Patrick Kanouse's Blog, page 39

Finally, an Answer

As many of you now know (but many others may not), the past couple of weeks have been shocking, frightening, and, in its way, hopeful. My wife, Gina, had been suffering for 18 months (and longer) with increasing frequency and intensity debilitating abdominal pain. Double-over, knock the wind out of you pain that would last from a few minutes to hours. Over time, she received a diagnosis of IBS

The Last Policeman and Countdown City

An asteroid is going to hit earth. Where? No one is sure yet, but it will be catastrophic. So when Hank Palace, a detective for the Concord police in New Hampshire, arrives at what seems yet another suicide at a McDonald's, what does it really matter if he solves it or not. In fact, what happens to a society that knows the catastrophe is coming? The novel by Ben H. Winters explores these issues

The Silence

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I let my blog go dormant for some time now, and for that my apologies...but I think I have a good reason. First, I was busy revising both the first and second novels of the Inspector Pierce series. Plus--though only for a brief time--the new NOOK GlowLight came out, and I revised The NOOK Book. The fifth edition should be out by the end of the year!



I've

How Science Fiction Changed My Life

When I was a teenager, I was immersed in science fiction. I read many writers, but the ones I read a lot of and framed my early experience and understanding of science fiction were Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Timothy Zahn, and Ben Bova. A more mature me found Frank Herbert earl in college. Each of these authors were important to me in very different ways.

Asimov's boundless imagination,

American Gods: A Review

My first introduction to Neil Gaiman was a good friend in college shoving a copy of The Sandman into my hands and imploring me to read it. I did, and I've never forgotten it--even if the memories are a bit hazy. Outside of hearing Gaiman's name or seeing his delightful commencement speech, I had never read anything else by him. With The Ocean at the End of the Lane coming out, I decided to read

Carl Sagan: An Appreciation

I remember and do not remember Carl Sagan's Cosmos series when I was young. I watched it. I know I liked it. Snippets of it hang in my head. But what I really remember from it, what still is most important about it then and today for me, was how it penetrated into my imagination. The memory of it is less important--the memory fades, but by burrowing into my imagination it became a part of me.

Danos: A Climate Map

Thought I'd post this map of Danos (the planet on which the Inspector Pierce series takes place) giving broad climate designations. Rainfall and temperature to follow.

Flatlander: A Review

My friend, Chris Zahn, recommend the exploits of Gil Hamilton, ARM detective, to me. My own series is focused on a detective, so I like to read other science fiction detective stories. The five novellas/novelettes included here were written by Larry Niven between 1968 and 1995. The stories are:


Death by Ecstasy
The Defenseless Dead
ARM
The Patchwork Girl
The Woman in Del Rey Crater


Gil was

Hardfought: A Review

Hardfought by Greg Bear was nominated the Hugo Award for Best Novella and won the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1984. The events of the novel take place in the far, far future, where what we know of humanity has become essentially unrecognizable. The story goes back and forth between Aryz, a Senexi--an ancient alien species--and Prufrax, a human girl who is growing up and being tailored to

Mud: A Review

A couple of weekends ago, Gina and I rented several movies. A couple were bombs, but Mud was quite good: Stand by Me meets The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The story takes place in Arkansas along the Mississippi River. Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) are a couple of boys familiar with the river and strike out one day after hearing about a boat stuck in a tree. They find