Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations
on some works to start with?
Tony
In article <113j9ed$jh80$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations
on some works to start with?
Tony
Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
On 7/19/26 6:03 PM, James Nicoll wrote:
In article <113j9ed$jh80$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations
on some works to start with?
Tony
Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
I know this is not helpful, but I enjoy both. Looking at my notes
here...I seem to be reading a little more fantasy than science fiction >recently, but that might be more of a supply thing than a preference thing.
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations
on some works to start with?
Tony
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations
on some works to start with?
Tony
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations
on some works to start with?
Tony
In article <113jhue$nmuq$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
On 7/19/26 6:03 PM, James Nicoll wrote:
In article <113j9ed$jh80$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations >>>> on some works to start with?
Tony
Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
I know this is not helpful, but I enjoy both. Looking at my notes
here...I seem to be reading a little more fantasy than science fiction
recently, but that might be more of a supply thing than a preference thing.
I'd try Spiderlight for fantasy and Elder Race for SF. Both are novellas
and stand alone.
In article <113jhue$nmuq$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
On 7/19/26 6:03 PM, James Nicoll wrote:
In article <113j9ed$jh80$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations >>>> on some works to start with?
Tony
Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
I know this is not helpful, but I enjoy both. Looking at my notes
here...I seem to be reading a little more fantasy than science fiction
recently, but that might be more of a supply thing than a preference thing.
I'd try Spiderlight for fantasy and Elder Race for SF. Both are novellas
and stand alone.
In article <113jhue$nmuq$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
On 7/19/26 6:03 PM, James Nicoll wrote:
In article <113j9ed$jh80$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations >>>> on some works to start with?
Tony
Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
I know this is not helpful, but I enjoy both. Looking at my notes
here...I seem to be reading a little more fantasy than science fiction
recently, but that might be more of a supply thing than a preference thing.
I'd try Spiderlight for fantasy and Elder Race for SF. Both are novellas
and stand alone.
On 20/07/2026 11:18, James Nicoll wrote:
In article <113jhue$nmuq$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
On 7/19/26 6:03 PM, James Nicoll wrote:I'd try Spiderlight for fantasy and Elder Race for SF. Both are novellas
In article <113j9ed$jh80$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations >>>>> on some works to start with?
Tony
Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
I know this is not helpful, but I enjoy both. Looking at my notes
here...I seem to be reading a little more fantasy than science fiction
recently, but that might be more of a supply thing than a preference thing. >>
and stand alone.
Alien Clay. Four stars. SF. Enthralling.
Dogs of War. Three stars. SF. An enjoyable read.
Empire in Black and Gold. One star. F. Not finished.
Shroud was recommended but I haven't opened it since my disappointment
with Empire. I now plan to read James' recommendations first.
On 7/19/2026 2:44 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any
recommendations on some works to start with?
Tony
"Dogs of War" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
ÿÿ https://www.amazon.com/Dogs-War-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/1035922479
Book number one of a three book science fiction series.ÿ I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Head Of Zeus in
2022, copyright in 2017.ÿ I own the second book in the series but have
yet to read it.
"My name is Rex.ÿ I am a good dog".
Rex is a seven and a half foot (2.25 meter), 1,000 pound (450 kg) dog
cyborg built by Redmark Corporation.ÿ His bones are synthetic and his
skin is synthetic, built to stop bullets and avoid thermal detection. He
has built in comms for talking with the other members of his team and Master.ÿ Rex can also talk through the air using a voice box.ÿ Rex's
front paws have been replaced with human like hands and his brain significantly enhanced with full computer systems for field operations.
He carries two Parrot guns (small cannons) on his shoulders for
battlefield superiority.
Rex's Bioform team consists of Honey, an enhanced bear weighing over a
ton, Dragon, a twenty foot long enhanced alligator carrying a long
barreled weapon for sharpshooting, and Bees, a collective mind of over a thousand enhanced bees with several types of harming fluid in their stingers.ÿ And Master, a human with the goal of bringing Bioform teams
to usage all over the world in police actions.
Rex's team is chasing down anarchists in Campeche, Mexico.ÿ But it is
very difficult to tell between the anarchists and the civilian
population.ÿ And Master does not care.
