Page 7 of posts filed: The Exploding Spaceship

The Exploding Spaceship visits MarsCon 2015

Posted on 2015-01-27 at 04:16 by angelablackwell

Review of MarsCon (January 16-18, 2015), Williamsburg, Virginia, Fort Magruder Hotel and Conference Center

In the southeast US, MarsCon is one of the best-organized science fiction conventions that focuses on writers and writing, and in this, their 25^th year, they had the logistics figured out well.

This year saw a bumper crop of good writers attending with David Weber, David B. Coe, Katherine Kurtz, Alethea Kontis, and Steve White all discussing their writing, signing books, and dispensing advice for

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The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Our Favorite Anthologies of 2014

Posted on 2015-01-17 at 06:03 by angelablackwell

First we have two short story collection volumes by authors we know, Lee Martindale and David Drake. Lee’s volume crosses all genres and David’s is mostly time travel to hunt dinosaurs.

We enjoyed all the stories in Bard’s Road: The Collected Fiction of Lee Martindale (June 1, 2014, HarpHaven), even re-reading those we had read in their original publication.  We bring you highlights of the volume, as its 29-story length makes it impractical to discuss all of them.

Our favorite has to be “Combat

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged bryan thomas schmidt, daniel h wilson, david drake, david thomas moore, hank davis, ian whates, jennifer brozak, john joseph adams, jonathan strahan, lee martindale, neil clarke, rich horton, scott sigler

The Exploding Spaceship Release Day Edition: Review of A Call to Duty and Falling Sky

Posted on 2014-10-08 at 03:57 by angelablackwell

Review of A Call to Duty, Manticore Ascendant: Book One by David Weber and Timothy Zahn (October 7, 2014, Baen)

Timothy Zahn is writing in David Weber’s Honorverse and he presents a story from the early days of the Royal Manticoran Navy. And at 354 pages, it has to be one of the shortest books in the series. Zahn has made himself as much at home in Weber’s extensive universe as he did when writing in the Star Wars universe.

The first four years of Travis Uriah Long’s enlistment parallel the story of

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The Exploding Spaceship reviews The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Posted on 2014-10-05 at 15:10 by angelablackwell

Review of The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton (August 26, 2014, Ecco)

Well, the first thing about this book is that the publishers didn’t market it as a fantasy. It’s classed as a historical novel because it is set in 1680s Amsterdam, The Netherlands. However, the premise of the story is that someone is making tiny copies of Nella’s actual house contents and dolls of her family and people who visit the house, and then sending them to her to fill the doll house she was given as a wedding present. Nella can’t

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The Exploding Spaceship Eugie Foster Memorial Review of Returning My Sister's Face

Posted on 2014-09-27 at 20:19 by angelablackwell

In Memoriam: a Review of Returning My Sister’s Face, a collection of Far Eastern tales by Eugie Foster

For those who haven’t heard yet, Eugie Foster lost her battle with cancer and its complications today. Instead of flowers, her husband Matthew wants everyone to buy and read her books and tell everyone else how wonderful her fiction was. So to encourage our readers to do that, we review her wonderful anthology of Far Eastern tales published in 2009 by Norilana Books.

The “Kitsune” cover art by

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged EugieFoster

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Recent Science Fiction Good Reads: Trial by Fire, Ghosts of Time, and The Savior

Posted on 2014-09-26 at 04:04 by angelablackwell

The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Trial by Fire, Ghosts of Time, and The Savior.

Review of Trial by Fire by Charles E. Gannon (July 27, 2014, Baen)

Your Humble Reviewers found this volume to be much more accessible than the previous one, Fire with Fire, with a tighter plot and without such a jarring plot twist. In this book the fledgling Terran Republic is faced with an alien invasion, and that serves to bring the series into much greater focus.

Many of the mysteries left hanging in the first volume are

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The Exploding Spaceship Reviews Recent Good Young Adult Appropriate Fantasy Reads

Posted on 2014-09-21 at 20:18 by angelablackwell

These volumes are young adult or young adult friendly volumes of fantasy we have read in the last few months. Some are from smaller publishers so we thought many of our readers might have missed them. Only the first volume is marketed as a young adult novel, the others are fantasy with appropriate content for most young adults.

Review of War of the Seasons, Book 3: The Hunter by Janine K. Spendlove (Silence in the Library, Dec 2013)

This is the third volume about Story and her adventures in Ailionora

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The Exploding Spaceship Visits Bookmarks!

Posted on 2014-09-16 at 16:14 by angelablackwell

The Exploding Spaceship travels to Winston-Salem for Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors!

Bookmarks is a festival of books and authors held in Winston-Salem, NC. Lev Grossman, the featured fantasy author, drew us to the event because we had never heard him speak. The festival has indoor venues for author talks and outdoor space for food vendors and vendor and publisher tents. There was a photo booth in the theater lobby where you could dress up in funny hats and props to get a free strip of pictures

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The Exploding Spaceship Recommends Some Good UK Books for US Holiday-goers

Posted on 2014-08-16 at 21:21 by angelablackwell

This column features some good reads for all ages which are not currently available in the US.  Many US fans are traveling to the UK for conventions and holidays during the summer months so Your Humble Reviewers thought to provide some suggestions for book souvenirs and gifts.

For the middle grades, we highly recommend The Book of Beasts (paperback from Head of Zeus) by John and Carole Barrowman which is the third volume in their Hollow Earth trilogy. The first two books are available in the US, but volume

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The Exploding Spaceship Release Day Edition: Review of A Plunder of Souls by D.B. Jackson

Posted on 2014-07-08 at 22:56 by angelablackwell

Review of A Plunder of Souls by D.B. Jackson (Tor hardcover, July 8, 2014)

This is the third novel in the Thieftaker Chronicles. We are back in Boston of 1769 where a minor smallpox epidemic has hit; enough people are sick that there are houses in every neighborhood with illness, but not so many as to overflow the hospital.

Ethan is called upon by the local minister to investigate a case of grave desecration, but it soon becomes clear that more is going on because shades of the dead are hanging around

Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged david b coe, db jackson, thieftaker