Like books based on movies, TV shows, and other games, the novels based on the Halo games do their best to feel like they fit in with the shooters that inspired them. But with his new novel Halo Envoy (trade paperback, mass market paperback, digital) — in which a civil war between the Sangheili threatens the peace on a world where they and human colonists are trying to make a new life for themselves — writer Tobias S Buckell has actually come up with a story that doesn’t just compliment the Halo games, it could work as a game as well.
Tag: science fiction
How’s this for credentials: sci-fi writer James Gunn was inducted into the Science Fiction And Fantasy Hall Of Fame in 2015, made a Grand Master by The Science Fiction And Fantasy Writers Of America in 2007, and won the Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book for his 1982 biography Isaac Asimov: The Foundations Of Science Fiction. With his new novel, Transformation, just released in hardcover and digital — thus concluding the saga he started with 2013’s Transcendental and continued with 2016’s Transgalactic — I spoke to this iconic science fiction writer about how this trilogy came together, how it relates to his impressive body of work, and that other James Gunn running around these days.
When we think about flying cars, robot sidekicks, and heroes wearing bubble-like helmets, we typically think of the 1950s. But while all of those elements play a part in Bradley W. Schenck’s humorous new sci-fi novel Slaves Of The Switchboard Of Doom (hardcover, digital), in talking to him about it, he said it wasn’t the ’50s that were his inspiration, but an earlier time instead.
As one of the most interesting sci-fi novels of the last few years, Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice — and its sequels Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy — have undoubtedly inspired other authors in a variety of ways. But perhaps none so directly as Corey J White, who got the idea for his space opera novella Killing Gravity (paperback, digital) while reading Leckie’s novel. Though in talking to him about the first book in what he’s calling The Voidwitch Saga, White admitted that he was not only inspired by more than just Leckie’s book, but by anime and music as well.
Though she’s previously written books in both the Stargate Atlantis and Star Wars universes, Martha Wells’ original novels have all been in the fantasy realm. She even has calls her website, marthawells.com, “Martha Wells Worlds Of Fantasy.” But in her new novella, All Systems Red (paperback, digital), she’s returning to science fiction, and — as she explains below — for good reason.
In these political times, it’s easy to read too much into things. It’s why, when quizzing writer Robyn Bennis about her debut novel — the steampunk adventure The Guns Above (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), which has the tag line “Lean In. Fire At Will.” — I avoided asking any questions about feminism and its role in the book. Though after she told me what The Guns Above is about, I didn’t really need to.
In his novel Sleeping Giants, writer Sylvain Neuvel told his giant robot sci-fi story through a series of interviews and journals, which made for a quick and fun read. Now he’s continuing the story, and the format, with Waking Gods (hardcover, digital, audiobook), the second book in what he calls The Themis Files. Though in talking to him about the new book, and this series, it seems like he’s more concerned with baby cats and plastic toys.
Two years ago, Haikasoru — a division of Viz Media that translates and publishes English-language versions of Japanese science fiction novels — issued Fujii Taiyo’s 2013 debut novel, Gene Mapper, marking both it and Fujii’s debut in the United States. With Haikasoru’s version of Taiyo’s second novel, Orbital Cloud (paperback, digital), recently released in the U.S., I sent a bunch of questions to Taiyo via email, hoping that my inquiries into this books’ origins and influences would translate as well.
It was recently reported that while Paramount released both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-ray, the same will never be said of Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Which is a real bummer for those of us who feel that, after TOS, Deep Space Nine was the best Star Trek show. But while we may not be getting those classic stories in high-def, we are getting new ones courtesy of such writers as David R George III, whose latest novel, Star Trek Deep Space Nine The Long Mirage (paperback, digital) — in the grand tradition of the show — builds upon some plot points from earlier episodes, I mean novels.