On the surface, Don Braden's novel Beyond Mystique is good, classic space opera. However, lurking in the pages is an exploration of what makes humans special and what capacities we possess that will allow us to reach the stars. On top of that, it's a seriously engaging read that I simply couldn't put down.
Escaping the planet Molx, Commander Carpenter discovers that the colony ship Marco P and its computer have been commandeered by an external power. He cancels plans to continue on to their intended destination until they regain control of their ship. Backup Navigator Maelstrom, who had destroyed her computer interface to free the colonists from Molx, believes that she can navigate without computer assistance.. With help from the race that aided Earth's expansion into the galaxy, the Marco P can finally proceed. However, the power that commandeered their computer still lurks on their path. What's more, Carpenter and his crew learn…
Lyn McConchie is a solid, established fantasy author who has written books alongside Andre Norton and it shows in this great collection of weird western short stories, each one filled with great characters. Short story collections don't often pull you along from tale to tale, but this one did for me. Some of Lyn's tales had more of a steampunk tone. Others were ghost stories. Still others involved creatures passing between dimensions. All of them were set in the wild west. I really wanted to see what happened as we moved along from story to story.
If you travel west, you can go around the globe as many times as you like and you may never reach the far side.
However, if you go to the wild places in the west, you may find the far side closer than you think. You might find a family of werewolves over the next ridge, or a portal to a new world. Those wild places don't always exist where and when you think they should. Visit a place like Bodie, Arizona and the far side of the wild west may be quite close at hand. Take a trip to…
I've been a fan of Mary Shelley ever since I read Frankenstein, but this was the first time I read her novel The Last Man. I was blown away by this eighteenth century novel which imagines life in the twenty-first century. To me, it really cemented Shelley as the writer who really invented science fiction as we know it.
With an Introduction and Notes by Dr Pamela Bickley, The Godolphin and Latymer School, formerly of Royal Holloway, University of London.
The Last Man is Mary Shelley's apocalyptic fantasy of the end of human civilisation. Set in the late twenty-first century, the novel unfolds a sombre and pessimistic vision of mankind confronting inevitable destruction. Interwoven with her futuristic theme, Mary Shelley incorporates idealised portraits of Shelley and Byron, yet rejects Romanticism and its faith in art and nature.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851) was the only daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft, author of Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and the radical…
Two years ago on a stormy night, in the dead of winter, Mike Teter experienced something that would change his life forever. Mike was a telescope operator at the world renowned Carson Peak Observatory in New Mexico. We won’t tell you what he saw that night on the mountain nor what happened afterward on a dark stretch of highway, because it would haunt you just as it has haunted Mike. But what we will tell you is that Mike is back at Carson Peak. And what he witnessed that night two years ago is about to become a reality…
