Technology has always changed our world in drastic, fundamental ways, for better and for worse. And now, we are on the verge of revolutionizing our own bodies with recent advancements in biotechnology and DNA manipulation. To cite an oft-quoted cliché, it’s a brave new world, and How to Defeat Your Own Clone is there to offer some much-needed answers in an accessible fashion.

The title drew me in, but the focus on correcting misinformation and providing funny, well-thought-out insight into the actual science and consequences behind cloning made it a terrific read. The book is bursting with facts: Did you know that identical twins are more likely to share phobias than fraternal twins? The authors temper the occasionally disturbing possibilities with a great deal of humor and style.

Not only do they discuss the impact of bioengineering on pie, but they offer the following gem: “Addicting your clones to crack, meth, or daytime television is a dick move AND amateurish.”

Plus the advice on how to outwit your clone is terrific, and I’ll be sure to utilize it when the inevitable doppelganger showdown arrives. If I prevail, I’ll have Kurpinski and Johnson to thank for it.

Reviewed by Glenn Dallas

William Gibson, founder of the cyberpunk style of science-fiction, has moved to primarily modern thrillers in his most recent novels, though still with strong themes of technology, pop-culture and counterculture. While the novels themselves are set in a current era, they still carry the feel of the cyberpunk era – gritty, paranoid, and technologically advanced. Zero History is no exception, bringing characters back from Spook Country to again look at the relationships between people, technology, and society.

Freelance journalist Hollis Henry is once again pressed into working for Hubertus Bigend, founder of Blue Ant, a trend-forecasting firm. Bigend wants to get into the recession-proof business of military contracting, particularly clothing lines with potential for consumer sales. Hollis is joined by the drug-addicted translator Milgrim as they try and track down a secretive military clothing designer. Some of Milgrim’s past begins to catch up to him and Hollis, even though his life off the grid has left him with “zero history.” As one might expect in a Gibson novel, there are plenty of plot twists and social commentary along the way to a satisfying conclusion.

Reviewed by Ross Rojek

Mockingjay is one of the most anticipated YA novels of the year, concluding the dystopian trilogy started in the Hunger Games. It is the story of a future where two children from each of the districts making up the country are sent to take part in very violent televised games, with only one set of them surviving, provided both actually do survive. In Hunger Games, Katniss takes her sister’s place in the lottery, going to the Hunger Games instead, and against all odds, survives. In Catching Fire, Katniss is lauded among the districts and then subjected to a new Hunger Game with previous survivors for a 75th anniversary special. Finally, in Mockingjay, Katniss becomes part of the revolution to overthrow the brutal system.

There is a major change of focus in Mockingjay, not so much on the characters, but on the subject of war and conflict. In the first two books, the majority of the emphasis was that one did their best to make sure you left something better for those that came after you. The children and their parents participated in the Hunger Games because winning them would make life better for the residents of the winning district…or also because not participating would bring retaliation down on any district that dared to try and boycott them. But in Mockingjay, there is a lot of death, but it seems more for shock value than for examples of selflessness. Katniss herself goes from being a driving character to reacting to the events and things around her, almost becoming easily manipulated with no change to explain why.

Collins does deliver a well-concluded final book, but it lacks some of the humanness that gave her many rabid fans of the first two books and could disappoint readers who were looking to see more development in Katniss and a better conclusion to her story.

Reviewed by Ross Rojek

The nineteenth book in the Anita Blake series, Bullet, rocks. Haven fans won’t want to miss this one, with the tension between Anita and her Lion coming to a head at last. With far less talk and police work than recent Anita novels, Bullet is nonetheless packed with action. Anita and Richard grow far more at peace with themselves and one another, even reaching some level of normal, or at least as normal as Anita’s animator and serial killer life will allow. Anita, local werewolf king Richard, and the master of St. Louis, Jean Claude, spend less time analyzing and agonizing over the triumvirate they’ve created and more time acting to secure their power base in St. Louis, which can’t happen a moment too soon.

