Tag: Book

Fair Trade by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (2022)

Through my involvement in The Heinlein Society I have become a regular attendee at Balticon, the Baltimore Science Fiction Society’s annual SF convention.  BSFS and THS award the “Heinlein Award” and the 2025 winner was Sharon Lee.  Before the con I had only read one of Sharon’s books and was vaguely aware of the Liaden Universe that her and her husband & cowriter created and populated.

At the con, I picked up Fair  Trade to be able to have Sharon inscribe it.  I read it this week and it’s an intriguing story with two main plot threads.  I didn’t realize it was the third book of an arc, but I was able to pick up the gist of earlier pertinent action.

I enjoyed the similarity of the Loopers/Traders/Liaden to some of the customs in Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy. What I did not enjoy was finishing the book with several dangling plot threads and finding out there was not a “next book in the arc” yet published.  Steve Miller died in 2024, so it’s not really clear on what stories will be told in the Liaden Universe henceforth.

I’m glad I read this to get a better sense of Sharon & Steve’s writing, and a signed copy from Sharon is a nice memory of meeting her, but I would caution to read other parts of the Liaden Universe instead of this one for now.

Wonder Woman by Nancy Holder (2017)

While travelling visiting family this past Spring, I found this book in a used book store.  It’s a sad fact that movie-tie-in novelizations aren’t being done any more, except for those aimed at younger kids.  I hadn’t realized this one had come out, and Nancy Holder is a veteran of many adaptations. I really enjoyed her work in the Buffyverse.

As I expected, this is a solid telling of the story. What I usually love about novelizations is that they are done from a final script which often has more details than make it into the film.  Sadly, I didn’t learn anything “new” from this one.  I enjoyed the movie and I enjoyed reading the book after not having seen the movie in many years. It was a nice diversion on a dreary Fall day.

When I stop to look over what I have collected over the years that’s comics-related, I have a surprising amount of Wonder Woman books. I am going to add this one into the collection.

The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi (2025)

This is the seventh book in Scalzi’s most well-known series that started with Old Man’s War.  You don’t have to have read from the beginning to read this book, but you will miss out on some of the context.  (Plus, the other six books are worth it.) Last I heard, there will be a Netflix series based on OMW coming out sometime…it may have been delayed.

If you’ve never read a John Scalzi book before, you will either like his style or not.  Almost everything he’s written in the last few years is in a very conversational style, and there is a high “snark” quotient in many of those conversations.  I find his work to be a very ‘easy’ read in that they can be read quickly.  This is not to say he skimps on character or world-building if it’s necessary.  I found myself very interested in the character named “Ran” who is of the Obin race in this book.

Scalzi took a lot of time off of writing in the OMW universe. I respect that he wanted a good story to tell before coming back to it, and I think he told it.  I hope we’re not done completely with the cast of characters he’s created.