I’m A Science Fiction Nerd And — This Is My Genre #Tag

What is your favourite genre?

Ha! As if readers stopping by my blog don’t already now, but in case you didn’t, it’s science fiction. And the even broader umbrella: speculative fiction.

Who is your favourite author in this genre?

One? Only one? You’re kidding me … I’d have to say, as a child, maybe Robert A. Heinlein, but in my teenage years it was probably Anne McCaffrey and C. J. Cherryh I read the most. It’s hard to choose only one because recently, I’d have to go with Michael Mammay and Megan E. O’Keefe as my picks, or maybe Cally Black. 

What is it about the genre that keeps pulling you back?

I’ve said it before, it’s the sheer scope and range of the genre that’s epic: from space opera, to military SF, climate SF, near future, dystopian, far-flung futures, colonisation, gadgets and tech, the possibilities are as endless as “what-if”.

What is the book that started your love of this genre?

I think I posted earlier about the books that got me hooked into reading SF. Most of those earlier books were Robert Heinlein’s juveniles: Red Planet, Podkyne of Mars, and Have Space Suit Will Travel. All fun adventure stories featuring young teenagers. 

If you had to recommend at least one book from your favourite genre to a non-reader/someone looking to start reading that genre, what book would you choose and why?

You only have to read through most of my posts to find me recommending this book or that author. But try Velocity Weapon by Megan O’Keefe as a fun place to start or Planetside by Michael Mammay.

Why do you read?

That’s like asking me, ‘Why do you breath?’ It’s an automatic response I have no control over. I have to read, just as I have to breath. 

Okay, now I’d love to know what your favourite genre is, let me know in the comments.

Community Echoes:

6 Degrees of Separation

Following on from a recent post I read in which readers create a chain of six books leading from a monthly title, The Tipping Point (2002) by Malcolm Gladwell — I thought I would join in, but, of course, having never read this  title, nor knowing the author, I hit my first hurdle.

Then I gave it a moment’s thought and wondered about the title, ‘tipping point,’ which brought me of all places to physics. Yes, that kind of tipping point—the point where there is no turning back, where a thing will go from being balanced, to being unbalanced. Which in turn reminded me of a book I read, The Missing Informant by Anders de la Motte. Where David Sarac the main character and, in fact, a number of characters in this fast-paced thriller face their own ‘tipping points,’ and, as the various story threads weave and intertwine, we’re pulled toward the story’s gripping and climactic ending.

Informants and tipping points brought me then to Secrets of State by Matthew Palmer, another thrilling read in which tensions between Pakistan and India are at a critical point. And where one piece of planted intel could lead to all out nuclear war. A thoroughly plausible scenario with the focus on two countries more likely to bring us to the brink of destruction than the Middle East, fractured and fighting amongst themselves.

Thinking about secrets and nuclear tensions reminded me of another recent read, Sarah Paretsky’s Fallout in which V.I. Warshawski finds herself leaving behind her beloved Chicago on route to Kansas in the hunt of a missing film student. But as readers of Paretsky know by now, northing is ever straight forward for Vic, who finds herself mixed up in a mystery from the past and a Cold War-era missile silo. Great fun.

Book five, again written by Parestky, and tied in with nuclear war and buried secrets, is Critical Mass (yes, another physics term—critical mass, like tipping point, being a point of no return). Critical Mass is one of my all-time favourite books and not because of Paretsky’s writing or her long time character V.I. but because of the subject matter she chose to focus on: Physics. Moving seamlessly between past and present, Paretsky ties in several threads that connect Warshawski’s closest friend, Viennese-born Lotty Herschel, to events that took place in Vienna and Germany in WWII. Lies, secrets and silence.

Book six in the chain was a little less obvious, it’s The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny. Which, in it self, is book eleven in the series focused on the fictional village of Three Pines. And features the now retired head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, Armand Gamache. What opens to be a straight forward murder-mystery when 9 year-old Laurent Lapage goes missing turns out to be anything but. And the further Gamache delves, the further down the rabbit hole we all go in the search for answers. The connection here, weapons of mass destruction. While not nuclear, still, nonetheless, are at the centre of this cleverly written mystery. And who writes it better than Louise Penny, no one!

Tipping points and critical mass were key in every one of these well-plotted and thrilling reads that share six-degrees of separation to each other. Whatever your tipping point, I hope you find time to check out one or two of these novels and authors, and give them a try.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

The 5 Ws

As I didn’t have a post for today, I thought I would use an old one from way back when! And, of course, if you would like to do your own version of this, steal away.

WHO — Name an author you would love to have a ‘One to One’ with.

It would have to be Louise Penny. I was lucky enough to see her at a book signing last year, here locally. And got my obligatory 3 seconds with her as she wrote me a personal message in the book I was buying: GLASS HOUSES. But I would love to sit down with her and do a full-on interview at length, over coffee and cakes at the Bistro.

