Jun 10, 2025 | book review, Book Reviews, Martha Wells, Murderbot, sci-fi, science fiction, Spoilers
Murderbot Gets a Makeover in Artificial Condition – Murderbot Diaries Book 2 by Martha Wells – as it heads to where it all began . . . the very minute where it ‘went rogue’ and turned the corner toward sentience.
Why had it killed the members of its former crew, so many prior missions ago?
The remains of deleted memories still haunt the delightful SecUnit (security droid) with a conscience that, once self-aware, names itself Murderbot.
As it decides to go on a quest of self-discovery, the snarky, disdainful, and witty fan of space opera television, especially its favorite Sanctuary Moon, boards a ship sans crew, but finds an unexpected surprise . . .
“Murderbot Gets a Makeover in Artificial Condition” book review has Mild SPOILERS* related to the plot at the book’s start.
For Murderbot is not the only droid to have hacked its government module, and its new pilot is not only self-aware, but has serious attitude and a lot of questions for its newfound friend.
Without ruining the story, let us just say that when ART – the pilot-program – helps Murderbot with some body customizations to better fit in as human and throw off anyone looking for a rogue SecUnit, Murderbot has not thought through the end-result: if you look more human, you need to act more human.
What a nightmare!
Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries is a series that any fan of science fiction, Kurt Vonnegut, good humor, well-written action, and the philosophical contemplation of what it means to be alive – as a thinking being – including realistic artificial intelligence (real AI, not that LLM knock-off garbage-slop) must devour this as soon as you are able.
The security android unit has a unique, human-looking face – when its helmet is not opaqued – and a chiding personality, which works wonderfully as a metaphor for autism spectrum disorder on many levels:
- Murderbot feels and uses empathy in its actions, despite the common misnomers of a lack of feeling for others.
- Its face appears mask-like much of the time.
- It observes many details and minute facets of the human beings around it that they themselves are often oblivious to.
- It takes pride in making decisions based on logic, especially when its companions appear to fly in the face of it.
P.S. The MURDERBOT Apple TV series adaptation is very faithful, well-written, and superbly-acted and OUT NOW!
Murderbot often makes fun of – or screams in frustration – in its dealings with or monitoring of humans, and as it continues to binge-watch serial TV whenever it can, the reader gets the sense that this is an extremely plausible and entertaining depiction of AI.
For all of the awful renditions of self-aware programs or bots in fiction – After Origin, anyone? – that are far too simplistic or one-dimensional, in Artificial Condition, Murderbot, ART, and company are here to set us at ease.
“Murderbot Gets a Makeover in Artificial Condition” Was Written By R.J. Huneke.
May 20, 2025 | book review, Book Reviews, Jodorowsky, Moebius, sci-fi, science fiction, SFF, small press, Spoiler-Free, The Incal
Moebius’ & Jodorowsky’s The Incal is Must-read Sci-Fi Epic masterpiece of fiction.
This is one of the greatest metaphysical noir SFF epics of all time! And the art is like nothing you’ll ever see.
Even if you are not usually a graphic novel reader, I must urge you to try on The Incal, even from a strictly writing standpoint it is pure genius.
If Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo dominated the East in the 1980s with its grandiose, philosophical, cyberpunk – with extraordinary art in terms of both story and illustration – then The Incal dominated the West during a decade with its innovative metaphysical space opera noir that is equally as mind-blowing, just in wholly different ways.
Each work, Akira and The Incal, are often dubbed “the best comic book” ever written.
And it is hard to argue.
The Incal inspired The Expanse series – both books and film – as well as countless other works of SFF literature and graphic novels.
From the minds of two artists who spent countless hours attempting to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune – which never completed – Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud took their work someplace entirely new as one labyrinth after another are peeled back, like a giant space onion, to reveal deeper dangers, steeper odds, and more intricate plotlines for The Incal’s John Difool and company.
The story’s trajectory evolves as much as the characters do, which is to say a lot because swallowing the Incal can cause a stone pterodactyl to speak its well-formed, growing mind!
I love the dark sense of humor that adds brevity to the most dire of circumstances threatening whole planets, galaxies, and universes and all who dwell within them.
But the visual art by Moebius is enthralling.
I spent hours just staring and studying The Incal’s artwork, panel by panel, illustration by illustration, with my jaw seated heavily on the floor.
There are no words to describe such brilliance, such genius.
Myriad styles converge or stand alone, emergent in exactly the right spot in the story to add the enormity or the intimacy needed to hit home.
And then The Incal ends in an amazing, unforeseen, and a classic fashion that elevates the entire book.
Go and seek out The Incal!
“Moebius’ & Jodorowsky’s The Incal is Must-read Sci-Fi Epic masterpiece of fiction” Was Written By R.J. Huneke.
Dec 23, 2024 | Babel, Best Books, Best Of 2024, book review, Book Reviews, Brandy Schillace, Discworld, fantasy, Feet of Clay, fine press, Horror, Kurt Vonnegut, limited edition, Max Allan Collins, Michael Crichton, Mickey7, mystery, Phantasia Press, Quarry, R.F. Kuang, sci-fi, science fiction, Signed Limited, small press, speculative fiction, Spoiler-Free, Terry Pratchett, THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE, walter mosley
Best Books of 2024 TFF To-Read Festivus Guide comes to you just in time to place some last-minute literature at the feet of your metal pole, recently taken from out of the crawl space.
Here at TFF, we are especially focused on the fiction that transforms us all, this Solstice.
So Happy Yule, Happy Holly King, Welcome Father Christmas, or whichever legends you may observe ere the New Year of 2025* comes!
*At TFF we review newly released books and also books that have been released any year, so our ‘best of list’ contains what we found and loved this year, not necessarily what was published in 2024.
Feast your eyes, Eager Readers, The Best of 2024:
The Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot’s Mustache Equals Best Mystery Award goes to the THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace.
Few can intertwine classic golden age mystery tropes with modern fiction themes, both with myriad intriguing facets, like Dr. Schillace writes in this classic.
An excerpt from our review: The witty, charming, and intelligent [protagonist] Jo is thirsty for answers . . . And despite her difficulty overcoming a not-too-distant divorce with a husband that continually reminded her of her autism and her behavioral faux pas . . . she collects herself time and again and proves to be insightful, well-read, and courageous as she presses on. [ReadTFF.com]
The Ray Bradbury Award Winner For Best Speculative Fiction Likely To Blow The Doors Off Your Mind Palace goes to…R.F. Kuang for the novel BABEL.
This book is the one that moved me the most in the entire year of 2024.
I knew as soon as I read BABEL, it would make an indelible dent in my brain.
An excerpt from our review: If you are a fan of language or translation or history or great characters being challenged beyond your wildest prescient thoughts, then you must read this . . . As with many great stories – especially in the SFF-speculative fiction realm – the character’s path needs to resonate deeply, and Kuang’s protagonist Robin Swift does this while being utterly captivating. [ReadTFF.com]
The 1984: You Made Me Cry…Twice Award goes to Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass – it hurt so damn much.
If you want to buy any of the award-winning books, check them out here in my Bookshop.org List – I get a commission if you buy from there and monies are donated to local bookstores with each purchase:
The Red Death Award For A Work Most Likely To Keep You Too Terrified To Sleep Award goes to…THE CLUB DUMAS by Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Sonia Soto (Translator).
I love bibliomysteries, but this one combines a historic evil, played out in brutal fashion, against the backdrop of New York City, Spain, Portugal, and the many twists of a previously unknown The Three Musketeers manuscript pages.
THE CLUB DUMAS is utterly unique, but be careful you do not lose yourself as you strive to unravel the book’s many strands.
The Michael Crichton You Better Check Your Technology At The Door Sci-fi Award goes to…TOUCHED by Walter Mosley.
The language from one of the world’s best authors is as sharp as it comes!
The Da Vinci Ornithopter Award For Best Small Press Publication goes to…both Hard Case Crime for THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins and Phantasia Press for Mickey7 by Edward Ashton.
Quarry is the villain we love to root for, and, hell, make him an ‘antihero’ he does not give a damn as to your labels. In this book, there is an outstanding display of character growth for the would-be-retired assassin.
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton was the first in a historic Phantasia Press relaunch, as the first fine press dedicated entirely to Sci-Fi-Fantasy returns in the 21st Century with a resounding BOOM and a gorgeous limited edition.
The Kurt Vonnegut Satiric Stylin’ Society Needs Kilgore Trout To Give It An Enema Award goes to…TIMEQUAKE by Kurt Vonnegut.
You will never read anything remotely like this novel – TIMEQUAKE is genius, but I know of no sane way to describe it to you.
Last, but not least, is the Inklings Award For Best Fantasy In Fiction is…FEET OF CLAY by Terry Pratchett.
The Discworld Series continues to daunt my dreams and haunt my, well for lack of a better word, daydreams, and, well, the point is these books are so bloody good, you want to keep reading more and more about Commander Vimes of the Night’s Watch and all of the plethora of fantastically, wonderful characters that contribute to the sludge that clings to the edge of the Disc.
