Patrick's Picks

Operations Manager Patrick reads the best of speculative fiction from hard science fiction to space opera and from epic to modern fantasy ... and the occasional mystery. If it has a cutting edge plot and fully-realized characters, he's there. Of course a brief Apocalypse/Singularity once in a while or an interesting concept or even the occasional BIG explosion is always welcome.             email: patrick at mystgalaxy dot com

(Sketch by Batton Lash; Comic-Con picture [l-r] Silvia Mancini, Sam Weller, Ray Bradbury!!, gruff but lovable Patrick, Lori Tucker; Patrick again.)  

 

Click Patrick's Past Picks for older reviews.

 


 

$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780451465108
Availability: Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now
Published: Roc Hardcover, 7/2013

Welcome to an epic world with a dash of 18thcentury era tactics and weaponry … a world where magic exists but is, shall we say, frowned upon. Now meet our heroes: one, a tired colonial captain making the best of a bad situation, and the other, a newly-minted sergeant who just so happens to be a tortured-by-her-past woman masquerading as a man in a man’s world. Enter their new colonel: an extremely talented tactician with an agenda. Then push on as they all set off to fight a war against an enemy of cutthroats, traitors, and religious fanatics who vastly outnumbers them.  And this is not the half of it. Something’s brewing in the world … something supernatural and sinister … and their new colonel has … ambitions. The Thousand Names is excellent fare for lovers of muskets, magic, and machinations.

–Patrick


The 5th Wave (Hardcover)

$18.99
ISBN-13: 9780399162411
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Putnam Juvenile, 5/2013

Invasion! The first three waves were bad enough … first the lights went out, then the tides rolled in, then the plague ... seven billion dead. Then the silent fourth wave turned those who survived against each other. Who is friend and who is foe? Then comes the fifth wave …

First there’s young Cassie, one of the “lucky” few who have survived so far, on her own and trying to make good on a promise made to her little brother. Then comes young “Zombie,” so named because he all but died of the plague and has now been reborn. Then there’s Cassie’s little brother Sammy, taken. And then there’s the Other …

The 5th Wave is one of the most fast-paced young adult books I’ve ever read – a melting pot of Falling Skies, The War of the Worlds, V, The Host, I am Number Four, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Walking Dead, They Live, The Arrival, The Passage, Twilight, Full Metal Jacket, and perhaps even a bit of The Hunger Games … all teen angst and dystopian sf vs. alien monsters from inner and outer space. A great deal of action and adventure and survival story packed into a thought-provoking novel you may just read in one sitting. How far would you go to survive? Awesome.

–Patrick


$28.00
ISBN-13: 9780345503824
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Del Rey, 2/2013

In The Daylight War, the women behind the men who would be Deliverer come to the fore. In the north, Arlen’s love of Renna binds him to the world of men, but her desire to be always at his side may just cost her her humanity. In the south, Jardir didn’t come to his exalted position among the tribes of Krasia on his own. His First Wife, Inevera, wields a significant power of her own, and even Jardir is wary of that power. And let us not forget Leesha, behind and between both men. She might just have a little something to deliver herself. The Deliverer has come, oh yes, but who it is has yet to be decided, and if the world of men remains divided, can even the Deliverer save it?

In the world of The Demon Cycle, humankind use wards to keep the demons at bay. In our world, Brett weaves words to bring that world and the characters within it to life. And live they most certainly do. I just love this series and will suffer along with the rest of you until Brett delivers books four and five of the Cycle. Honest word.

--Patrick


Season of the Wolf (Paperback)

$15.99
ISBN-13: 9781937771614
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: DarkFuse, 2/2013

A film crew travels to the small Colorado town of Silver Gap to make a documentary about climate change, no easy task in a town full of unbelieving hunters. Leading this crew is a man haunted by his family’s sins … and a few of his own – a man hunting for no small measure of redemption. But in the town of Silver Gap, hunters have become the hunted. It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature! Once thought long gone from Colorado, it would seem that wolves have now returned, but they’re not your daddy’s wolves, oh no. And as if this wasn’t bad enough, wolves aren’t the only beasts on the prowl ...

