A few weeks ago, I went to a used bookstore in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, where I was delighted to find a great selection of vintage pulpy sci-fi/fantasy novels. After much deliberation, I settled on the following: Sword Woman by Robert E. Howard an Anne McCaffrey space opera that I haven’t read yet a bookRead more
Since I’m almost done with the semester, I took a trip to the used bookstore to celebrate and found some sci-fi treasures. I’ve been following Women In SF&F Month over at Fantasy Cafe, which made me want to pick up some more sci-fi novels by female authors. “The Quiet Invasion” by Sarah Zettel –Read more
“Sassinak” is one of Anne McCaffrey’s lesser-known novels. It is co-written by Elizabeth Moon. I had never even heard of it before I came across it at a used bookstore, but hey, there were space pirates. What’s not to love about that? The book tells the story of Sassinak, who becomes orphaned as a childRead more
Although “The Rowan,” by Anne McCaffrey, is a science fiction novel, it reminds me a bit of a fairy tale. It just has that “once upon a time” magical feel to it. The story is set in a distant future where telepathy and psychokinesis have been scientifically proven to exist among a small percentage ofRead more
“Crystal Line” is the final book in the trilogy that began with Crystal Singer and Killashandra. It is unique among science fiction novels, as it features an aged protagonist. One of the risks to cutting crystal on the planet of Ballybran is memory loss. During the first two books, Killashandra was relatively new toRead more
This is the first book that I read on my new Kindle! I was going to wait until January to read this one so that I could count it for some of the upcoming Reading Challenges, but I couldn’t resist. I’ve done absolutely nothing today because I couldn’t put it down until I finished it.Read more
Ah, yes… 1980s sci-fi. I had heard good things about McCaffrey, although she’s mostly famous for her dragon books. I was not disappointed in “Crystal Singer.” The protagonist, Killashandra Ree, reminds me a bit of Rachel from Glee. She’s very ambitious and driven, and it took me half the book to figure out thatRead more