The Sunborn by Gregory Benford (2005)

I expected The Sunborn to continue the story of The Martian Race and to explore the fascinating Martian microbial ecosystem in greater depth. Instead, Benford merges that setting with one of his earlier ideas: intelligent plasma life inhabiting the Sun, a concept that traces back to his fiction from the 1980s. The result surprised me, but it works remarkably well as a standalone novel.

The story shifts much of its attention to the outer Solar System and humanity's expanding presence there while introducing enigmatic plasma beings with their own cosmology, religion, and immense lifespans. Those aliens are genuinely alien in many respects, and Benford preserves enough mystery to maintain a satisfying sense of awe and wonder.

My principal criticism concerns the plasma beings themselves. Although their biology is imaginative, they sometimes react in ways that feel too human. The anthropomorphism occasionally weakens the illusion that they are truly incomprehensible forms of life.

The human side of the story is excellent. The politics and relationships among the people living throughout the Solar System feel authentic, the characters are well written, and the plot is tightly constructed. The story moves from one surprising development to the next without losing momentum. Although the novel was not the sequel I expected, I enjoyed it enormously. 5/5 stars.

The Life of Chuck (2025)

I did not know what to expect when I picked up The Life of Chuck, and I came away a little disappointed. Stephen King's craftsmanship is unmistakable. Every page reflects the confidence and polish of a master storyteller. Unfortunately, the story itself never captured my interest.

The book unfolds as three interconnected vignettes presented in reverse chronological order. Beginning with the apparent end of the world and working backward through Chuck's life, the narrative gradually reveals how the three sections fit together. The structure is unconventional and intentionally disorienting, emphasizing memory, mortality, and the significance of an ordinary life.

I admire King's writing, but I never became invested in the characters or the events in this book. The reverse chronology and fragmented structure kept me at a distance from the story rather than drawing me into it. I appreciate what King was trying to accomplish, but the novel's emotional impact never reached me.

I admired the execution more than I enjoyed the experience. 2/5 stars.

Queen Amid Ashes by Christopher Ruocchio (2024)

I am reading the Sun Eater books in story order, and this novella reads much like an expanded writing exercise that Ruocchio used to discover Hadrian Marlowe's inner voice. The story explores the burden of Hadrian's growing political power and the ways authority begins to challenge his idealism. In that sense, the novella adds useful context to the larger series even though its stakes are relatively modest.

The plot follows Hadrian through a political crisis that tests both his principles and his leadership. The focus is less on galaxy-spanning events than on character, responsibility, and the compromises that accompany power. Readers invested in Hadrian's long character arc will find the additional perspective worthwhile.

The novella's weaknesses are also apparent. The antagonists are one-dimensional, and the plot is predictable. The villains feel like cardboard embodiments of evil rather than fully realized people with understandable motives. Compared with the major novels in the series, the conflict lacks complexity and emotional weight.

Even so, I enjoyed the glimpse into Hadrian's development. The novella succeeds as a character study, even if it falls short as a standalone story. It is interesting, but it is not among the strongest entries in the series. 3/5 stars.

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz (2016)

Several people recommended the Orphan X series to me as one of the best modern thriller series, so I bought the first book to see what the enthusiasm was about. They were right. This novel is a genuine page-turner.

The story follows Evan Smoak, a former government assassin who escaped a secret off-the-books program and now uses his extraordinary skills to help people with nowhere else to turn. The novel combines espionage, meticulous tradecraft, and relentless action with enough character development to make the stakes feel personal rather than merely spectacular.

I was quickly drawn into the world, the characters, and the story. Hurwitz's writing has excellent texture and momentum, and the settings feel authentic and lived-in. The novel reminded me of Ghostman by Roger Hobbs, but with even better continuity and narrative flow. I particularly enjoyed the attention to detail. The 2016-era surveillance technology, spy gear, martial arts, firearms, and operational planning all contribute to a convincing portrait of a highly trained professional.

The result is an engrossing thriller that rarely slows down and never loses sight of its protagonist. I will definitely continue the series, and I expect to read more of Hurwitz's work. 5/5 stars.

Suicidal Empathy by Gad Saad (2026)

I approached this book with relatively low expectations. Based on Saad's public persona, I expected a stream of rants, sarcasm, and emotional appeals. I was pleasantly surprised to find a more substantive book. Beneath the polemics lies a considerable amount of scholarship, well-reasoned argument, and accessible popular sociology.

Saad argues that societies can undermine themselves when empathy becomes detached from prudence, reciprocity, or long-term consequences. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, history, and contemporary cultural debates, he critiques ideas and policies that he believes place moral signaling ahead of practical outcomes. The central thesis is presented clearly and supported with far more evidence than I expected.

The book still contains plenty of the sarcasm and rhetorical flourishes that characterize Saad's writing. I had hoped he would provide more practical guidance. After diagnosing what he sees as serious cultural problems, he offers relatively little advice about how to persuade skeptics, overcome conspiracy thinking, or change public policy.

Even so, I enjoyed the book. It is concise, well researched, and thought-provoking. I found the strongest sections careful enough to merit serious consideration. 4/5 stars.

Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler (2007)

My daughter, a Chinese scholar, gave me this book for my birthday. I looked forward to learning more about the oracle bones, the inscribed turtle shells and ox scapulae from the late Shang dynasty, whose inscriptions have transformed our understanding of early Chinese history. I expected a history of the archaeology and scholarship surrounding those remarkable artifacts.

