New Earth

​Ben Bova's new book is not as bad as his last few and deservedly received some good reviews. The mystery unravels slowly; the characters are good; but the hackneyed plot tropes are terrible.  And the characters are frustratingly terrible at playing "20 questions" with the intelligent aliens, sigh.  2/5 stars.

The Whistler

Fun ride!  I enjoyed this one.  It has great characters, 5/5 stars.
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Otherness

Awesome!  It is just as relevant now as when he wrote it.  Great collection, 5/5 stars.
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A scanner Darkly

I dislike Philip K. Dick's stories and books and am extremely disappointed in the Hollywood machine for making science fiction movies only from his crappy material instead of the great masters.  This one is a terrible story of drug addicts, 2/5 stars.  Yuck.
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The Vital Abyss

This novella is a depressing interlude after the last published novel in 2016 before we are allowed to see the next one in December 2017.  The story line is interesting and it shows some continuation from earlier characters, foreshadowing the beginning of how humans will start to understand the mysterious technology of the proto-molecule and artifact.  5/5 stars (of course).
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A scanner darker

I did not enjoy this story. 2/5 stars.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Valkyrie Burning

Book four of the series picks up a loose end to continue the story from book three.  I am enjoying all of these books and hope the author can churn out some more.  5/5 stars.

Valkyrie Rising

This military space opera series is starting to become less mysterious. And the author is anthropomorphising the aliens to the point where they may as well be human, sigh.  None-the-less the story is fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable.  5/5 stars.
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The Churn

This Novella is another small vignette that provides background about a character in the "Expanse" universe.  I enjoy the books but this one is not as awesome as most of the other works the authors have published.  4/5 stars.

Tangent lines between two circles

I helped my nephew with his Math homework tonight.  I remembered my geometry from over 40 years ago!