Once I wrote a story about a painter. During my research I found some interesting stuff about the personality traits of painters. Now I’m writing a story about a scientist, and last night I tried to turn up some information about their personality traits. Instead, I kept running into articles with titles like, “Are Personality…
Shannon’s Blog
Review: Dragon and Slave
Written by Timothy Zahn In the third Dragonback adventure, the quest continues and the ideas get crazier. Jack couldn’t unlock the secrets he was after by becoming a mercenary. Now he tries to do it by becoming a slave. And the “I’ll sneak in, hack their computers, and be gone before something bad happens” plan…
Review: Dragon and Soldier
Written by Timothy Zahn The K’da and Shontine races face annihilation. They are fleeing their native home to escape war with the Valaghua, but their enemies have reached the place of refuge ahead of them. With their allies in the Orion Arm, the Valaghua wait for the refugees to destroy them. Jack and Draycos, meanwhile,…
Review: How Do I Love Thee?
Written by Nancy Moser How Do I Love Thee? is another biographical novel by Nancy Moser. This novel’s subject is the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She lived in England in the early part of the 19th century, a famous poet of her day and once a contender to become Poet Laureate (it went to Alfred…
Review: Shivering World
Written by Kathy Tyers Shivering World is a novel that revolves around an idea called terraforming, the notion that uninhabitable planets can be molded by human beings to be livable. Judging by our own solar system, supporting life is not the norm for planets. The dream of shaping hostile worlds for human habitation is a…
Review: Dragon and Thief
By Timothy Zahn I first learned of Timothy Zahn through his Star Wars books. Having enjoyed them, I picked up Dragon and Thief from the library. By the third paragraph someone said something dryly; by the fifth page someone conceded, “Point.” They also showed a tendency to bite out comments. Dragon and Thief is a…
Review: Dahveed: Yahweh’s Warrior
Written by Terri Fivash This, the second installment of the Dahveed series, continues the successes of the first. The characters and the emotions remain strong. Michal shows glimpses both of the woman who saved David’s life and the woman who despised him. David and Jonathan’s relationship deepens and shifts with David’s inexorable path to the…
Review: Dahveed: Yahweh’s Chosen
Written by Terri Fivash There are few figures in the Bible so riveting as David. From his anointing in 1 Samuel 16 to his death in 1 Kings 2, he remains center stage. Then the Chronicles give an abbreviated account of him – 18 chapters long. There are few stories in the Old Testament so…
Book Review: Mozart’s Sister
Written by Nancy Moser Mozart’s Sister is a historical novel based on the life of Nannerl Mozart. The oft-forgotten sister of Wolfgang Mozart, she was also highly talented. In their childhoods they toured Europe together, the Wunderkinder (Wonder Children). Nannerl was older by five years and, in the early years, often received top billing over…
Review: The Cyberiad
Written by Stanislaw Lem Translated by Michael Kandel The Cyberiad is a collection of short stories, “fables for the cybernetic age”. Appropriately, then, they star cybernetic beings. One of the peculiarities of the book is that the characters are robots – a fact never forgotten, and often used, by the author. (In one story the…