Lois McMaster Bujold

Miles is not your standard hero. He is about four feet tall and hunchbacked. His head is too large for his dwarfish body. One leg is longer than the others, and his bones are so brittle they break at the slightest provocation. The son of royalty on a backwards planet, at home he is a mutant, and abroad he is a genius. Miles runs circles around governments, bounty hunters, assassination plots, rebellions, and mercenaries.

Lois McMaster Bujold is that rare thing, a science fiction author whose characters form the center of her stories. The space ships and replicators function much like the cars in the Flintstones; they shape society, but they do not define it. I could tell you about the hugo and nebula awards she has won, I could discuss the cultural and social aspects of her work, I could praise her offbeat and adored characters, but instead I will simply thank the man who first introduced me to Miles and Lois and Barrayar.

Thanks Al. I owe you one.

The Card Dilemma

High hopes are required for great disappointment. It was, then, inevitable that Orson Scott Card would fall in my personal regard, as he had for so long held its highest estimation. Ender's Game captured my heart. It is one of the best books I have ever read, and, I believe, ever will read.

I cannot think of reading Mr. Card's latest Ender novel without an aversion bordering on revulsion.

I am not alone in this. I have read, even liked, the previous sequels to Ender's Game. I have read half a dozen of Mr. Card's other works. The majority of them - Pastwatch and Songmaster come to mind - have impressed me. But while Mr. Card has demonstrated his ability to tell a beautiful story, he has also demonstrated his ability to wreck one. By the sixth book in the Alvin Maker series, motivations and limitations essential to the story in the first books were twisted or had disappeared altogether by the last. I no longer knew the principal characters. Herein lies the underlying fear of the Card dilemma; I love Ender. And I do not want to see him ruined.

Malazan and Me

In a long line of readers who have enjoyed Steven Erikson's Malazon series, I loved the third book. Finally, I have some idea of what the series is about! There's a reason every single review you will ever read of the Malazan series includes some variation of the words, "grand scale." Throughout the first and second books I was convinced there was some huge underlying scheme I was either unable to understand, or Erkison had yet to find me worthy of letting me in on the secret.

That being said, all three books were amazing. Erikson is a master of character; following the different viewpoints and various plot lines proved a wonderful distraction to not knowing what is going on. Between the three books, I cried twice, laughed more than once and was forced to stop reading at several points in absolute awe. Glad there is more to come.