Daemon by Leinad Zeraus is not a complete book.

It is the story of a computer programmer named Matthew Sobol.  Before the novel begins he is dead from brain cancer.  As a brilliant and rich programmer, he left behind some programs to achieve his goals.

Those programs have activated and start off by murdering two of his coworkers and then attacking ( Read more... )

This is another book that is hard to do here without giving out spoilers.  I'm going to do my best, however ( Read more... )

I dilly-dally-ed (or however you spell that) on reading this one and now I regret it - because this is a damn fun book and you should go out and buy it and read it right away.

I'll wait.

Enough of that cliche.

Red Thunder by John Varley is the story of mankind's first trip to Mars.  The Americans have launched their ship, a V-Star with a few ( Read more... )

Unfortunately, though, the sequel to Steel Beach doesn't hold up quite as well.

To me, it feels like it's because of the general structure of the plot.  A lot of spoilers are given away on the back of the book, to be honest.  During the book, all we know to begin with is how the main character is a traveling con man/actor.  As the book goes on, we ( Read more... )

Steel Beach is one of my favorite novels.  I've lost track of how many times I've re-read it; probably at least 10-12 times at minimum.  However, I'd just read its sequel, The Golden Globe, and wanted to read it again.

The novel takes place "basically" in Varley's 8 Worlds universe.  The Invaders have kicked humans off of Earth, having come from a ( Read more... )

Demon is the final book in the Gaia trilogy.

Gaia herself has gone completely insane by this point.  Cast down as the wizard, Rocky is now the Demon, and the one that Gaia portends will be the destruction of Gaia the overmind.

This is also the book where it gets kind of silly in parts.  Gaia has taken the form of a giant Marilyn Monroe.  World War 5 ( Read more... )

Wizard is the sequel to Titan.  "Rocky" Jones has been made the Wizard by Gaia, which entails immortality amongst other things - such as the fact that she's the only one who can help perpetuate the Titanaide race, by making their eggs fertile with her saliva.

So, if you've been curious how centaur-like aliens made from human DNA with three sets of ( Read more... )

I'm actually rather surprised to see no John Varley on here so far.  I have a book of his short stories and his book Steel Beach which has been one of my long time favorite novels.  I even remember back in the day talk about it on some news group like rec.arts.(something).sci-fi or something like that and having him respond to me by e-mail - I was ( Read more... )

The Quantum Connection is a sequel to Warp Speed.

It's set a few years afterwards.  This time, instead of following one of the scientists involved, it follows (in first person) a young man whose entire family was killed in the "meteors" that were actually World War Three.  Despite his bouts of chronic depression, he finds employment with a ( Read more... )

Anyways, here we go - something a bit different.

Warp Speed is the first novel by Dr. Travis S. Taylor.  In the rather near future, the idea of creating a warp drive is possible, but until a redneck scientist's team in Alabama discovers a way to power them, it's simply not feasible.  Soon, however, starting in space and continuing on Earth the ( Read more... )