Hellspark

Author	A.C. Crispin
ISBN	0441783295

Ever so often, I pull a book out of my library to see if my reading tastes have changed. The last time I read Starbridge was 1996. I knew nothing about the art of writing in 1996, and now I am studying the craft.

A.C. Crispin wrote the book in 1989 when female heros in sci-fi were largely unknown. Like...

Author	P.C. Hodgell
ISBN	0425060799

In the first book of the Kencyrath, Jame, a young woman missing her memories, struggles out of the haunted wastes into Tai-tastigon, the old, corrupt, rich and god-infested city between the mountains and the lost lands of the Kencyrath.

Jame's struggle to regain her strength, her memories,...

Author	Kristine Smith
ISBN	0380807831

Captain Jani Kilian had been Evan Van Reuter's lover eighteen years ago, when a Commonwealth diplomatic corps, sent to establish peaceful relations with the alien idomeni, took sides in a civil war. Jani was presumed killed in the ensuing bloodbath, and Evan went on to become the Commonwealth's Interior...

Author	Eleanor Arnason
ISBN	0759224161

Lixia and the members of her human crew are determined not to disturb the life on the planet circling the Star Sigma Draconis which they have begun exploring. But the factions on the mother ship hovering above the planet may create an unintended chaos for both the life on the planet and the humans exploring...

Author	Zenna Henderson
ISBN	0915368587

Zenna Henderson is best remembered for her stories of the People which appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from the early '50s to the mid-'70s. The People escaped the destruction of their home planet and crashed on Earth in the Southwest just before the turn of the century. Fully human...

Author	Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
ISBN	0445207590

Now offered at Book View Cafe as an e-book, this space opera/mystery is just as much fun to read as it was when it first came out.

Kimbriel has created a fascinatingly complex culture in the Nualans, who have adapted to a dangerously radioactive planet. This is the kind of space opera I love most,...

Author	Julie E. Czerneda
ISBN	0886779995

One of my favorite books of all time and one of my favorite Czerneda books. I also love A Thousand Words for Stranger. This was a very character driven novel and I think this was the first time I was really aware of a character driven story vs. a plot driven story. I loved the characters in this book. (I read...

Author	Sarah Zettel
ISBN	0446611069

The story of a small family at the center of crises that could leave humanity extinct.

Chena and Teal, and their mother Helice Trust are barely surviving on Athena Station, the independent space station serving the planet of Pandora. Pandora is the closest match found to the original Earth...

Author	Sharon Lee
ISBN	1476780714

Star-trading Clan Korval—known to Terrans as the Tree-and-Dragon Family and to the locals simply as "the Dragon"—has been convicted of crimes against the homeworld. No matter that one of the "crimes" consisted of saving the elitist planet of Liad from very real internal threats, the Council...

Author	Kate Elliott
ISBN	0553283723

Lilyaka Hae Ransome answered to no man. Born to a powerful clan on the storm-wracked colony world of Unruli, she'd grown up willful, independent, strong. The only person who held her respect was the enigmatic man called Heredes, who tutored her in history and the martial arts.

So when alien...

Author

Melissa Scott

Orestes was a cruel world, cold and inhospitable. Its first colonists were castaways from a crash landing, clinging to survival through the institution of strict socio-political controls. Over the generations life grew somewhat easier, but the code of honor remained. Misdeeds, and errors, were...