WHAT — What genre do you most gravitate to?

It use to be always science fiction but then, over the last couple of years, I turned to a life of crime … crime fiction reading, that is. I love me a good mystery, police procedural, or a good spy thriller these days. The Cold War is definitely not over yet.

WHERE — Where do you prefer to read?

Anywhere. But as a preference, I guess I would have to go with the couch in the lounge, for comfort’s sake. You know, with the blanket and a cup of Earl Grey tea, hot.

WHEN — What time of day do you prefer to read?

As above, my answer would have to be, anytime. Anytime I can squeeze in a few minutes, especially when reading a really good book. I don’t want to be away from it for any length of time. And yes, I read on the porcelain throne (don’t you?)

WHY — Why is your favourite book your favourite book?

Eh, maybe as a child or teenager, I had one book I would call my fav. But now, I would say any book with well-conceived characters, well-written snappy dialogue, and a clever plot will be my fav book while reading it. I want to be amazed, wowed and wooed! I know, I don’t ask a lot do I?

BONUS — How do you go about selecting what you will read next?

Gee, really? Okay … By tarot cards, at midnight, under a Gibbous moon, having sacrificed my lunch on an altar made of polished pebbles from a beach off the coast of Goa, while dress as a Goth, with black-eye make-up, smelling of hibiscus flower with water collected at dawn’s first light, from an island in the Caribbean in a conch seashell handed down from mother to daughter … what, no, seriously … wait … where are you going, there’s more … come back!

Book Review: The Dime

THE DIME—Kathleen Kent’s first crime novel—opens with an explosive, ugly start that will have you page turning from the get go. She also manages to bring a fresh twist to a genre and then ups the ante. Her main protagonist is a feisty narcotics cop who transfers in to Dallas from Brooklyn. Not only is she a third generation cop, she’s Polish, and her roots are showing. Red-head Betty Rhyzyk is tough, flawed, tenacious, and is anything but your typical cop.

Narrated in the first person, Betty lenses the action and characters through her own prism, with both a dry sense of wit, tough talk, and a vulnerability we seldom get to see in a main character. What’s more, Betty has her doubts, which makes her all the more human.

In Betty’s world, we get to grips with the criminal underbelly of life in Dallas, with the drug cartels notching up the body-count. There’s nothing sexy or glamorous about brutal violence. And as various factions vie for turf, Betty has to navigate and juggle the vagaries of her private life, with that of her job, and if that wasn’t enough, she’s being stalked by someone who sends her a decapitated head, as a gift. 

Sharply observant, witty, and, at times, violent, The Dime is the first in a new, exciting series, featuring detective Betty Rhyzyk. And I, for one, cannot wait to read the next instalment.

𖡼.𖤣𖥧𖡼.𖤣𖥧

Q&A with Kathleen Kent

Moving from a high-powered job in the US Defense dept. to writing historical novels full-time paid off for Kathleen when she decided it was time to call it quits. But not content to write historical fiction, she then turned to (as they say) a life of crime bringing us the Detective Betty Rhyzyk series starting with The Dime.

First of all, would you like to tell us a little about yourself.

I grew up in Texas and attended UT at Austin studying literature and history. What I wanted to be was a writer, but my dad, who was a very practical man, convinced me that being a starving artist was not all it was cracked up to be.  Instead, he argued, I should study business, get a “real” job and write in my spare time.  Which is what I eventually did.  After college I lived and worked in New York for twenty years:  10 years working for the former Chairman of the Commodity Exchange, and then for another 10 years as a civilian contractor to the U.S. Department of Defense in Russia facilitating defense conversion work, converting military plants into civilian use. I wrote a lot during those 10 years, but almost all of it was factual progress reporting to my coordinating CO in Washington.

I did very little creative writing as my job was all consuming, leaving not much time, or energy, to commit to writing a full-length novel.  Finally, in 2000, I decided to take an early retirement and move back to Texas to raise my son and tackle writing creatively.  That’s when I started my first novel, which was published as The Heretic’s Daughter in 2008.  Delightfully, it was successful, which has allowed me to continue writing full time.  I’ve just published my fourth novel, The Dime, which, unlike the first three historical novels, is a contemporary crime novel.

What, if anything, made you switch from writing historical fiction, and turn to a life of crime?

I had just published my third historical novel, The Outcasts, set a few years after the American Civil War, when an editor friend called to ask if I would submit a short story for a crime anthology he was putting together  titled Dallas Noir.  I love crime fiction, but had never tried my hand at writing anything more than a basic outline.  My story “Coincidences Can Kill You” was published in the collection and my agent loved it so much she encouraged me to develop it into a full-length novel.   As I had already started on another work of historical fiction, it took some time to commit to this new genre.  It took half a year to make the mental switch, and change the tone and tempo of my writing.

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