Category Archives: Reviews

Book reviews, as well as Reads to Reels

A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

Posted on June 10, 2024 by smellincoffee

Last week I finished A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, the second in the Monk and Robot duology. In the first book, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, we were introduced to the Monk, Dex, who journeyed into the wilderness looking for … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

The Lives of the Stoics

Posted on June 7, 2024 by smellincoffee

Some seventeen years ago I discovered The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and the Discourses and Handbook of Epictetus. Neither men meant to publish these: the first was a private diary that was publically shared after the Emperor’s death, the second … Continue reading →

Posted in Religion and Philosophy, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Posted on June 6, 2024 by smellincoffee

What do people need? Dex is a garden monk who should, by all accounts, enjoy a perfectly happy life. Health, a meaningful job, people who love them — what’s missing? Dex doesn’t know. After departing from the monastery to pursue … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

Posted on June 5, 2024 by smellincoffee

Constance is a young woman who’s just arrived in Hazelbourne, there to take care of an older family friend who’s just had a bout with flu. She enters into a new social circle thanks to this connection, and despite the … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Star Trek: Burning Dreams

Posted on May 30, 2024 by smellincoffee

Decades ago, then-Commander Spock risked a court martial to bring his former captain, Christopher Pike, to Talos IV, in hopes that it would allow Pike to escape his body, so ruined by delta radiation. Now Spock is returning, called to … Continue reading →

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Solarpunk stories: a novella and short stories

Posted on May 29, 2024 by smellincoffee

Recently I encountered the word ‘solarpunk’, and learned that it was a subgenre of science fiction that attacks the pessimism of cyberpunk by creating futures that are its opposite. In solarpunk settings, humanity has learned to grow with nature — … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science fiction | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Star Trek: Savage Trade

Posted on May 27, 2024 by smellincoffee

When Captain James Kirk ordered the Enterprise to find out what happened to the crew of a science outpost that had gone missing, doubtless he never expected to help George Washington with a political revolution, or fight at the side … Continue reading →

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Sassy galaxies & road-tripping the solar backwoods

Posted on May 24, 2024 by smellincoffee

This week has seen a little action on the Science Survey, as I read titles for the Local Astronomy and Cosmology & Astrophysics sections. First up, The Big Backyard is a short look at the outer reaches of our own … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Reviews, science | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

The Rosie Project

Posted on May 23, 2024 by smellincoffee

Imagine if Sheldon Cooper wrote a memoir about falling in love, and you’ll have something like The Rosie Project. Don Tillman is a genetics professor with a rigorously scientific approach to life, who has standardized even his meals to simplify … Continue reading →

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The Shadow of War

Posted on May 22, 2024 by smellincoffee

JFK’s presidency is off to a… start. Dismissed as a greenhorn who has no idea what he’s up to, he’s just had to eat crow on the national stage after admitting to the fiasco that was the Bay of Pigs … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments