Reading SF in September 2025

[pogopossum]

John Scalzi is coming to Cleveland Ohio my home town) next month.
In my pre-retired profession (librarian) I met and talked with a fair number of authors including Silverberg, Jack Vance and even Terry Pratchett. Unfortunately in book signing lines and momentary meetups you rarely are able to talk about anything beyond stating appreciation. With Pratchett we were getting into actual interesting stuff about my daughter's reaction to him, however the signing line (this was at a book talk where 95% had never heard of him) forced me/him to move on.
Above comment not really appropriate for this topic, however anything you would like me to say to Mr. Scalzi?

 

[pogopossum]

Haven't posted in some time as my reading has been far from current. It has mostly consisted of OLD stuff, including best of the year compendiums by Marty Greenburg, Asimov, Wollheim. Silverberg, Dozois, Harry Harrison and a host of others. How does one summarize or pick out a specific story or author from among hundreds of classics.?
Any comments or questions appreciated.

 

[Diosces]

Flybot felt a little different than Taylor's usual in that it was a near-future thriller. Still, it was a pretty fun, light, fast paced read with his usual patented snarkiness.

I also just finished up Daemon by Daniel Suarez, which was a near-future thriller as well. While his characters, for whatever reason, never fully resonate with me (in any of his books), I can see why it's considered one of his best. Great ideas, brilliant story-line, and you never really know where it was going. (which is a rarity for me these days.) I'll be diving into the sequel - Freedom TM, next. Recommended.

These are some of my favorite books. I envy anyone reading them for the 1st time. Suarez is really good at speculating on near future science & society. Please let us know how it goes with you Freedom read.

 

[Hobbit]

It has mostly consisted of OLD stuff, including best of the year compendiums by Marty Greenburg, Asimov, Wollheim. Silverberg, Dozois, Harry Harrison and a host of others. How does one summarize or pick out a specific story or author from among hundreds of classics.?

I guess you don't; but I tend to pick on certain ones at a point in time. Or mention which volume you're reading, or which year they're from.

Recent example: I recently bought these:

18 volumes of The Magazine of Fantasy & SF; from 1949 - 1960. (btw Volume 13's on the way, being bound as I type.) You can summarise these, but I can pick out certain stories I liked, knowing that on another day I might pick something different. Lots of fun just dipping into these. The range is eclectic - Agatha Christie, John Wyndham as well as many of the usual culprits and an awful lot of ones I've never heard of...

 

[Prairie_Dog]

I just read Machine Learning: New and Collected Stories which is a 2017 collection of short fiction by Hugh Howey. In addition to the stories, it contains a fair bit of biographical information, as well as information on the inspiration and writing of each story. It turns out Mr. Howey has had an interesting life!

He is probably best known for his Silo Series, and this volume contains three short stories set in the Silo world. Interestingly, it also contains three fantasy stories. The most ambitious story is probably the novelette “Peace in Amber” which is set in the world of Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. It’s also a semi-autobiographical story of Mr. Howey’s experiences in New York on September 11, 2001. That’s really a lot! There are stories of alien invaders told from their viewpoint, and others told from the viewpoint of artificial intelligences.

It’s a pretty far ranging and varied collection of stories, and I’m certain I have learned much more about the author by having read it. I recommend it to anyone who likes his work.

 

[krisbslick]

These are some of my favorite books. I envy anyone reading them for the 1st time. Suarez is really good at speculating on near future science & society. Please let us know how it goes with you Freedom read.

I think I added both of them to my reading queue originally because you said they were better then the Delta-V books! Thank you so much - Loved them both!

Spoiler: Minor Spolier

Freedom took the story in a totally different direction than I thought it was going to and was really great because of it. (But also makes me wonder how it could've gone kind of continuing the original premise in Daemon (if that makes any sense).

I think what made them so great for me was that they were fun and unpredictable with big consequences. The action had me on the edge of my seat. Would definitely highly recommend these books to other people.

 

[krisbslick]

John Scalzi is coming to Cleveland Ohio my home town) next month.
In my pre-retired profession (librarian) I met and talked with a fair number of authors including Silverberg, Jack Vance and even Terry Pratchett. Unfortunately in book signing lines and momentary meetups you rarely are able to talk about anything beyond stating appreciation. With Pratchett we were getting into actual interesting stuff about my daughter's reaction to him, however the signing line (this was at a book talk where 95% had never heard of him) forced me/him to move on.
Above comment not really appropriate for this topic, however anything you would like me to say to Mr. Scalzi?

