In 2054, the world is a very different place, but not so far removed from the society we know today. Technology has improved in leaps and bounds with holography andcomputer intelligence, social studies has taken slightly different leanings, the government is a bit more corrupt, and homosexuality has been deemed illegal. A war is brewing between France and Germany, and skin cancer is on the rise. All this is overshadowed, however, when Professor Aurora “Rory” Bell, an astronomer with the University of Florida at Gainesville makes a stunning discovery. An alien object has appeared out of nowhere, traveling near the speed of light. Its destination: Earth. Date of arrival: Jaunary 1st, 2055. Its message: “We’re coming.” Nothing else.

Overnight, the worldbegins to spin out of control, and a rich ensemble of characters take the stage to present an intensely human, personal drama about the end of the world as we know it, the fear of the unknown, and the anticipation of what humanity dubs, “The Coming.” With three months until the alien ship arrives, people prepare in different ways, embracing science, religion, fear, and hope. Rory and her musician husband Norman struggle to stay together as outside forces try to tear them apart. Political pressure coming from as far on high as the President herself seeks to silence Rory, or usurp her vision into a political and military advantage. Criminal elements seek to take advantage of the commotion, looking to blackmail the couple over Norman’s proclivities, an affair of passion that, if revealed, could destroy their careers. Meanwhile, Rory’s colleague may not be all that he seems, another is perfectly willing to sell her out, and everyone has a different opinion on what to do with the aliens. Embrace them? Destroy them?

As the Coming draws closer, war seems imminent, a shocking development cripples the American government, and the aliens’ power demonstrates their overwhelming superiority. But is it all just an elaborate hoax, as some suspect, or are the aliens for real? Or is the truth even stranger than that? The answers will come only on January 1st, when they make their first -and last, maybe- appearance.

The Coming is without a doubt Haldeman’s best book in quite a while, combining a keen grasp of social politics with a thorough understanding of human nature. This isn’t so much a story of aliens or First Contact, as it is a story about people, and how they react. Utilizing a subtle, yet effective literary technique of linking narratives, in which each character hands off to the next as they encounter, talk to, deal with, and observe one another, Haldeman places the reader in the distinctly unique perspectives of over a dozen different people. And while some roles are less than others, they nevertheless serve as cunning links between events and experiences. Rory hands off to reporter Daniel Jordan who gives over to Normal Bell, who bumps into mobster Willy Joe Capra, who observes reporter Marya Washington conducting an interview on the ‘cube’, who meets Rory’s assistant Pepe Parker, who’s in the room when Rory gets a call from Gainesville’s Mayor, and so forth, round-robining to tell a complete story about humanity.

Ultimately, The Coming manages to throw just enough curve balls to make the ending both unpredictable and not as obvious as it seems, just enough questions left unanswered to cast doubt on even the most concrete of character conclusions. But what’s genuine is the message delivered at the end, and the process in which characters and readers alike get there. Sharply told, easily grasped without a PhD in physics, with believable characters and a plausible plot, this is a highly satisfying book, one that was over far too soon.
While Haldeman has delivered books in the same vein before, with Forever Free and Forever Peace both dealing with the ideas of humanity, war, and peace, this is by far a superior story. This is definitely a don’t miss for any reader of science fiction.

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Syne Mitchell’s second book takes us to the near future, where society has evolved and rarefied until everything that matters takes place on the Net. People are almost permanently connected by various technological means, rendering privacy obsolete. They’re constantly bombarded by information, advertisements, messages and entertainment. So what happens when someone is cut off from that society? That’s the question answered by expert data miner Jasmine Reese. When her equipment fails, she’s unexpectedly left stranded in a world that no longer welcomes the disconnected. Then she receives an ominous message, regarding something known as “The Beast.” Now she’s caught up in a bizarre conspiracy, sent to investigate the potential existence of a dangerous Artificial Intelligence, manipulated into infiltrating a dangerous organization. What she does could change the world… or destroy civilization. But does she have the right, or the knowledge, to make the choice? Intriguing and surprising, Technogenesis is another pleasing offering from a relatively new author.

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Dr Cherijo Grey Veil Torin has had an eventful couple of years, ever since she escaped her tyrannical, overbearing father, the famed surgeon Joseph Grey Veil, and fled Earth once and for all. In that time, she’s served as doctor to dozens of alien species, and dealt with things even her father would have been hard-pressed to handle. She’s experienced war, plague, and slavery, been adopted by an alien Clan, found and lost love, and journeyed into uncharted territories. But nothing at all has prepared her for the adventures ahead, as Shockball, the fourth book in the Stardoc series, takes her back to the one place she never wanted to see again: home.

It was bad enough realizing the extent of Joseph Grey Veil’s diabolical manipulations and unethical genetic experimentation, which gave Cherijo her uncanny skills, her heightened abilities, and her enhanced healing factor. It was worse when she found out just what she truly was, and to what lengths Joseph would go in order to have her back. There was now war between the Galactic League and the alien Hsktskt, all because Joseph Grey Veil didn’t care who got hurt. But Cherijo and her new husband, Duncan Reever, were free at last from the Machiavellian mechinations of the good doctor, and on their way to new worlds. That is, until treachery and a surprise attack rip Cherijo and Duncan from safety, and deliver them back to Earth, and into Joseph’s clutches, for the next stage in a decades-old plan.

