CLYDE WISHAM

I found a worn copy of Nightmare Blue recently in a used book store. I was familiar with Gardner R. Dozois because of his annual Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies, but hadn't read any of his own work. Nightmare Blue was a pleasant surprise; Dozois and his coauthor, George Alec Effinger, wrote a very good story.
Basically, the story is a cross-genre mix of crime and SF. Nightmare blue is a drug, a terribly addictive drug. It is the perfect slave drug because one hit and you are hooked for life. If you don't get it you die – it is that simple. Unfortunately nightmare blue has started showing up on Earth. An unlikely duo, Jaeger a human PI and Sendijen a lobster-like alien, have to find and stop the source. The stakes are sky-high.
Recommended.
(I just found out that Baen have reissued an ebook version.
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1772-nightmare-blue.aspx)

Queen of Chaos concludes Sabrina Chase's Sequoyah trilogy. The series is great and this book provides a satisfying finish. (Though Sabrina did leave a couple of threads that she could spin into more books in that universe should she so wish.)
Good SF. Enjoy.

Good anthology about future war.

Sarah A. Hoyt is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers.
Darkship Renegades is good space opera. There is adventure, action, a little romance, and some serious do-or-die situations. What's not to like?
Darkship Renegades is the sequel to Sarah's earlier Prometheus Award wining Darkship Thieves. I would suggest reading both.

(Note: This review is based on the ARC ebook from Baen books; the print version not yet being available at the time of writing.
http://www.baenebooks.com/p-1717-darkship-renegades-earc.aspx)

After a 25-year break, DKM has written another book about Trent the Uncatchable. Bout time I say.
This time Trent has to not only stay ahead of relentless killer cyborgs, he also has to figure out how to stop the launch of a monster warship intended to bring the entire solar system under The Unification of Earth – like it or not. Needless to say, Trent is one of those who would prefer to keep his freedom, and he is not without resources of his own.

The Far Arena is a difficult book to classify. It has science fiction elements (man displaced in time), it has historical fiction elements (ancient Rome), it has science, it has corporate wheeling and dealing on an international scale, it has mystery and suspense, and that is all served up with a massive dose of culture shock. All of those elements just incidentally ride on a damn fine story.
Good book. Read it if you can find a copy.

Pretty good mix of alternate-history and fantasy – Europe in the 1930s and 1940s with some supernatural elements thrown in.

A Few Good Men is advertized as the sequel to Sarah A. Hoyt's Darkship Renegades and Darkship Thieves. This isn't strictly true. It is set in the same future and takes place over much the same time period, but is more of a companion story than a sequel. (It does intersect the earlier stories a couple of times, but they need not be read first.)
Basically, this is the story of a revolution told from the inside.
The main protagonist, Luce Keeva, is one super tough hombre. He has to be, because the story gets very violent and bloody. (Starts off with explosions, gunfights, and a jailbreak.) He also happens to be gay. That doesn't have anything much to do with the story, but seems to have been necessary to set up the initial background conditions.
The “Good Men” in the story are anything but good. They are the most powerful men on Earth and basically hold the planet in slavery. Their methods are pure evil. And Luce, well ... But, that would be telling. Read the story. It is good.

I quite enjoyed The January Dancer. Michael Flynn weaves a complex story from multiple viewpoints, most seemingly unrelated at first. However, all the threads connect in some way to a strange and ancient alien artifact that comes to dominate the lives of the protagonists.
Michael Flynn's skill as a writer makes this much more than just good space opera. Recommended for those who like Ian M. Banks's Culture series.

Entertaining SF.

[b:Take The Star Road 17983349 Take The Star Road (The Maxwell Saga, #1) Peter Grant http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1369693310s/17983349.jpg 25215974] is a coming of age story set inside a space adventure. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I had hoped to. It is a sort of a “Horatio Alger myth” story played out in a space opera setting. The writing style isn't to my liking. The author really likes to explain things, and he spends a lot of time explaining cool things. Some writers have done quite well as explainers (David Weber comes to mind); however, I prefer more show and less tell. Also, the main protagonist is too good to be true. He is brave, intelligent, honorable, never puts a foot wrong, and very very lucky.On the positive side, the story itself is pretty good, and I am sure it will find its audience.

Pretty good crime thriller.

