![]() Jan Benson spoke for many of us (myself included): “I gotta go with Gladiator by Anna Hackett. ![]() Not all FB comments received were included but all books named by readers are in this post.) In no particular order, here are a selection of memorable SFR books read in 2016, as defined by some of the most dedicated readers I know! (NOTE: Comments have been edited in some cases due to space limitations. Readers were free to list as many or as few books as they chose. Obviously this wasn’t a scientific survey of any type nor was voting involved. My two rules were that no one could list their own book and the books had to be released in 2015 or 2016. I’m a member of both and will also point out that many of us who write SFR are avid readers of our own genre. I posed the question in two places – the SciFi Romance Group on Facebook, which is primarily for readers to discuss books, and the SFR Brigade on Facebook, which is an authors’ group but does discuss books and other related topics. I thought it would be fun to let science fiction romance readers ‘write’ this column for me, and pick some of their most memorable SFR books of 2016. ![]()
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![]() ![]() His wife left him long ago, thinking he'd become a human of little consequence. Now Clay is a consultant, in his case a euphemism for mostly unemployed. Why didn't I see it coming? More efficient without me, too. More efficient without American workers, period, cut em out. More efficient without the unions, cut em out. We thought it would be efficient and it was the opposite. We'd tossed out a hundred years of expertise. We were getting squeezed by the unions in Chicago and we decided to move it all to Mississippi, where we wouldn't be bothered by any organizing. In "A Hologram for the King," Eggers returns to his strength: quick-to-the-point fiction.Ĭlay was once an ace executive at a bicycle company but, like a lot of American manufacturers, the company saw everything go wrong in the late 20th century. ![]() ![]() ![]() It took an idea (summer camp filled with mixed-sex teenagers in charge of younger campers) and made it its own story. By the end of the summer, Sam has made some great friends, learned that sometimes she needs to put herself first, and scored a cute boyfriend. There’s a massive mess-hall food fight, pranks, sneaking out at night, and even an isolation cabin. ![]() This book is filled with everything you’d expect to find in a camp book about a teenage girl growing up. Throw into the mix two boys who both flirt with Sam when she has no idea how to flirt back - since her only boyfriend was in sixth grade, and she isn’t sure if he even counts since all they did was hold hands walking between classes. Sam instantly makes some friends, and even more quickly, an enemy, in the camp director’s daughter, Ashley. ![]() It only gets worse when she shows up and finds out the rest of the CITs (counselors in training), counselors and most of the campers have been coming to the camp since they were kids. She loves kids and babysitting, but having never been to summer camp before, she’s a little bit nervous. She does something totally out of character, signing up to be a counselor in training at a summer camp two and a half hours away from home. ![]() Sam Montgomery’s best friend, with whom she’s done everything since fifth grade, has a new boyfriend, and Sam doesn’t want to be the third person in their twosome all summer. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Afterwards there were maybe 100 people wanting to take pics. I bet when people meet you, they want to just hug you! Tell us, what’s new? I am a big hugger! Well, I played in Mexico on Sunday, and I was nervous because we did a lot of Spanish material. ![]() ![]() Hey there Quino, how are you? Thank you for sitting down with MNPR Magazine today! I know you are a busy man! I am so honoured to speak with you today! My pleasure! They are a heavy hitter and continue their journey on this music path. I got to have this chat with Joaquin McWhinney “ Quino”, the legendary vocalist of one of the most well-known reggae bands in the world. Richard "Goofy" Campbell - keyboards Mikey Ortiz - bassĪmerican Reggae at its finest, Big Mountain got their break on “Baby I Love Your Way”, a reggae cover version of Peter Frampton’s 1975 hit, reaching top 10 in 1994, but are more focused on roots- reggae their rue calling. Joaquin "Quino" McWhinney - lead vocals and guitar Formed in San Diego as the Rainbow Warriors, then turning into the long-time ball of fire touched so many, Big Mountain is Ready to ignite again, and it's probably the best time because this world needs all the reggae it can get! With their new journey on the horizon, these music veterans know what hard work and dedication is all about. BIG MOUNTAIN has climbed many mountains in this lifetime. ![]() ![]() Morrison flashes the light out across the night in the hope that Foxy would respond, but its only when he turns away disappointed that we see a light flash across the horizon in response. At the end of his first run on an American comic book, we see him walk up the Scottish hills in an attempt to make contact with his long lost childhood imaginary friend Foxy. In Animal Man #26 Grant Morrison made what remains his definitive statement about the nature of the world he and all of us as comic book fans live in. “I don’t want to expose the futility of one of the last great ideas we have”. Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero (UK Edition) ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This dynamic exerts a profound effect on Kate’s personal journey, and also comments on the reprehensible methods used by Europeans to “conquer” America. In further developing the Daniels-verse, Andrews adds an intriguing eco-metaphor that involves using magic to claim land. The end result feels like the perfect combination of predictability and surprise, with a focus on the nuances of human relationships rather than the unfolding of epic battles (although there are those, too). Ilona Andrews has painstakingly built up the tension between Kate and her shadowy arch-nemesis, and here we finally get a first look at him and a chance to speculate about how he might begin to influence Kate’s life more directly. This particular installment of Kate Daniels’s story has everything I’ve come to love about these books, and then some. Magic Breaks is proof that a creative and heartfelt narrative populated with memorable characters can keep evolving in fresh and meaningful ways, long past the point where lesser stories founder. One can only gush so much about a series before things get ugly, so I’ll try to keep this brief. ![]() ![]() ![]() The first thesis, deriving from Trotsky and now widely circulated by academic writers, states that the rise of a fascist movement is the expression of despairing masses of petty-bourgeois, exploited by demagogues and utilised by the big bourgeoisie at a time opportune for the crushing of the labour movement. Marxist theory has produced two important propositions about the phenomenon of Fascism: they are not of equal worth. ![]() Political Violence and Public Order, Robert Benewick, Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 63s ![]() Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive. Peter Sedgwick, The Problem of Fascism, International Socialism (1st series), No.42, February-March 1970, pp.31-34. Peter Sedgwick The Problem of Fascism (February/March 1970) Peter Sedgwick: The Problem of Fascism (1970) ![]() ![]() An Incomplete Guide to its Use and Abuse is an extended and self-contained exposition of the incompleteness theorems and a discussion of what informal consequences can, and in particular cannot, be drawn from them. On the heels of Franzén’s fine technical exposition of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems and related topics comes this survey of the incompleteness theorems aimed at a general audience. ![]() ![]() A brief excerpt from a forthcoming review in History and Philosophy of Logic: An Incomplete Guide to its Use and Abuse (A K Peters, 2005). He has a book out last year in the ASL’s Lecture Notes in Logic series, which is an excellent technical treatment, and now a fine popular book: Gödel’s Theorem. ![]() Torkel Franzén has been tireless for at least 15 years in correcting misunderstandings relating to logic on sci.logic (which was a lot of fun in the pre-AOL days), on FOM, and elsewhere. Don’t you wish someone would write a book that catalogs all the various ways in which one can misstate, misunderstand, and misapply Gödel’s theorems, and how to correct such misunderstandings? A book that you can send your students off to read when they say stuff like, “Gödel showed that there is no mathematical truth,” or “The mind can go outside the system, but no formal system can because of incompleteness, so the mind is not a formal system.” Well, it’s here. ![]() ![]() And a lot of models and actors of color have been rejected because they were too dark, and this quote could be applied to that. For example, when you look at beauty standards, people of color are not the standard of beauty. In addition, this can be applied to almost any type of rejection. I have to say that it speaks to me on a personal and deep level, because EVERY ONE has been rejected at one point. And then people have the nerve to put all the refugees or immigrants into one group and portray them as criminals, terrorists or thugs. They had lives before they fled the country, they are left with nothing. Just think about it, among refugees, there are doctors, teachers, scientists and what not. ![]() ![]() Refugees do not even choose to flee their countries, and yet, they also meet nothing that wants them. And when you look at refugees, it is worse. ![]() And to me it is hard to think about all the sacrifices people may or may not have made in order to break the ocean in half to be here. People migrate, make this long journey, and once they come to Europe or the Americas, people look down on them or ‘reject’ them in some way just because they are from another country. ![]() Even if you are not an immigrant, but your parents or grandparents are, you might think of them when you read this quote. And I think a lot of people of color can relate to this. I actually came to Europe at the age of 4 and yes, I am an immigrant. ![]() ![]() With this time, he decided to reconsider a story plot he conceived while attending University. As a freelance film editor, Abercrombie found himself with more free time than he previously had. Career Ībercrombie had a job making tea at a television production company before taking up a career as a freelance film editor. Other favorite games of Abercrombie's include Elite, Dungeon Master, Street Fighter II, and Red Dead Redemption. In an interview with Edge magazine, Abercrombie stated that video games have been a big influence on his writing, including early interest in text-based adventure games and historically based strategy games such as Civilization and Age of Empires. ![]() Ībercrombie has been an avid player of video games since his childhood. ![]() He was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Manchester University, where he studied psychology. Life and education Ībercrombie was born in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. His novel Half a King won the 2015 Locus Award for best young adult book. He is the author of The First Law trilogy, as well as other fantasy books in the same setting and a trilogy of young adult novels. ![]() Joseph Edward Abercrombie (born December 31, 1974) is a British fantasy writer and film editor. ![]() |