Book Review: The Railway Children by E. Nesbit Life takes some odd turns. For example, one day you’re an adorable trio of children living a comfortable upper-middle class life in London. The next, your father is sent to prison for a crime he did not commit and you have to go live in a much less impressive house out in… Continue reading Book Review: The Railway Children
Tag: engineers
Book Review: The Lost Millennium | The Road to the Rim
Book Review: The Lost Millennium by Walt & Leigh Richmond | The Road to the Rim by A. Bertram Chandler It’s time, again, to review an Ace Double, one of those formats so dear to my youth that has since vanished. The Lost Millennium has as its frame story an engineer being approached by an archaeologist about his… Continue reading Book Review: The Lost Millennium | The Road to the Rim
Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales
Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales compiled by Stefan Dziemianowicz The definition of “thriller” is a little loose in this fun anthology, though most of the stories do have at least some suspense. It feels more like the compiler picked a bunch of the public domain stories he liked, but didn’t have a strong… Continue reading Book Review: Great Thrillers: 101 Suspenseful Tales
Book Review: Raising Steam
Book Review: Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett Moist von Lipwig has come a long way since his days as a petty con artist. He’s a (mostly) respectable married man who manages the Ankh-Morpork Post Office, Mint, and Bank. True, his management is mostly just taking a friendly interest in the employees who do all the… Continue reading Book Review: Raising Steam
Book Review: Lambda I and Other Stories
Book Review: Lambda I and Other Stories edited by John Carnell New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine that started professional publication in 1946. Despite some financial hiccups, it was a reasonably good seller, and was still going in the early 1960s when the stories chosen for this anthology were published. The editor picked… Continue reading Book Review: Lambda I and Other Stories
Book Review: Seven Come Infinity
Book Review: Seven Come Infinity edited by Groff Conklin The title of this anthology refers to the phrase “seven come eleven” from craps, referring to the ways you can win. In the preface, it’s mentioned that there are a finite number of possibilities for the outcome of rolling two dice. But when you write a… Continue reading Book Review: Seven Come Infinity
Magazine Review: Science Fantasy #4 Spring 1971
Magazine Review: Science Fantasy #4 Spring 1971 edited by Sol Cohen Science Fantasy was a short-lived (this is the final issue) reprint magazine from Ziff-Davis Publishing, which should not be confused with the long-running British magazine of the same title. The stories in this issue come from the late 1940s/early 1950s, and reader tastes had changed… Continue reading Magazine Review: Science Fantasy #4 Spring 1971
Book Review: The Marsco Dissident
Book Review: The Marsco Dissident by James A. Zarzana It’s a Marsco world. Much has changed by the last years of the 21st Century. The rot started to set in with the Abandonment Policy (euphemized as “Divestiture”) where countries with prosperous sections and not-so-prosperous bits split off the not-prosperous sectors as “another country now, not… Continue reading Book Review: The Marsco Dissident
Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust
Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust by Jerry LaPlante One of my reading addictions as a teen was trashy series hero paperbacks. The Executioner, the Destroyer, Nick Carter Killmaster…much like the old pulp heroes but grittier and with more sleaze. The more successful series are still published to this day in one form… Continue reading Book Review: Chameleon 2: In Garde We Trust
Comic Strip Review: Still Pumped from Using the Mouse
Comic Strip Review: Still Pumped from Using the Mouse by Scott Adams Dilbert is an engineer who works for a poorly-managed mid-size corporation. His co-workers are hostile, his boss is pointy-haired, and Dilbert himself is less than competent with anything other than engineering. Such as dating. The Dilbert gag-a-day comic strip has been running since 1989;… Continue reading Comic Strip Review: Still Pumped from Using the Mouse