Season of the Wolf is a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller with a message, and a whole lot of carnage … so release your inner Wolfen, learn a thing or two about the world you live in, and pray you don’t become prey.

--Patrick


Impulse (Hardcover)

$25.99
ISBN-13: 9780765327574
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tor Books, 1/2013

In Jumper, we learned about Davy and his amazing ability to teleport. Then Davy met a girl named Millie. In Reflex, we learned all about her and certain other … entanglements. Now in Impulse, we meet Cent, their teenaged daughter. Living off the grid – way, way off the grid (teleporters, duh) – sure can put a damper on one’s social life, and Cent has had quite enough of home schooling, thank you very much. So it’s off to school for her. Imagine you’re in Mean Girls High School and you’re an outsider, the proverbial square peg … oh, and you can teleport. Imagine what you’d do. Now stop imagining and read Impulse. You’d be hard pressed to do it any better than Steven Gould.

--Patrick


Great North Road (Hardcover)

$30.00
ISBN-13: 9780345526663
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Del Rey, 12/2012
It starts with a murder of a very important person. Definitely one of the North clones, although there doesn’t seem to be a missing one. Then there’s the way he was killed. Years ago on the planet St. Libra another North clone was murdered in the same way, along with most of his staff.  The lone survivor has been languishing away in prison ever since … swearing up and down that she had nothing to do with the murders. After all, how could “an alien monster” exist on a planet with absolutely no indigenous animal life? While the hunt for the killer stalls back on Earth, a massive search for the as yet unseen “monster” on St. Libra begins. And consulting for the expedition is one Angela Tramelo, newly released from prison, and a woman with a few scores to settle. With pulse pounding action and expert plotting, Hamilton combines police procedural, alien expedition, and a very plausible social future into one hell of an SF thriller.

--Patrick


$26.95
ISBN-13: 9781937077822
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ace Hardcover, 10/2012

What happened to the Syndicate Worlds after Black Jack Geary destroyed most of their military might? Some cowered, some fell into civil war, and some rebelled outright. Midway rebelled. Now, how do the rebels go on after their evil overlords are eviscerated or light years away? Freedom is never free, and the newly self-appointed leaders of Midway are about to receive the bill.

Up until now we’ve seen Jack Campbell’s universe from the Alliance side … and mostly from Space. Seems there are heroes everywhere, even on the dark side. Tarnished Knight, the first in a new spin-off to Campbell’s awesome Lost Fleet series, sheds light on that dark side, often putting me in mind of Star Trek’s Dark Mirror universe … if it was run by a bunch of corporate weasels.

--Patrick


Bowl of Heaven (Hardcover)

$25.99
ISBN-13: 9780765328410
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tor Books, 10/2012

The human ship SunSeeker discovers an artifact of immense significance on its way to colonize the Earth-like world, Glory – a star half-enclosed by a cup-shaped structure with a surface area greater than that of a million Earths. And this star and its Bowl of Heaven are also bound for Glory. Now, the landing party sent to investigate has been separated into two groups, one held by the world’s inhabitants, the other pursued across its surface. Let the fun begin!

Ringworld is arguably Larry Niven’s most well-known space novel, and comparisons between that masterwork and Bowl of Heaven are inevitable. And, in fact, everything that made Ringworld so awesome … all of the sf action and adventure and aliens and big ideas … are here and in spades, but there’s something added, perhaps by Benford, or by the combination of Benford and Niven, that makes Bowl of Heaven awesome in its own right. Call it old-school science fiction if you will, but it’s old-school with a fusion engine and up-to-date science. And it’s just the beginning.