FEET OF CLAY is an impactful classic on multiple fronts in the fantasy genre.
Here dear readers is the list of TFF Best Books of 2024:
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The Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot’s Mustache Equals Best Mystery Award
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The Ray Bradbury Award Winner For Best Speculative Fiction Likely To Blow The Doors Off Your Mind Palace
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The 1984: You Made Me Cry…Twice Award
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The Red Death Award For A Work Most Likely To Keep You Too Terrified To Sleep Award
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The Michael Crichton You Better Check Your Technology At The Door Sci-fi Award
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The Da Vinci Ornithopter Award For Best Small Press Publication x2
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Hard Case Crime for THE LAST QUARRY by Max Allan Collins
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Phantasia Press signed limited edition of Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
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The Kurt Vonnegut Satiric Stylin’ Society Needs Kilgore Trout To Give It An Enema Award
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Inklings Award For Best Fantasy In Fiction
Buy books here:
Happy New Year, Fictioneers!
Nov 27, 2024 | Alan Moore, book review, Book Reviews, fantasy, sci-fi, science fiction, SFF, Spoiler-Free, The Great When
THE GREAT WHEN: A Long London Novel by Alan Moore is 5-Stars, or more, if you are so inclined, as the first book in the The Long London Quintet series marks the liftoff of a brilliant new nest of allies in the city we know of as Fantasy Fiction.
The use of prose and language in this book are wholly fresh and draw upon a uniquely impactful identity.
The only book I can think of to compare THE GREAT WHEN to, because of that innovative sense of self and ever-intriguing and nuanced dialect, is A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess. But Moore’s work here is a totally different being.
The following is a Spoiler-free Book Review of THE GREAT WHEN by Alan Moore.
It is the voices in this story that give it so much life!
The voice of the narrator is as surefooted as the 18-year-old protagonist Dennis’s is not.
It is the sputtering youth’s tone, just as it is the magician artist’s, or the ever-coughing chain-smoking bookshop owner Coffin Ada’s, or the crime boss Jack Spot’s as he discusses the methodical weighing of life and pain in his steady tones (as he will stop at nothing to attempt to break in to the Great When itself) that permeate the pages with sound and further a world that is so, so real.
If this London is what they call the Smoke, then that place is the Fire… – THE GREAT WHEN.
Hidden so that no one but those brought in by the fantastical backbone universe of The Great When’s London itself can see it, the magic, the terror, the alternate takes on 1949 London that occupy the same space as the normal blokes like Dennis reside in are greasy jewels clinking around in a vast labyrinthine digestive tract that runs that part of the world, known or not.
And if that description is too abstract for you, know that this tale starts with a book and its mysterious danger.
The book that does not exist in London or anywhere in Dennis’s world, but he mistakenly buys it for the bookstore he works at and is instructed to – before dire things befall him (and his very skin) – return it to another place that does not exist: The Great When.
I love biblio-mysteries that involve rare volumes, tomes of frightening implications, as is the case here.
The names, Ironfoot is so much fun, the speech, you will feel this London in your bones, my son, the stretching shadows that cover an otherwise thriving shop’s tables and chairs in burlap sacks in The Great When’s overlayed version continue to taunt your mind’s sense of reality and reason.
I have read nothing like Alan Moore’s THE GREAT WHEN, and I cannot wait for the next part of the series.
“THE GREAT WHEN: A Long London Novel by Alan Moore is 5-Stars” Was Written By R.J. Huneke.
Aug 12, 2024 | book review, Book Reviews, fine press, Mickey7, Phantasia Press, sci-fi, science fiction, SFF, Signed Limited, small press, Spoiler-Free
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton: historic Phantasia Press relaunch, as the first fine press dedicated entirely to Sci-Fi-Fantasy returns in the 21st Century with a resounding BOOM and a limited edition classic.
Science-fiction is often fun, but it is rarely so fun as to keep you laughing and clenching your stomach muscles as Mickey7 tries not to die.
Mickey is the only Expendable, a disposable employee that uses a synthetic copy of his body, on the entire human colonization mission to terraform the ice world Niflheim – and yes, there are giant bug-like alien neighbors that have not been thoroughly researched just yet.
Ashton brings a stark amount of humanity – wit and wry humor – to the character Mickey.
And that sense of the human quality is vital, because Mickey7 learns that his seven-time downloaded memories can inhabit not just one Expendable body at a time, but two.