This is the third book in Thomas Harlan's In the Time of the Sixth Sun series. It can be read alone, but you will get more out of it if you read the preceding two books first (Wasteland of Flint and House of Reeds). The stories take place in an Aztec/Japanese dominated human star empire in the far future of an alternate history line. (All three books are good stories.)
I really like Harlan's writing style. He doesn't go in for info-dumps, but rather lets the details of things such as the back story and the political situation come out naturally through the characters actions, observations, decisions, and memories. (Reminds me somewhat of Vonda N. McIntyre in that respect.)
The book follows the fortunes of four main characters: Susan Kosho, an Imperial Mexica Navy captain; Gretchen Anderssen, a Danish archeologist; Mitshharu Hadeishi, a former Navy captain who has lost his ship; and Green Hummingbird, a very devious and dangerous Imperial agent. Things can get very dangerous out on the rim of the empire, and humans aren't necessarily the toughest species out there. The Imperial scout service has found an ancient and enormous artifact that might date back to the time of the First or Second Sun. It promises enormous power but is also enormously dangerous. Naturally, the empire dispatches an expedition. The two alien races that decide to get in on the game complicate things, as do the (at least) four human factions with their own agendas. Things get very complicated and very violent with lots of naval combat. I don't think it is a spoiler to say that not everyone makes it back.
If you like Jack McDevitt's books, you will probably like this one.

[b:Snipers 17987183 Snipers Kristine Kathryn Rusch http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1374635429s/17987183.jpg 25223129] is a well crafted mystery with strong SF overtones. All of the action takes place in Vienna, but in two timelines–one in 1913 and the other in 2005.The main protagonist, Sofie Branstadter, is a successful investigative journalist. She is writing a book about a series of famous unsolved murders that occurred in Vienna in 1913. As her investigations lead her deeper into the mystery, she finds oddity piled on oddity.I cannot say more without giving away important details. Suffice to say, no one knew it at the time, but there was something special about Vienna in 1913.[a:Kristine Kathryn Rusch 43989 Kristine Kathryn Rusch http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1316664630p2/43989.jpg] has written a tight story filled with action in one timeline and good detective work in the other. Good book, recommended.

This is one of the better personal accounts to come out of the Vietnam War. In a remote province in Vietnam's Mekong delta, First Lieutenant David Donovan became a de facto ruler. Hence the title – [b:Once A Warrior King: Memories of an Officer in Vietnam 40502 Once A Warrior King Memories of an Officer in Vietnam David Donovan http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327815697s/40502.jpg 40091]. It is a gripping story of an unusual war and its effects on the young men who fought it.The vivid description of being saved from being overrun one night by the awesome destructive power of an Arc Light strike will probably stay with me forever.

I am far from the target demographic, but I quite enjoyed [b:Skye Object 3270a 11275740 Skye Object 3270a Linda Nagata http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347235662s/11275740.jpg 6557693] nonetheless. This short novel is a mixture of the young-adult and science fiction genres. The main character is a 14 year old girl oddly named “Skye Object 3270a”. Skye's odd name turns out to be related to the plot of the story.Skye is precocious and somewhat given to impetuous action. Her friends are no better. When she finds that she has a serious problem she and her friends immediately set out to fix it, but without seeking any adult guidance or assistance. This leads to dangerous situations and wondrous complications. Four teenagers are soon off on a fast-paced high-tech adventure.The story is set in the universe of [a:Linda Nagata 578581 Linda Nagata http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1293931881p2/578581.jpg]'s Nanotech Succession series. Most of the action takes place in or near the city of Silk and (I think) near the time of Nagata's [b:Deception Well 12632768 Deception Well Linda Nagata http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348623687s/12632768.jpg 1175813] story.

[b:Earth dreams 622865 Earth dreams Janet E. Morris https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1176409592s/622865.jpg 2149559] brings Janet Morris's Kerrion Consortium trilogy to a satisfying conclusion. The entire trilogy holds up very well some thirty plus years later.

A Dangerous Road succeeds on several levels. It is a damn good detective story. It is a story about race relations in the United States fifty years ago. It is a love story. It is a story about families and their secrets. All of this is woven about the tumultuous events during the sanitation workers strike in Memphis in 1968, culminating with the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Smokey Dalton, a black man in the segregated South, struggles to eke out a living as an unlicensed PI. Then (it is almost a cliché) she walks into his shabby Beal Street office. She is Laura Hathaway, a wealthy young white woman from Chicago. She hires Smokey to look into her family history. The thing is, her family history and Smokey's seem to be tied together somehow. And that is the mystery this story turns around.
Great book and Smokey Dalton is a great character. I plan to read the entire series.

Update: I wrote the above in November of 2012. I just listened to the audio version (October 2013), and it is also very good. The narrator nailed it. Powerful stuff.

This was my second time through [b:Days of Rage 470676 Days of Rage (Smokey Dalton, #6) Kris Nelscott https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312037602s/470676.jpg 458980], this time in audiobook format.Excellent! More Smokey Dalton please.

[b:Pixie Noir 19066205 Pixie Noir Cedar Sanderson https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1385825904s/19066205.jpg 27092048] defies classification. It has urban fantasy elements. It has traditional fantasy elements. It has noir crime elements.The main character, Lom, is, believe it or not, a pixie. He is also the fairy King's prime troubleshooter, and he is one tough, hard-bitten fellow indeed. He has been dispatched to bring in, Bella, who is a real-life fairy princess (though she doesn't know it at first). Bella is a very attractive and very smart young woman. She is also tough as fishhooks and nails; she carries weapons and knows how to use them. The action in this book is pretty much non-stop, and the premise is something genuinely new (to me at least).I quite enjoyed this book and will be looking for more from [a:Cedar Sanderson 6560085 Cedar Sanderson https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1370425045p2/6560085.jpg].