Please note that I was really bothered by the descriptions of the
civilian atrocities by the Bioform team at the direction of Master using their biofeedback chips.
My rating:ÿ 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon Rating:ÿ 4.5 out of 5 stars (6,808 reviews)
On 7/20/26 12:38 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
On 7/19/2026 2:44 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any
recommendations on some works to start with?
Tony
"Dogs of War" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
ÿÿÿ https://www.amazon.com/Dogs-War-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/1035922479
Book number one of a three book science fiction series.ÿ I read the
well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Head Of Zeus
in 2022, copyright in 2017.ÿ I own the second book in the series but
have yet to read it.
"My name is Rex.ÿ I am a good dog".
Rex is a seven and a half foot (2.25 meter), 1,000 pound (450 kg) dog
cyborg built by Redmark Corporation.ÿ His bones are synthetic and his
skin is synthetic, built to stop bullets and avoid thermal detection.
He has built in comms for talking with the other members of his team
and Master.ÿ Rex can also talk through the air using a voice box.
Rex's front paws have been replaced with human like hands and his
brain significantly enhanced with full computer systems for field
operations. He carries two Parrot guns (small cannons) on his
shoulders for battlefield superiority.
Rex's Bioform team consists of Honey, an enhanced bear weighing over a
ton, Dragon, a twenty foot long enhanced alligator carrying a long
barreled weapon for sharpshooting, and Bees, a collective mind of over
a thousand enhanced bees with several types of harming fluid in their
stingers.ÿ And Master, a human with the goal of bringing Bioform teams
to usage all over the world in police actions.
Rex's team is chasing down anarchists in Campeche, Mexico.ÿ But it is
very difficult to tell between the anarchists and the civilian
population.ÿ And Master does not care.
Please note that I was really bothered by the descriptions of the
civilian atrocities by the Bioform team at the direction of Master
using their biofeedback chips.
My rating:ÿ 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon Rating:ÿ 4.5 out of 5 stars (6,808 reviews)
Thank you for all three of your reviews/recommendations; and I
appreciate the "Please note ... " immediately above as well.
Tony
On 7/20/26 12:38 AM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
On 7/19/2026 2:44 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any
recommendations on some works to start with?
Tony
"Dogs of War" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
ÿÿÿ https://www.amazon.com/Dogs-War-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/dp/1035922479
Book number one of a three book science fiction series.ÿ I read the
well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Head Of Zeus
in 2022, copyright in 2017.ÿ I own the second book in the series but
have yet to read it.
"My name is Rex.ÿ I am a good dog".
Rex is a seven and a half foot (2.25 meter), 1,000 pound (450 kg) dog
cyborg built by Redmark Corporation.ÿ His bones are synthetic and his
skin is synthetic, built to stop bullets and avoid thermal detection.
He has built in comms for talking with the other members of his team
and Master.ÿ Rex can also talk through the air using a voice box.
Rex's front paws have been replaced with human like hands and his
brain significantly enhanced with full computer systems for field
operations. He carries two Parrot guns (small cannons) on his
shoulders for battlefield superiority.
Rex's Bioform team consists of Honey, an enhanced bear weighing over a
ton, Dragon, a twenty foot long enhanced alligator carrying a long
barreled weapon for sharpshooting, and Bees, a collective mind of over
a thousand enhanced bees with several types of harming fluid in their
stingers.ÿ And Master, a human with the goal of bringing Bioform teams
to usage all over the world in police actions.
Rex's team is chasing down anarchists in Campeche, Mexico.ÿ But it is
very difficult to tell between the anarchists and the civilian
population.ÿ And Master does not care.
Please note that I was really bothered by the descriptions of the
civilian atrocities by the Bioform team at the direction of Master
using their biofeedback chips.
My rating:ÿ 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon Rating:ÿ 4.5 out of 5 stars (6,808 reviews)
Thank you for all three of your reviews/recommendations; and I
appreciate the "Please note ... " immediately above as well.
Tony
On 7/19/2026 2:44 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any
recommendations on some works to start with?
Tony
"Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture, 1)" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
ÿÿ https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316705845
Book number one of a three book space opera science fiction series. I
read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Orbit
in 2022 that I bought new on Amazon. I have ordered the second book in
the series.