Rescued from Joseph’s fortress-like estate and given sanctuary among the Night Horse, a tribe of underground dwelling Najaho and alien-human hybrids, Cherijo and Duncan quickly discover the double-edged sword that makes the Night Horse just as dangerous as Joseph. Rico, their violent and unpredictable leader, forces Cherijo to become the tribe’s new healer, and Duncan to play as a member of the tribe’s “shockball” team, in a sport known for a high injury and mortality rate, but oh so popular nonetheless.

Now it’s up to Cherijo to play Rico off against Joseph, save the tribe from a mysterious and deadly disease, protect her husband from an untimely and nasty death, avoid the clutches of the Terran World government which wants her dead for her “father’s” sins, and still come out alive. In the process, she’ll discover her true purpose in existing, reveal long-hidden secrets about the family she’s never known, and utilize every inch of her capabilities. Because if she’s not quick or smart enough, Duncan will be the first of hundreds,
even thousands to die.

Shockball might be the fourth in the series, but it’s as open and accessible to new readers as any book really can be, catching everyone up to speed and laying out the complex and convoluted relationships without dropping into awkward expository or holding up the action. While it’s always nice to read a series in order, the casual reader won’t be lost if they start with this book. Dr. Cherijo Torin is capable, strong, and resourceful, but possesses enough vulnerability to make her victories the struggle they should be, and the stakes are personal enough that she can’t afford to lose, which makes her a thoroughly engaging protagonist and provides a compelling point of view. While the villains of the piece, Rico and Joseph, may strut around twisting their moustaches and declaiming their fiendish plans to a helpless heroine, rest assured that more lies beneath the surface, and closer examination makes everything fall into place by the end.

S.L. Viehl has once again delivered a fast-paced story with enough twists and turns to turn it into a roller coaster; once it hits that certain point, there’s no stopping the action. And while the main characters might survive to the next book, no one’s survival is written in stone, as she capably demonstrates throughout the series. Hopefully, the fifth book in the Stardoc series will clear up some of the lingering questions that have been raised and entertained, but overall, the gradual revelations have been perfectly placed along the way. Intelligent and sharp, this is a book worth checking out, especially for fans of James White’s Hospital Station series.

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Welcome to the year 2039. Earth’s a nice place to be. A little more advanced, a little wiser, a little more civilized. Their first starship, the GSS Lifespring, is about to make a historic first contact with the distant planet, Kilvan. It’s a mission of peace, the open hand of friendship, and a chance to build a bridge of diplomatic relationships between the two races. For Kilvan is a lovely, peaceful planet, whose name means “tranquil” in a long-dead language. As far as anyone can tell, there’s no reason to expect anything other than a warm welcome. That’s why it comes as quite a surprise when Kilvan fires several missiles across the Lifespring’s bow and politely asks them to leave.

In true Earth style, our response is to leave for the moment. But, now that we’ve made contact with another race, a potentially hostile one, we can’t let the matter rest. It’s to that end that the USS Forlorn Hope and its brave crew are sent back to give peace a second chance … and if that fails, nuke Kilvan before they can come after us. But appearances aren’t what they seem. Kilvan’s a genuinely friendly world, a world of leisure, centuries ahead of us in technology but equally advanced in a pursuit of creature comforts. It’s not their fault they’re having a bad year, attitude-wise. It’s just something in the atmosphere. The only problem is, the arrival of the Forlorn Hope is about to coincide with the worst day Kilvan’s had in three hundred years….

In Second Contact, J.D. Austin (a psudonym for Joshua Dann, better known for his popular Timeshare trilogy) takes all of the old “First Contact” cliches, stabs them in the back, and shoves them into a dark closet, and locks the door securely afterwards. This book, pointedly tongue-in-cheek, possesses a certain wry humor that pokes fun at all the grim and solemn conventions of making contact with alien races, delivering its observations through the eyes of humans and Kilvans alike in a manner calculated to coax a laugh from the reader when they least expect it. It’s not a serious book, but one rich in characterization and filled with a certain warmth, making it a pleasant, albeit quick, read. Kilvan comes off not so much as an alien environment as it does a world modeled after the best beach resorts and Parisien cafes, with advanced technology thrown in for good measure. So if you’re in the mood for an easy, somewhat amusing read to kill the afternoon or cleanse the palate between sprawling space operas and scientifically-accurate explorations of Mars, this is the book for you.

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More than five hundred years from now, mankind has finally left Earth behind, recreating itself in a hundred different ways to deal with the rigors of space, the inhospitality of alien planets, the dissatisfaction with their original form. As immense starships called lighthuggers ply their trade between planets, traveling at the speed of light so that even a short journey might cover decades, as the colonists of Yellowstone continue to recover from the Melding Plague which joined flesh and machine with disastrous results, and as people enter the planetary oceans of the Pattern Jugglers to have the inconceivably alien micro-organisms rearrange their minds to achieve new levels of thinking, a billion-year old secret is about to be uncovered at long last. And we’ll finally know just why we’re all alone in the universe. Why our calculations, postulating the existence of other spacefaring races, have been wrong.

