Category Archives: Science Fiction

Shards of Honor

Posted on 18 August 2019 by Barbara Howe

In Shards of Honor, the superb introduction to Lois McMaster Bujold’s many-volume Vorkosigan saga, Commander Cordelia Naismith, citizen of Beta Colony and head of a planetary survey mission, is down planet with a small team of scientists when they are … Continue reading →

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The Molenstraat Music Festival

Posted on 27 July 2019 by Barbara Howe

An accident leaves a brilliant young cellist brain-damaged. She can still play, but her concentration slips after a few minutes, leaving her unable to finish a piece. In The Molenstraat Music Festival, set a thousand years in the future, medical … Continue reading →

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Rendezvous with Rama

Posted on 27 July 2018 by Barbara Howe

The year is 2131. Aboard the Solar Survey ship Endeavour, Commander Bill Norton and a team of scientists are on a mission to intercept and glean what information they can from an alien spacecraft as it hurtles through our solar … Continue reading →

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Matters Arising from the Identification of the Body

Posted on 7 April 2018 by Barbara Howe

In Matters Arising from the Identification of the Body by New Zealand-born author Simon Petrie, hard science fiction intersects with another of my favourite genres, crime fiction. In a mining colony on Titan, Saturn’s moon, a young woman, Tanja Morgenstein, … Continue reading →

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The Witches of Karres

Posted on 6 August 2017 by Barbara Howe

The Witches of Karres, a whimsical space opera by James H Schmitz, is an old favourite. I think I must have first read this in high school, but it still appeals. A young man, Captain Pausert, is on his way … Continue reading →

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Doomsday Book

Posted on 24 June 2017 by Barbara Howe

Doomsday Book* is a Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning** time-travel novel by Connie Willis. It was published in the 90’s, but I only stumbled across it a few months ago. The plot is straightforward: from the near future (December 2054), a young … Continue reading →

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