It seems I can't get enough Smokey Dalton. This was my second time through [b:War at Home 2003116 War at Home (Smokey Dalton, #5) Kris Nelscott https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312013560s/2003116.jpg 2007001], this time in audio format.In this, the fifth book in the series, Grace Kirkland, a neighbor who tutors Smokey's son Jimmy, asks Smokey to find her missing son Daniel. The search takes him east. First he goes to New Haven to try to find out why Daniel never showed up for his spring semester at Yale. There he learns that Daniel has become involved in a radical antiwar movement and that he was asked to leave Yale due to a violent incident on campus.Clues lead Smokey to New York City. There, things turn dark. He quickly finds Daniel and his girlfriend, but gets an unfriendly welcome. He begins to suspect that they are involved with plans to plant bombs in government buildings. Of course Smokey can't just report that he found Daniel, mission accomplished, and go home, not with people in danger. He investigates further.Then, things get violent. People start getting shot, and Smokey finds a cache of bomb making material that seems to be connected to the shootings. He begins to suspect that, in addition to the violent antiwar group and the police, there may be a third party involved – someone with military training. The war has come home. The climax is literally explosive.Very good story.

Kris Nelscott's Smokey Dalton books are very good. I am working through them a second time now, this time in audiobook format.In [b:Stone Cribs 18810472 Stone Cribs (Smokey Dalton, #4) Kris Nelscott https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1384672872s/18810472.jpg 26745051], the combination of a botched abortion and a friend's death forces Smokey into a moral crisis. He finds that sometimes there are no choices without negative consequences. Smokey has to protect family and friends even if it takes him outside the law. Great story with a powerful finish.

This was my second time through [b:Smoke-Filled Rooms 18723285 Smoke-Filled Rooms (Smokey Dalton, #2) Kris Nelscott https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1382966698s/18723285.jpg 26592236] – this time in audiobook format. It was if anything even better than the first read.Smoky Dalton is a great character. I love this series and hope [a:Kris Nelscott 218392 Kris Nelscott https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1202526108p2/218392.jpg] will continue it.

[b:Circle of Bones 16244755 Circle of Bones Christine Kling https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1356122272s/16244755.jpg 18472548], true to its cover blurb, is “a Caribbean thriller”. And, a tense thriller it is indeed.The story starts with Maggie Riley, a former US Marine no less, rescuing nude, handsome Cole Thatcher from the sea off the coast of Guadeloupe. At first she dismisses him as some kind of kook because he claims that killers are after him and spouts conspiracy theories. However, she reevaluates a bit when she finds out that he is a Marine Archeologist with a PhD and owns a very practical salvage boat. He claims to be trying to locate the sunken French submarine Surcouf and asks Riley to help him. Riley is reluctant at first but agrees when events show that Cole is indeed being purused and that one of those pursuers is someone from a dark incident in her own past.The story is told in two timelines. The main line is in 2008 and involves Riley and Thatcher trying to solve a mystery and stay alive in the process (no easy matter). The other and shorter timeline tells the story of the Surcouf's fate in 1942. This is a good structure for the story as it gives the writer ([a:Christine Kling 470084 Christine Kling https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1195922526p2/470084.jpg]) a way to fill in a lot necessary back-story in a non-awkward way.To avoid spoilers, I won't give any details. However, if you like stories that are intricate, are very tense, have age-old conspiracies, have a good romance line, and sport antagonists that are both very capable and very evil, this one might be for you.

[b:Landscape Turned Red: Battle of Antietam 1281587 Landscape Turned Red Battle of Antietam Stephen W. Sears https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1387653302s/1281587.jpg 668010] is without a doubt the best single-volume history of the battle of Antietam. Sears is a good writer and historian, and he brings the battle to life with emotion and close attention to detail. The book tells the story of a lost opportunity. An intelligence coup gave General George McClellan the opportunity to use the superb tool he had created, The Army of the Potomac, to destroy Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and quite possibly bring the war to an early end. However, he dithered and gave Lee time to put his army in a strong defensive position behind Antietam creek. This pretty much guaranteed a very bloody day for all concerned. McClellan still could have decisively defeated the Confederate forces, albeit at a greater cost than if he had acted quickly, if he had been willing to commit his army to a general attack. He had a 2 to 1 advantage in numbers and his army was better equipped and in better condition. Instead he committed his forces piecemeal, permitting the defenders to hold them off and make their escape bloodied but unbroken the next day. The war continued for another three years. Opportunity lost.I would say this book is a must read for students of American history, and if one wants to write a story that includes that bloody day, this book should be constantly at hand.