“I knew better, but sometimes the illusion of safety is all people have. I didn’t even have that, and hadn’t had it for years.”

In short, Bullet packs the heat, including a girl fight, tigers and lions but no bears to speak of, but metaphysical disasters, shapeshifter workouts, and a few bloody massacres, the worst being Anita’s heart as she fights to protect those she loves and those depending on her, a list that’s growing all the time along with the power in St. Louis, against the Mother of all Vampires, who isn’t as dead as they thought.

Reviewed by Axie Barclay

Inhabiting the world of the Chinese zodiac, Five Odd Honors is a vibrant work and steeped in heavy culture, as readers of Jane Lindskold’s Firekeeper series might expect. Written with Lindskold’s lyricism and complex prose, the characters and culture feel successfully foreign and strange as the author paints an elaborate, beautiful, and complex work with recognizably humanizing themes of redemption, pride, loyalty, betrayal, and hatred.

If unfamiliar with the series or Lindskold’s style in general,  Five Odd Honors can be a difficult book to get into. The elaborate cast of characters comes with complex names that can lead to confusion, leaving at least one reader wishing for a list of those involved along with notes as to their affiliations. There’s also a lot of talking among the characters, but the action is worthwhile as Brenda and the Thirteen Orphans struggle for the Lands of Born from Smoke and Sacrifice.  This third installment of the Breaking the Wall series is an elaborate tapestry of a novel, entertaining with lovely prose and characters with complex lives and emotions.

Reviewed by Axie Barclay

In the novel Hominids, author Robert J. Sawyer offered a fascinating idea–a world where Neanderthal man survived and Homo sapiens went the way of the dinosaurs. When a single Neanderthal scientist, Ponter Boddit, appeared in our world from an alternate dimension, he offered a wonderful outsider’s perspective on our society.

Now, in Humans, the second book in his Neanderthal Parallax series, Sawyer takes us one giant leap further, by describing in vivid detail the Neanderthal society. Not only does character Mary Vaughan explore their world as Ponter explored ours, but a budding cultural exchange is born, highlighting the many differences between our worlds. What will this mean for both societies?

I have said in the past that Robert J. Sawyer is probably the most accessible science fiction writer working today, and I feel confident in striking the world “probably” from that statement. Humans is at once a thoroughly enthralling look at our past, our present, and our possible future, and a wonderful examination of what makes us human. It is like one incredibly detailed Venn diagram, comparing and contrasting our best and worst qualities, all under the guise of telling one tremendously good “What If…?” story.

Reviewed by Glenn Dallas

Mr. Stirling has set The Sky People in the same science fiction writers’ wishful universe as In the Courts of the Crimson Kings. Just as his Mars was a blend of Burrough’s Barsoom and his own wonderful weapons sense, this adventure takes place on a Venus of great atmospheric density and wonderful diversity of life.

“We could make for the coast and try to build a boat ,,, have you seen the stuff that lives in the ocean here? I wouldn’t try a long voyage on anything that didn’t outweigh the pleiosaurs . . .”

Again, the hands or tentacles or claws of forerunners have seeded the planet with older versions of Earth life. We have dire wolves, evolved to the intelligence of modern wolves, dinosaurs, sabertooths, and wonderfully attractive Earth-derived humans — particularly their womenfolk. Also, we have brutish Neanderthals who, with Stirling’s cruel imagination, acquire AK-47s.

Marc is a highly selected member of the planetary staff, clinging to his Creole heritage. He finds himself embarked on a dirigible voyage across thousands of kilometers of hostile planet, only to discover that one of the crew is a saboteur. Marc’s adventures, his outsized pet, and his romance make for one of the most engaging, if self-indulgent science-fiction fantasies, it has been my pleasure to read in the past few years. If you are in search of some pure fun, buy this book.

