The Baroque Cycle books were a prequel, of sorts, to Crypto­nom­i­con. In World War II, Lawrence Waterhouse is an American cryp­tog­ra­ph­er, a peer of Alan Turing, and someone who will be the father of the digital computer; while Bobby Shaftoe is a US Marine who works on black ops. Now, Randy Waterhouse, computer nerd and Lawrence's grandson, is setting up a data haven in the Pacific. Amy Shaftoe, Bobby's grand­daugh­ter, and her father, Doug, are marine salvage experts working for Randy, who find a gold-filled Nazi submarine off the Philip­pines. Somehow, the events …continue.

Judge is the sixth and final book in the Wess'har Series, and the sequel to Ally.

For the first time, focus shifts to 25th-century Earth, as the eco­log­i­cal­ly radical Eqbas arrive to clean up the mess. Once again, the central themes are ethics and en­vi­ron­men­tal­ism, and the moral quandaries posed by the existence of c'naatat, a parasite that confers im­mor­tal­i­ty upon its host. The series draws to a close, resolving the fates of the central characters: the ruthlessly principled former cop, Shan Frankland; her two husbands, the gentle marine, Ade Bennett, and the alien war …continue.

Two scientists are re­search­ing Near-Death Ex­pe­ri­ences, to learn what causes them and what happens during them. This is partly a detective story, partly a story about doing science. The two main characters are likeable and there's a memorable cast of supporting characters: the garrulous WWII veteran; the ma­nip­u­la­tive but charming nine-year-old girl; the horrible psychic fraud; the hardboiled ER nurse; the former English teacher with Alzheimer's; and his caretaker niece.

En­ter­tain­ing, but too long.

This is an omnibus edition containing C.J. Cherryh's Mer­chanter's Luck (1982) and 40,000 in Gehanna (1983): two very different novels set in the same universe.

In Mer­chanter's Luck, Sandor Kreja is the last survivor of a family that hauls freight across in­ter­stel­lar distances. He lives on the fringes, under a series of false identities, trying to avoid official notice. After a one-night stand with Allison Reilly of the enormous Dublin Again, she and three of her Reilly cousins sign on as his crew. The military hire them to ship a dangerous …continue.

A pa­le­on­tol­o­gist finds a 65-million-year-old alien fossil. A few years later, some of her NASA engineer friends send a probe to the Martian moon Phobos and find the mummies of more of those aliens in an ancient station. They all form part of the crew on the first manned mission to Mars, to in­ves­ti­gate the alien artifacts.

This is a moderately en­ter­tain­ing hard science fiction novel, with an in­ter­est­ing premise and moderately plausible characters. I was irritated by the vast amounts of exposition. The book has a bad case of …continue.

Joel Johnston is a budding young musician and the son of a Nobel-winning physicist, who gets engaged to Jinna, a fellow orphan, only to learn that she's the grand­daugh­ter of the richest man in the Solar System. Her grand­fa­ther, The Conrad, wants him to breed more heirs. In a fit of pique at the deception, Joel goes on a bender then hops on a colony ship to a distant star. Even at rel­a­tivis­tic speeds, it's going to be a one-way trip.

Fifty years ago, Robert …continue.

Father Emilio Sandoz, S.J., is the sole survivor of the first expedition to an alien planet, an experience that has left him physically maimed, trau­ma­tized, and reviled. He doesn't want to talk about it, but the Jesuit order who sponsored the expedition require answers.

Russell's narrative weaves two tales together: the expedition itself and the inquiry afterwards. This is a first contact for which the expedition crew, Jesuits and lay people alike, are not adequately prepared. The two alien races are more alien than they seem at first, operating from fun­da­men­tal­ly …continue.

Three short novels, extracted from longer stories published elsewhere.

Ms. Mid­ship­woman Harrington by David Weber is a prequel to the Honor Harrington novels. Harrington is a mid­ship­woman in the Royal Navy of Manticore, on her first tour of duty out in a pirate-infested area. She survives the hazing of a par­tic­u­lar­ly brutal and stupid superior. When half the bridge is blown away by a pri­va­teer's attack, she manages to save the day.

Islands by Eric Flint is extracted from one of the …continue.

Dune is Frank Herbert's classic SF novel, dealing with such themes as a galactic messiah, ecology, politics, treachery, and space opera.

The teenaged Paul Atreides, the product of thousands of years of selective breeding by the Bene Gesserit sisters, arrives on the desert planet Dune, home of the drug melange (or 'spice'). Spice is fun­da­men­tal to the galactic economy: the Guild navigators use it to 'fold' space and transport huge ships between star systems, and it confers longevity and health upon those who can afford it. Spice is a byproduct of …continue.

This is the sequel to Matriarch, one of the very first books I reviewed, back in December 2006.

As with its pre­de­ces­sor, this book does not admit of an easy summary and it too should be read in sequence.

The themes include alien contact, ecocide, genocide, the un­de­sir­able con­se­quences of im­mor­tal­i­ty, and the clash of per­son­al­i­ties. The plot is character-driven and fast-paced, with multiple twists.