A Review Round-Up

Don D'Ammassa posts several Pyr reviews on his Science Fiction Reviews site:

Of Ian McDonald's Brasyl, he says, "The real focus of the novel is the setting, which McDonald illustrates in three different eras, pulling them all together through the device of quantum physics and the malleability of reality. His prose is, as always, a joy to read. This is a major novel from a major talent."

Less enthused with Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky, he at least offers that "There are parts of this very ambitious novel – particularly the evocation of an alternate human culture – which I liked very much..."

And he's quite taken with Joel Shepherd's Breakaway, proclaiming it, "a well constructed planetary adventure story with plausible political maneuvering."

As an aside: I'm also pleased to see his review of Saturn Returns, a space opera forthcoming from Ace from our friend (and author) Sean Williams, which concludes, "This appears to be the first in a promising new series from one of the few writers still producing consistently excellent space opera," which echoes my own sentiments that everyone should be reading Sean Williams.

Meanwhile, over on another blog, Neth Space considers Justina Robson's Keeping It Real, beginning by saying that "referring to Keeping It Real as genre-bending is not good enough – this book is multidisciplinary," struggles with the balance of SF to F, and finally deciding that the novel "succeeds as a techno-punk romp through fantasy and science fiction..." that won't be everyone's cup of tea, but will really push some folks buttons. I can live with that. My own buttons, obviously, very pushed.