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This weeks’s question:
There are many well-known authors in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres, usually known because they hit the NYT Bestseller list, or through good marketing. But who are the less well-known authors you have enjoyed that that we should be looking to read, and why?
Check out the answers on Grasping for the Wind! Listed are many authors I do know, but also many I have not heard of! I’ll definitely be researching some books this afternoon.
Tags: Inside the Blogosphere
David Brown is a college kid who hates his life. Unlike stereotypical college kids who need to lay off the alcohol/dope, David really does have a reason to hate his life- Ten years earlier (2010 or whereabouts) his father unleashed a virus called Peacemaker, which completely unmade the economy and broke down the world as we know it. David has been moved from school to school, always keeping his eyes down and his shoulder to the wheel. Like his father, he has inherited a preternatural sense for building machines/software. Currently, the next Depression is taking its toll on the population and two factions struggle for power: the shady Domain (aka Technos) led by Dianne Morgan and the Church of Natural Humans, led by fanatic Adam Jordan.
Now, in the year 2022, ten years after Peacemaker, David receives a prerecorded message from his father, shattering the very foundation of all he knows: that his father was not responsible for the Peacemaker attack, but found a lethal virus and was going to attempt to expose those behind it. Now, David begins to put together the pieces to clear his family name. He is tracked by both the Technos and the Church: the Technos want to eliminate him before he exposes the truth while the Church wishes to follow his progress and hopefully uncover enough information to bring down the Technos. These opposing factions take David on a terrifying ride as he struggles to find the truth.
Unholy Domain is a fast paced thriller that never lets you rest. Ronco’s worldbuilding is excellent, which in a way is the scariest part–think about how the internet has pervaded our lives in the past ten years. Where will be in another ten? What will religion look like? The way things are going now, an Army of God whose symbol is a fireplace and bolt-action rifle isn’t that far off. The only downside was a slew of characters that I couldn’t always keep track of.
Overall, Unholy Domain is a great standalone, but I definitely would like to follow up on the other two in the trilogy: Peacemaker and Tomorrow’s Children.
Once you have read Unholy Domain you may want to check out this article about Reinventing Slavery…Dan Ronco is clearly on the right track 
Tags: Dan Ronco, Unholy Domain
Io9 has posted a guide to SF for the month! While there aren’t too many books, there are some great new television episodes airing this month! I’m definitely looking forward to the premiere of Watchmen.
Tags: Io9
The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers (Who is hilarious, by the way..check out his blog) follows our hero, Avery Cates (from the Electric Church) as he races to find the creator of a plague that is killing everyone around him. Apparently Avery is the originator, and the kill rate depends on proximity. The book follows his race to figure out who is so hell bent on revenge that they would take out the entire world in the process. 
Like the Electric Church, The Digital Plague is set in the indeterminable future-post “Unification”. There are huge class differences and poverty is commonplace. Avery is an assassin with a reputation to get the job done. He is also well known from his deeds in the Electric Church, where he destroyed evil genius Dennis Squalor’s system of creating members for his church–”flipping” people (taking their brain) and inserting into a cyborg who knows only one master. (I know, it sounds odd, doesn’t it? But it’s a great read, I promise!)
This time, someone has injected Avery with killer nanobots that replicate…and then begin consuming from the inside out. Avery realizes that he is not falling victim to the sickness, as someone has put a “stop” on his infection-it infects others but allows him to stay alive so he can see the destruction his presence causes.
The book follows Cates as he attempts to find out the mastermind behind the plague. As per Somers’ usual, it is smattered with violence, swearing, and knock ‘em dead gunfights.
It was an entertaining read but the premise of “killer nanobots” just didn’t do it for me.
Regardless, Avery Cates is an amazing character. Follow him from the beginning in the Electric Church.
Tags: Avery Cates, Jeff Somers, The Digital Plague
The category “Science Fiction” doesn’t even begin to cover this book. As high fantasy refers to epic levels of fantasy (think Tolkien, Lewis, and Martin), “space opera” is the proper term here.
We follow the story of Bora Horza Gobuchul, a “Changer” who has been employed by the Idirans to find a fugitive Mind. An intergalactic (planetary!) war is taking place between the Idirans and the Culture, and it is integral to both to find the Mind. The Culture is about equality, luxury, etc., and they have developed artificial intelligence (Minds) to such levels incomprehensible to the human mind. The Idirans are less humanoid, but fight out of inborn aggression and religious fanaticism. The Mind is hunted by the Idirans, as they will be able to learn much about their enemy through one of its greatest creations. For that very reason, Culture wants to make sure that the Mind is never found.
Tags: Consider Phlebas, Iain M. Banks, T. S. Eliot
Green Eyed Demon
–Jaye Wells
