the Elements of Typographic Style
Robert Bringhurst
0-88179-206-3
2005
Hartley & Marks
Overview of type and typesetting. Includes history, type styles, font
design, page setting, and discussion of type designers and foundries.
the Dark Path
Walter Hunt
0-765-30606-9
2000
Tor/Tom Doherty Associates
Jackie is a commodore in the Imperial Navy and her aide is Ch’k’te of
the Zor bird people. There is a new mean, nasty, brutish alien race
that can control minds and it takes over her base. She manages to sneak
back in and defeat them, giving her enough time to retreat. Meanwhile,
the Zor High Lord dreams that she is the avatar of a mythical figure
who is destined to battle the evil aliens, and she begins her fated
quest. Plenty of mystical bullshit and some emotional tripe, but enough
adventure to keep it interesting.
Balshazzar’s Serpent
Jack Chalker
0-671-57880-4
2000
Baen/Simon & Schuster
Dr. Woodward was a brilliant physicist turned into a missionary. He
commanded the Mountain, a starship who’s mission was to go to forgotten
worlds and spread the gospel. On this particular mission his people
find things are not quite what they seem. The villagers are cooperating
with a bunch of nasty space pirates that crashed landed years earlier
and live underground. The pirates kidnap some of the crew, and after a
fight they are defeated, but they offer the location of a mythical
destination in exchange for secrecy. Dr. Woodward takes the secret and
finds the Three Kings, thought to be lost, with strange treasures and
an Eden-like paradise where his crew retires. Good adventure.
the Dark Ascent
Walter Hunt
0-765-31116-X
2004
Tor/Tom Doherty Associates
Jackie obtains the gyaryu, the sword of the ally zor bird-people, and
assumes the role of the protector. Meanwhile, the humans are fighting
back and learning to use the power Jackie has with the sword. They
repel and attack, and recapture a conquered base. Jackie also learns a
little about what is really going one, and who is manipulating the war
between the evil vhul bugs and the human/zor alliance.
Mars Life
Ben Bova
978-0-7653-1787-2
2008
Tor/Tom Doherty Associates
Jamie is the science director of the mission to explore Mars, and he
faces opposition from religious fanatics that want to stop the project.
At the Mars site, Carlton discovers a native Martian village, wiped out
some 65 million years ago. As progress with the dig proceeds, Jamie and
his partner Dex each have different views about how to keep the project
going—Jamie favors independence while Dex favors tourism. There
really isn't much of a plot, just telling the story of how they go
about things, with various subplots, and reach a compromise at the end.
Adventure and plenty of emotional tripe.
the Dark Crusade
Walter Hunt 0-765-31117-8
2005
Tor/Tom Doherty Associates
A convoluted mess of shifting alliances reveals itself as the
Destroyer, along with his organization the Blazing Star, aid the
Imperial Navy in exterminating the ruthless insectoid aliens using
their amazing mental powers to neutralize the alien mind control
amplifiers. For Admiral Anderson, it is his chance to leave his mark on
history as his famous ancestors have done. Meanwhile, the sinister
rainbow bands of light seem to be behind everything, aiding and
controlling the various factions. Their only intent is chaos in the
galaxy. Adventure and intrigue with plenty of mysticism and emotional
tripe.
Flowers in the Attic
V.C. Andrews
0-671-64045-3
1979
Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster
So these four kids get locked up in the attic of a creepy old house and
abused by a mean old lady because their mother wants to inherit her
father’s millions and be wealthy again. Now the girl that's telling the
story is spoiled and bratty and gets them in trouble about half the
time, while the other three get them in trouble for the other half. She
gets her older brother all hot and bothered until he can’t take any
more and pops her cherry. Eventually Mom decides to kill them off and
slowly poisons them, but they figure it out and escape.
Moonwar
Ben Bova
0-380-97303-0
1998
Avon/Eos
Doug is the head of Moonbase, the only place in the solar system where
research on nanotechnology continues. But the evil and insidious head
of the UN wants to put a stop to it. He sends a ship full of
Peacekeepers to take over the base, but they are repelled by their own
fear of the nano-tech. Doug declares Moonbase to be an independent
nation and his mom Joanna goes down to earth to Earth to lobby with
various people to recognize it. Then an attack comes from the nearby
Japanese base, supported by a missile strike from L-1. Moonbase manages
to fry the missile with a particle beam, and use other tricks to repel
the Peacekeepers. A few anti-nano fanatics get through to cause a
little death and destruction, but in the end Moonbase wins. Plenty of
adventure and intrigue, with a good deal of emotional tripe.
the Cybernetic Samurai
Victor Milan
0-87795-642-1
1985
Arbor House
YTC is one of the maverick electronic firms in post-WWIII Japan, and it
wants to be the first to create artificial sentience. Elizabeth is an
American computer scientist who is rescued from war-torn America and
brought to Japan to lead the team that will do this. She succeeds, and
trains the cyber-life in the way of bushido, to fit with its samurai
name Tokugawa. Of course, Elizabeth merges into cyber space and has sex
with it. After YTC is attacked by a rival and Elizabeth dies, the
killing spree starts. First the rival is vanquished, then the heir of
the corporation orders assassinations and acquisitions, until it kills
the heir. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's spirit somehow lives on in the
computer, interacting with it. The next heir orders more killing and
finally with WW4 it all ends with a bang. Cyber crapola, intrigue, and
adventure with plenty of death, sex and some emotional tripe.
Blindsight
Peter Watts
978-07653-1218-1
2006
Tor/Tom Doherty Associates
The crew of the Thesius is a band of misfits—a vampire captain, a
pacifist major, a multiple personality linguist and a cyborg biologist.
The story is told by the synthesist, Siri, who had half his brain
removed as a child. After alien probes visit Earth, an effort is made
to find the source. When it is found, the ship is sent off its original
course to investigate. What it finds is a huge, thorny mass orbiting a
brown dwarf in the oort cloud. Teams are sent to investigate, and the
aliens turn out to be so alien that humanity cannot relate to them.
Hostilities escalate, and eventually the aliens fire on the ship. But
the vampire captain orders the stockpile of antimatter and before it
goes to meet the aliens Siri is sent back to earth to tell the tale.
Weird aliens, cooley tech, intrigue, adventure and some emotional tripe.