The developers still want to turn the Blackbird estate into an outlet mall. My eccentric sisters are convinced I need a dog, a baby or a keeper. And now I'm falling hard for a Jersey tough guy with criminal connections. On top of my family feuding, one of the city's nouveau riche has just been murdered, and I could be a prime suspect. What would Emily Post do?
When a high society jewel thief winds up drowned at the bottom of a pool with a tacky garden gnome tied to her ankles, Nora must swing into action to save her old flame, Flan Cooper, from a hasty murder charge. A politically ambitious millionaire with hushed up secrets, a dotty grand dame with a penchant for polo teams, and a cat fancier who keeps a gun with his silver tea set all steer suspicion onto Nora herself. It's enough to make the bluebloods turn pale! Nora must find the killer on her own or risk trading her grandmother's couture for an orange jumpsuit. All in an ex-débutante's day's work, Nora. All in a day's work. Views: 30
-an Oregon Firebirds romance story- The Oregon Firebirds are the very best at one thing—saving homes. Finding their own poses problems. Drew Shaw and Amos Berkowitz could be twins. They laugh like twins, they tease each other like twins, and they're both wildland firefighting helicopter pilots from the Big Apple and proud of it. Except Drew hails from New York's Upper West Side, while Amos prides himself on his Brooklyn heritage. Julie and Natalie Falcone are twins. And after a season fighting fires as Hotshots the last thing they want to tangle with are the likes of Drew and Amos. But one fire leads to another and then the heat really starts to build. Enjoy this heartwarming conclusion to the Oregon Firebirds short story series. Views: 30
Andrea's life is pretty close to perfect-she's the leading scorer on her soccer team, has great friends, and can't wait to start a new school year. Then her parents ruin everything by announcing that the family is moving to Scotland for a whole year! When Andrea gets there, she has to deal with a haunted castle, her stuttering problem, and some tough new soccer friends-who might not accept that the boy she is crushing on plays for a rival team. It's a perfect middle-grade tale of friendship, sports, and first love. Views: 30