Reviewed by David Sutton

Vampire stories are even more popular today than they were during the age of Bram Stoker and other Victorian authors.  From Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight to movies, books, and television shows, vampire stories–and more than just the classics–are all around. This new collection goes back to the roots of the vampire stories.  The stories are set in Slavic lands: Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and even Transylvania (that mysterious locale and even more mysterious peasants.)  What we also get are different kinds of vampires as these are vampire stories written before Stoker’s Dracula, when the idea of vampires and what made a vampire was ever changing and evolving.  But the sexual tension is present no matter the circumstances.  We get vampires that are invisible, vampires that only go after family members, and people who become vampires because they were excommunicated when they died.  You can see the growth and progress of the vampire mythos in this wonderful collection.

Reviewed by Kevin Winter

No backup. No escape plan. No support. No time to rest. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are two of the Order’s most capable Jedi, but they’re low on options. On the run from overwhelming Separatist forces on a backwater planet in the Outer Rim called Lanteeb, Obi-Wan and Anakin have uncovered a plot to unleash a horrific bioweapon on the galaxy. But when they reach a small mining town in the hopes of laying low and regrouping, the Separatists track them down. As the two Jedi prepare to make a final stand, can they save themselves, let alone the galaxy?

Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Siege picks up right where Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth left off, with the Jedi in dire straits. It was a terrific cliffhanger, one that is picked up with great urgency here. Casting the heroes in the unfamiliar role as underdogs, author Karen Miller maintains tension throughout the book, tempering it with moments of surprising weakness for the heroes. This is the most human Anakin and Obi-Wan have been in quite some time, and their growing despair is handled with grace.

Clone Wars Gambit: Siege is a better read for the emotional development of the characters than for the action, which is an oddity for a Star Wars novel. Admittedly, the reader knows that nothing catastrophically bad can happen to the heroes, since they must survive to appear in the third film — and every Clone Wars novel takes place between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith — but Miller’s choice to focus on whether their spirits, their values, and their very resolve will survive the siege is far more compelling.

Their struggle is balanced nicely by the subplots. We get glimpses into the plotting of the Sith lords, the attempts by Republic senators to rescue Anakin and Obi-Wan, and disagreements between the Jedi and the Chancellor, all adding detail and color to the bigger galactic threat, the war itself.

In the most interesting sidestory, Anakin’s padawan Ahsoka bonds with a Jedi named Taria Damsin, who has been shelved from active duty by an affliction that will slowly weaken her until it takes her life. Taria’s past with Obi-Wan nicely parallels Ahsoka’s growing loyalty to Anakin, providing a nice counterpoint to Anakin’s ongoing conflict between his struggle with Jedi detachment and his secret relationship with Padme Amidala.

Not only does Clone Wars Gambit: Siege wrap up all the loose ends from Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth, but it raises a lot of important issues for the characters. It offers both poignant questions and a satisfying conclusion.

Reviewed by Glenn Dallas

The Very Best of Charles de Lint is a short story collection compiled, in part, with the help of de Lint’s fans. De Lint includes a very nice introduction that explains the impetus for this urban fantasy collection and how he collaborated with his fans to choose the stories. He and his fans did a wonderful job as these stories are lovely and quite diverse. A few of them could be read to children before bed, and a few of them address issues one hope’s a child never has to know about.

The collection includes the sweet and touching Pixel Pixies about a bookstore hob trying to keep the Mistress’s store safe from an invasion of pixies and Laughter in the Leaves about a trickster pesting an otherwise peaceful home. Couched within the same binding, though, are Into the Green, a story about suspicion and prejudice, and In the House of My Enemy, a story about domestic abuse. In some stories the reader is taken on a whimsical journey and in others on a serious exploration of the issues of identity and trust. This is a collection definitely worth picking up.

Reviewed by Rachel Wallace

Part witch, part fae nobility, part something else, Genevieve “Genny” Taylor works for Spellcrackers.com who’s slogan ‘Making Magic Safe!’  says it all. As a spellcracker, Genny dispatches troublesome magic and is happy to stick to what knows. But when Mr. October, a vampire, is accused of murdering his girlfriend asks Genny to prove his innocence, her formerly simple, easy life transforms into something complicated and dangerous. Soon vampires are coming out of the woodwork and Genny isn’t quite sure who to trust.

