Science Fiction: Welcome to my Worlds

Most people think about book reviews in terms of being about the latest books out. My reviews, on the other hand, will focus on the BEST Science Fiction and Fantasy I've read over the years.

I read a lot of books but, frankly, there are way more out there than I have time to read. I have to assume that is the case for a lot of people. In today's busy world, you have to pick and chose the best reading for your leisure time carefully or you will be wasting precious recreational reading time. But, truth be told, the latest book out isn't always the best or most interesting story to occupy your time.

That's why I will also be reviewing only those books I know are good whether they are just out or they were written decades ago. While we may not, necessarily, agree on what is good, that will at least give you a starting point in deciding on your next read. What, after all, would be the point of even including a Science Fiction or Fantasy book I didn't like... other than allowing me to vent? :) Much better to go with the positive and, if your tastes are similar, you should find my book reviews very helpful-- especially in pointing out older books you may not have read that could well be better than newer ones you may hear about in other places. If you find your tastes aren't similar to mine, at least you'll know which ones to avoid. :)

Just a short note about my taste in various 'flavors' of SF. I like hard Science Fiction and even Space Opera occasionally, but nothing 'tickles my trigger' like a novel with really good characters and a psionic/ESP background of some sort. Immortality and its various aspects has always been a close second. If you can mix the two together, AND keep the characters real and the story moving, you'll definitely have my attention. Books with too many characters or more than one main character tend to give me gas. Books that are 'sort of' Science Fiction for people who don't really like Sci-Fi-- like most of Ray Bradbury's writing-- also fall out as rejects.

In the Fantasy genre, I should probably warn you that I simply detest one book which many thousands of other Fantasy lovers adore. That would be Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. There are simply too many characters in the novel, none of which I really care about. If I'm reading something and I need a Who's Who list to keep track of things, it probably will be bounced off the wall by the third chapter and completely ignored thereafter.

The Fantasy novels I do like involve magic of some sort. I don't, as a general rule, like Sword and Sorcery though, because they usually wind up with far more sword action than magic. There are exceptions to everything, of course, and I do like the Elric of Melnibone' series because he certainly isn't your typical barbarian magic-hater.

That should give you an idea of where I'm coming from. Do take a look at my book reviews and see what you think.