Earth was the first human planet attacked and destroyed by the
Architects, a moon sized race of beings that travel through unspace. Billions of humans and aliens died on Earth, unable to get on one of the thousands of overcrowded space ships evacuating from Earth.ÿ Earth was turned into a spiral with the core ejected, typical of the Architect's massive gravitational forces.ÿ Earth was warned by a survivor of another race destroyed by the Architects but they did not believe it until too
late.
The universe of the story is incredibly rich.ÿ There are many alien
races and many planets, many colonies of all races.ÿ The human race has splintered into several groups that are at total odds with each other.
An alien race found the humans a hundred years before and kindly shared their unspace technology with them.ÿ Space Ships can navigate on known
paths through unspace but going off the known paths requires an
Intermediary Navigator (an Int), a rare human who has been surgically
and chemically modified to be like the first human Int, St. Xavienne.
Some of the best of the Ints like St. Xavienne can barely talk to the Architects.
On 20/07/2026 11:18, James Nicoll wrote:
In article <113jhue$nmuq$1@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
On 7/19/26 6:03 PM, James Nicoll wrote:I'd try Spiderlight for fantasy and Elder Race for SF. Both are novellas
In article <113j9ed$jh80$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations >>>>> on some works to start with?
Tony
Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction?
I know this is not helpful, but I enjoy both. Looking at my notes
here...I seem to be reading a little more fantasy than science fiction
recently, but that might be more of a supply thing than a preference thing. >>
and stand alone.
Alien Clay. Four stars. SF. Enthralling.
Dogs of War. Three stars. SF. An enjoyable read.
Empire in Black and Gold. One star. F. Not finished.
Shroud was recommended but I haven't opened it since my disappointment
with Empire. I now plan to read James' recommendations first.
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any recommendations
on some works to start with?
I suspect that most SF readers would enjoy Adrian Tchaikovsky's_Children of Time_ (2015). The "human" chapters are a bit rough, but
On 7/19/2026 3:44 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any
recommendations on some works to start with?
To quote what I wrote a few years ago:
I suspect that most SF readers would enjoy Adrian Tchaikovsky's_Children of Time_ (2015). The "human" chapters are a bit rough, but
the "spiders" chapters are nicely done and explore a number of
crowd-pleasing themes: alien civilizations, uplift, first contact, etc.
The other 3 books in the series have been more polarizing, but the first volume is a perfectly good standalone.
Lynn McGuire wrote:
On 7/19/2026 2:44 PM, Tony Nance wrote:
Strangely (to me), I've never read anything of his. Any
recommendations on some works to start with?
Tony
"Shards of Earth (The Final Architecture, 1)" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
ÿÿÿ https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316705845
Book number one of a three book space opera science fiction series. I
read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by
Orbit in 2022 that I bought new on Amazon. I have ordered the second
book in the series.
Earth was the first human planet attacked and destroyed by the
Architects, a moon sized race of beings that travel through unspace.
Billions of humans and aliens died on Earth, unable to get on one of
the thousands of overcrowded space ships evacuating from Earth.ÿ Earth
was turned into a spiral with the core ejected, typical of the
Architect's massive gravitational forces.ÿ Earth was warned by a
survivor of another race destroyed by the Architects but they did not
believe it until too late.
The universe of the story is incredibly rich.ÿ There are many alien
races and many planets, many colonies of all races.ÿ The human race
has splintered into several groups that are at total odds with each
other. An alien race found the humans a hundred years before and
kindly shared their unspace technology with them.ÿ Space Ships can
navigate on known paths through unspace but going off the known paths
requires an Intermediary Navigator (an Int), a rare human who has been
surgically and chemically modified to be like the first human Int, St.
Xavienne. Some of the best of the Ints like St. Xavienne can barely
talk to the Architects.
This review sums up my feelings about the book pretty well.ÿ I don't
think I'd give it five stars, but I very much enjoyed it.
The immediate sequel dragged a bit for me, but the third volume was good.
But then, I am a bit of a space opera nut.ÿ If you don't like space
opera, take at least one star off the recommendations.
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