Author Suzanne McLeod has put the bite back in vampire. Her characters are rich, complex, and flawed. The descriptions so real and gritty, the reader is standing next to Genny in the dirty, rank alley preparing to dispatch one of the filthy undead into non-existence. She’s created a believable world, one in which the undead and gifted exist right alongside normal everyday people. The Sweet Scent of Bloodis an incredibly complex rollercoaster ride of suspense and horror. I simply cannot wait for the next installment.

Reviewed by Lanine Bradley

A bow and arrow-wielding mercenary confronts painful memories and an ancient evil in Return, a new Innkeeper’s World story from the pen of mythopoeia, Hugo and Nebula Award winner and two-time World Fantasy Award best novel nominee Peter S. Beagle. Soukyan, the narrator, has long been hunted by unchangeable Hunter’s triads, but the latest attack is different. Soukyan dons a disguise to return to that place he fled as a boy many years before. What he finds is the ancient secret of the Order of Brothers he was once invited to join.

Only through the help of the magic given to him by the “man who laughs” can Soukyan hope to overcome the indomitable Hunters and their half-mad masters. Beagle’s story reads like an ancient legend due to its intimate first-person perspective, its ancient sounding grammar and vocabulary, and its intense sequences of battle and ancient magic. Coupled with a spectacular cover and interior illustrations by Chesley Award winner Maurizio Manzieri, this lush limited edition novella is entrancing and utterly compelling. Familiarity with The Innkeeper’s Song is not required to enjoy this captivating heroic and mythic fantasy.

Reviewed by John Ottinger

This enchanting collection is a sampling of all things dragon; philosophy, magic, mechanism, environment, menu, subterfuge, climate, culture, and dragons as friends and protagonists. I met several old winged friends and made some new ones. This was not a story that failed to entrance. Often anthologies are offered with one or two prominent writers to carry their more earthbound colleagues. Not so with Wings of Fire. The level of writing is so consistently high one feels seized and borne aloft!

“Hear a dragon’s riddling:
as round as an apple, as deep as a cup, and all the kings horses can’t pull it up.
Which was a well of course.”

 Some stories were origination sources for series dear to lovers of science-fantasy. In St. Dragon and the George we meet Gordon Dickson’s Teaching Assistant Jim Eckert, transmuted into Gorbash, before the mourned Mr. Dickson injected Aragh or the sandmirks or the Welsh archer. In Weyr Search Lessa of Ruatha Hold sabotages her family’s slayer and is impressed to become the loved and loving companion of the golden queen of  Pern’s Dragonfolk.

Some jewels stand alone, limned by flame. Ursula K. Le Guin pits Winter Dragon against moonshine.  S. P. Somtow’s dragon underlies Bangkok and supplies both enchantment and wondrous nourishment. Jane Yolen steals the Wart from the Once and Future Kingand performs a draconian transformation of Merlin.

A wondrous volume!

Reviewed by David Sutton

Picking up precisely where The Temporal Void left off, The Evolutionary Void,—the third book in Hamilton’s Void Trilogy—immediately kicks into high gear.  Edeard has finally managed to master his awesome psychic abilities, but he finds that his troubles are far from over.  Second Dreamer Araminita finds herself trying to outrun her destiny as every Commonwealth faction in the universe hunts her down.  The cult of the Living Dreamers ruthlessly pursues their goal of settling into their perfect lives within the Void, while Oscar Monroe feverishly works on  his own plan to thwart the utter destruction that will be the ultimate result of their pilgrimage.

While I found some of his character interaction scenes–and pretty much all of his action scenes–to be portrayed in a somewhat stilted manner, Hamilton does continue to excel in character development.  And does this book have some characters!  This story is a very detailed mapping of overlapping layers of storylines, of which, the few mentioned above are but a small portion.  Several philosophical arguments are also part of the tapestry which makes for an interesting read, even if you don’t find yourself fully immersed in the pages of this particular book.

Reviewed by Heather Ortiz