Books

_Imaginary Weapons_, Sharon Weinberger
_Midnighters_, Scott Westerfeld
_The Zenith Angle_ and _Visionary in Residence_, Bruce Sterling
_Von Neumann's War_ and _Chooser of the Slain_, John Ringo

More non-fiction in the form of _Imaginary Weapons_, which is a long-form journalistic story about the Hafnium isomer bomb. What, you've never heard of it? That's because there's no evidence at all that any elemental isomers can be induced into a chain reaction. Except for the part about ignoring that while spending a billion dollars or so, you now know just about everything you need to know about the nonexistent Hafnium bomb.

Except: I still find the concept of a 20 kiloton yield hand grenade abysmally funny.

_Midnighters_ is a YA book by virtue of having high school age teens as protagonists. Dark fantasy about the 25th hour of the day, the monsters that inhabit it, and the small group of teens who can visit it. Competent, and one in a series of foo -- four, I think.

_The Zenith Angle_ is billed as SF because Sterling wrote it. Otherwise, it's a 9/11 era technothriller. The stories in ViR have no endings, which makes them Art, but not good. Mnyeh. Did Sterling peak with _Schismatrix_?

Ringo does a standalone (_Von Neumann's War_) with no particular surprises, replaying many of the same themes as his Posleen War novels, only not as well executed. This time the bad guys are... alien Von Neumann replicators. Big surprise there, eh? _Chooser of the Slain_ is the nth novel of Special Forces warporn featuring Mike and the improbable Keldara (Viking-Roman warriors living in Georgia), plus frequent breaks for S/M porn, torture, brutality, and general evil behavior. In this exciting episode: the Keldara build a brewery. They make the best beer in the world, are the most beautiful, have the best sex, and are generally wonderful people who would be better off if Mike died and left them his millions.

Books

_Imaginary Weapons_, Sharon Weinberger
_Midnighters_, Scott Westerfeld
_The Zenith Angle_ and _Visionary in Residence_, Bruce Sterling
_Von Neumann's War_ and _Chooser of the Slain_, John Ringo

More non-fiction in the form of _Imaginary Weapons_, which is a long-form journalistic story about the Hafnium isomer bomb. What, you've never heard of it? That's because there's no evidence at all that any elemental isomers can be induced into a chain reaction. Except for the part about ignoring that while spending a billion dollars or so, you now know just about everything you need to know about the nonexistent Hafnium bomb.

Except: I still find the concept of a 20 kiloton yield hand grenade abysmally funny.

_Midnighters_ is a YA book by virtue of having high school age teens as protagonists. Dark fantasy about the 25th hour of the day, the monsters that inhabit it, and the small group of teens who can visit it. Competent, and one in a series of foo -- four, I think.

_The Zenith Angle_ is billed as SF because Sterling wrote it. Otherwise, it's a 9/11 era technothriller. The stories in ViR have no endings, which makes them Art, but not good. Mnyeh. Did Sterling peak with _Schismatrix_?

Ringo does a standalone (_Von Neumann's War_) with no particular surprises, replaying many of the same themes as his Posleen War novels, only not as well executed. This time the bad guys are... alien Von Neumann replicators. Big surprise there, eh? _Chooser of the Slain_ is the nth novel of Special Forces warporn featuring Mike and the improbable Keldara (Viking-Roman warriors living in Georgia), plus frequent breaks for S/M porn, torture, brutality, and general evil behavior. In this exciting episode: the Keldara build a brewery. They make the best beer in the world, are the most beautiful, have the best sex, and are generally wonderful people who would be better off if Mike died and left them his millions.