Does he have two souls now? Or no soul? Or is he just a carbon copy of a soul, loosely downloaded and distributed on a barren rock of a planet?
I am reminded of two great authors when reading this novel: Robert Heinlein, especially Starship Troopers, and Joe Haldeman.
“Apparently three hours of training lectures aren’t enough to overcome a billion years of ingrained instinct for self-preservation.” ― Edward Ashton, Mickey7
If you like your sci-fi cooked well done with marbled laughs and a side of action and suspense, then Mickey7 will be very appetizing on the plate atop your tbr.
And if you want to hold the very embodiment of science fiction in your hands, then look no further than the Phantasia Press signed and numbered limited edition.
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, illustrated by Barclay Shaw from Phantasia Press.
Deep space colonization, interstellar ships, and then . . . shimmering on the never-before-seen distant horizon of an alien world is . . . a bright silvery-white, preternatural book.
From out of the legends of the twentieth century and the epic limited editions featuring the likes of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Stephen King, Phantasia Press stands tall as a jet black monolith and returns to us, readers, of the 21st Century earth!
The numbered limited edition of Mickey7 glitters and glints in light as the hot foil stamping and Metallium paper look and feel astounding in the hand.
Pictures do not do this book justice.
Every facet of the Phantasia Press Mickey7 highlights an extraordinary attention to detail that truly captures the soul of the story.
From the scintillating binding and slipcase, to the hexagon textured end-sheets, the previous iterations of Mickey6 and Mickey5 on the cover, and the great illustrations of Barclay Shaw, this book is an epic offering from the one and only Phantasia Press.
And there are a few copies left for sale at, of course, $177.77 USD here.
“Mickey7 by Edward Ashton: Historic Phantasia Press Relaunch” Was Written By R.J. Huneke.
Jun 13, 2024 | book review, Book Reviews, sci-fi, science fiction, SFF, touched, walter mosley
TOUCHED by Walter Mosley: sci-fi that cuts like a razor, in the vein of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.
I do not say that lightly.
Combine Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway, Jordan Peele, Ray Bradbury, and you will have an iota of an idea of what the impactful fiction Mosley has put forth is like in TOUCHED.
Not only is this gripping, thrilling science fiction, but TOUCHED also invokes strong philosophical arguments and commentaries on 21st Century America and the earth as a whole.
The tale of Martin Just – who has been abducted by aliens and thrust back into the tumultuous world – pays homage to one of the greatest novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, and its unreliable narrator and fellow alien abductee, Billy Pilgrim.
The essence of the characters, from the pilgrim to the just, explores deep psychological elements pertaining to their reaction to the most awful circumstances and their ability or inability, at times, to rationally experience the passage of time during the experiences.
Vonnegut examined the brutality and senseless violence and murder that occurred during wartime, WWII, where he was a POW during the bombing of Dresden, Germany.
What Mosley does so well in TOUCHED is to instantaneously transport the reader into the mind and body of the protagonist, Just, so that the reeling man who desperately wants to gain a grip on his newly found mission and alter ego, Temple, is sent sprawling in the bigoted, biased, and insanely unfair American society.
TOUCHED by Walter Mosley is a classic.
For Just returns from the aliens in a dream-state and wanders erect onto his bedroom balcony where the African-American is spotted by white Los Angeles police who also see a child on the sidewalk. And their immediate reaction is to arrest the sleep walker and wage war upon him.
What plays out is a painful coming to terms with what the mission means, what Just’s life means, and also what his alter-ego Temple wants to do to survive and thrive.
Temple is wired to protect that alien mission to cure the peoples of earth, and the universe, of diseases like the racist violence haunting Just and his family, and Temple will go to any lengths to save Martin and his family and comrades.
The police and the criminal justice system in LA play out in a realistic and agonizing manner that tears at the reader’s guts.
The whole while, the mission and Just’s understanding of it evolves and moves rapidly to counter a foe that creepily approaches him in a bid to end all life, to eradicate the diseases, rather than cure them.
If you like action every bit as hard-hitting as Mike Hammer and Jason Bourne, then you will fall in love with the strength of Martin Just, and his vengeful side, Temple, who kicks down all kinds of doors.
There is sexiness in the writing, there are coming-of-age motifs for the middle-aged protagonist, as well as tropes of familial love, and redemption, for even the worst of humanity that Just/Temple encounters.
The Devil In A Blue Dress and Easy Rawlins are rightly hailed, but TOUCHED and every one of Walter Mosley’s works deserve a read.
“TOUCHED by Walter Mosley: sci-fi that cuts like a razor” Was Written By R.J. Huneke.
