Wars, Spies, and Empires: Review of Andrew M. Seddon's "Wreaths of Empire"

NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS

Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books

Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258

Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com/

 

December 29, 2015

 

Wars,  Spies,  and  Empires  In  Outer  Space  

 

A Review of

 

Andrew M. Seddon Wreaths of Empire (Splashdown Books, 2015)

                                258 pp   $12.32   ISBN: 978-1-927154-45-8

 

Reviewer:  Forrest W. Schultz

 

     Wreaths of Empire is a well developed and well written story about espionage and political intrigues in advanced civilizations in outer space about 500 years in the future..  You will find enough discussion of the pertinent science and technology to give the story verisimilitude and to qualify it as "space opera", but not enough for it to be regarded as "hard" SF.  The central character, Space Navy Officer Jade, is attractive and easy to empathize with, esp. because of her concern for people and for the ethical and philosophical significance of the events in which she is involved, which focus upon an inept attempt to end the warfare between two empires -- one which is human and the other alien.  Like Isaac Asimov, I have never seen a story with a believable alien, but, as in most well written SF, I was able to accept the aliens in this tale for the sake of the story, and soon found myself even empathizing with them, which is a sign of a good writer.

 

     Information on the author is available at http://www.andrewmseddon.com/  and www.splashdownbooks.com/our-authors/andrew-m-seddon 

Salvation History Analogy Set On A Space Colony -- Review of "The History of the Earth-9 Colony" by Manuel Alfonseca

NEW SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY REVIEWS

Reviews Of Recently Published Science Fiction And Fantasy Books

Reviewer: Forrest Schultz schultz_forrest@yahoo.com 770-583-3258

Blog Address: http://newsciencefictionandfantasyreviews.blogspot.com

 

December 8, 2015

 

Salvation  History  Analogy  Set  On  A  Space  Colony

A Review of

Manuel Alfonseca The History of the Earth-9 Colony (Create Space, 2015)

                                  177 pp   $8.99   ISBN: 9781512206739

 

Reviewer:  Forrest W.  Schultz  --  SPOILER   ALERT  -- (review gives away story)

 

     The history indicated by the title of this science fiction tale is an analogy of the salvation history in the Bible.  For instance, Satan is depicted as a giant crab who can only be defeated by the Christ-figure in the story, Who shrinks him down to a teeny size, which is reminiscent of the famous medieval painting which shows Christ stepping on a mouse-size bound Devil! 

 

     The stage upon which the drama is enacted is described as a planet very similar to Earth, but we are not told when the narrated events occur.  We do know it is in the very far future from this humorous statement (on p. 131) by one of the main characters (who is very concerned about their fate):  “As someone said far, far away in the past, ‘It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future…’  .”  Of course, the person referred to is the late Yogi Berra.  And I do believe that if Yogi were present on this planet when the giant crab was about to kill everyone there, he would have uttered his most famous saying, “It ain’t over till its over!”, his zany way of saying that God has the last word!  The story is a good read.

 

     The author is an engineer, a college professor, and a writer of science articles as well as fantasy and science fiction stories.  He has been inspired and influenced by the stories of C. S. Lewis and is a member of a C. S. Lewis email discussion group (called Spare Oom) which is where I learned of him.  Information is available on his blog http://populscience.blogspot.com/