--Patrick


Slow Apocalypse (Hardcover)

$25.95
ISBN-13: 9780441017577
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ace Hardcover, 9/2012
Throughout my life, I’ve read and reviewed many an “end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it” novel. Can’t get enough of them, and I’ve learned a great deal about how to survive after the Fall. Am I prepared? Decidedly not. Am I trying to tell you something? Nope, not yet anyway. Would I tell you if I knew the end was near? Ah, now that is the question. Tell everyone, or keep that info close to my vest and get busy fortifying so I can protect me and mine when the sh*t hits the fan and resources become scarce? Hmmm. There’s the rub.

This is the dilemma facing one Dave Marshall, a currently unemployed sitcom writer living in Los Angeles. Seems Dave has a line on a new story he’s dying to run past the studios. But then he finds out his source isn’t spouting fiction. Seems the world’s oil actually is about to be rendered useless, with devastating consequences. A Slow Apocalypse that will bring civilization to its knees. What is Dave to do to protect his family? Stay in place, dig in, and hope for help to come ... or run for the hills?

It is very strange walking streets and highways that I’ve actually been down ... through an author’s eyes ... before and after a cataclysm. A Southern California without water and power. You have food. Your neighbors don’t. Humanity at its worst, and at its best. Imagine. Varley puts the reader there, and through the wringer. Awesome, and terrifying.

--Patrick


Caliban's War (Paperback)

$15.99
ISBN-13: 9780316129060
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Orbit, 6/2012
A Martian marine who survived an attack by a monstrous ... something, a cantankerous UN undersecretary playing a clandestine game of thrones, a Ganymede scientist searching for a kidnapped daughter, and Capt. Jim Holden, hero of Leviathan’s Wake, come together to shed light on a grand conspiracy and thus prevent an inter-Solar System war from wreaking merry havoc on an already destabilized humanity. Meanwhile, something is growing on the planet Venus, something that cannot be hidden, something that many would kill to keep secret, something alien. And a war that could kill billions might just be a distraction. Caliban’s War continues to build on the near-future-techno-space-opera-action-awesomeness begun in Leviathan’s Wake. I cannot wait for the trilogy’s conclusion. These books are not to be missed.

--Patrick

 


$14.99
ISBN-13: 9781597804233
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Night Shade Books, 6/2012

Alexander Napoleon Outland: pirate, rogue, lady’s man, guy’s guy, coolest of the cool, a Stainless Steel Rat in Mal Reynolds’ coat. Nap and his daring crew wander around the galaxy in search of action and adventure … all kinds of action and all manner of adventure. “In space, no one can hear you scheme …” Couldn’t have said it better myself, so I lifted it from the cover. (Nap would be proud.) Alexander Outland: Space Pirate is chock-full of snappy dialogue and laugh-out-loud scenes, and not a small amount of action and adventure … all kinds of action and all manner of adventure. Perhaps the only thing I really need impart on you fine folks is that if you miss Firefly as much as I do, give Nap & Co. a read. You won't be sorry.

--Patrick Outland


Year Zero (Paperback)

$15.00
ISBN-13: 9780345534514
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Del Rey, 4/2013

Year Zero is when aliens first discovered that we Earthlings had a talent for music¹. The rest of cosmos, it would seem, sucks at its creation. Sucks so bad that the first Earth music to reach them, during the end credits of Welcome Back, Kotter, caused many an alien to die in apparent ecstasy. Go figure. And don’t get me started about when real music finally reached alien auditory structures². Anyway, years go by and the time is now, and our music has a bit of an intergalactic cult following³. And these aliens now realize they have a bit of a problem. They’ve been listening to our music FOR FREE for decades and by our laws … and theirs … they owe Earth a bit of money … okay, a lot of money … okay, so much money that the entire cosmos of music-loving beings owes Earth every single unit of commerce ever devised since the Big Bang. So, what to do? Well, you’ve got your nicer aliens who want to cut us a deal, and your not-so nice aliens who would just blow up the planet and have done. Enter our hero, Nick Carter. No not that Nick Carter, the other one … the probably-about-to-be-fired mid-level New York copyright lawyer. To save Earth, Nick will have to become Larger Than Life and make those pesky aliens Quit Playing Games. For More than That, you’ll just have to read the book.