Revelation Space is a complex space opera, taking place on truly mindboggling levels, the narrative itself spanning decades, the overall story covering billions of years. While it starts off with the relatively small quest of archaeologist Dan Sylveste as he attempts to unravel the secrets of the Amaratin civilization, dead for over nine hundred thousand years, it soon expands to reveal a far greater complexity and scope. Sylveste’s quest takes on Ahab-like proportions as he pursues the answers to his questions at any expense. Joining him are mercenary-turned-assassin Ana Khouri, caught up in the enigmatic manipulations of a woman known only as The Mademoiselle, and Ilya Volyva, part of the cyborg crew of the lighthugger Nostalgia For Infinity. Their separate quests start decades and planets apart, and all come together over the planet Resurgam, once home of the avian-descended Amaratin. Battling betrayal from within and without, facing off against the Mademoiselle’s scheme to have Sylveste assassinated, the bizarre transformation afflicting the captain of the Nostalgia For Infinity, the malevolent and legendary Sun Stealer, these unlikely heroes will journey light-years to discover the awful truth behind the Amaratin annihilation, a truth just waiting to destroy us as well.

Planet-destroying weapons. Brain-altering micro-organisms. Murderous alien artifacts. Gigantic starships suffering from disuse and neglect. A billion-year-old war between the stars. Transformations on the micro and macro levels for humanity. Thinking absolutely nothing of traveling for decades to reach a destination. Aliens who truly think in ways we can’t begin to comprehend. These are just some of the trappings of this densely plotted, multi-layered novel, which more than lives up to the potential of the genre, and breathes new life into it to boot. While it may be hard to see how it all fits together in the beginning, the full picture lies revealed at the end, the threads woven together seamlessly. No easy read, but a book worth taking your time in reading, Revelation Space provokes thought, offering up a future where anything is possible, and our own imagination guides our potential. From bombs smaller than a speck of dust to planet-sized computers, it doesn’t pull its punches. And the closer it gets to the end, the more urgent the story becomes, the stakes as high as they can get on a personal level for the characters, and on a racial level for humanity as a whole.

This book comes with my highest recommendations. I was up late for several nights in a row, constantly looking for a good stopping point, constantly wanting “just a few more pages.” And if this is Alastair Reynold’s first novel, then the genre is in for a real treat with his next work. Don’t miss Revelation Space.

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The world of Maya is, quite literally, an aristocracy. “Government by the best.” And on this planet, settled centuries ago by colonists whose ship malfunctioned on the way to somewhere much better, the “best” means being one of the Changed, a race of genetically-enhanced humans who rule with an iron fist inside a velvet glove. Their home is a work of art, Xanadu in name and form, situated high on the Mountain above the human-only ghettoes of Babelion. The Changed are stronger, faster, smarter, longer-lived, and so different as to be almost alien. To be Changed is to be vastly superior to mere humans, and it’s in that discrepancy that bitterness, resentment, and the smoldering embers of rebellion are harbored.

Every year, a select group of promising humans are brought up the Mountain to be tested, to see if they will be deemed worthy of serving alongside the Changed. There are jobs to be done, far better than the menial and poorly-paying jobs that await most people. It’s a farce, a sop to keep the humans from realizing that they have no chance of ever being good enough. No humans are ever good enough, for the testing requires them to mesh with the Exchange, the supercomputer that runs the colony and requires brainpower to continue working. Only the Changed are sophisticated and experienced enough for this complex test.

With the caste system securely in place, and the simmering resentment between humans and Changed at an all-time high, the time is ripe for change. One year, a human with a gift of oration and a knack for political upheaval meets a Changed woman with that same sense of vision and willingness to defy the status quo. Their time together plants the seeds for the destruction of all the Changed hold dear. For in their future lies death, betrayal, manipulation, loss, revolution, war on a grand scale, and revelations. It’s a multi-layered, Byzantine series of machinations that spread over generations, and will culminate in flames and the repudiation of a centuries-old system.

In Rebel Sutra, author Shariann Lewitt creates a fascinating and imaginative story, space opera with romantic trappings and political complexity, made all the more interesting by drawing from Hindu mythology and Indian culture to flesh out the conflicting castes of the Changed and the humans. What starts off as a love story soon blossoms into something far grander, taking revolution to the Mountain, and to the stars. Secrets unfold as the stories are told, using the voices of the main characters to unveil the different aspects. Arsen, a human driven to rebellion. Della, the Changed woman who’s so much more than she knows, whose love for Arsen changes everything. Anselm, their son, who inherits the best and worst qualities of both. Suu-Suu, one of the mysterious star-traveling Tinkers, whose actions a generation ago may just doom not just Maya, but an entire galactic empire.

This isn’t an easy read, but only because it’s such a complex and tightly-woven story, whose aspects are intricate enough to warrant rereading several times for enlightenment. It comes highly recommended for those who love space opera and harder science fiction, and those who want something just a little different from the norm.

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