Babylon 5: The Lost Tales★★★☆☆It’s mixed. The first segment is essentially a bottle episode. The second is much stronger, and feels like a real return to Babylon 5
Changing Planes★★★★☆
Ursula K. Le Guin Lighter than most Le Guin I’ve read, Changing Planes is a Gulliver’s Travels for the present era, the social satire made possible through interdimensional travel.
City of Illusions★★★★☆
Ursula K. Le Guin How can you be yourself when you don’t know who you really are? A story of isolation, adaptation, kindness, cruelty, trust and hope, and above all, how to piece together the truth (or at least pick out the lies) on a future, depopulated Earth.
Cordwainer Smith: Short Fiction★★★★☆
Paul Linebarger Three mid-century science-fiction stories about the future of war, space travel, symbiosis, and the dangers of cutting off your own humanity.
The Defiant Agents
Andre Norton An enjoyable space western with Apaches as the good guys, wrapped up in the cold war and tossing in the Golden Horde, a lost alien city and Russians with a mind-control ray.
Eifelheim★★★★☆
Michael Flynn Detailed and thoughtful exploration of first contact with aliens in the midst of the Black Death.
Five Ways to Forgiveness★★★★☆
Ursula K. Le Guin Five loosely-connected stories set in the final years of a color-based enslaving society, the war for liberation, and the messy aftermath.
Flash Forward (TV Pilot)★★★★★The first episode of Flash Forward is one of the best-constructed pilot episodes I’ve seen in a long time, especially of an arc-driven series.
Flashforward (Novel)★★★★★
Robert J. Sawyer A fascinating exploration of time, destiny and free will after everyone on Earth gets a glimpse of the same moment 20 years in the future.
Four-Day Planet★★★☆☆
H. Beam Piper A fun frontier/sailing adventure, but nothing special. Sort of Moby Dick in space with everyone based out of a corrupt frontier town.
Fuzzy Nation★★★★★
John Scalzi Not sure it’s better, but it is more enjoyable than the original, with better characterization and less deus-ex-machina. Same overall story of colonization, corporate greed, enviromnental exploitation and who counts as people, but different enough to enjoy both.
Fuzzy Sapiens★★★★☆
H. Beam Piper Continuing the Mad Men approach to ecological space colonization, this sequel explores the growing pains of a company town becoming a democracy, a corporation losing its monopoly, and two species of people figuring out how to live together.
Head On★★★★★
John Scalzi The sequel to Lock In is a fast read with intriguing concepts, fun characters and an interesting mystery. This time locked-in FBI agent Chris Shane investigates the death of a locked-in athlete in a sport too extreme for human bodies, played with remotely-controlled robots.
Invasive★★★★☆
Chuck Wendig Swarms of killer ants genetically altered to target humans are as much nightmare fuel as you would expect.
The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport★★★★★
Samit Basu Starts as a cyberpunk take on Aladdin and gleefully launches into a glorious mishmash of robots, legacies, secrets and political upheaval in a crumbling spaceport slowly sinking into the mud on a backwater planet.
Justice (ST:TNG, Season 1)★☆☆☆☆Some old TV shows are better than you remember. Planet of the Jogging Bimbos…isn’t.
The Kaiju Preservation Society★★★★★
John Scalzi Escaping the pandemic by learning to survive on a world with gigantic monsters.
Key Out Of Time★★★★☆
Andre Norton Lost in time, lost in space, out of their depth, a handful of humans are caught in the middle of a four-way power struggle on the high seas of an alien world.
The Lathe of Heaven★★★★★
Ursula K. Le Guin A surreal tale of dreams changing reality, global stakes anchored by the three people involved. Be careful what you wish for.
Little Fuzzy★★★★☆
H. Beam Piper An enjoyable tale of first contact, colonialism, environmental stewardship, corporate greed vs. ethics, and most importantly, who counts as “people” on an alien world that turns out not to be uninhabited after all.
Mysterious Galaxy★★★★★Bookstore specializing in sci-fi and mysteries, involved in local community and conventions.
