Another great read from the mind of Tyrolin Puxty! I love her stuff so much, and it never disappoints!
Oath. A dull sort of town. The kind of place where you might stop for pancakes, on your way to somewhere far more interesting. You’d forget all about them the moment you left. (Both the town and the pancakes.) In fact, you’d never give Oath another thought unless you had the terrible misfortune of getting stuck there. Forever.
I grew up reading science fiction. Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, L. Ron Hubbard, Orson Scott Card, Michael Crichton… In fact, I read every science fiction book I could find in our small-town library. Literally every single one until they ran out. Sadly, life went on…
I grew up, finished college, got a job, read other things. It was only recently that I returned to the genre with this novel: Seed, by Michael Edelson.
I could not have chosen a better title to come home to. Continue reading “Profoundly Satisfying Entertainment”
All Anise wants is to become a pastry chef, but applying to college isn’t easy when you’re a witch. Shouldn’t magic make her life easier? In small ways, maybe. But baking a little happiness into cookies isn’t the same thing as waving a magic wand and making all your dreams come true. Normal people are scared of her, and even her own mother—the only other witch Anise has ever known—would rather she didn’t use her powers at all.
When Anise is assaulted at a local fair, her untempered magic comes to her rescue, incinerating the baking tent and leaving a trail of crime behind. Then, with superior witchy timing, Anise’s great-aunt invites her to apprentice at the only witch-sanctioned bakery in the country, and Anise jumps at the chance. But things go from bad to worse as Anise discovers that finally embracing her power might come with a terrible price.
Rod’s teenage life isn’t perfect, but things could be worse. He lives with his single mom in a modest home. They don’t have a lot of extras, but they’re getting by. He has a punk rock band called “Fanged Grapefruit” and a beautiful girlfriend. Life is pretty good. That is, until Blake moves in. Blake is Rod’s cousin, and from the moment his privileged mountain of luggage arrives—the day before he does himself—Blake manages to make Rod’s life a living hell. But is he a harmless idiot? Or does this demon-spawn of a cousin know exactly what he’s doing? Continue reading “A Quick, Quirky Romp”
In a future of limited resources and failing infrastructure, humanity lives out its dreams in a massive virtual reality game-world. Wade Watts is a high school student, getting an elite education for free despite his impoverished real-world life, because that was the vision of the game’s creator: unlimited access to knowledge, for rich and poor alike, where every kid has a genuine opportunity to make something of themselves. But not everyone wants to keep it that way.
The original programmer is dead, and a prize is hidden in the game. Whoever decodes the clues first will inherit his billions—and control the virtual universe. Wade has been searching for years. If he wins, he can leave his life in “the stacks” behind, and he can protect the world he knows and loves. But big business is searching too. If they win, the world can say goodbye to free education. That could add up to trillions, and they’ll do anything to get it. Continue reading “Rare. Epic. Legendary.”
