January 2018

Abaddon's Gate by James S.A. Corey

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The novel “Abaddon’s Gate” by James S.A. Corey was published for the first time in 2013. It’s the third book in the Expanse series and follows “Caliban’s War”. It won the Locus Award as the best novel of the year.

The protomolecule that remained on Venus for some time left the planet to build near Uranus the Ring. When a belter boy with a makeshift spacecraft passes through the Ring, he ends up in an unknown place and is quickly killed by a violent deceleration. The images he sent alarm the whole solar system.

The crew of the former Martian fleet spaceship Rocinante had a good period but the Martian government seems suddenly intent on recovering its property and the only loophole seems to be working for a journalist going towards the Uranus system. There various spaceships, civil and military ones, representing the various human factions try to deal with the new unknown in various ways.

Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the Emperor (Michelle Yeoh) in What's Past Is Prologue (Image courtesy CBS / Netflix)

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“What’s Past Is Prologue” is the 13th episode of the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” and follows “Vaulting Ambition”.

Note. This article contains spoilers about “What’s Past Is Prologue”.

Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs) frees his followers and begins his coup against the Emperor (Michelle Yeoh). Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) ended up in the middle of deadly fight and must try to save not only herself but also the USS Discovery crew.

Forever Autumn by Mark Morris

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The novel “Forever Autumn” by Mark Morris was published for the first time in 2007.

In Blackwood Falls, a small town in New England, the residents are preparing for Halloween. Rick Pirelli has arrived home, accompanied by two of his friends who go to the same high school, when they notice a strange green light coming from an old tree in the garden. When they dig at the tree’s roots they find a strange book written in an unknown language but one of the boys can read it before Rick takes it out of his hands.

The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones arrive at Blackwood Falls in search of the source of an energy spike. While a strange green fog seems to have invaded the town, the two travelers reach the Pirelli family residence, where the Doctor thinks that the energy was emitted from the object that was buried. Who does that strange book belong to? What’s its connection with the elderly neighbor who has the reputation of being prescient?

Philip J. Farmer in 2002

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Philip José Farmer was born on January 26, 1918 in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. He’s famous especially for his science fiction cycles such as the World of Tiers and Riverworld and for other works that were controversial due to their sex and religion themes.

In the last phase of his career, Philip J. Farmer lost much of his innovative and iconoclastic strength but at that point certain taboos had been eliminated from the world of science fiction and part of the merit is his. The author died on February 25, 2009 leaving an important legacy and not only in the field of science fiction and fantasy.

Ursula Le Guin in 2008

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The writer Ursula Le Guin passed away on Monday. The causes of her death were not revealed but her health deteriorated over the past year. She was an extraordinary writer, famous in the fantasy genre for the Earthsea Cycle and in the science fiction genre for her Hainish Cycle.

Ursula Le Guin has been an extraordinary writer for her ability to create realistic worlds even in her fantasy stories with characters of great depth. The influence of her father, an anthropologist, led her to develop stories in which her worlds’ cultures with their social and political complexities were very important. Her points of view with a genuine feminism and sometimes anarchist, went far beyond so many science fiction and fantasy clichés. She was really an important writer far beyond any genre label.