New Spring (Comics): The Long Publishing SagaIt’s taken a long time (and three publishers) to complete this adaptation of the Wheel of Time prequel, even though it only covered eight standard-sized comic books
No Man’s Sky★★★★★Open-ended, self-directed sandbox game of exploring space. Amazing graphics. Gameplay switches smoothly between solo and multiplayer modes.
Nomad of the Time Streams★★★☆☆
Michael Moorcock A 19th-century British soldier in India is flung into three wildly different future wars, forcing him to reexamine the world he thought he was building.
Outer Wilds★★★★★A fascinating game of discovery in a finely-crafted, tiny solar system trapped in a time loop. In a ship made of plywood, sheet metal and duct tape. Where you can roast marshmallows on every planet.
The Outer Worlds★★★★★Immersive space RPG that at once satirizes corporate control while asking you to make hard choices within it.
Parable of the Sower★★★★★
Octavia Butler Hard to put down. And hard to pick up again. It’s certainly not a fun book, but it’s extremely engaging, despite the bleakness of the slow-apocalypse setting and story.
ParadiseThe ST:DS9 episode ‘Paradise’ tries to make a point about self-reliance without technology, but misses the mark by not actually showing any benefits.
People of the Crater★★★☆☆
Andre Norton Standard fantasy rescue-the-princess adventure with sci-fi trappings, nodding vaguely toward Hollow Earth tropes.
Planet of Exile★★★★☆
Ursula K. Le Guin A tighter story than Rocannon’s World, with better-drawn characters, and more ambitious in its worldbuilding and themes.
Quantum Night★★★★☆
Robert J. Sawyer Intriguing premise, well explored: Quantum entanglement, psychopaths, and mob behavior. Can we reboot humanity amid a rising tide of xenophobia?
Ready Player One (Book)★★★☆☆
Ernest Cline Back when I read it, the nostalgia and scavenger hunt were enough for me. Now, not so much.
Ready Player One (Movie)★★★★☆
Steven Spielberg Better than I expected, having soured on the book by the time it came out. Not a straight adaptation so much as a rewrite of the same premise that’s more character-driven and yes, more cinematic. With Spielberg.
Rocannon’s World★★★☆☆
Ursula K. Le Guin A serviceable quest story that melds fantasy and sci-fi. Engaging enough, but I’d only recommend it to someone who’s read her later work.
Semiosis★★★★★
Sue Burke A fascinating take on space colonization, intelligence, and language, following multiple generations of humans on a world dominated by sapient plants.
Short Circuit★★★★☆The comedy about a robot coming to life and the humans trying to catch him or help him escape holds up better than I expected.
Solo: A Star Wars Story★★★☆☆Solo isn’t high art, and it’s got some rough edges, but it’s a fun ride.
Space Oddity★★★★☆
Catherynne Valente Not quite as fun as the first book, but it’s just as absurd and chaotic, and exactly what I needed in the weeks leading up to the 2024 election.
Space Opera★★★★★
Catherynne Valente Fun sci-fi social satire from Catherynne Valente: The world is a mess, but we can find the sublime in chaos.
Stan Lee’s Starborn #1
Stan Lee, Chris Roberson and Khary Randolph An unpublished writer discovers that the science fiction saga he’s been building since childhood is actually very, very real. And it wants him dead.
Star Born★★★★★
Andre Norton An adventure woven through the post-war struggles of an alien world, with humans caught on both sides, exploring identity, colonialism and prejudice. Definitely worth the read.
Star Hunter★★★☆☆
Andre Norton A standard survival adventure with mismatched partners and ruthless rivals, only with weird stuff going on and in space.
Star Trek: Discovery - Season 1★★★★☆Star Trek with the pace of Farscape, weaving through existing lore and focused on one crew member’s quest for redemption.
Star Trek: Discovery - Season 2★★★☆☆The stand-alone episodes are good, and the Burnham/Spock family dynamics, but the main arc gets really frustrating in the second half.
