On the usefulness of reviews to a fan and a writer

Some recent online discussions about reviews had me thinking about my own feelings on reviews last night. I have two perspectives on them: as a fan and as a writer. And since I think of myself as a fan first and a writer second, I’ll start with my perspective as a fan. I don’t go [...]

Is it cheating to pay for a book review?

A few days ago, I arrived home from work to find a package from Amazon. I didn’t recall ordering anything, and when I opened the package, I discovered it was book I’d never heard of by an author I’d never heard of. Included was a gift receipt and a note from the author. The note [...]

Amazon reviews

I was glancing at the reviews of various books that I’d posted on Amazon, looking to see whether they are particularly helpful or not based on on the feedback that people can give. The results seem mixed and I decided to take a look at reviews by others for a book I’d recently reviewed to [...]

A few comments on the reviews I do here

In the last couple of weeks, I have gotten (my first ever) requests to review books and post reviews of books for people that I don’t know. I’m not entirely certain why I get these because I am not a reviewer, but in talking to some science fiction-writer friends, I guess this is fairly standard. One [...]

Nice review of “Take One For the Road” over at SFRevu

I happened across a review of the June 2011 Analog over at SFRevu, which contains my story, “Take One For the Road”. The reviewer thought the issue was “a pretty good one” and had this to say about my story: Next up is “Take One for the Road” by Jamie Todd Rubin. Rick has a [...]

A review of C. M. Kornbluth by Mark Rich

I posted this review on Goodreads, LibraryThing and Amazon as always, but I thought it was an important enough book to post it here to: A wonderful romp through Golden Age fandom! What a terrific book! I’ve long been an admirer of Cyril Kornbluth’s fiction, having read His Share of Glory: The Complete Short Science [...]

A review of C. M. Kornbluth by Mark Rich (4-stars)

I posted this review on Goodreads, LibraryThing and Amazon as always, but I thought it was an important enough book to post it here to: A wonderful romp through Golden Age fandom! What a terrific book! I’ve long been an admirer of Cyril Kornbluth’s fiction, having read His Share of Glory: The Complete Short Science [...]

The Hard SF Renaissance, Part 1

I’ve passed the quarter way mark in my reading of The Hard SF Renaissance, having read the first 10 of 41 stories in the book. It seems that this would be a good time to collect my thoughts on the first 10 stories.

Old Man’s War

I finished Old Man’s War early this afternoon. It was terrific. It was just what I hoped it would be, and I think it easily holds its own with books such as Starship Troopers and The Forever War.

Review: Ear to the Wire

Todd McCombs is a tall, lankly fellow who typically stands a head taller than those around him. He, along with his brother Scott, make up the eclectic rock band, The Shimshaws, who recently released their sophomore album, Ear to the Wire. Just as Todd stands taller than most of his peers, Ear to the Wire [...]

Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer

I finished Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer, last night around 10 PM. It’s the 386th book on my list. Like most of Rob’s books have been for me, I could hardly put this one down. I started it on Sunday and got through perhaps the first 90 pages or so. Yesterday, although I worked [...]

The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer

I finished The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer last night just before going to bed. What a terrific book! The book is about a near-future Toronto engineer who makes medical detection equipment. After witnessing an organ harvesting on a “brain dead” patient, he decides to use his equipment to see if he can come [...]

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    Episode 32: February 1942

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