Happy Holidays everyone!
There’s little better than becoming immersed in a good book, so, since it’s that time of year–when I help you out with book recommendations for all your holiday needs–see if any of these satisfy your gift-giving needs.
Space lawyers. Let’s start, of course, with the space lawyers on your list. They need science fiction that will tickle the pedantic portion of their pre-frontal cortex. Michael Flynn’s Firestar fits the bill nicely. It’s got a billionaire trying to save the world from space rocks, a drive toward space, and references to the Commercial Space Launch Act.
The blurb:
It is the dawn of the 21st century, and America is in trouble. Public schools breed apathy and ignorance, and politics has become the art of the quick fix. There is one woman, though, who has both the vision and the money to leverage change. Mariesa Gorley van Huyten, heiress to one of the great American fortunes, founds an educational subsidiary called Mentor Academies and begins to subcontract public school systems in order to raise a new, less cynical generation. But her clandestine program is much larger than that: it also includes the founding of a private space program, the eventual construction of an orbital power station, and the revival of technological innovation on Earth.
Firestar is a chronicle of private enterprise and individual initiative-the story of one woman’s quest that becomes the focus for a whole new world. Mariesa’s program lets teachers strive to teach, hires astronauts who have no government space program to fly for, and provides productive outlets for the idealistic desires of the rich and powerful-at least those who remain sane enough to have such desires in the face of a crumbling America. And it just might work.
If you want to buy your space lawyer a whole bunch of books, check out the Book Tab on this blog. You’ll see books I’ve reviewed here for the accuracy of their space law, as well as some of my own.
Teenagers and kids. Is there a kid in your life who loves to read because of Harry Potter? That kid needs Dave Freer’s Dragon-award winning Changeling’s Island. I’m not a kid, but I loved the Harry Potter books and I loved this one. I know what I’m talking about. Mind, they are totally different stories, but they work at the same elemental level.
The blurb:
Tim Ryan can’t shake the feeling that he is different from other teens, and not in a good way. For one thing, he seems to have his own personal poltergeist that causes fires and sets him up to be arrested for shoplifting.
As a result Tim has been sent to live on a rundown farm on a remote island off the coast of Australia with his crazy grandmother, a woman who seems to talk to the local spirits, and who refuses to cushion Tim from facing his difficulties. To make matters worse, Tim is expected to milk cows, chase sheep, and hunt fish with a spear.
But he’s been exiled to an island alive with ancient magic—land magic that Tim can feel in his bones, and sea magic that runs in his blood. If Tim can face down the danger from drug runners, sea storms, and the deadly threat of a seal woman who wishes to steal him away for a lingering death in the land of Faery, he may be able to claim the mysterious changeling heritage that is his birthright, and take hold of a legacy of power beyond any he has ever imagined.
Do you know a teen with issues with parental authority? That one needs the redoubtable Sarah Hoyt’s Darkship Thieves. I’m not sure that this book will improve things, but it’s a great read anyway.
The blurb:
Athena Hera Sinistra never wanted to go to space. Never wanted see the eerie glow of the Powerpods. Never wanted to visit Circum Terra. Never had any interest in finding out the truth about the DarkShips. You always get what you don’t ask for. Which must have been why she woke up in the dark of shipnight, within the greater night of space in her father’s space cruiser, knowing that there was a stranger in her room. In a short time, after taking out the stranger—who turned out to be one of her father’s bodyguards up to no good, she was hurtling away from the ship in a lifeboat to get help. But what she got instead would be the adventure of a lifetime—if she managed to survive. . . .
Tolkien fans. It’s not every story of an accountant that features epic sweep, mystery and a troll lord’s citadel, but J.M. Ney-Grimm’s The Tally Master does. For the epic fantasy lovers on your list.
The blurb:
Seven years ago, reeling from a curse in the wake of battle, Gael sought sanctuary and found it in a most perilous place.
The citadel of a troll warlord—haunt of the desperate and violent—proves a harsh refuge for a civilized mage. But Gael wields power enough to create an oasis of order amidst the chaos.
Now master of the metals that flow to the citadel’s weapon forges, Gael rules his tally room unchallenged, until he discovers a theft within its vaults.
Gael loves the quiet certainty of black ink tally marks on smooth parchment, but his search for the thief leads to a maze of unexpected answers, putting his hard-won sanctuary—and his life—at risk.
Set in the Bronze Age of J.M. Ney-Grimm’s North-lands, The Tally Master brings mystery and secrets to epic fantasy in a suspenseful tale of betrayal and redemption.
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