Star Trek: Discovery - Season 3★★★★☆I liked Season 3 a lot better than season 2. It finally got to be its own Trek. And they did some really interesting things with the future of the 'verse and how the Discovery crew adapted to it.
Star Trek: Lower Decks★★★★★Hilarious self-parody of TNG-era Star Trek. Funny on its own, but even better if you know the shows it’s riffing on.
Star Trek: Picard - Season 1★★★☆☆I have mixed feelings about the first season of Picard. But later seasons have given me a new appreciation for it.
Star Trek: Picard - Season 2★★★☆☆Hard to pin down, with a weird start, then a few good time travel episodes, before throwing in not just the kitchen sink but everything in the sink.
Star Trek: Picard - Season 3★★☆☆☆If season one was like The Last Jedi, this is The Rise of Skywalker, complete with gratuitously resurrected villains, young characters freaking out about their genetics, a family/found family theme that only sort of makes sense, and a galactic-level threat that can only be defeated by taking out that one resurrected villain.
Star Trek: Section 31★★☆☆☆As a Star Trek pilot it’s merely OK. As a stand-alone movie, it’s a mess. It could have been retooled as a good heist film, but wasn’t.
Star Wars: Andor - Season One★★★★☆A more serious take on Star Wars, with a bit more personal scope showing how oppression grinds people down, and what sacrifices rebellion can require.
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones★★★☆☆I think it’s the weakest of the prequels and of the six that George Lucas was actually involved in.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi★★★★☆The performances are way better than most of the prequel trilogy, and the story is the first theatrical Star Wars to break new ground in ages.
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace★★★★☆Better than I remember. It’s well constructed, and there are incredible subtleties and thematic elements hidden among the flashy (and cheesy) A-plot.
Stellaris - First Impressions★★★★☆An empire-building game, like Heroes of Might and Magic in Space, but more complicated, with diplomacy, espionage and alliances along with base building and battles.
Subspace Rhapsody★★★★☆The first time through my reaction was: OK, that was fun. The second time I really appreciated the way it was put together and immediately went looking for the soundtrack.
Tales From The Bully Pulpit★★★★★
Benito Cereno and Graeme MacDonald A sci-fi comedy graphic novel featuring a time-traveling Teddy Roosevelt and the ghost of Thomas Edison, battling a descendant of Adolf Hitler. On Mars. Wearing mecha armor.
The Telling★★★★★
Ursula K. Le Guin A thoughtful tale of discovery, as an observer from Earth struggles to find and understand fragments of the lost cultures hidden beneath a society that’s thrown away its past in favor of a single vision.
The Three-Body Problem (Book)★★★★☆
Liu Cixin, Ken Liu (Translator) Not a proper review of the book, but a collection of comments I made while reading it back in 2018.
The Time Machine★★★★☆
H.G. Wells A bit dry, but it draws you in, and if the plot is simple, it’s enough to wrap around some thought-provoking speculation about the future of humanity - and a critique of industrial society.
The Time Traders★★★★☆
Andre Norton A fun time-travel spy thriller through the bronze age that’s very rooted in the cold war.
Transformers (Movie)★★★☆☆Better constructed than I expected, with impressive effects, plausible story logic, but a lot of the humor is forced and it feels like they missedthe big picture in trying to get the details right.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen★☆☆☆☆In some ways it wasn’t as awful as I’d heard, and in some ways it was worse. I’m glad I waited for the second-run showing and only spent $1.75.
Triggers★★★☆☆
Robert J. Sawyer It’s an interesting take on memory and identity, but not one of Sawyer’s best.
The Word for World is Forest★★★★☆
Ursula K. Le Guin Infuriating to read…and that’s the point. A story of colonial exploitation, asymmetric warfare, dehumanization and environmental destruction.
Worlds of Exile and Illusion★★★★☆
Ursula K. Le Guin Interesting to see Le Guin as she’s developing her craft. Not the best place to start with her work, but absolutely worth reading.