Would be really interested to get a sneak peak into his publishing schedule for the next couple of years... And if he plans on more entries in the Old Man's War series. (I'm asking this even before his new book gets released next week - diehard fan! haha.) Thanks for asking us though!

 

[Hobbit]

I'm asking this even before his new book gets released next week - diehard fan! haha

The full Scalzi review's up. https://www.sffworld.com/2025/09/the-shattering-peace-by-john-scalzi/
Hope you like it.

 

[krisbslick]

The full Scalzi review's up. https://www.sffworld.com/2025/09/the-shattering-peace-by-john-scalzi/
Hope you like it.

It's my first read on my flight this morning!

 

[EricJ]

Hi Eric. Just to clear up any confusion, I am one of the reviewers here at SFFWorld, as well as being an Admin. So my reviews go on the front page of the website.

Reviews in the discussion forum are more problematical, in that there's a fine line between reviews that generate discussion and those there just to promote. We tend to move the ones that seem like blatant promotion to the Promotion Zone. It's usually pretty obvious which are here to do that - new member, no other interaction in the Forums, every post is about their book. We try and give the benefit of the doubt as much as possible, but Forumites are not happy when they think they're being used in some sort of promotion exercise!

Hope that makes it a bit clearer.

M.

No worries, I don't promote my stuff outside of the promotion zone. I routinely read other books (I see my work enough, I don't post reviews of that) and post reviews on most of my socials, and my blog on my website, but never my books. I think I was unclear of my intent, but thanks for this.

 

[Westy]

I recommend it to anyone who likes his work.

Agreed, and I loved the commentary on each story as well.

 

[suciul]

Finished The Pilgrim and the Wolf by CS Garrand book 3 in the Species Seventeen/Humanity Leap series which has become a huge favorite - am awaiting the audio release too later this year as the books in the series are also greatly enjoyable in the narration of P. Santomasso as the sentient AI CAIPARR, narrator of the storylines in her various instances.

My Goodreads review:

The third book of this wonderful series brings in new characters, locations, species and polities while revealing only a little about the deeper secrets of the universe. Most notably the existence of Pilgrims, beings who have extra genetic markers that allow them to interact directly with the spiritual aspect of the universe, what humans (species 17) call asymmetrical space or the Lomolai (species 11 and closest allies of humanity under the aegis of The Creators or Species 1 - though of course modern Earth humans didn't know that until the events of book 1) call, Al'swafiu. In humans, these markers are denoted QE (quantum entagled) DNA and the one Pilgrim of our storyline whom everyone seeks for various reasons, is quite surprised when she discovers she has such.

As in the first two books, the multiple storylines are narrated by CAIPARR's various instances who are present in a form or another, though as before we get various scenes through visions, dreams and prophecies which CAIPARR witnesses too, either as a direct recipient or as part of a human's consciousness.

The book is full of energy and inventiveness- even ramped up compared to the first two volumes - though there is tragedy too and characters die on occasion.

The general storyline of this novel is brought to a satisfactory tbc conclusion and even various side storylines ("Martin Greenwood", the integration of GPR with the Hegemony etc) are advanced but in the last four pages the author takes a gamble and ends on a literal cliffhanger out of nowhere so to speak - the book's last page has a helpful The End sparing one's astonishment at trying to turn to the next page and find there is none for now. While this gamble makes the promised fourth book a huge asap, at least on the first reading it gave me mixed feelings though hopefully we won't have to wait too much for the story continuation.

Overall, an excellent book - would rank it as top sf of 2025 to date - in a great innovative sf series and a fairly self-contained installment up to page 504/508. Highly recommended, and the sequel a huge drop everything else and read on publication.

 

[AtramentousFlux]

Saturn Run by John Sandford and Ctein

I enjoyed this one, particularly because of the science and engineering content. I also liked the authors' discussion of how they went about working it all out.

Also finished The Frozen Realm (book #1 of 12 Miles Below by Mark Arrow) and thought it was OK.

 

[Diosces]

Finished The Pilgrim and the Wolf by CS Garrand book 3 in the Species Seventeen/Humanity Leap series which has become a huge favorite - am awaiting the audio release too later this year as the books in the series are also greatly enjoyable in the narration of P. Santomasso as the sentient AI CAIPARR, narrator of the storylines in her various instances.

