“-Falling just means you’re someone else when you stand up.” – Debris In the world of Debris by Jo Anderton, pions – the sentient energy that composes reality – can be coerced into shaping matter and performing whatever task is required. The veche who rule the city of Movac-under-Keeper employ powerful pion “binders” to […]
There is something special about books and reading. The ability to transport a reader into another world, into the lives of characters is a very powerful thing. One might even go so far as to say that reading and books are a form of magic. For Isaac Vainio, that magic is literal. He is, […]
The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, tells the story of the expansion of humanity into a seemingly endless collection of Earths. When plans for the “stepper” – a box of simple electronic components powered by a potato – appears on the internet, it seems little more than a harmless project for children. […]
The term Science Fiction applies if there is a science somewhere at the bottom of the fiction. Be it the “hard” sciences of physics, astronomy and chemistry, or the “soft” sciences of sociology, psychology, anthropology, and biology lying somewhere in between, there is always an underlying science for the fiction to be considered science […]
In vN, Madeline Ashby tells the story of Amy Peterson – an android little girl from a mixed synthetic/organic home. Her mother and herself are Von Neuman androids – self-replicating robots, while her father is human. Despite the differences between her and other children, Amy grows up loved and well cared for – until the […]
Living in a world very much like our own, a seemingly ordinary person is wrapped up in a whirlwind journey that takes her across the multiverse, far from the world of her home. On the way, the protagonist discovers there are an infinity of worlds at which there is one true realm at the center, […]
On a tropical island inhabited by castoffs, treasure hunters and malcontents, a dipsomaniac treasure hunter, Stagger, and his supremely capable partner Infidel get into a deadly spot. While Infidel may be mostly invulnerable and superhumanly strong, Stagger unfortunately, is not. When the treasure hunter dies, his ghost does not move onto the next realm, […]
When we last left Jorg Ancrath, Prince of a small feudal realm in a post-apocalypse Europe, he had unleashed the power of the Builders to complete an impossible task in humbling one of his father’s rivals. The author seemingly accomplished the impossible task of getting readers to care about and respect a character who is […]
Redshirts by John Scalzi takes one of the most beloved science fiction series of all time and mercilessly tears it apart. But in a good way. Andrew Dahl has just been stationed aboard the Intrepid, but as soon as he arrives he notices things are amiss. Crew members mysteriously disappear before certain officers appear in […]
If Bryan Thomas Schmidt‘s ‘The Worker Prince’ was Moses in space, than ‘The Returning’ contains the seeds of a new Exodus – blending the background of the original story seamlessly into the sequel. Readers may pick up the thread of the story quickly – whether or not they have read the first book. For decades, […]
A military unit outside of the boundaries of its Empire, messing around in client kingdoms and bordering polities. A motley group of soldiers and gritty veterans, more than a bit war-weary. Some of those soldiers are burdened with dark secrets, and a mission and purpose unclear to anyone around them. Standard Sword and sorcery stuff, […]
Egil and Nix are thieves. Good thieves, as a matter of fact. True, they have side interests and pasts. Nix knows something of magic. Egil was trained as a priest of the Momentary God. Both of them have pasts and long careers as thieves, years of tomb robbing and other unsavory jobs. Now, the results […]
In Blackbirds, Chuck Wendig tells the story of a modern day Cassandra. Miriam has had the visions for years. All it takes is the touch of another person’s skin on her own, and she sees their death. When she meets a trucker named Louis, she sees him call her name before he dies. Can […]
It’s the early 17th century. Elizabethan England. The scene is London, a diverse and eclectic metropolis. Maliverny Catlyn is a skilled but down on his luck swordsman and gentleman who is trying to scrape together a living on the hard streets of London, manage his relationship with his lover Ned, and keep his tortured […]
The magic returns (or comes into being) to our technological modern day world is not a new idea in fantasy. Rachel Pollack’s Unquestionable Fire. The novels of Alyx Dellamonica. The roleplaying games Shadowrun and GURPS: Technomancer hypothesize what would happen if magic erupted into the modern world. Other novels and stories ponder a return […]
When last we left Liam Kelly, the slow revelation of who and what he was had left him if not in a happy place, at least a relatively stable place. True, he had lost much in discovering his true heritage, lost his wife, lost friends, lost (or should we say, walked away) from his […]
Book Review: Songs of the Earth by Elspeth Cooper. Gair has been keeping a secret. Although he a good warrior for the Church, he has a talent for magic that the Church decries as witchcraft. It comes as a terrible song that he cannot stop hearing, and when it manifests too strongly, the magic […]
“The work is challenging, the public is hostile, and the monsters are hungry, but the MMD crew has science, teamwork … and a secret weapon on their side. Together, they can save Japan, and the universe!” – from the back cover Hiroshi Yamamoto’s novel, about an alternate history where all of those rubber suit monster […]
When I picked up American Gods by Neil Gaiman, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew only two things: 1.) It was cited as a genre classic and 2.) the podcast, Writing Excuses, mentioned a scene from the book where a god burned his fingers on a hot apple pie. And while I admit […]
A few years ago, Matt Dukes Jordan compiled Wierdo Deluxe to showcase today’s leading lowbrow and pop surrealist artists. With Weirdo Noir, he crawls into the cracks of the lowbrow genre to harvest some of the darker Gothic* works contained therein. Jordan’s introductory essay is a glimpse into the human obsession with what goes bump […]
I am going to start this review off on a note and structure rather different than other book reviews of mine you’ve read of mine at the Functional Nerds and say this right up front: Prince of Thorns, a debut fantasy novel by Mark Lawrence, is a contentious novel with a mostly unsympathetic sociopathic […]
Thomas Marcinko’s new anthology, Astronauts and Heretics, treats the reader to seven highly entertaining and imaginative stories. The first story, Faith in a Higher Power, tells of a world where super powers are strictly regulated and many treat their ‘gifts’ as an addiction. Despite this, the tale is playful and upbeat. Next comes Whiter Teeth, […]
Subscribe to The Functional Nerds Podcast on iTunes and never miss an episode!