The book is something quite different. Hessler uses the oracle bones as a thread connecting a memoir of his years as a journalist in China with the country's rapid transformation after the Cultural Revolution. He weaves together his own experiences, the lives of Chinese friends and students, the stories of emigrants, and the history of the archaeologists who deciphered the oracle-bone inscriptions. The result is part travel narrative, part journalism, part history, and part memoir.

I found the modern history particularly interesting. Hessler's eyewitness accounts of a society still emerging from the devastation of the Cultural Revolution, with its 2 million deaths, persecution, destruction of cultural heritage, and profound social upheaval, are often insightful. The archaeological passages also provide fascinating glimpses into the Late Shang world.

Even so, the book never became the history that I had hoped to read. I cared much less about Hessler's personal adventures than about the archaeology and ancient history. Although several anecdotes are poignant and memorable, Hessler's writing style never quite clicked with my taste. I admired the book more than I enjoyed reading it. 2/5 stars.

Xeelee Redemption by Stephen Baxter (2019)

I am frequently overwhelmed by science-fiction authors who manage to pack the equivalent of one or two Ph.D. dissertations into every chapter. Death's End, the concluding volume of The Three-Body Problem trilogy, comes to mind. Even so, no author I have read rivals Stephen Baxter when it comes to world-building on the largest conceivable scales.

Xeelee: Redemption spans billions of years and unimaginable distances while exploring exotic cosmology, black holes, the limits of general relativity, and strange methods of sending information through time without violating causality. The novel is less interested in conventional adventure than in examining what the universe itself permits. Every few pages Baxter introduces another astonishing physical idea, and I never knew where the story was heading next.

The characters are engaging enough to anchor the narrative, but they are not the principal attraction. The plot occasionally feels contrived, as though it exists primarily to carry the reader from one breathtaking scientific concept to the next. Several narrow escapes and apparent resurrections also stretched my suspension of disbelief.

Those shortcomings hardly diminished my enjoyment. Baxter's universe remains one of the grandest achievements in modern science fiction. The sense of cosmic scale and intellectual awe is unlike anything else I have encountered. 4/5 stars.

We are as G-ds by Peter Diamandis and Steve Kotler (2026)

We Are as Gods, by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler (2026)

I do not remember reading any of Diamandis's earlier books, although I have read thoughtful criticisms of his worldview, particularly More Everything Forever by Adam Becker. I approached this book with some skepticism and came away pleasantly surprised. The book is short, dense, and an enthusiastic romp through the idea that humanity is entering a technological singularity driven by AI, biotechnology, robotics, energy, space exploration, and other accelerating technologies.

Much of the book resonates with my lifelong love of optimistic science fiction. Diamandis paints a future that resembles the post-scarcity civilizations of Star Trek or Culture series, except that he argues many of those ideas are becoming practical engineering problems rather than distant fantasies. I found that perspective both entertaining and thought-provoking.

I am not quite as optimistic as Diamandis. Conversations with my children also highlighted an important omission. The modern "abundance" movement often underestimates the contributions of governments, universities, and publicly funded scientific institutions that create the fundamental discoveries upon which private innovation depends. I also noticed a strong bias toward the "great man" theory of history. The book celebrates visionary entrepreneurs but pays much less attention to the institutional labor and collaborative research that make many breakthroughs possible. Diamandis acknowledges several risks associated with rapidly advancing technology, including unequal access and misuse, but other challenges receive much less attention than I would have preferred.

Even so, I enjoyed the book enormously. The optimism is infectious, and many of the futuristic ideas are genuinely tethered to technologies that already exist or are emerging today. For readers who enjoy thoughtful science fiction, the book often feels like hard science fiction that has escaped into the real world. 5/5 stars.

Head On by John Scalzi (2018)

This book  is a satisfying continuation of the Lock In series and the adventures of FBI agent Chris Shane. Having established the fascinating setting in the first novel, Scalzi lets the sequel focus on the characters, the mystery, and the political tensions that naturally arise from his near-future world.

The story centers on the investigation of a suspicious death connected to Hilketa, the violent robotic sport that has become a cultural phenomenon among Haden's syndrome patients. The murder mystery unfolds against a backdrop of corporate interests, political maneuvering, media attention, and the continuing social consequences of the pandemic that reshaped society.

I enjoyed both the mystery and the politics. I was especially delighted by Leslie Vann, whose irreverence and relentless antics provide much of the novel's humor while never undermining the seriousness of the investigation. The partnership between Vann and Chris Shane remains one of the series' greatest strengths.

The plot moves at a brisk pace, the characters continue to grow, and the action never overwhelms the detective story. I finished the book eager to continue the series. 5/5 stars.

The Martian Race by Gregory Benford (1999)

I first encountered Gregory Benford through his short stories in the science-fiction magazines of the 1960s and 1970s, and I enjoyed many of his novels throughout the 1980s. I am not sure why he fell off my reading list, but I have recently started catching up on the books I missed.

The novel follows an ambitious privately funded expedition to Mars in the near future, blending engineering, exploration, political maneuvering, and the search for indigenous Martian life. As usual, Benford grounds the story in solid science while leaving room for the sense of awe and wonder that has always distinguished his best work.

Benford's treatment of biology is particularly imaginative. I still remember how much I enjoyed Blood Music, and the same fascination with biological systems appears here. I was less convinced by the Martian anaerobes. Their extraordinary strength and speed felt more like superpowers than plausible evolutionary adaptations. Even so, the broader ecosystem is imaginative and internally consistent enough that I was willing to suspend my disbelief.

The spacecraft, engineering, and technology are equally satisfying, and the characters feel like real people rather than stock adventure figures. The combination of believable science, engaging characters, and an exciting story made this an excellent read. I am looking forward to the second book in the series. 5/5 stars.