My Goodreads review:

The third book of this wonderful series brings in new characters, locations, species and polities while revealing only a little about the deeper secrets of the universe. Most notably the existence of Pilgrims, beings who have extra genetic markers that allow them to interact directly with the spiritual aspect of the universe, what humans (species 17) call asymmetrical space or the Lomolai (species 11 and closest allies of humanity under the aegis of The Creators or Species 1 - though of course modern Earth humans didn't know that until the events of book 1) call, Al'swafiu. In humans, these markers are denoted QE (quantum entagled) DNA and the one Pilgrim of our storyline whom everyone seeks for various reasons, is quite surprised when she discovers she has such.

As in the first two books, the multiple storylines are narrated by CAIPARR's various instances who are present in a form or another, though as before we get various scenes through visions, dreams and prophecies which CAIPARR witnesses too, either as a direct recipient or as part of a human's consciousness.

The book is full of energy and inventiveness- even ramped up compared to the first two volumes - though there is tragedy too and characters die on occasion.

The general storyline of this novel is brought to a satisfactory tbc conclusion and even various side storylines ("Martin Greenwood", the integration of GPR with the Hegemony etc) are advanced but in the last four pages the author takes a gamble and ends on a literal cliffhanger out of nowhere so to speak - the book's last page has a helpful The End sparing one's astonishment at trying to turn to the next page and find there is none for now. While this gamble makes the promised fourth book a huge asap, at least on the first reading it gave me mixed feelings though hopefully we won't have to wait too much for the story continuation.

Overall, an excellent book - would rank it as top sf of 2025 to date - in a great innovative sf series and a fairly self-contained installment up to page 504/508. Highly recommended, and the sequel a huge drop everything else and read on publication.

Thanks for sharing, this is now in my reading queue.

 

[dannymcg]

Thanks for sharing, this is now in my reading queue.

It sounds a bit 'meh' so I reckon I'll skip it

 

[suciul]

Finished Howling Dark by C Rucchio second Hadrian Marlowe/Sun Eater novel and it was just mind blowing by the end; mostly listened to it, though I occasionally read ahead a little, or read some of the more weird/intriguing parts after listening to them just to make sure I got it all. Next started Demon in White in audio and will read the in-between novella Queen Amid Ashes as well as from the first Tales (both come chronologically here by the author's reckoning).

My Goodreads review:

Exceptional novel.

Still lots of melodrama and the occasional narrative break for Hadrian's musings but exceptional larger than life characters like The Painted Man, The Brethren, Jaari, The Undying and his children and household, the Cielcin, not to speak of the more mundane of Hadrian's companions, Valka, Pallino, Switch, Bassanda, Ilex, Crim etc, action, and twists galore - despite being literally shown on the page at some point way in advance, the big one at the end from which the title comes was still a shock...


"Are you Hadrian Marlowe?
When we cut into your flesh and stretch out your sinews
where
where
where
will we find your soul?
Which atoms of you are you, child?
Or do you emerge, ghostlike, from the machine of nerve and tissue?
As we emerged from silicon and copper wire?
In an age
unremembered …
… unrecorded …
… lost to time?
You are a lever pulled by your genes
Nothing more.

“I do not believe that,” I said, and squared my shoulders.

Then you will die stupid."

 

[krisbslick]

I got the audible release notification of The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi yesterday morning. Listened to it, when I could throughout the day, and finished it last night. It was a great read - engaging, some twists, and lots of fun! Hobbit - your review summarizes it perfectly.

 

[Raf]

Finished the 3rd installment of Mark Arrows 12 Miles Below series, "Grand Design".

Another good read in an intriguing universe. The ancient human / machine wars have taken a new twist as the worker bee and fighting machines begin developing increasing sentience and even community. A new Machine Leader has taken a human Undersider city by negotiation instead of slaughter.

But the increasing sentience is not new. It has happened many times in last 7000 years. Each incident was brutally put down and erased from archives by the insane AI in charge, the "Pale Lady". This time, however, there is hope for something different between machines and humanity. If humans and the sentient machines can come together and stand up to the eternal AI's.

A little slow in the middle, but it picked up again and finished with a really good ending and lead off to the next in the series. An engaging and fun read.

 

[blailock]

I got the audible release notification of The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi yesterday morning. Listened to it, when I could throughout the day, and finished it last night. It was a great read - engaging, some twists, and lots of fun! Hobbit - your review summarizes it perfectly.

I'm #5 on the waiting list for this, and I'm having a hard time waiting. I'm glad to hear that you liked it.

 

[Hobbit]

I'm #5 on the waiting list for this, and I'm having a hard time waiting. I'm glad to hear that you liked it.

Me too, Kris. Always great when people get what I'm trying to say (whilst I'm also trying very hard not to give away details!) Makes it worthwhile.