Year Zero is a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy4 for the new millennia, designed for Men in Black … and any other sentient being with a sense of humor. And aside from being laugh-out-loud funny, Year Zero is also quite informative. Did you know you could be fined $150,000 per illegally downloaded song or movie? Or that this fact might just lead to Earth’s destruction? Author Rob Reid, founder of Rhapsody, knows a wee bit about this … and may just be in contact with extraterrestrial music aficionados. Rock on!      

 

¹ We call it 1977 … and we know it mostly as the year Star Wars debuted, but I digress.

² It wasn’t pretty.

³ Galactic understatement! They’ve actually patterned the universe after us ... in their own way ... and Everybody speaks English.

4 Gotta love you some Vogon poetry!       

--Patrick

 


$17.99
ISBN-13: 9781606843291
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: EgmontUSA, 4/2012

The first day of high school can be trying. Add an explosion that destroys a good chunk of the place and a virus that leaves every pubescent teen infected – and brings a quick death to any adult they encounter – and you then have the new McKinley High. Add a year quarantined without supervision and it’s The Lord of the Flies meets The Breakfast Club with a dash of Ender’s Game. Each day is a continuous fight for survival. Social cliques have morphed into vicious gangs. If you’re not a part of a gang, you’re just meat for the grinder. David is one such loner, but there are many others. Time to take a stand. Awesome. Quarantine: The Loners is relentless from page one – all death, destruction, brutality … and teen angst. Though billed as young adult, it is definitely not for the faint of heart.

--Patrick


Existence (Mass Market Paperback)

$9.99
ISBN-13: 9780765342621
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tor Science Fiction, 2/2013
First Contact. But not as you would expect. An astronaut finds an egg-shaped crystal while collecting garbage in Space, touches it, and things get very interesting very quickly. "Join us!" But is this the first such stone to fall into mankind’s hands? Meanwhile, on the surface of the Earth and beneath the sea, life marches on. A world famous science fiction writer does his bit for kin and country. A star reporter becomes a hero and then becomes something much more. A lowly scavenger makes a significant discovery while diving off of the coast of his flooded country. A billionaire playboy is “rescued” by a pod of rather intelligent dolphins. Just a few of the multiple viewpoints that populate Brin’s future Earth, an Earth on the brink.

Existence is so full of Brin-ish ideas and concepts that I don’t even know where to begin. Alien contact, divergent human species, artificial intelligence, smart mobs, global warming, differing (often bickering) alien philosophies, mankind’s place in the universe, human history turned on its end ... the transparent society, social upheavals, terrorist attacks, Awful Day ... and much much more. All of this in an incredibly thought-provoking and faced-paced story ... each page loaded with a sense of wonder and optimism that is often lacking in today’s science fiction. This one’s sure to be on many an awards shortlist. It’s that good. And lastly, I hope this is just the start of something because I really need to know what happens next. So David, where’s my next book?

--Patrick

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Losers in Space (Hardcover)

$18.99
ISBN-13: 9780670061563
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Viking Juvenile, 4/2012

In the future, you don’t have to work, but if you want fame and fortune, you have to earn it. There’s no inheriting it from your parents. Enter our heroes, the Losers, and their brilliant idea to become celebrities: Stow away on a rocket bound for Mars. Awesome. And there’s no turning around once they’re in motion. Fame and fortune will be theirs for the taking. One slight hiccup: Their rocket’s got a few issues. Oh, and one other: one of the Losers is a sociopath. Let the fun begin!

I’ve been a fan of John Barnes for half of my life and he’s never let me down. Now he turns his eye to Hard SF for young people ... and for those not-so young who love a good story ... like me ... and me like. Losers in Space is in keeping with the old Heinlein juveniles, only with more of today’s sensibility and scientific knowledge. And his Notes for the Interested are brilliant. Don’t want the standard sf-infodump? Then simply skip them.

--PMH